Free Republic

The economy is experiencing a golden moment thanks to exports and tourism after cleaning up its accounts. But the country has paid a price in migration of qualified workers and reduction of public services. Ten years after the departure of the “men in black” — the international managers of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank who cleaned up Portugal’s accounts with a machete, the country has emerged as the most diligent student in southern Europe. In 2023, for the first time, public debt fell below 100% of GDP (it stood at 98.7%) and there was a...

For centuries, a legend has persisted across the Ozarks. Lore holds marauding Spaniards once discovered a rich silver deposit within a cave somewhere in the hills, and then sealed it shut for future mining. Several variations of the tale are told, but one notion is constant, the treasure is said to still remain hidden. Many people in South-Central Missouri have searched for this fabled lost silver mine. Some went empty-handed to their graves after a lifetime of digging. Others got so far as thinking they found the site, and even had their ore tested at Missouri S&T. However, no great...

A mysterious 600-year-old manuscript that has been deemed "unreadable" by the world's top cryptographers has finally been deciphered. That's the claim by one Bristol academic who has cracked the legendary Voynich manuscript and revealed its secrets. Dr. Gerard Cheshire believes that the document is written in a dead language called proto-Romance. By studying the letter and symbols through the manuscript, he was able to decipher the meaning of the words. According to the linguistics buff, the Voynich manuscript contains sex tips, info on parenting and psychology, and herbal remedies. "I experienced a series of 'eureka' moments whilst deciphering the code,...

A University of Bristol academic has succeeded where countless cryptographers, linguistics scholars and computer programs have failed—by cracking the code of the 'world's most mysterious text', the Voynich manuscript. Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document. In his peer-reviewed paper, The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained, published in the journal Romance Studies, Cheshire describes how he successfully deciphered the manuscript's...

The team believe the ship was returning from India when it sank sometime between 1575 and 1625. This was at the height of Portugal's spice trade with Asia. Chinese porcelain from the late 16th and early 17th centuries was also among the wreck, as were bronze artillery pieces and cowry shells - a currency used in the slave trade. Cascais municipal council said the ship was found at the start of September while dredging the mouth of the Tagus river, which runs past the resort town through Lisbon.

JTA - The choice for next secretary-general of the United Nations said he wants to be an “honest broker” and a “bridge builder.” Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, was approved unanimously by the Security Council on Thursday after several straw polls in recent days. The General Assembly, made up of 193 nations, is expected to approve the choice in its vote next week. Until December, Guterres served 10 years as the UN high commissioner for refugees. He said the experience prepared him for his new post. Guterres, 67, told The Associated Press before the closed door Security...

UNITED NATIONS - The world's governments are failing refugees, especially in Africa, where a lack of funding has led to family violence and a host of other problems, the top U.N. refugee official said Monday. Antonio Guterres, the new U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told reporters there were a range of crises that deserve attention - from displaced Uzbeks and North Koreans to Iranians and the Palestinians - but it's Africa where the refugees' plight is most dire. "Almost all if not all our operations in Africa are underfunded, and in some circumstances extremely underfunded," Guterres said. "In many of...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Worried about possible terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s government is working closely with American law enforcement and intelligence services to identify threats and thwart potential disasters at the Games.

  Certain things tend to set off triggers in you. For me it was Don Lemon- when he joined the flag-damning freaking idiot liberal lemmings in their bloodlust considering the removal of the Jefferson memorial: CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday hinted that there will come a day when the United States will have to "rethink" tributes such as the Jefferson Memorial. After a contentious segment with Ben Jones, in which the former Congressman defended the Confederate flag, Legal View host Ashley Banfield brought up the author of the Declaration of Independence. She reminded, "There is a monument of him in...

Two F16 aircraft of the Portuguese Air Force (PAF) went out on a mission of air defense of the airspace of national responsibility on the 29th of October. During the morning of Wednesday, the Air Defense System of two unidentified FA detected in north-west Portugal and south direction, flying high, fast and no communications with Air Traffic Control aircraft. The Center for Reporting and Control of PAF reported immediately to the NATO military structure on which, it was decided to activate the pair of F16 Fighting Falcon aircraft on alert at Monte Real Air Base to intercept and identify aircraft....

SYDNEY, Australia - A 16th-century maritime map shows that Portuguese adventurers, not the British or the Dutch, were the first Europeans to find Australia, according to a new book that details the story of the secret discovery. The book "Beyond Capricorn" says the map, which accurately marks geographical sites along Australia's east coast in Portuguese, proves that Portuguese seafarer Christopher de Mendonca led a fleet of four ships into Botany Bay in 1522, almost 250 years before Britain's Captain James Cook.

Captain Cook is scuppered by book By Nick Squires in Sydney Last Updated: 9:02am GMT 20/03/2007 The image of Captain Cook stepping onto the shores of Botany Bay has been a staple of British history books for generations but now it seems the explorer may have been beaten to Australia by the Portuguese, who arrived 250 years earlier. A new appraisal of 16th century maps offers evidence that a small Portuguese fleet charted much of Australia's coast as early as 1522. It has long been known that Cook was preceded by Dutch navigators, whose ships were wrecked on the coast...

West Boca · Thousands of Brazilians settled in northern Broward County in the last decade. Their businesses and churches subtly changed the character of Pompano Beach and Deerfield Beach. Now a Brazilian spillover is transforming a neighborhood west of Boca Raton. Brazilian flags and storefront windows adorned in green, yellow and blue -- the colors of the national flag -- are everywhere on a two-block stretch on U.S. 441 between Marina Boulevard and Oriole Country Road.

In the land of Spain in the Iberian Peninsula, there are groups of people who speak a language similar to Portguese called the Galicians. Galicians live in northwestern part of Spain, known as the "land of the 1000 rivers". It is one of Spain's official language besides Spanish and are refered as Gallegos. Galcians have migrated to other parts of Spain and Latin America. Galicians have their own autonomous region in Spain, like the Basque people. Galicians originally were Celtic people who migrated from the Pyrenees Mountain. The tribe called Galleci was established in northwestern part of Spain. Then around...

Hundreds rally in Toronto for illegal workers Updated Sat. Apr. 22 2006 7:19 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Organizers expected up to 3,500 people for a march and rally through the streets of Toronto, but only a few hundred supporters of undocumented Portuguese workers braved rainy weather on Saturday. Chanting "support, don't deport," the crowd made its way from Queen's Park to Toronto city hall to cheer speakers who said Canada's "immigration system is broken." "We are trying to put a human face on the issue," Peter Ferreira of the Portuguese Congress said. "Sometimes we tend to see these people...

Immigration system is a mess Toronto Sun Tue, March 28, 2006 By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, ASSOCIATE EDITOR The ongoing controversy over deporting failed refugee claimants working in Toronto's construction industry is an example of the harm that occurs in society when flawed public policy interacts with private greed. The policy is Canada's failed refugee system, which has been a mess for decades. The greed can be found among some employers -- who are by no means confined to the construction trades -- who knowingly hire thousands of illegal refugees as a source of cheap, easily exploitable labour. That's supposed to...

Do you think the federal government should consider a guest worker program for those contributing to the economy? Yes 67.41 % No 32.59 %

An explosion on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed a Portuguese peacekeeper with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and wounded three others. "One ISAF soldier was killed and three injured, one of them seriously, by an explosion in Bagrami district of Kabul," ISAF spokesman Major Andy Elmes said. "We are still trying to determine whether it's a mine, an IED (improvised explosive device) or something els." He says the blast was in Da Yaqoob village on the outskirts of the capital. The Portuguese Defence Ministry in Lisbon says the four soldiers were in a vehicle...

Tiago Zarco lies alone, in a dark cell, licking rainwater off the walls for a taste of freedom.It is a compelling opening to a compelling novel -- Guardian of the Dawn, by Richard Zimler. This is the third instalment of the author's 'Sephardic cycle' (following the best-selling Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and Hunting Midnight), tracing Jewish experiences of persecution through generations of one family. What makes it special for us is the setting: Sixteenth century Goa.Guardian of the Dawn deserves to be read because it focuses on a period in history few of us are familiar with -- the Inquisition...

For the first time since expelling its Jews in the 15th century, Portugal has once again begun producing kosher olive oil under strict rabbinical supervision. The product, which is being marketed under the name Ribeiro Sanches Kosher, is manufactured by Penazeites, one of the country’s most important manufacturers of olive oil, in the central Portuguese town of Penamacor. The oil bears a “triangle-K” kosher symbol and is under the supervision of Rabbi Elisha Salas, an emissary of the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization (www.shavei.org),who serves as rabbi of the Jewish community of Oporto, Portugal’s second-largest city. The olive oil is also...