Free Republic

Rare 3D Camera Found Containing Photos from WWI "One cold morning last year, we attended an estate in the Niagara Falls where we were fortunate enough to come across and purchase a rare World War I Richard Verascope stereo camera previously owned by the French Army. The camera is in pristine condition and included the original leather carrying case and glass slides. Each slide is a piece of history in photographic form and I get shivers every time I place a glass slide into the 3D stereo viewer. Only at A Nerd’s World 986 Bathurst street can you see the...

PARIS (AP) - France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network's North African branch, after the terror network killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April. The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism. "We are at war with al-Qaida," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau. The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger...

AFP is reporting a French sergeant-major was placed under judicial investigation for murder on Wednesday over the death of an Ivorian man in French military custody in Ivory Coast in May. A source close to the inquiry said the non-commissioned officer had admitted under questioning his responsibility in the act. Firmin Mahe, described by the French army as a dangerous bandit, was killed by suffocation by French soldiers in an armored vehicle on May 13 after being shot in the leg, then captured and taken for treatment by French soldiers. He died in a jeep on the way to hospital....

PARIS (Reuters) - A military plane carrying an unspecified number of paratroopers crashed in southwestern France on Wednesday, a military spokesman said. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was killed or what caused the crash. French LCI television said at least 10 people were on board at the time of the crash. France Info radio said police at the crash site had discovered at least two bodies but the report was not independently confirmed. "We don't know the number of casualties at this stage," the spokesman said. He said the plane involved was a CASA transporter capable of carrying...

Subject: A Marine in Bosnia Marine in Bosnia. Note the signature.... A funny thing happened to me yesterday at Camp Bondsteel (Bosnia): A French army officer walked up to me in the PX, and told me he thought we (Americans) were a bunch of cowboys and were going to provoke a war. He said if such a thing happens, we wouldn't be able to count on the support of France. I told him that it didn't surprise me. Since we had come to France's rescue in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War, their ingratitude and...

French roop reinforcements arrive in troubled Ivory Coast ABIDJAN (AFP) Dec 15, 2002 The first contingent of French troop reinforcements to the Ivory Coast with powers to enforce a failed ceasefire between the army and rebels arrived in Abidjan late Saturday, a French military official said, amid anti-French protest in the country. "The troops have landed in Abidjan," Commandant Frederic Thomazo told AFP from Abidjan's Felix Houphouet-Boigny international airport. He said the plane landed just after 11:00 pm (local and GMT).... ...the French soldiers opened fire on the crowd and wounded four marchers, but this was denied by the spokesman...