” A large transportation truck caught fire after locals heard a huge explosion. Reporters filming the truck claimed the truck was transporting ambulance vehicles from France to Syria. In case you’ve not seen an ambulance shipment firing bullets and exploding when catching fire inside a sealed truck.”
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” The body of a tourist was devoured by vultures in a matter of minutes after she fell over a cliff in the Pyrenees in France.
The 52-year-old woman tumbled down a 300-meter drop while taking a shortcut while hiking with friends on Pic de la Pista, in southern France, gendarmerie Major Didier Pericou told The Times of London.
“There were only bones, clothes and shoes left,” after the vultures got to her, Pericou said. “They took 45 to 50 minutes to eat the body.”"
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” Redoine Faid, who published a book on life as a criminal in France’s tough city suburbs, took four prison guards hostage inside Sequedin prison near Lille on Saturday morning. He then set off a series of explosions, blowing open five prison doors in turn, allegedly using explosives that his wife had smuggled into prison that morning wrapped in handkerchiefs.
Photos taken immediately after the explosion showed a door blasted open, the reinforcements hanging out from within the white metal barrier.
Faid, 40, released the guards but escaped in a car which was later found burnt out near Ronchin, south of Lille. Police were trying to trace a second vehicle to which he was thought to have switched.
“It happened very quickly, it was clearly very well organised, and we are still busy putting the facts together,” a local administrative official said.
Faid’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Pelletier, told French newspaper Le Parisien that he was “not at all surprised” that his client had escaped.” ”
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” Women have long been told that a good bra can help support the chest, relieve back pain and prevent sagging. However, a new 15-year French study reveals the opposite: bras do little to reduce back pain and, over time, they can actually make breasts sag even more.
Researcher Prof. Jean-Denis Rouillon, a sports science expert from the University of Besançon in eastern France claims that “bras are a false necessity,” according to The Local.
“Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity,” said Rouillon. “On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra.”
Rouillon and his team spent years measuring the changes in the breasts of 330 women using a simple slide rule and caliper at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (University Hospital) in Besançon, where he carried out his research.
He found that no evidence that bras helped ease back pain. Instead, he found that the chest supports could even add to the problem.
According to The Connexion, the findings suggest that breasts would gain more tone and support themselves if no bra was used. Researchers explain that bras limit the growth of supporting breast tissues, leaving the breast to wither and degrade more quickly.”
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Cyprus Bail-Out: Savers Will Be Raided To Save Euro In Future Crises, Says Eurozone Chief
” Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe’s single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced.
The new policy will alarm hundreds of thousands of British expatriates who live and have transferred their savings, proceeds from house sales and other assets to eurozone bank accounts in countries such as France, Spain and Italy.
The euro fell on global markets after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, announced that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.”
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” Since fictional superheroes usually get cool origin stories, it makes sense that an actual global superpower needs to have one. Luckily for the United States, the Revolutionary War was precisely such a tale. Bloody, heroic, and seasoned with all kinds of awesome, the entire eight-year period was dripping with fantastic stories and scrappy underdog moments.
Or was it?
#3. The Americans Won the War With Frontier Savvy and Guerrilla Tactics
The Myth
Colonists were guerrilla fighters extraordinaire. They made a huge difference in the war outcome with constant raids, skirmishes, and ambushes, essentially going Home Alone on the British forces left and right.
It makes such an awful lot of sense: In the blue corner, we have a bunch of determined colonists who were on their home turf, lightly armed, and relatively inconspicuously clothed. In the red corner: tightly organized regiments of scarlet-clad soldiers with stiff upper lips, marching in lockstep through the forest like live Duck Hunt targets. Of course the Colonial forces took the opportunity to employ the kind of guerrilla tactics that wouldn’t be seen until, well, two centuries later.
The Reality
As enticing as the image of clever American guerrillas winning the war by hiding behind trees and shooting British troops who are standing in formation in open fields is, it couldn’t be further from the truth. While guerrilla tactics did play a plucky part in the proceedings, they were always a condiment rather than the meat. Ordinary pitched battles decided the outcome of the war.
Which was smart, because the Patriots never actually had the advantage when it came to guerrilla-ing. British troops had at least as much guerrilla chops as the Colonies, as pretty much all significant Native American tribes had sided with the Redcoats — even the guy who literally wrote the book on being an Army Ranger fought for the British.”
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” Abou Zeid was among 40 militants killed three days ago in the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains near the Algerian border, said Ennahar, which is well connected with Algeria’s security services.
French and Chadian troops have been hunting fighters there after a lightning campaign to dislodge them from northern Mali.
A spokesman for France’s Elysee presidential palace declined to comment. Algeria’s government, Malian and Chadian officials could not confirm Abou Zeid’s killing.
A U.S. official said the reports that Abou Zeid had been killed appeared to be credible and that Washington would view his death as a serious blow to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).”
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” China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.
U.S. exports and imports of goods last year totaled $3.82 trillion, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s trade in goods in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion.
China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill.
“It is remarkable that an economy that is only a fraction of the size of the U.S. economy has a larger trading volume,”Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in an e-mail. The increase isn’t all the result of an undervalued yuan fueling an export boom, as Chinese imports have grown more rapidly than exports since 2007, he said.”
” French Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced yesterday that, as part of the French government’s fight against radical Islam and “global jihadism,” several radical Moslem clerics were likely to be deported from France over the coming days.As French forces, with the support of western allies, including the UK and Canada, as well as a number of African countries, made progress in liberating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu in northern Mali this week, France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced a step up in the campaign against radical extremism of France’s home front, reports Les Echos. Valls said he expected France to expel a number of radical Islamist clerics over the course of the coming days. As yet, there is no information as to the identity and numbers of imams likely to be deported from France.”
” There are clear views of the National Security Agency’s headquarters off the Patuxent Freeway, just skirting Fort Meade, Maryland, about 15 miles southwest of Baltimore. But we wouldn’t advise getting any closer, as the NSA is the highly secretive agency responsible for the U.S. government’s codebreaking and collecting communications from around the world. The NSA’s headquarters also fits the part, rising blank and expressionless above a desert of parking lots. Completed in 1986, it resembles a collection of stubby, black, reflective monoliths like from 2001: A Space Odyssey. And according to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, the complex has an estimated 10 acres of underground space.
But like the CIA during the Cold War, the NSA in recent years has outgrown its own building. Fort Meade altogether has grown extremely rapidly as defense agencies relocate there and the NSA boosts its Cyber Command headquarters. Defense and government contractors now have offices surrounding the place, and contract and government jobs have surged, largely due to growth at the base more generally, and partly because of growth at the NSA. The Baltimore Business Journal reported that the base is expected to add an eye-popping 42,500 jobs by the end of the decade. The Defense Department even paved over part of the base’s golf course for the headquarters of the Defense Media Activity organization, the Pentagon’s media wing. Hopefully the Pentagon and the NSA will include a lot more parking.”
” Turner has often spoken fondly of the European nation, and she was previously quoted telling German publication Blick, “I’m very happy in Switzerland, and I feel at home here. … I cannot imagine a better place to live.”
The diva isn’t the only star to give up citizenship of her native country — Gerard Depardieu famously accepted a Russian passport earlier this year after fiercely criticizing politicians in France over plans to hike up taxes for the country’s most wealthy residents.”
(CNN) – Phil Mickelson, aka Lefty, is thinking of leaving California and perhaps America because, according to his own reckoning, he is facing tax rates of 62% or 63%. Mickelson, probably the second-most-famous professional golfer in the world after Tiger Woods, later backed off from his initial comments about making “drastic changes.
” Mickelson’s instinctive reactions to high tax rates, even if his math may be a bit muddled, are sound and sensible ones. Tiger Woods certainly agrees with him.
Lefty has a point — high tax rates create disincentives. If the rates are high enough, people react by moving. This should not surprise us: American companies have been fleeing our shores for years, in droves. “
” “I think that it was insensitive to talk about it publicly to those people who are not able to find a job, that are struggling paycheck to paycheck,” Mickelson said. “I think that was insensitive to discuss it in that forum.”
He didn’t apologize for what he said — only that he said it.
“I shouldn’t have taken advantage of the forum that I have as a professional golfer to try to ignite change over these issues,” Mickelson said.”
‘Dirty Dozen’ WWII Hero Dies
” James “Jake” McNiece, a World War II hero whose leadership inspired the 1967 film “The Dirty Dozen,” died Monday at the age of 93.
The Oklahoman reported:
Hours before the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion, McNiece led 18 paratroopers behind enemy lines to destroy two bridges and control a third to prevent German reinforcements from moving into Normandy and to cut off retreating German troops. Sixteen of his men were killed during the 36-day mission, in which they also cut enemy communications and supply lines.
France presented McNiece with the Legion of Honor Medal, France’s highest order, in September. “
” The Lance Armstrong Ride to Redemption began in earnest on Monday, and not just because the disgraced cyclist admitted — as expected — to the doping that cost him his seven Tour de France victories during an emotional interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Armstrong is also in talks to return some of the millions of taxpayer dollars he received from the United States Postal Service, which sponsored his team from 1998 to 2004, CBS News reported. Armstrong has also indicated a willingness to testify against others involved in doping.
RELATED: LANCE ADMITS TO OPRAH HE USED PEDs
The negotiations may be an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution or prevent the government from joining the whistleblower suit filed by Armstrong’s former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory because of doping.
Justice Department officials have urged the feds to join the whistleblower suit, CBS said, and the government’s resources would make the case far more troublesome for Armstrong than if Landis pursued it alone. Landis could collect up to 30% of any money recovered in the case. “
” MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — A World War II veteran who served in France during the war has been reunited with his Army-issued duffel bag nearly seven decades after it went missing.
Ninety-two-year-old William Kadar of Merrillville opened a carefully wrapped package Tuesday to find his drab green duffel bag inside. The folded up bag is still stenciled with his name and serial number. “
WWII soldier’s duffel bag returned 7 decades later
92-YEAR-OLD WWII SOLDIER GETS HIS MISSING DUFFEL BAG BACK
#3. The 100 Nuclear Missiles Left in Cuba … AFTER the Cuban Missile Crisis
” What you didn’t know was that we didn’t actually intercept all those missiles. After the Cuban missile crisis was officially “over,” Russia still had 100 nuclear missiles in Cuba. Since the U.S. didn’t know about them, and therefore hadn’t technically included those hundred in the deal, the USSR decided that they could legally “give” them to Cuba. But when the Russian higher-ups visited Cuba to figure out the details, they quickly realized that Castro was balls-out-of-the-underwear crazy. During those first negotiations, Cuba had been left out completely. And, since they suffer from the nation equivalent of Short Man Syndrome, they were furious at the slight.
The Russians decided that if the missiles were left in Cuba, it would almost definitely lead to World War III. So they did what politicians do best: lie ridiculously. They told Castro that there was an unpublished Russian law that made it illegal to give missiles to Cuba permanently — our legal department says it’s a variant of the “never promise crazy a baby” statute — and the Cuban missile crisis was averted.”
” Brad Pitt gives awesome presents. Pitt spent close to $400,000 to build a shooting range/armory for Angelina Jolie, his bride-to-be, at the couple’s Miraval estate in southern France, according to The Sun.
“Ange clearly finds shooting an aphrodisiac,”
Anti-Semitism is rampant in Europe and it goes hand in hand with the de facto establishment of Sha’aria law that is taking over as Old Europe succumbs to the immmigrant birth tidal wave that is fast making the French , Germans , Dutch and other continental peoples extinct .
” Spain’s foreign minister says Spain will vote in favor of recognition of a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week.
Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo told parliament Wednesday that Spain would support the Palestinian bid at the U.N., because it feels it is the best way to advance toward peace.
As TheBlaze reported on Tuesday, France became the first major European country to come out in favor of U.N. recognition, a move seen as a setback for Israel. The timing of the French move seemed to be rooted in an attempt to sway other European nations in the same direction. In Spain’s case, such a notion took root. “
” A broad coalition of groups from across France came together because they feel they’re losing their country to radical Islam, Sharia law, and a politically correct establishment that encourages the spread of Islam. “
” This Remembrance Day/Veterans Day piece from the first November 11th after September 11th is anthologized in The Face Of The Tiger. And don’t forget Monique Fauteux’s and my live performance of the greatest of songs from the Great War, “Roses Of Picardy“, in a special Song of the Week audio edition.
On CNN the other day, Larry King asked Tony Blair what it was he had in his buttonhole. It was a poppy — not a real poppy, but a stylized, mass-produced thing of red paper and green plastic that, as the Prime Minister explained, is worn in Britain and other Commonwealth countries in the days before November 11th. They’re sold in the street by aged members of the Royal British Legion to commemorate that moment 83 years ago today, when on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Europe.
The poppy is an indelible image of that “war to end all wars”, summoned up by a Canadian, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, in a poem written in the trenches in May 1915:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.Row on row on row.
And, in between, thousands of poppies, for they bloom in uprooted soil. Sacrifice on the scale McCrae witnessed is all but unimaginable in the west today — in Canada, in Britain, even apparently in America, which instead of sending in the cavalry is now dropping horse feed for the Northern Alliance, in the hope they might rouse themselves to seize an abandoned village or two, weather permitting.”
From Military History: Objects of Warfare
” The Grand Prize Winner will receive:
• A seven day, six night trip for two (2) to Normandy, France, including airfare and hotel accommodations
• A $500 travel voucher
• Three activity vouchers (such as museum tickets, tour of Normandy, or other attractions)
• A copy of Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare
Twenty-five runner-up winners will receive a hardcover copy of the book and a Military Channel t-shirt.
MILITARY HISTORY is the definitive visual guide to the technology of warfare; from the siege towers and catapults employed by ancient invaders to the unmanned drones and stealth bombers used by today’s armed forces.”
