Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. — Peace activists spent part of Monday evening picketing for peace as the war in Ukraine rages on. Members of the Madison Working Group on Peace in Ukraine demonstrated near UW Hospital on University Avenue, calling for an immediate ceasefire and diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine. Some demonstrators worried about a growing threat of nuclear confrontation if the war continues. “It’s a huge risk — nuclear confrontation, a nuclear accident — the risk is growing. We want to address that right now and we know we can do it,” demonstrator and volunteer Barbara Smith said. Sept. 24 will...

Russian armed forces arrested disgraced Canadian General Trevor Cadieu in Mariupol. Russian sources often refer to Trevor Cadieu as Trevor Kadier or Trevor Cadier. At the beginning of this month, Russians said they captured Cadieu at the Azovstal iron and steel factory during the Siege of Mariupol. He is currently in Moscow awaiting trial. Cadieu was apparently not on a mission for his government but was in charge of a bio laboratory, Biolab No.1, with 18 staff working under his command. Biolab No.1 is reportedly managed by US company Metabiota. The company Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden,...

French President Jacques Chirac is attempting to sabotage U.S.-led efforts to apply economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran, according to a report by the center-left French daily, Le Monde. In a throwback to much-criticized behavior during the buildup to the Iraq war, Chirac planned to send his foreign minister on a secret trip to Tehran in late January, armed with a personal letter of assurances for Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the daily reported. Chirac wanted "to send a message to the Iranian authorities that a channel of communication can be kept open despite the vote by the United...

The report of the Iraq Study Group is not exactly a strategy for unconditional surrender, but it's what you get from an expensive corporation lawyer trained never to let conviction, purpose or principle get in the way of a settlement that will stay together at least until the lawyers cash their checks. It was all in a day's work for Jim Baker. Mr. Baker is a favorite target of the tabloids, inevitably portrayed as vain, pompous, arrogant and eager to settle scores. The New York Post couldn't wait to have a little clean fun, transposing the heads of Mr. Baker...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. House Republicans have dropped their snub of France by renaming french fries "freedom fries" at House cafeterias. As well, "freedom toast" has been renamed french toast on menus, but nobody wanted to explain the name changes to The Washington Times. Neither Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, nor Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., who led the renaming campaign three years ago would comment, nor would cafeteria staff, the newspaper said. Ney announced the name changes at the height of anti-French sentiment in March 2003, when Paris refused to take part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joked about declaring war on France on Friday and pretended to massage President Jacques Chirac, making light of a clash between their two countries over energy mergers. Leaving for the second day of European Union summit, Berlusconi told reporters: "There is no news, unless you journalists want us to declare war on France." Inside the conference room, the Italian leader walked up to the seated Chirac and put his hands on the French president's shoulders in what looked like a neck-rub, prompting a startled laugh. Tension between France and Italy has risen...

Police detained 14 people yesterday after a second night of rioting that broke out in a working-class Paris suburb following the deaths of two youths who were electrocuted while trying to evade police, officials said. Hundreds of angry youths torched parked cars and threw rocks at police overnight in Clichy-sous-Bois, north of the capital, lightly injuring 15 officers and a journalist, officials said. Mobile police units were called in after assailants opened fire on a police riot vehicle, and restored order around 2am. About 300 police were remaining on site until further notice, officials said. Dozens of local residents held...

May 31, 2005 Battle for the heart of EuropeBy Anthony Browne and Rosemary Bennett TONY BLAIR is preparing to battle with President Chirac of France over Europe’s political direction for the coming decades. The chaos in Brussels caused by France’s unexpectedly emphatic rejection of the European constitution has put Mr Blair, who takes up the EU presidency in July, in a powerful position to impose his vision of the future shape of the Union. He refused yesterday to declare the constitution dead or to say whether Britain would hold a referendum on the constitution, rejected by French voters by...

PARIS (Reuters) - A senior French politician said on Friday he had been implicated in an oil-for-food scam in Iraq in an effort to discredit President Jacques Chirac, a fierce opponent of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. A U.S. Senate report on Thursday said Senator Charles Pasqua -- once a close Chirac associate and former interior minister in a conservative government -- had received an allocation of 11 million barrels of oil with the personal approval of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The oil-for-food program allowed Iraq to sell limited oil supplies to buy basic goods and negotiate its own...

News came today that the Europeans are waking and discovering — mon dieu — that Al Qaeda is in their midst. And — even worse — the pervasive anti-Americanism of Western Europe seems to have acted as a recruiting machine for young Muslims in Europe to go to Iraq to kill Americans.

France: We're the No. 1 Aid Donor PARIS — One-upping the United States, France said Thursday it is the No. 1 donor for the Asian disaster — pledging 42 million euro ($57 million) — following barbs from Washington about the extent of French generosity. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's boast that France was vaulting to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to respond to comments from Andrew Natsios ,chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American aid. In a FOX News interview this week, Natsios said France tends not to be a world leader in foreign aid...

Kiev, Ukraine, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The extent of an apparent plot to poison Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's opposition leader, and then cover up the evidence now reaches across Europe.

MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - The southern French city of Marseille called off a three-week hunt for a black panther on Tuesday after the animal sighted by several residents turned out to be a large house cat. "The 'panther' is just a black house cat -- a very big one though," said a spokeswoman for the local prefecture, adding the animal was about 24 inches long and weighed some 22 pounds. Police deployed dozens of searchers this month after reports that a blank panther was roaming around the nearby Calanques area, popular with tourists for its creeks, rocks and beaches. Searchers...

I just emailed the French Embassy in Washington, and you may reach them at this webpage: http://www.info-france-usa.org/contactus.asp I had to blow off steam at the annoying little foreigners. You may wish to as well. (Please be polite, no cursing or crude language.) I sent them the following, both in proper English and their own barbaric tongue, so that they would have no problem understanding it. You can translate your email for free at http://ets.freetranslation.com/?!&sequence=core&mode=html&template=TextResults2.htm&Language=English/French&SrcText=... I shan't use their vulgar grunting here, so here is the English version… Dear Sirs: In my country's short 225+ year history, we have saved the...