While St Peter's heir no doubt means well, his encyclical is a master class in the treachery of good intentions. As Ian Plimer writes in 'Heaven and Hell', the green crackpottery Pope Francis embraces and endorses can only hobble the creation of wealth and mire the Third World in perpetual poverty

The statistic is shocking: some 70% of Danish youths in detention are Muslim. As psychologist Nicolae Sennels (left) learned when he set out to discover why, the reasons have much to do with an insular community's disdain for what, other than welfare payments, a modern and liberal Western nation represents

France has a perhaps undeserved reputation for raising the white flag, but the provocations, assaults and outrages of radical Muslims are drawing no such response. Quite the contrary, in fact

Steeped in history and well worth visiting, the rocky island of Corsica is a lovely spot, even allowing for organised crime, corruption, fire-bombings and the odd assassination

Even President Francois Hollande recognises that France's labour laws and reirement provisions need drastic reform. Unfortunately, the country's labor unions also know a weak reed when they see one

After turning a colder shoulder to Brussels' plea for austerity, France's Francois Hollande marked his return to statesmanship with a lusty cheer as Vincent took Bruno up the aisle

The France of popular imagination is a place where the introduction gay marriage would be accepted without protest. The massive and unexpected opposition demonstrates otherwise

Lovely and charming as ever, France continues to revel in the curious delusion that its citizens and their economy will remain immune to economic reality

The new Napoleon exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, is an extremely impressive and exciting collection of 300 works, includes drawings, engravings, statues, furniture, textiles, clothing , porcelain, right down to stunning and opulent gold and silver Napoleonic “bling”.