IQBAL - User contributions [en]

Indochina Sails Launches Special Pakage Promotion Cruise in HaLong Bay Vietnam

2018-06-14T05:52:18Z

NormanBoag1103:

2 Days 1 night: Superior cabin�� 189 USD per person / Twin Shared Superior single cabin�� 325 USD / cabin Deluxe cabin�� 219 USD per person / Twin Shared Deluxe single cabin�� 385 USD / cabin Suite cabin�� 239 USD per person / Twin Shared Suite single cabin�� 415 USD / cabin 3 Days 2 nights: Superior cabin�� 329 USD per person / Twin Shared Superior single cabin�� 600 USD / cabin Deluxe cabin�� 359 USD per person / Twin Shared Deluxe single cabin�� 640 USD / cabin Suite cabin�� 379 USD per person / Twin Shared Suite single cabin�� 660 USD / cabin INCLUDED Superior Double/Twin (Twin shared) Shuttle bus [http://Mondediplo.com/spip.php?page=recherche&recherche=return%20Hanoi return Hanoi] - Halong Bay � Hanoi Kayaking on Halong Bay Buffet or Set Dinner with many dishes from a large selection of local seafood Welcome Drink Entrance and Sightseeing Fees. Luxury en-suite air-conditioned Cabins Vietnamese Set Lunch Menu International Breakfast Buffet [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] Onboard Insurance Tax and Service Charges EXCLUDED Visa Arrangements Massage Service Beverages Tips and Personal Expenses All other services not clearly mentioned above TERMS AND CONDITIONS Cruise rates based on group of two adults Advance reservation required Other terms [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] and conditions apply Available on Indochina Sails I , II and III only More information at: website or request at info@indochinasails.com

Sunday March 6

2018-06-13T21:39:56Z

NormanBoag1103:

Today is Sunday, March 6, the 66th day of 2016. There are 300 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1834 - The city of York in Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto. 1836 - Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas, falls to Mexican army after 13-day siege in which Davy Crockett and 186 other defenders die. 1853 - Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premieres in Venice, Italy 1857 - In its Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in a federal court. 1922 - United States prohibits export of arms to China. 1936 - The British Supermarine Spitfire MKI takes to the air. 1945 - German city of [https://www.herfeed.com/?s=Cologne%20falls Cologne falls] to U.S. First Army in World War II. 1946 - France recognizes Vietnam as free state within Indochina Federation. 1953 - G.M. Malenkov succeeds the late Joseph Stalin as Premier of Soviet Union. 1957 - Two former British colonies of Gold Coast and Togoland form independent West African nation of Ghana; Israeli troops hand over Gaza Strip to U.N. force. 1962 - [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] United States pledges to defend Thailand against direct Communist aggression without waiting for action by Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. 1965 - U.S. Defense Department announces that 3,500 Marines are being sent to South Vietnam - the first U.S. ground combat troops committed to fighting against Communist guerrillas. 1970 - Alexander Dubcek, former Czech Communist Party boss, is suspended from party. 1975 - Arab terrorist raid on a [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html du lịch Bắc Kinh] Tel Aviv hotel leaves 14 dead. 1988 - Thousands of Tibetans demanding independence set fires throughout their capital city of Lhasa. 1991 - Iraqi troops appear to have crushed a rebellion in Basra and are reported to be moving on other southern cities in revolt. 1994 - Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid rejects a peace agreement reached by 12 other faction leaders in Cairo. 1995 - The dollar plummets to 92.70 yen, its lowest level against the yen anywhere in the world since modern exchange rates were established in the late 1940s. 1999 - Ta Mok, the last leader of the murderous Khmer Rouge, is captured by the Cambodian army and flown to the capital for trial. 2003 - An Algerian passenger jet crashes in the Sahara Desert shortly after takeoff, killing 116 people. 2006 - Several cats test positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in Austria and Poland reports its first outbreak of the disease, as the World Health Organization calls bird flu a greater global challenge than any previous infectious disease. 2008 - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announces that he is breaking relations with Colombia because of his opposition to the Colombian raid on a guerrilla base in Ecuador. 2010 - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls the official version of the Sept. 11, 2011 attacks a "big lie" used by the U.S. as an excuse for battling terror. 2011 - The two opposition parties that triumphed in Ireland's election, conservative Fine Gael and left-wing Labour, agree to form the country's next coalition government after compromising on repair of the debt-battered economy. 2012 - The United States, Europe and other world powers announce that bargaining will begin again with Iran over its fiercely disputed nuclear efforts. 2013 - Syria's accelerating humanitarian crisis hits a grim milestone: the number of U.N.-registered refugees tops 1 million, half of them children. 2014 - U.S. President Barack Obama orders the West's first sanctions in response to Russia's military takeover of Crimea, EU more cautious. 2015 - An investigation into what prosecutors call the biggest corruption scandal ever uncovered in Brazil wins Supreme Court approval to expand to dozens of top politicians for alleged ties to a kickback scheme at the state-run energy company, Petrobras. Today's Birthdays: Michelangelo, Italian renaissance artist (1475-1564); Cyrano de Bergerac, French author-duellist (1620-1655); Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806-1861); Ed McMahon, U.S. host/announcer (1923--2009); Lorin Maazel, French-born conductor of the NY Philharmonic (1930--2014); Rob Reiner, U.S. director/actor (1947--); Shaquille O'Neal, U.S. basketball player (1972--); Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian novelist (1927--). Thought For Today: Le sens commun n'est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common.) - Voltaire, French author and philosopher (1694-1778). Advertisement

WWII sacrifice of Free French defending Hong Kong

2018-06-13T13:05:52Z

NormanBoag1103:

Seventy-five years ago, a handful of idealistic "Free French" took up arms to defend the British colony of Hong Kong in a futile battle against Japanese invaders. But their sacrifice, though largely unknown in their homeland, is not forgotten in Asia. There are six names on the worn stele that pays tribute to them in a corner of the British military cemetery in Stanley, on a hill in the south of Hong Kong island. A French flag is draped over a memorial at the Stanley Military Cemetery, dedicated to French civilians who died fighting with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps against the 1941 Japanese invasion of the territory �Isaac LAWRENCE (AFP) "I do not see why these people should be forgotten," says Francois Dremeaux, chairman of the Hong Kong committee of French Remembrances of China. "My job is to make their memory live by giving it meaning," adds the history teacher, who helped oversee a ceremony dedicated to them last week. Dremeaux, who has written a thesis on the French presence in Hong Kong in the interwar period, feels there is much to learn from these men, who in 1941 chose to fight in a battle some 10,000 [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] kilometres (6,000 miles) from their homeland. Hong Kong was a British enclave, and there was nothing forcing them to defend it, he adds. "We cannot even say they were defending their colony," Dremeaux said. "They defended an idea, freedom, and did it of their own free will, which makes their sacrifice even more noble." Apart from representatives from the French consulate and army, those attending the modest commemoration were largely students from the French international school where Dremeaux teaches. The group sang 'Le Chant Des Partisans', the anthem of the French Resistance -- a tune rarely heard on the shores of the South China Sea. - Dissident consul - By June 1940, many in the French community -- which numbered around 400 in the late 1930s, had already fled to Indochina. Those who remained largely rallied to the Gaullist Resistance cause. While the French embassy in Beijing was loyal to the pro-Nazi Vichy regime, in diplomatic correspondence Hong Kong consul general Louis Reynaud railed against the "treason" of the armistice Germany demanded and stamped his official telegrams with "V" for victory. A "Free France" committee was set up in Hong Kong with about 20 active members to recruit volunteers, turn merchant sailors on stopover in port or prepare propaganda broadcasts. Then on December 8, 1941, hours after [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, which had been living under the threat of the imperial forces since they seized the nearby Chinese city of Canton -- modern day Guangzhou -- three years earlier. Some of the Frenchmen joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps established by Britain to support regular forces vastly outnumbered by the Japanese. - Bayonet wounds - Dremeaux picks up the trail of the Free French at several key moments in the 17-day "Battle of Hong Kong", including the fight for the island's sole power plant. While only six names are on the stele, Dremeaux believes around ten took a stand against the Japanese. Among them was Armand Delcourt, a 42-year-old merchant who came to Hong Kong in 1926 and married a Eurasian woman of Japanese and Scottish origins, Captain Roderic Egal, who was in transit from [http://En.Wiktionary.org/wiki/Shanghai Shanghai] when the invasion began, Henri Belle, a sailor passing through Hong Kong who took up arms, and Paul de Roux a director of the Banque d'Indochine. Egal and Belle were both captured and sent to prison camps, the latter dying in captivity. Roux did not fight but set up a resistance network. He was arrested and tortured, before committing suicide to prevent the enemy forcing him to talk. Delcourt was wounded by two bayonet blows on December 21 while defending a strategic hill pass and executed two days later, shortly before the governor surrendered on Christmas Day. On January 5, 1942, brutalised by the Japanese, his pregnant wife gave birth prematurely in a Hong Kong church to a girl who for decades would not know the circumstances of her father's death. "I did not know the full circumstances of my father's death until much later when I was in Australia and received the letter from my father's close friend Carlos Arnulphy who had managed to trace me," Monique Westmore, who now lives in Melbourne, told AFP by email. "I would have loved to have known my father but when I read the documents that are attached (to the letter) I understand that he was a man of great principle -- I do sometimes ask myself 'why did you go knowing that your wife was hugely pregnant and also you weren't exactly a young man?'," Westmore wrote. "The battle of Hong Kong was a total disaster and many people lost their lives." His military death notification praised him as "a continuous example of courage and enthusiasm" in an unequal battle who "cheerfully made the supreme sacrifice, confident in the final victory of France." For Dremeaux, the path chosen by Armand Delcourt resonates strongly today, "a time of withdrawal" when countries are increasingly looking inward. "He was married to a Japanese woman, lived abroad and gave his life for Free France," he said. "To be patriotic is not a contradiction with being open to the world". Graphic on Japan's invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941 �-, - (AFP Graphic) French historian and teacher Francois Dremeaux poses for a photo after a memorial service at the Stanley Military Cemetery in Hong Kong �Isaac LAWRENCE (AFP) The French Consul General of Hong Kong Eric Berti (3rd R), along with military personnel and members of the public, attends a memorial service at the Stanley Military Cemetery �Isaac LAWRENCE (AFP) Advertisement

User:NormanBoag1103

2018-06-13T13:05:48Z

NormanBoag1103: Created page with "I'm Norman and I live in a seaside city in northern Austria, Moos. I'm 37 and I'm will soon finish my study at History. Take a look at my page: [http://www.vtr.org.vn/c..."

I'm Norman and I live in a seaside city in northern Austria, Moos. I'm 37 and I'm will soon finish my study at History. Take a look at my page: [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội]