Friday 17th of May 2024
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from fawlty towers .....

from fawlty towers .....

France unveils super-fast train …..

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has attended the launch of a new high-speed train made by engineering giant Alstom.The AGV (Automotrice Grande Vitesse) train will travel at up to 360km/h (224mph), powered by motors placed under each carriage, the company says.

The absence of locomotives at either end allows it to carry more passengers.Alstom compares the AGV - successor to the TGV - to the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, in terms of importance and innovation.

'That we are here today is testimony to the courage of Alstom, because during its worst period it decided not to sacrifice its research and development,' Mr Sarkozy said in front of the new train at Alstom's rail test centre in western France.

France Unveils Super-Fast Train

meanwhile, back in the land of the blind …..

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who sought to position himself as the true conservative choice for the Republican presidential nomination, announced Thursday afternoon that he had ended his campaign.

“Because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I have to stand aside for our party and our country,” he said.He added that he would continue to fight for conservative principles, which were now needed more than ever.'I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st Century - still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world, no longer the superpower,' he said.

Romney Suspends White House Bid

the one-eyed man would be king ….. 

Senator John McCain all but captured the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday after Mitt Romney withdrew from the race, saying the war in Iraq and the terrorist threat made it imperative that the party unite. 

Mr. Romney did not explicitly endorse Mr. McCain in his address to the annual convention of the Conservative Political Action Conference, but for the first time in a campaign remarkable for its animosity between the two men, signaled a degree of support for him, saying he agreed with Mr. McCain on the war and on fighting terrorism.  

“Now, I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues as you know,” Mr. Romney said, as the crowd booed at the mention of the name. “But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq.” 

McCain Emerges As G.O.P. Choice

Monsieur Unpopularity...

France’s wartime cooperation with the Nazi Holocaust has become the latest front in President Sarkozy’s struggle to impose his ideas on an increasingly recalcitrant nation.

The President has stirred up a hornet’s nest with an instruction that every ten-year-old pupil should know the identity of one of the 11,000 Jewish children who were deported from France to their deaths at Nazi hands.

“The children must know the name and life story of a child who died in the Shoah,” Mr Sarkozy said.

The order, announced at a dinner on Wednesday with Jewish leaders, has been attacked by Mr Sarkozy’s opponents as a self-serving diversion at a time when he is wallowing in unpopularity after his marriage to Carla Bruni, the Italian super-model.

It is also being linked with Mr Sarkozy’s controversial embrace of religious values. Jewish on his mother’s side and a nonpractising Catholic, Mr Sarkozy has come close to breaching France’s century-old barrier between government and religion.

Mr Sarkozy’s supporters note that he has always been deeply attached to the power of history and faith and that he set this out in his book The Republic, Religions, Hope, published in 2004. In his speech to Jewish leaders, Mr Sarkozy said that France should be secular but positive about religion.

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Gus: that French president is tinkering with religious fire like a stupid kid experiments with matches. Sarkozy should stick to playing with his train set — or his "billes".