h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4110562.stm

STOP PRESS !!! Jacques Chirac will arrive at Gleneagles a day late

and apparently several dollars short!!

alec.

and just WHO could possibly care?

on the other hand, olympique lyonnais supremo jean-michel aulas, in a classic example of french snottiness, has turned down chelsea's £16.75M offer for mickaël essien, and has the outrecuidance to intimate that he won't accept a shekel less than £24M. what's the (football) world coming to when the premiership can't run roughshod over the hottentots!

Lest we forget...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4658065.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4637897.stm

http://www.rainbow-warrior.org.nz/home.asp

http://www.rainbow-warrior.org.nz/Fernando-Pereira.asp
(...if you only read one of these links, read all of this one...)

Fernando Pereira was murdered by agents of the fr*nch government
on the 10th July 1985, when they sank the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour NZ.

Mitterand promises 'justice at the highest level'
Prieur and Mafart served pitifully short sentences for the crime.
No-one higher up in the chain of command was ever prosecuted.

On their return to Fr*nce, having completed their shortened sentences,they were both awarded medals and treated as heroes.

Prieur wrote a book..."we didn't intend to kill anyone"

Don't ever forget that the fr*nch government did this.

alec.

hmmm, I was aware of that
so tell me are the faults of the Mitterand government something we can blame Chirac for?
seems to me like blaming Blair for what Thatcher did or Dubya for his fathers faults

Well YES Blackberry Cat...
There is such a thing as a 'Chain of Command'
This particular chain went right to Mitterand at the top but passed through several layers of government on the way...FR*NCH GOVERNMENT.

And noone but Malfart and Prieur were ever charged with any offence.

Meanwhile...speaking of fr*nch government...

TeaKozy gets it wrong again :
This from BBC News

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has vehemently denied claims by France's interior minister that some of the suspects were arrested in 2004.

Nicolas Sarkozy also said it was suspected the explosives used came from the Balkans or Eastern Europe.

Some of the suspected suicide bombers were freed after the 2004 arrest in a bid to catch a wider network, said Mr Sarkozy.


"It seems that part of this team had been subject to partial arrest...in spring 2004," Mr Sarkozy told a news conference, saying he was quoting what the UK home secretary had told an emergency meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers.

Mr Clarke said he and his EU colleagues had never discussed the issue with Mr Sarkozy and the minister's claim was "simply wrong".

A French spokesman later said Mr Sarkozy had been speaking from his own information and not quoting Mr Clarke.

France's interior minister had not been referring to any of the four suspected bombers but to other members of a network to which they belonged, the spokesman added.

A spokesman for Mr Clarke earlier said the UK authorities had not identified where the explosives came from.

alec.

...it also turns out that Sarkozy arrived late for the meeting with other ministers and left early.

Meanwhile...in other news

Air Fr*nce manages to smash not one, but TWO of Ravi Shankars Sitars during a flight from Lebanon :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4669983.stm

And a group of Fr*nch teachers in Tokyo are suing the Governor for damaging their earnings potential by stating the obvious truth; that Fr*nch can never be a world language until they learn to count properly.

"Four twenties and nineteen instead of ninety-nine"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4678209.stm

The group taking Mr Ishihara to court, who include French and Japanese nationals, are seeking a written apology and 500,000 yen (£2,545; 3,683 euros) each. They say his comments "hindered their economic livelihoods".


alec.

so glad to know you're being as open-minded and objective as ever Alec
obviously no airline other than Air France has ever lost or damaged baggage

of course...

But don't you think that Air Fr*nce would have tried to be a little bit more careful with Ravi Shankars Sitars.

Having worked as a road manager, i know a little about the transport of musical instruments. Sitars have individual cases, strong ones, and they always travel separately. How on earth did they manage to smash BOTH of them?

Meanwhile...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4688111.stm

It would seem that Teakozy has only just heard of international terrorism.

After harbouring some of the nastiest people/ regimes over the last few decades (Khomeini, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, Idi Amin etc.) and commited some acts of terrorism themselves (Rainbow Warrior, Nookuler testing in the Pacific) now it seems that Fr*nce is going to get tough with those naughty imams who preach violence.
Never mind that muslims in Fr*nce are less than 3rd class citizens, let's simply deport the troublemakers to somewhere else like er Algerie shall we?

"We must never allow ourselves to give them the satisfaction of a division between us," he said.

Perhaps he should have a word or two with Dominic de Villepin about that.

alec.

ok, i know things have been a bit quiet on this thread lately...i've just not had the time to keep up with french affairs...however, this caught my eye in relation to a previous topic about the QMII :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/4712566.stm

It would seem to have been a bit of a mistake to have this thing built by a fr*nch yard, even if the 'navel' architect is a blue peter brit.

fr*nch engineering perhaps C*nard should have let the krauts have a go :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4915946.stm

alec.

...and yet another tragic story, this time Chileans and Peruvians find out about doing business with the fr*nch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5227730.stm

and hey... no schadenfreude from me about Zidane. The It*l*an was lucky he fell down so quick.

alec.

Mollusc.

And when exactly did YOU last come up for air booshark?

alec.

Actually I've been up for air for some time. I dipped my head back into this sump tank of a website just for a glance.

Wish I hadn't bothered now.

adios amigo.

alec.

meanwhile, back on board the Rainbow Warrior...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5279158.stm

Anyone care to defend the actions of these "industrial fishermen"??

alec.

I think i might have mentioned this before, but if you look really hard you will usually find a fr*nchman lurking in the woodpile...or in this case : A heap of toxic waste.

We have been hearing about this story for some time now, and, lo and behold, not one but TWO fr*nchmen arrested just as they were trying to leave.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5359192.stm

Of course, the bbc spin headline of "French arrests over Ivorian waste" does make it sound like the fr*nch have arrested those responsible but this is not the case.

alec.

The ship came from Amsterdam via Estonia. It's owned by a Dutch owned company.

I think you might find the responsability runs a little wider than the local agent...

sprout

Alec, what makes you think the BBC would want to give pro-French spin on things?

Because, sadly, the bbc is no longer the impartial news service that i grew up listening to King Bomba.

alec.

"Trafigura director Claude Dauphin, and its West Africa manager Jean-Pierre Valentini were charged with poisoning and breaking toxic waste laws, said justice ministry official Ali Yeo."

Perhaps they were there to cover-up instead of clean-up.

...meanwhile, here's one for you sprout :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5359216.stm

the eu's landlord in Strasbourg is upset at the prospect of losing his rent money, manages to mobilise the fr*nch delegation to oppose stopping the 'travelling circus'.

alec.