Free Republic

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia has hit back at France over its threat to impose a tax on industrial goods from countries that ignore the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Prime Minister John Howard described the plan as "silly", while the mass-circulation Daily Telegraph headlined its report: "Back off, Frogs". Running across a picture of a French nuclear bomb explosion in the Pacific in 1971, a subheading read: "The French did this to our backyard and they have de Gaulle to attack us on Kyoto." Australia, like the United States, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing the emission...

SMUG French President Jacques Chirac’s world fell apart in just 24 hours as London won the Olympic bid and bookies’ favourite Paris was doomed. At 2pm British time on Tuesday he was crowing like a French cockerel in Singapore that “you can put your trust in France — you can trust the French.” But by 6pm yesterday — after he heard the decision as he flew in for the G8 summit at Gleneagles — it was all over. He had egg on his face as he was forced to say “I congratulate England” through gritted teeth. Cocky Chirac had...

Edmonton – The Spectatorians have asked me to comment on the outcry against Conan O'Brien here in Canada, and while I wouldn't dream of defending the phony indignation of a handful of socialists, kleptocrats, and race-baiters, there is a genuine cultural issue here. The people who are stamping their feet over the antics of a hand puppet are, I think, genuinely confused as well as politically opportunistic. There is no cultural referent here, you see, for the thing Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is actually parodying, which is the tradition of the insult comic. Canada lived in a British universe,...

-snip- Putting The Spectator to one side (which is always a good idea in this Gilliganista phase), these are certainly strange times in Trudeaupia. The country has chosen to go to war with a puppet — Triumph The Insult Dog. As his name might have forewarned, Triumph has insulted Canada. Nothing unusual about that. He insults people for a living. What’s unique in this case is that both Federal and provincial levels of government paid for him and his master, Conan O’Brien, to come to Canada to insult us; they put him up in the best kennel at the Chateau...

American talk-show host Conan O'Brien turned out to be Conan the Barbarian on his road show into Canada this week. His NBC program threw oil and matches down our national fault line Thursday night with crude jokes about French Canadians. The show featured a puppet called Triumph the Insult Dog, which wandered around Quebec City's winter carnival, sporting a French beret. It stopped Quebecers in the street and said stuff like: "So you're French and Canadian, yes? So you're obnoxious and dull?" Also: "You're in North America. ... Learn the language!" Thanks for the insults, Conan. Somehow you forgot to...

The French are attempting to prevent the eclipse of la langue diplomatique THE European Commission is going to spend millions of euros to prevent English becoming the de facto official language of the European Union, and to shore up the use of French. The Commission has been pushed into the plan by the French, who are concerned that the language of Molière will become marginalised after the EU’s enlargement to 25 countries in May. Language usage is one of the most politically sensitive issues in the EU, with French national pride bruised by the rise of English. The Commission is...

Withheld Iraq Report Blamed on French French believed to have shared intelligence with UK about Iraq attempt to buy uranium. Did not allow it to be given to U.S.

MADRID, Spain, Apr 11, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Friday that security must be restored to Iraq, and reiterated that the United Nations must have a central role in reconstruction. "The most urgent matter in Iraq today is security, before undertaking the challenge of the political, administrative, social and economic reconstruction," de Villepin said after a meeting with Spanish counterpart Ana Palacio in Madrid. "Iraq has to be a safe country again," he said. Law and order has collapsed with the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in the face of the U.S.-led...

NEW YORK (AP) - One of Manhattan's premier French restaurants, Lespinasse, announced it would close next week because of the economic and political climate. The 12-year-old restaurant in the midtown St. Regis Hotel was favored for its sumptuous beige and gold antique decor and prize-winning wine list and cuisine. Lespinasse was one of six Manhattan restaurants with a four-star rating from The New York Times. A statement from the owners said the current economic and world political climate made staying open unprofitable. The restaurant will close April 19. Guenter H. Richter, managing director of the St. Regis, said, "We carried...

President Jacques Chirac has ordered his officials to draw up plans for a French-language, international television channel to counter the growing influence of the BBC and CNN. He has demanded that the blueprint for the service - already nicknamed "CNN a la Francaise" - be ready by the end of next month as he has become increasingly irritated by the "Anglo-Saxon" view of global events which is being beamed into millions of homes and hotel rooms around the world. He also wants to challenge America's domination of international affairs by extending French language and influence. The proposal for the new...

French ministers and citizens have hit back at an edition of UK tabloid the Sun which depicted President Jacques Chirac as an earthworm. Copies of the paper distributed in the French capital told Parisians their leader had become the "shame of Europe" because of his "constant threat" to veto "any military action intended to apply the will of the UN in Iraq". Reaction has ranged from anger to bemusement as France does not share the UK's tabloid tradition. Transport minister Gilles de Robien said the article, which has been criticised as a cheap publicity stunt, was "disgusting". The culture minister...