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Tag: France

  • Couple receives tiger cub after ordering kitten online

    Couple receives tiger cub after ordering kitten online

    A couple in France was shocked when they discovered that they received a tiger cub instead of the kitten they had ordered online.

    According to details, the couple had paid 6,000 euros (Rs 1,157,793) to buy a ‘Savannah cat’. The French couple said they were doubtful about the animal after taking care of it for a week. When they called the cops, the investigation resulted in a very strange revelation that the animal was a Sumatran tiger cub.

    The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) is a protected species of big cats and is forbidden for private ownership. The Savannah, on the other hand, can be kept as a pet. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a tiger cannot even be transported without paperwork.

    After the case came to the light, the couple and nine other suspects were arrested for trafficking the protected species. Meanwhile, others involved in this incident are facing charges of being involved in organised crime.

    The cub is in good health and was handed over to the French Biodiversity Office.

  • Man blows up kitchen while trying to swat fly

    Man blows up kitchen while trying to swat fly

    A man in France accidentally blew up part of his house while trying to chase a fly with an electric swat.

    According to details, the 80-year-old man was eating his dinner when the constant buzzing of a fly around him irritated him. He picked up an electric fly swatter to aim at it. At the same time, a gas canister was leaking in his home. 

    A reaction between the fly swatter and the gas resulted in an explosion, destroying the kitchen and partially damaging the roof of his house. 

    Fortunately, the old man was not seriously injured and only suffered a burn on his hand. The man has moved to a campsite while his family repairs his house.

  • French president refuses to condemn blasphemous caricatures of Holy Prophet (PBUH)

    French President Emmanuel Macron has defended the decision by Charlie Hebdo magazine to re-publish blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), saying “we have freedom of expression and freedom of belief”.

    But Macron, speaking on a visit to Lebanon on Tuesday, said it was incumbent on French citizens to show civility and respect for each other, and avoid a “dialogue of hate”.

    “It’s never the place of a president to pass judgment on the editorial choice of a journalist or newsroom, never. Because we have freedom of the press,” Macron said.

    The infamous French magazine is republishing the offensive caricatures, which unleashed a wave of anger in the Muslim world, to mark the start of the trial of alleged accomplices in the militant attack against it in 2015.

    Most cartoons were first published by a Danish newspaper in 2005 and then by Charlie Hebdo a year later.

    “We will never lie down. We will never give up,” Editor Laurent Sourisseau wrote in a piece to accompany the front cover that will be published in print on Wednesday.

    Twelve people, including some of the magazine’s cartoonists, were killed when Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo and sprayed the building with automatic gunfire.

    The Kouachi brothers and a third gunman who killed five people in the 48 hours that followed the Charlie Hebdo massacre were shot dead by police in different stand-offs, but 14 of their alleged accomplices go on trial on Wednesday.

    The decision to republish the offensive cartoons will be seen by some as a defiant gesture in defence of free expression.

    But others may see it as a renewed provocation by a magazine that has long courted controversy with its satirical attacks on religion.

    After the 2006 publication of the cartoons, people online warned the weekly would pay for its mockery. For Muslims, any depiction of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is blasphemous.

  • India continues celebrating arrival of Rafale jets that other countries dumped

    As India continues to celebrate the arrival of its Rafale jets, military experts are not only questioning its capabilities against United States (US) aircraft but are also raising questions why the Rafale jets failed to compete in the international arms markets and got dumped by a majority of nations.

    According to foreign media reports, Dassault’s Rafale was not India’s only choice as various other global firms expressed interest in the MMRCA tender. Six renowned aircraft manufacturers competed to bag the contract of 126 jets, which was hailed to be the largest-ever defence acquisition deal of India.

    The initial bidders were Lockheed Martin’s F-16s, Boeing’s F/A-18s, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russia’s MiG-35, Sweden’s Saab’s Gripen and Dassault’s Rafale.

    All aircraft were tested by the IAF and after careful analysis on the bids, two of them — Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale — were shortlisted.

    Dassault received the contract to provide 126 fighter jets as it was the lowest bidder and the aircraft was said to be easy to maintain. After Rafale won the contract, the Indian side and Dassault started negotiations in 2012. Though the initial plan was to buy 126 jets, India scaled it down to 36, that too in fly-away condition.

    Despite boasting of awe-inspiring capabilities and selected by India after a mammoth testing & bidding process, the French origin jets didn’t see many buyers. Other than France and India, only Qatar and Egypt are using Rafale jets and that too in very limited numbers.

    As reported earlier by EurAsian Times, Russian aviation experts had claimed that Rafale jets would have been useless against the Chinese Airforce (PLAAF). The maximum speed of the Rafale jet is about Mach 1.8 compared to Chinese J-16s at Mach 2.2.

    The Rafale’s practical ceiling is also lower than the J-16s. Even in engine thrust, the Chinese J-16s aka Russian Su-35s are far superior to the French combat aircraft. Even if the Indian Air Force (IAF) was to deploy all 36 of its newly acquired jets, the technical superiority would still be on the side of China, claimed the Russian expert.

    The Rafale is one of the most expensive aircraft in the international market. India’s deal of 36 jets is worth Rs. 60,000 crores. Experts argue that the high cost is the result of many reasons including general inefficiency in the country’s defence sector, along with the small scale on which the Rafale is being produced in comparison to rival fighters such as the F-18, MiG-29 or F-35 due to which Rafale has not benefitted from economies of scale. This has contributed to its poor performance in the international markets.

    Rafale’s third buyer, India, previously proposed to acquire 126 jets under Make in India and not 36. However, it took five years for even the first five jets to arrive in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it in April 2015 during his trip to France.

    According to analysts, despite heavy marketing by the makers of Rafale, France’s relatively small and inefficient defence sector seems to have met its limit with the fighter program. The small production lines are unable to produce the aircraft quickly or efficiently and the French budget for research and development is smaller in contrast to the US or Russia.

    The aircraft is priced very steeply and most nations prefer to buy US jets not only because of the technical superiority but also to please the Americans instead of the French. The Rafales have seemingly lost the fight in the international market, despite boasting of excellent qualities.

  • Aasia Bibi says she’s seeking asylum in France

    Aasia Bibi says she’s seeking asylum in France

    Pakistani Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was jailed after being convicted of blasphemy in 2010, is seeking political asylum in France.

    “My great desire is to live in France,” she said in an interview with RTL radio.

    “France is the country where I received my new life… Anne-Isabelle is an angel for me,” she said, referring to the French journalist who waged a long campaign for her release.

    Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is soon to bestow an honorary citizenship certificate granted to Aasia by the city in 2014.

    She said she did not have any meeting scheduled with President Emmanuel Macron, but “obviously I would like the president to hear my request”.

    The Pakistani Christian was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2010 but she was acquitted by the Supreme Court on October 31 in 2018. She now lives in Canada at an undisclosed location.