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CHAMONIX, France - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday the melting of Mont Blanc’s main glacier is irrefutable proof of global warming, as he sought to burnish his environmentalist credentials ahead of municipal elections next month. During a visit to the “Mer de Glace” (sea of ice) - France’s largest glacier which has shrunk dramatically in recent years - Macron met scientists and announced new protective measures for the area, including higher fines for littering. “What we are seeing with the evolution of the glacier is irrefutable proof of global warming and climate change and the toppling of an...

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali will increase the size of its army by about 50% in a recruitment drive this year aimed at uprooting jihadist groups, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse said on Wednesday. The plan is to hire 10,000 new soldiers in the coming months to “allow our armed and security forces to be much more present in quantity and I hope in quality in areas where they were not,” Cisse said. He did not say how much the increase would cost or how the arid West African country would pay for it when military costs already take up a significant...

An investigation has begun into how the two helicopters hit each other. Thousands of French troops have been deployed in Mali since 2013 after militants overran parts of the north. Mali's army has since recaptured the territory but insecurity continues and the violence has spread to neighbouring countries. France now has 4,500 troops deployed to support the forces of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad against the jihadists. French Defence Minister Florence Parly vowed that her country would not turn its back on the fight against terrorism after the deadly collision. It happened in darkness around 19:40 local time...

An Ifop survey has discovered that nearly two-thirds of French people, or 61 per cent, believe that Islam is “incompatible with the values of French society”. The results are an eight per cent increase compared to a previous study released in February of last year and reflect growing concerns of the impact of religion in public life against France’s traditional secularist stance, according to the study, Le Journal du Dimanche reports. Between the left and right of the political spectrum, there is disagreement on the subject of Islam. More than half — 54 per cent — of the supporters of...

Frank Zapata demonstrated his device above the crowds at the Champs-Elysee, soaring high into the air on what looks like a futuristic hoverboard. A former jet-skiing champion, Zapata operated the device by leaning forward as if on a Segway. As part of his display, he flew to and fro before stopping gracefully in midair while holding an unloaded rifle... Zapata claims that the Flyboard can reach a top speed of 190 km/h, with a predicted top speed of 200 km/h. According to his website, it can fly up to 150 metres for ten minutes, carrying a maximum load of 100...

<p>Moroccan lawmakers have unanimously approved a bill that confirms the Berber language’s official status, eight years after it was preliminarily recognized in a new constitution.</p> <p>The new law is designed to cement use of Berber – alongside Arabic – by government administration, local authorities, public services, schools and in cultural life.</p>

(CNN) Bondieuserie. Bewusstseinslage. Ayacahuite. Most of us wouldn't even know how to pronounce those words, let alone spell them. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a week away and it is sure to be filled with a plethora of problematic words. An international team of linguists from the language-learning app Babbel partnered with Merriam-Webster to analyze a decade's worth of words and find out what knocked out Bee contestants in the final round. Bondieuserie [bohn-dyooz-ree]: banal and often shoddy religious art (almost all religious art) Zenaida [zen-eye-da]: any bird of a genus of tropical American pigeons (know of some Mexican...

A mysterious 600-year-old manuscript that has been deemed "unreadable" by the world's top cryptographers has finally been deciphered. That's the claim by one Bristol academic who has cracked the legendary Voynich manuscript and revealed its secrets. Dr. Gerard Cheshire believes that the document is written in a dead language called proto-Romance. By studying the letter and symbols through the manuscript, he was able to decipher the meaning of the words. According to the linguistics buff, the Voynich manuscript contains sex tips, info on parenting and psychology, and herbal remedies. "I experienced a series of 'eureka' moments whilst deciphering the code,...

A University of Bristol academic has succeeded where countless cryptographers, linguistics scholars and computer programs have failed—by cracking the code of the 'world's most mysterious text', the Voynich manuscript. Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document. In his peer-reviewed paper, The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained, published in the journal Romance Studies, Cheshire describes how he successfully deciphered the manuscript's...

Two French heroes who died rescuing hostages today by zaphod3 hr   Cedric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello were killed while on a mission to rescue what was thought to be two hostages at the time from an Islamist terror group in Burkina Faso. The hostages were being taken to Mali to be handed over to the Katiba Macina terror group there. Frenchmen Laurent Lassimouillas (L) and Patrick Picque, shown below, were the hostages being initially rescued. However the rescue team were surprised to find a further two hostages, an American and South Korean woman being held by the terrorists....

I decided to finally cancel my subscription to National Review. Below is the letter I sent to them requesting my cancellation. I also worked in Customer Service jobs enough to know he will never look at this. Chances are this will get passed around by a few entry level reps who will get a good laugh out if this. The smart ones will take it as a wake up call to look for another job. I sent this via snail mail, so obviously the links below do not appear in my letter to Editor in Chief, Rich Lowry. Mr. Lowry:...

In the same article, the Post also reports on a backlash against this amazing generosity. A leader of the Yellow Vest movement says that if donors can give so much money to rebuild Notre Dame, “they should stop telling us there is no money to help deal with the social emergency.” But the donations to Notre Dame are coming from private donors. No one denies they have money. It’s the French government that’s running out. Some in the Yellow Vest movement probably favor the government taking yet more money from the wealthy “to help deal with the social emergency.” That’s...

The Paris prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into allegations that Yellow Vest protesters assailed police over the weekend with taunts urging officers to kill themselves. Yellow Vests took to the streets of Paris for a 23rd consecutive Saturday this weekend, facing off against police at the city’s historic Place de la République, where protesters chanted at officers to “commit suicide”....On Sunday, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an inquiry into “contempt of a person carrying out public authority at a rally”.

A billionaire diamond trader has died during a penis enlargement operation at a posh Parisian clinic, it was reported. Ehud Arye Laniado died at the age of 65 in the clinic of an unnamed plastic surgeon on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in the French capital. According to local media, complications during surgery proved fatal for the Belgian-Israeli dual national and he suffered a heart attack when a substance was injected into his penis. The billionaire, whose exact fortune is not publicly known, got in trouble with the authorities in 2013. He faced claim for 4 billion British pounds (approx. $5.2...

German carmaker Audi is being ridiculed online after revealing its latest electric car model: the Audi e-tron.  As was swiftly discovered by francophones around the globe, 'e-tron' is very similar to the French word 'ètron'.It is therefore unlikely that Frenchmen will be rushing to their local cardealers to purchase the new Audi, as 'ètron' means 'excrement' or 'turd'.  Audi promises that the e-tron will usher in 'a new era of electric'.  It writes on its website that the car is 'the only electric SUV built with Audi DNA,' adding: 'This is electric done the Audi way.'  However, as reported by Inquisitr, social...

John Kerry on his message to Trump: 'Resign' By Owen Daugherty - 01/22/19 12:18 PM EST Former Secretary of State John Kerry had a simple message for President Trump on Tuesday, saying he should “resign.” Kerry was speaking on a discussion panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he was asked what his message to Trump would be, according to CNBC. Kerry was at first hesitant to answer the question, saying Trump "doesn't take any of this seriously.” “He doesn’t have an ability to have that kind of conversation,” Kerry said after debating whether to answer or...

The first nudist restaurant in Paris has been forced to close its doors 15 months after opening because it failed to attract enough customers. O'naturel, located in the city's 12th arrondissement, will close its doors permanently in February, owners Mike and Stephane Saada revealed. The restaurateurs, who opened O'naturel in November 2017, said: 'We will only remember the good times, meeting beautiful people and customers who were delighted to share exceptional moments.'

The terrorist attack on a French Christmas market should serve as a wakeup call to America. The stakes are too high for Congress to keep playing political games with border security. We need to build the wall. Americans awoke Wednesday to yet another awful reminder that we still live in a world beset with radical Islamic terrorism. In the night, the crack of gunfire and the all-too-familiar cry of “Allahu Akbar” rang out in a French Christmas market. At least four people who came out to enjoy Strasbourg’s famous Advent traditions are dead. As President Trump so astutely noted in...

The Hudson's Bay Company has removed a plaque from the company's flagship store in downtown Montreal that commemorates Jefferson Davis, who was president of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.(snip) The aftermath of the Charlottesville clashes has prompted many to look closer at Confederate monuments in their own neighbourhoods. The Montreal plaque hung on a wall of the HBC store on Union Avenue. Written in French, it read: "To the memory of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, who lived in 1867 in the home of John Lovell, which was once here."(snip) Andrew Papenheim first saw the...

You may have to go all the way back to the late 20th century to recall an article in Harper’s magazine that was worth reading, but the current issue features an article from the controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq that defends Donald Trump (“Donald Trump Is a Good President“) in ways that will drive just about everybody out of their minds But what’s most remarkable about the new American policies is certainly the country’s position on trade, and there Trump has been like a healthy breath of fresh air; you’ve really done well to elect a president with origins in...