France set to ban the words 'mother' and 'father' from official documents

London Telegraph

France is set to ban the words "mother" and "father" from all official documents under controversial plans to legalise gay marriage.

The move, which has outraged Catholics, means only the word "parents" would be used in identical marriage ceremonies for all heterosexual and same-sex couples.

The draft law states that "marriage is a union of two people, of different or the same gender".

It says all references to "mothers and fathers" in the civil code – which enshrines French law – will be swapped for simply "parents".

The law would also give equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.-[Full Article]

France wants new global finance system

France will help the transition to a global financial system based on 'several international currencies', the French Economy Minister said today.

RTE News

France, as current head of the Group of 20 countries, will help the transition to a global financial system based on 'several international currencies', French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said today.

Lagarde, speaking ahead of a G20 finance ministers meeting in Paris on Friday and Saturday, said the world had to move on from the 'non-monetary system' it now has to one 'based on several international currencies'...

[Full Article]

Contestants Electrocute Each Other On Game Of Death TV Show

Watch a clip from a controversial 'gameshow' in which participants are asked to administer what they believe to be near-lethal electric shocks to rival contestants.

The aim of the experiment is to show how the manipulative power of television can push people to ever more outrageous limits.

A team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a pilot for a new television show.

They were instructed to pose questions to another "player", and punish him with up to 460 volts of electricity when he got answers wrong.

Not knowing that the screaming victim was really an actor, the apparently reluctant contestants yielded to the orders of the presenter and audience, who also believed the game was real.

The programme airs as a documentary on France 2 TV on Wednesday.

French Bread Spiked With LSD In CIA Experiment

A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War...

Violent French Husbands 'May Be Tagged'

Men seen as likely to be violent towards their wives could be forced to wear an electronic tag under a law being debated by the French parliament...