Free Republic

Royal Malaysian Navy Gowind class Corvettes for LCS program to be fitted with stealth 57mm Guns At the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition 2013, Navy Recognition exclusively learned that the 6 future Gowind class Corvettes (Littoral Combat Ship program) will be fitted with 57mm Mark 3 main guns with stealth cupola from BAE Systems Bofors. We also took the opportunity to get the latest updates on the Malaysian LCS program from Anuar Murad, Director of Defence and Security at Boustead Heavy Industry Corporation. It was confirmed during LIMA that the combat management system will be the SETIS by DCNS,...

Michele Delaunay, minister for Senior Citizens in the socialist government of French President Francois Hollande, on Monday revealed that her personal wealth amounted to more than $7 million, including almost $20,000 worth of jewelry, along with antique furniture and paintings worth $260,000. Writing in a regional newspaper, Sud Ouest, she acknowledges that the full extent of her wealth "will be hard to understand for the majority of French citizens who are currently experiencing financial hardship." Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius possesses an even greater fortune: $7.8 million, including an apartment in Paris valued at $3.5 million. They have been...

The war against armed Islamic extremists in Mali will lose some 2,000 Chadian soldiers, the president of Chad said, leaving Malian cities more vulnerable to a resurgence of jihadist attacks. The news that Chad will pull its troops from Mali could force France to push back its own timeframe for withdrawing its troops from its former West African colony and creates greater urgency for a U.N. military mission to Mali. The United Nations is set to consider sending a mission, but diplomats have yet to determine its composition and mission. ... Chad also has suffered heavy troop casualties. Chadian President...

ABUJA, April 14 — Nigeria’s main militant group, the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), on Sunday threatened to perpetrate attacks on Islamic institutions in the west African country from next month. The group, in an electronic message to journalists, said its attacks will be code-named “Operation Barbarossa”, aimed at saving Christianity in Nigeria from annihilation by the Boko Haram sect, which has been attacking churches and media and security outfits since 2009. MEND said when hostilities against Islamic institutions begin on May 31, it will target mosques, pilgrimage camps, large congregations in Islamic events and assassination of...

Redoine Faid, who published a book on life as a criminal in France's tough city suburbs, took four prison guards hostage inside Sequedin prison near Lille on Saturday morning. He then set off a series of explosions, blowing open five prison doors in turn, allegedly using explosives that his wife had smuggled into prison that morning wrapped in handkerchiefs. ... Born in the socially-deprived Paris satellite town of Creil – a municipality known for its gritty housing estates and high unemployment – Faid grew up as a juvenile delinquent before graduating to armed robbery. He spent eight years evading the...

These are turbulent times for gay rights in America. The 2012 presidential election saw referendums approving same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington (bringing the number of states in which gay couples can marry to nine, plus Washington DC). Polls show public support for gay marriage hitting all-time highs, and the Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to extend federal benefits to married gay couples and strike down bans on same-sex marriage in California and beyond. But the most significant shifts—small in scale, but seismic in implication—are occurring where one least expects them: on the right. Indeed, when controversial Republican...

PARIS, April 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to the organization Mayors for Children, approximately 14,900 French mayors will refuse to celebrate "marriages" between couples of the same sex. More than 20,000 mayors and assistant mayors have signed a petition stating, "I am opposed to the bill that opens marriage and the adoption of children by two people of the same sex." "Mayors for Children" A survey conducted by the French polling agency IFOP offers confirmation of the startling figures, estimating that 52 percent of the country's mayors are opposed to the bill. In France, mayors conduct civil marriage ceremonies or...

PARIS, April 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ignoring fierce protests that have attracted up to 1.4 million demonstrators in favor of the traditional family, the French Senate voted on Wednesday to approve legislation permitting homosexual couples to adopt children, following its decision Tuesday to approve the creation of "homosexual marriage," according to reports in the local media. The so-called Taubira Law, named after the bill's author, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, will soon pass back to the nation's lower legislative house, the National Assembly, to receive a second vote before it becomes law. Legislators from the more conservative Union for a Popular...

Following months of protests both for and against the measure, the French Senate on Tuesday night passed an important provision in a package of laws that would legalize same-sex marriage in the country. The vote is a political win for embattled President Hollande. … Following a 10-hour debate, the Senate voted 179 to 157 in favor of an article allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. The law will only go into effect once the Senate approves all of its component parts. A further article still pending approval would allow gay married couples in the country to adopt. The first...

The world’s most visited art museum is dealing with an influx of unwelcome visitors. A staff walkout over the rise of pickpockets forced the Louvre in Paris to shut its doors Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports. Workers say that thieves have been showing up at the museum in gangs of up to 30 — primarily made up of young Eastern Europeans — and are responsible for incidents of “spitting, insults, threats” and striking employees and visitors. Staffers “come to work afraid because they find themselves confronted with organized groups of pickpockets who are increasingly aggressive and which include children, who get...

Malian authorities are set to give French President François Hollande a new camel after the first one he was given as thanks for France’s military intervention in Mali was killed and eaten by the family who was meant to look after it in Timbuktu. Things have not been going well for French President François Hollande as of late. His approval ratings already abysmally low, Hollande’s leadership was called into question last week after his government became embroiled in a tax scandal. To add insult to injury, it has also recently been revealed that a camel he was given as thanks...

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany proposed that federal authorities formalize two Islamic holidays as official holidays. This is not shocking news, as in some areas Muslims already have that right. Recent polls suggest that in the future the Turks want to see Germany as the country with a predominantly Muslim population. So far they have minimal representation in the legislature. Germany is Europe's second largest after France in terms of number of residents who practice Islam. The country does not have statistics with regard to the citizen's religion.

The French are often accused of being more miserable than their high standard of living warrants - a view backed up by numerous surveys. French academic Claudia Senik from the Paris School of Economics tells The Local why. A BVA-Gallup International survey in 2011 found that despite their relatively high standard of living, the French were the most pessimistic people in the world. So, in a country where they have a 35-hour working week, lengthy summer holidays, wholesome cuisine, great wine and a fantastic countryside, why are the French people so down on themselves? Next month, Professor Claudia Senik from...

The Louvre was closed Wednesday after its workers walked off their jobs to protest what is said to be a rising problem of pickpockets haunting the famed Paris museum’s vast galleries. Louvre spokeswoman Sophie Grange was unable to say when the museum, which normally attracts up to 30,000 visitors a day at this time of year, would reopen. Museum staff organized the protest to draw attention to the problem, which they say is hindering their ability to welcome visitors and protect the Louvre’s collections. …

A new Israeli television channel called "i24news" that will go out in English, French and Arabic is to begin broadcasting by summer this year, it said on Tuesday. The channel, which is based in Jaffa Port just south of Tel Aviv, aims to rival global news outlets like Al-Jazeera and France 24, its executives say. i24news "will broadcast news from the heart of Middle East," the channel said in a statement. "The letter 'i' was chosen as representing several of the topics and values that will guide the channel: international, information, independent, individual, innovation, interactive, etc. The number 24, of...

Europe is falling dangerously far behind the US in productivity growth and is blighted by crippling energy costs, the pan-EU industry federation has warned. “Europe doesn’t have an energy policy. It has a climate policy,” said Markus Beyrer, head of BusinessEurope. Mr Beyrer said the US is running away with the shale energy revolution, leaving Europe’s companies in the dust. Spot gas prices are now four to five times higher in Europe, with grim implications for the chemical industry. “Shale gas is a game-changer and we need to have a discussion based on the evidence, not based on risks,” Mr...

Say what you will about the rest of her legacy, but when it comes to the economic disaster today known as the euro, Margaret Thatcher was downright prophetic. In a delightfully acidic speech delivered before Britain's House of Commons in 1990, and posted below, she summed up her feelings about European integration: "No. No. No." Specifically, Thatcher opposed to the idea of handing political power to a European parliament, giving up the pound for a single European currency, or handing over its monetary policy to a European central bank. As she put it (in the blunt way only British politicians...

President Obama’s budget will be released tomorrow and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is visiting Europe to preview President Obama’s budget: increase in debt of $7.3 trillion and removal of spending controls. Lew is advising Europe to borrow and spend more. Washington Post’s Zach Goldfarb reports Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, “quickly embracing his role as the leading US diplomat on the economy, pushed his counterparts in Europe on Monday to do more to drive economic growth and enact stronger and more unified defenses against financial panics.” In Brussels on Monday morning, Lew met with “a series of officials that included European...

... A local official had given the camel to Mr Hollande in gratitude for France spearheading a drive to flush out Islamic extremists from Mali. But the well-intentioned gift soon proved a liability. The camel ruined its handover ceremony by drowning out a Malian official's speech with its screeching. Mr Hollande's voice could just be heard over the din when he promised: "I will use it as a means of transport as often as possible." ... The camel had already embarrassed Mr Hollande when Said Toureg, a man from the Timbuktu region, claimed that it had been stolen from him...

PARIS — France's Socialist government said it had ordered ministers to declare their assets publicly within days, as it seeks to limit the damage from a tax fraud scandal involving an ex-minister. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced that ministers would have until April 15 to publish details of their assets as part of a package of new financial transparency measures. The government will also put forward a law on financial transparency among ministers and other top officials by April 24, with plans for it to be adopted by the summer, he said in a statement. The move comes as President...