"Flooding claims 19 lives in France" by Lionel Cironneau, Associated Press | June 17, 2010
DRAGUIGNAN, France — At least 19 people were killed in flash floods that hit the back hills of the French Riviera yesterday and turned streets into rivers of surging, muddy water, officials said.
There was confusion about how many people were missing in the flooding that washed over picturesque towns and left them standing in brown water, a press officer at the local Var region prefecture said. But she believed....
I'm tired of seeing, reading, or hearing what lying governments "believe."
And I am TIRED of READING WORDS like BUT, IF, STILL, YET, et al, that I WAS TOLD were BAD WORDS for a REPORT in my college writing course!!!!
The floods, which began late Tuesday, swept away cars, trees, and parts of houses in a downpour that devastated the picturesque region in the hills behind a portion of the Riviera, a magnet for tourists. Coastal towns where tourists flock also were hit....
Oh, that is why this is getting coverage in my elitist paper.
It was the second time in less than four months that France has coped with major weather-related disasters. On Feb. 28, at least 52 people were killed when a storm named Xynthia swept through French coastal communities on the Atlantic.
Related: Weird Weather Worldwide
Yesterday afternoon, about 1,200 people were in shelters, and tens of thousands were without electricity or phone service, the Var government said. More than 89,000 people remained without electricity last evening.
The Toulon-Hyeres airport, closed for several hours, was reopened, but the train line between Toulon and Nice was shut down, the prefecture said.
Meteo France meteorological service was forecasting light rain last night.
“We’ve never seen so much rain in the month of June,’’ said Patrick Galois of the national weather service. He said some 16 inches of rain had fallen in the hardest-hit area of Arcs, near Draguignan.
And you KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, right, readers?
See: The History of Global Cooling
Sorry, fart-misters.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said his “first thoughts go out to the victims,’’ and underscored his “solidarity with the inhabitants of the Var region who have had to go through this very difficult natural disaster.’’
How do you say hollow words in French?
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Time to pay the piper:
PARIS — The French government abandoned a sacred totem of its generous welfare system yesterday to combat mounting deficits, saying that workers soon will no longer have the right to retire at age 60 but will have to wait until they are 62.
All so BANKERS can FEAST!
So WHEN do the FRENCH take to the STREETS, folks -- and will the AmeriKan MSM cover it?
Wouldn't want to give Amurkns any ideas, right?
Labor Minister Eric Woerth, who unveiled a long-debated reform, said the change was made inevitable by Europe’s lengthening life expectancy combined with the global economic crisis and an accumulation of government debt.
Then HOW COME the PEOPLE DIDN'T BENEFIT?
His ministry has forecast a deficit of nearly $40 billion in the pension program alone this year as more people take payments and retirement taxes shrink because of the slowed economy....
Wow.
French turning their pensions over to bankers.
Never thought I would see it from the fiercely independent French, the father of all democracies.
Seeking to soften the blow, Woerth also disclosed a 1 percent jump in the tax rate for France’s highest incomes and said taxes will also rise on capital gains from investments....
Chump change government stroke job.
So where can we move the factory to now?
Faced with the same economic pressures, for instance, Germany has disclosed plans to lift the retirement age from 65 to 67. Britain and Italy, home to Western Europe’s other two leading economies, have settled on 65. In comparison, officials pointed out, France will still have one of the earliest retirement ages in the industrialized world.
Related: Deficit threatens European lifestyle
Maybe you guys should GET the HELL OUT of AFGHANI$TAN, if you know what I mean!!!!!!
But the political symbolism of retirement at 60 has remained particularly strong in France. Along with the 35-hour workweek, it was one of the main heritages of the Socialist government headed by President Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s. Since it was introduced in 1983, retirement at 60 has come to be seen by left-wing labor unions and political groups as an inalienable right, along with paid vacations and health insurance.
Well, the PARTY is OVER!!!!
The Socialist Party’s current leader, Martine Aubry, called retirement at 60 a “red line’’ that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s business-oriented government is crossing at its political peril. She said that if Socialists win the next presidential election, in 2012, they will reverse the reform and reinstall the right to retire at 60....
Yeah, right!
That is the SAME THING that was PROMISED US and the GREEKS and you SEE WHAT HAPPENED!!!!
That campaign promise will last until the bankers start knocking on the door.
So what can government do to TAKE YOUR MIND of that?
"Paris bans pork street party in Muslim area" by Associated Press | June 16, 2010
PARIS — French police have banned a street party whose organizers planned to serve alcoholic cocktails and pork sausages in a heavily Muslim neighborhood of Paris, authorities said in a statement yesterday.
Oh, have to LOVE those TOLERANT Frenchmen, huh?
Also see: No Free Speech in France
Turns out I was right on both counts.
Police said the party, called “Sausage and Booze,’’ could have been viewed as a provocation in the Goutte-d’Or neighborhood of northern Paris, where many Muslims pray on the streets because there are not enough mosques. Alcohol and pork are forbidden by Islam, and the party had been slated for just after Friday’s Muslim prayers.
Yeah, but it is OKAY to INSULT MUSLIMS in this world!
They are the NEW JEW WHIPPING BOY of the 21st-century!
Organizers said they were holding the party to protest Islam’s encroachment on traditional French values in the neighborhood.
No EMBRACING of "diversity," huh?
If you were in AmeriKa we would call you an anti-Semitic raci.... ha-ha-ha. I'm sorry, I thought I could get through it.
Muslim groups had announced a counterparty serving halal, or religiously approved, food. Police banned both events....
ARE YOU KIDDING?
They met a PROTEST with a PARTY, NOT VIOLENCE!!!!!!!!!
The woman who organized the party on Facebook and gives her name as Sylvie François denied any ties to the extreme right. She told the free daily Metro newspaper yesterday that she had launched the party as a way to “express exasperation.’’
She contended that the “Islamization’’ of her working-class neighborhood was “more and more ostentatious’’ and that Muslims block several streets during Friday prayers.
So you had to STEP ON THEM, huh?
Look who did have a BIG PARTY!
"Kerviel says he gave bank weekly reports on trading; His testimony contradicts that of other workers" By Heather Smith and Carol Matlack, Bloomberg News | June 16, 2010
Related: France's Madoff -- and More!
A place the Globe will never go.
PARIS — Jerome Kerviel told a Paris court that he sent weekly reports to his Societe Generale SA bosses, bolstering his claims the bank knew about the scale of his trades before they led to a $6 billion loss.
Kerviel has based his defense since the loss was disclosed on Jan. 24, 2008, on the argument that his supervisors were aware of, and encouraged, his activities.
Kerviel, 33, is charged with falsifying documents, computer hacking, and abuse of trust in connection with the trading loss that prosecutors say was caused by the liquidation of $62 billion in unauthorized positions. Current and former bank employees have testified they didn’t know of his bets, which he has told the court he “masked’’ by faking hedges and lying to risk managers.
The treasury reports “to me represented a reflection of my activities,’’ Kerviel told Judge Dominique Pauthe. “Every week I made a report and sent it to Eric Cordelle and Martial Rouyere,’’ his supervisors.
The treasury worked like a small bank for the traders, Kerviel said. He borrowed billions to supplement the $25 million he was allotted, based on his trading desk’s limit, and paid back interest, he said. “It was like an internal loan,’’ he said....
Must be NICE to be able to draw on a BIG PILE of MONEY like that.
KEEP WORKING, Frenchie!
Claire Dumas, deputy to the head of operational risk at Societe Generale, said the fact that Kerviel reported such large results wouldn’t necessarily raise suspicions. Markets “were on a very strong rise’’ at the time, she said....
Related: One For the Ladies
Yeah, gender means change, right; you get a liar with tits!!!
Kerviel said his chief worry about the Eurex inquiries was that regulators could accuse him of “market manipulation’’ because of the large volumes he was trading, and that he could lose his traders’ license. Still, he said he wasn’t worried about Societe Generale’s reaction because “my positions were largely positive for the bank.’’
Yeah, you know who got and is getting screwed, French taxpayers.
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Oh, the FRENCH GOVERNMENT HAS PLENTY of MONEY for WARS, huh?
