France

Mar 11

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

Global News, Politics, Society No Comments »

A 50-year mystery over the ‘cursed bread’ of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.

An American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.

On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire. Continue reading »

Tags: CIA, Drugs, France, Global News, Government, LSD, Politics, Society, U.S.

Mar 10

Spain: Heaviest Snowfall in Decades Leaves 250,000 Without Power

Environment, Global News No Comments »

A metre of snow fell in the Pyrenees leaving 6,000 travellers stranded and blocking up to 40 roads

A couple walk on the beach during a snow storm in Barcelona, Spain. (AP)

Nearly a quarter of a million people in north-eastern Spain were without power yesterday after the heaviest snowfall in decades brought major disruption to the region.

A metre of snow fell in the Pyrenees leaving 6,000 travellers stranded and blocking up to 40 roads on the border between Spain and France. Barcelona recorded its heaviest snowfall since 1962 causing road, rail and flight chaos.

Catalonia’s interior minister, Joan Boada, said the power cuts, caused by a fault in a high-tension cable, were affecting the area around Girona, 60 miles north of Barcelona.

Spain’s border with France at La Junquera was closed causing 30-mile traffic jams while 170,000 pupils had the day off as schools were shut, local newspapers reported. About 3,000 people were put up in a town hall overnight and many others stranded in their cars as railway lines and roads became impassable, Boada said.

Tens of thousands more were unable to get home after snow fell at lunchtime and many left their offices to photograph the rare scenes of central Barcelona and its beach lying under a blanket of snow.

“I’ve never seen anything like this here in all my life,” said Barcelona resident Raquel Lasmarias, 35. Continue reading »

Tags: Environment, France, Global News, Pyrenees, Snow storm, Spain, Weather, Winter

Mar 07

French President Nicolas Sarkozy: EU Must Back Greece or Jeopardize Euro

Economy, Global News, Politics 2 Comments »

March 7 (Bloomberg) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the European Union must support Greece or risk destroying the euro as Prime Minister George Papandreou heads for Paris to lobby support for the debt-laden country.

“If we created the euro, we cannot let a country fall that is in the eurozone,” said Sarkozy yesterday before a meeting with Papandreou in Paris today. “Otherwise there was no point in creating the euro. We must support Greece because they are making an effort.”

EU leaders have so far refused to give financial aid to Greece and have ordered the government to cut its budget deficit, the EU’s highest, on its own. While Papandreou says steps taken this past week to slash the shortfall warrant more help from the EU, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said yesterday that his country is “not going to write a blank check.”

Papandreou is visiting Berlin, Paris and Washington after his government passed a 4.8 billion euro ($6.5 billion) austerity package on March 5. A poll published in To Vima newspaper today showed 51.9 percent of voters support him even after the cuts, compared with 47.5 percent who don’t. Continue reading »

Tags: Debt, Economy, EU, Euro, France, Global News, Government, Greece, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics

Feb 17

Internet Censorship: France leapfrogs past Australia in Big Brother stakes

Global News, Politics, Society No Comments »

Lock up your kids and lock down your PC’s

France yesterday put in its bid for an unlikely prize, becoming the first western country to make even Australia look liberal when it comes to state powers of internet censorship.

In the teeth of fierce opposition both inside and outside parliament, the National Assembly approved, by 312 votes to 214 against, a first reading of a bill on Internal Security - the quaintly titled “LOPPSI 2″.

LOPPSI - otherwise known as Loi d’Orientation et de Programmation pour la SÈcuritÈ IntÈrieure (pdf)- is a ragbag of measures designed to make France a safer place. Like similar UK legislation - most notably the various Criminal Justice acts brought in over the last decade - LOPPSI brings together a number of apparently unrelated proposals which would severely restrict individual rights in all walks of life.

Last week, for instance, the Assembly agreed to include within the new law a measure that would allow Prefects to sign off on a curfew for children aged under 13, out unaccompanied between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am.

The bill also includes measures that would increase police spend on “security”, create additional penalties for counterfeiting and ID theft, increase CCTV surveillance, and widen access to the Police DNA database.

However, it is in the online area that some of the most radical proposals are to be found, with the criminalisation of online ID theft, provision for the police to tap online connections in the course of investigations, and most controversially of all, allowing the state to order ISPs to block (filter) specific internet URLs according to ministerial diktat.

It has also been suggested that the state should have the right to plant covert trojans to monitor individual PC usage.

Whilst the latter measures are put forward on the grounds of child protection, critics have been quick to point out that, in the absence of any judicial oversight mechanism, this is a power just waiting to be abused. Continue reading »

Tags: Big Brother, CCTV, Censorship, Children, Computer, DNA, DNA database, France, Freedom, Global News, Government, Internet, Law, New World Order, Police, Police State, Politics, Society, Surveillance

Jan 18

French minister criticizes US aid role in Haiti: ‘This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti.’

Global News, Politics 1 Comment »

Related articles:

- CLash over Haiti aid flights (Financial Times):

Fuel shortages, poor communications and a logjam at the Port au Prince airport on Sunday continued to hinder a massive international aid effort to Haiti five days after a devastating earthquake in which more than 100,000 are now feared to have died.

The United Nations humanitarian agency, Ocha, warned at the weekend that humanitarian operations might be forced to shut down in the next few days if fuel supplies were not replenished.

As Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, headed for Haiti to see for himself the extent of the worst humanitarian disaster that the world body has had to cope with in decades, concern grew over delays in the airlift to the capital’s airport, which is under US control.

Alain Joyandet, French co-operation minister, told reporters at the airport he had protested to Washington via the US ambassador about the US military’s management of the airport where he said a French medical aid flight had been turned away.

In Paris, the foreign ministry tried to quash a looming diplomatic spat by insisting Franco-American co-operation was proceeding as well as possible in view of the extent of the disaster.

Mr Joyandet’s complaint underlined the frustration of relief teams dependent on the single runway at the airport to ferry in supplies if they were to avoid 24-hour delays involved in bringing supplies in by road from the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

The French news agency AFP also quoted people trying to leave Haiti as complaining that the US was giving priority to its own citizens. The US military re-established operations at the airport after its control tower was damaged in the earthquake. Kenneth Merten, US ambassador, told AFP: “We’re working in co-ordination with the United Nations and the Haitians. “Clearly it’s necessary to prioritise the planes. It’s clear that there’s a problem.”

- Haiti: After a day of deliveries, US ship runs out of aid (AFP)

The solution:

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — More U.S. troops are arriving in Haiti today after the American commander on the ground said that security must be improved to ensure aid reaches survivors of last week’s earthquake. Source: Bloomberg

US soldiers at Port-au-Prince international airport.

PARIS (AP) — The United Nations must investigate and clarify the dominant U.S. role in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a French minister said Monday, claiming that international aid efforts were about helping Haiti, not “occupying” it.

U.S. forces last week turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the damaged, congested airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, prompting a complaint from French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet. The plane landed safely the following day.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned governments and aid groups not to squabble as they try to get their aid into Haiti.

“People always want it to be their plane … that lands,” Kouchner said Monday. “(But) what’s important is the fate of the Haitians.”

But Joyandet persisted.

“This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Joyandet, in Brussels for an EU meeting on Haiti, said on French radio.

In another weekend incident, some 250 Americans were flown to New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force Base on three military planes from Haiti. U.S. forces initially blocked French and Canadians nationals from boarding the planes, but the cordon was lifted after protests from French and Canadian officials. Continue reading »

Tags: France, Global News, Haiti, Military, Politics, U.N., U.S.

Dec 22

Fitch warns: Britain and France risk losing their AAA rating

Economy, Politics No Comments »

Fitch Ratings has given its bluntest warning to date that Britain and France risk losing their AAA status unless they map out a clear path to budget discipline over the next year.

Highlighting the “unpleasant fiscal arithmetic” facing states across the Old World, Fitch said that none of the “arguably” benchmark AAA states can safely rely on their top rating for much longer.

Public debt in both Britain and France will reach 90pc of GDP by 2011, higher than the 80pc (net) level when Japan lost its AAA rating earlier this decade.

Japan’s error at the time was the failure to set out any serious plan to rein in spending, a lesson that the Europeans need to study closely. “The UK, Spain, and France must articulate credible fiscal consolidation programmes over the coming year, given the budgetary challenges they face in stabilising public debt. Failure to do so will greatly intensify pressure on their sovereign ratings,” it said.

Brian Coulton, Fitch’s global strategist, said Labour had fallen well short in the pre-Budget report. “They did not articulate fully what needs to be done,” he said.

Tags: Debt, Economy, Fitch, France, Politics, Rating, U.K.

Dec 08

Moody’s: Top US And UK Debt Ratings May ‘Test The Aaa Boundaries’

Economy, Politics No Comments »

See also:

- Moody’s Puts US, UK on Chopping Block (Wall Street Journal)

- Moody’s Says US, UK Have to Fix Public Finances (ABC New)

- US, Britain may test Aaa boundaries, Moody’s warns (MarketWatch)

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Moody’s Investors Service said its top debt ratings on the U.S. and the U.K. may “test the Aaa boundaries” because their public finances are worsening in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The U.S. and U.K. have “resilient” Aaa ratings, as opposed to the “resistant” top ratings of Canada, Germany and France, analysts led by Pierre Cailleteau in London said in a report. None of the top-rated countries is “vulnerable,” or have public finances that are “stretched beyond the point of ‘no return’ to the Aaa category,” New York-based Moody’s said.

Tags: Canada, Debt, Economy, Financial Crisis, France, Germany, Government, Moody's, Politics, Rating, U.K., U.S.

Oct 28

Sarkozy spent £160m on events and refurbishment during French EU presidency, incl. £250,000 on a personal shower he did not use

Global News, Politics No Comments »

WTF!

Audit slams ‘opaque’ accounting as French EU presidency found to have spent £160m on events and refurbishment

Nicolas Sarkozy at a European Council summit last year. His spending has been blamed on poor management. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images

French financial watchdogs slammed Nicolas Sarkozy for spending £160m during his country’s six-month stint in charge of the EU - including £250,000 on a personal presidential shower that he never used.

The vast expense is set out in a report blaming poor management and a lack of transparency by the president’s staff.

Costs soared because so many of the EU-related events were organised at the last minute, said the report.

On one occasion Sarkozy triggered the cancellation of an entire EU event he was due to host in Evian, because he wanted to sleep in his own bed at the Élysée palace. By then, hundreds of journalists, EU officials and national delegations had either already arrived in Evian or were on their way.

A flood of complaints prompted compensation payments - adding more to the eventual presidential bill.

The total for Sarkozy’s time at the helm of the EU is set out in figures published by the French national audit office.

Every government likes to showcase its country when holding the EU presidency, which at present rotates from country to country every six months. National funds are topped up with EU budget support to organise summits, informal ministerial meetings and EU-related promotional events, conferences and policy programmes. Funding is shared between national and regional authorities and the EU budget.

For one three-day event alone, Sarkozy sanctioned an elaborate upgrade of the Grand Palace in Paris for an EU-Mediterranean summit - one of his pet initiatives to mark his turn at the EU helm.

The event was one of his final EU presidency flourishes last July, and involved hundreds of workmen and millions of pounds.

“The Grand Palace had to be completely refitted for the occasion. Five hundred technicians were mobilised every day, including 300 at night,” said the report. Spending included nearly £1m for one dinner for more than 40 government leaders and heads of state who attended the event.

Nearly £300,000 was spent building a conference podium, nearly £200,000 upgrading the gardens and grounds, and a total bill for the Sarkozy shower of almost £250,000.

The audit report said the cost soared because of the complications of installing a state-of-the-art shower to the president’s specifications in a listed building.

The president never used it - instead going back to the Élysée palace during the three-day summit to freshen up. The shower has since been dismantled.

Other spending on the summit included £90,000 for a carpet.

Tags: EU, France, Global News, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics

Oct 06

The demise of the US dollar

Economy, Politics 2 Comments »

From the article:
“These plans will change the face of international financial transactions,” one Chinese banker said. “America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate.”

Robert Fisk’s report is accurate and the following denial is just disinformation:

- Oil states say no talks on replacing dollar (Reuters):
ISTANBUL/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Big oil producing nations denied a British newspaper report on Tuesday that Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in trading oil.

The dollar eased in response to the report, which was written by The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk and cited unidentified sources in Gulf Arab states and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong.

The plan is to bring down the US. The US constitution is still a major threat to the ‘New World Order’ and the elite.

US citizens need to be disarmed, their freedoms and the dollar need to be destroyed, so that the new global currency and the ‘New World Order’ can be established.

The elite wants to turn the US into a Third World country.

Prepare yourself for the greatest collapse in history.

Got gold (silver, food, water, guns and ammunition)?

- Gold Jumps to Record High as Inflation Outlook Fuels Investor Demand

In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars.

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region’s conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.

Tags: Abu Dhabi, Brazil, China, Dollar, Economy, Euro, France, Gold, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Middle East, Oil, Politics, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, U.K., U.S.