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| Europe |
| italy declares war on france |
| 2006-03-24 |
| Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joked about declaring war on France on Friday and pretended to massage President Jacques Chirac, making light of a clash between their two countries over energy mergers. Leaving for the second day of European Union summit, Berlusconi told reporters: "There is no news, unless you journalists want us to declare war on France." Inside the conference room, the Italian leader walked up to the seated Chirac and put his hands on the French president's shoulders in what looked like a neck-rub, prompting a startled laugh. Tension between France and Italy has risen since the Paris government engineered a hasty merger between state-owned Gaz de France and private French utility Suez to fend off a feared bid from Italy's Enel. Diplomats had expected Berlusconi, trailing centre-left ex-European Commission President Romano Prodi in opinion polls ahead of an April 9-10 general election, to use the summit to attack the French action. In the event, he focussed his public comments on attacks against Prodi and insisted that he would confound the polls and win re-election. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #6 ITS WAR - SEND IN THE FRENCH NAVY, assuming of course their props don't fall off. Kind of hard to fight decisive naval battle wid go-go modern warships that have to depend on wave/sea motion to get there. How can Radical Islam's Navy of mad Mad MAD M-A-D Camels/Camel-kazes lose??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-03-24 22:14 |
| #5 Has France surrendered yet? |
| Posted by: Nick 2006-03-24 20:05 |
| #4 A northern Italian had a great retort when someone impugnes the bravery of the Italian army. In World War I, 300,000 Italians died in the twelve battles of the Isonzo, half of their total war casualties. They fought a heavily fortified enemy in mountains on the far side and overlooking a river, during heavy rains, an impossible mission. They still killed over 200,000 Austrian Germans. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-24 18:09 |
| #3 Whats the difference between an Italian , a Frenchman and a piece of toast ? .... You can make soldiers out of a piece of toast boom boom ! |
| Posted by: MacNails 2006-03-24 15:30 |
| #2 That was no neck rub! That was a Vulcan neck pinch! |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-03-24 15:28 |
| #1 Berlusconni should have applied the final solution on ole Chirac -- oh, boyz will be boyz |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-03-24 14:12 |