Armoured & Luxury
Chauffeur Driven Cars

The head of the French armed forces has quit after a clash with President Emmanuel Macron over budget cuts.

Gen Pierre de Villiers said in a statement he could no longer «guarantee the durability of the army model» that he considered necessary to ensure France’s protection.

France’s government last week revealed major cuts to bring its budget deficit below the level of an EU cap. Mr Macron had said he would not tolerate dissent from the military.

In a speech at the defence ministry last week, he said: «It is not dignified to hold certain debates in the public arena.» Then in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, he said: «If the military chief of staff and the president are opposed on something, the military chief of staff goes.» But he had also said the general had his «full trust» as long as he «knows the chain of command and how it works». The pair had been scheduled to meet on Friday to try to sort out their differences.

Read More

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have visited a former concentration camp as they continue their tour of Poland.

The Royal couple met five Holocaust survivors at Stutthof, near Gdansk, where 65,000 people were killed by the Nazis in World War Two.

Speaking at a garden party to mark the Queen’s birthday, Prince William hailed the country’s «incredible bravery» during the German occupation.

Prince William and his family are on a five-day tour of Poland and Germany. Prince George, three, and Princess Charlotte, two, have accompanied their parents on the trip.

During their visit to Stutthof, William and Catherine met British survivors Manfred Goldberg and Zigi Shipper.

Read More

German prosecutors are investigating whether a 16-year-old German girl is among a group of suspected members of so-called Islamic State held in Mosul.

She was reportedly among a group of 20 foreigners found by Iraqi troops in a tunnel under the Old City on Thursday.

Officials are trying to confirm if she is the same girl who went missing from the German town of Pulsnitz last year.

Iraq’s government has declared victory over IS in Mosul, although clashes continue in parts of the Old City. The almost nine-month battle left large areas in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 920,000 others.

Photographs of the girl being detained by Iraqi troops were published by local media over the weekend.

Read More

The Australian military is to be given broad new powers to respond to domestic terrorist attacks.

The government-proposed changes to national security laws are part of a review into counter-terrorism.

The new measures would mean the Australian Defence Force (ADF) could be called in sooner to help police deal with threats. They were prompted by criticism of the speed with which police responded to the 2014 siege in a cafe in Sydney.

Current legislation prevents police from calling on the ADF until they have reached the limit of their capability or capacity.

Under the new measures, the military would also provide specialised training to police forces.

Read More

Two Ukrainian tourists have been killed in mass stabbings at a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egyptian medical officials say.

At least four other people were injured and a man has been arrested. The suspect is being questioned by police to determine his motives, the interior ministry said.

The attacker appears to have swum from a nearby public beach to gain access to the resort, officials say.

Hurghada is a popular Egyptian holiday resort. It is renowned for its scuba diving.

Three foreign tourists were stabbed at the same resort in January 2016 by two suspected militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.