Free Republic

A severe winter storm, the worst to hit Spain in decades, has overwhelmed its capital, Madrid, where around a foot of snow has fallen since Friday. The blockbuster storm has wreaked havoc across a region not used to seeing any snow, let alone up to a foot or more. A significant amount of snow had not fallen in Madrid in a decade. As the snow started to pile up Friday night, transportation became impossible, with airports shut down, train services canceled and over 1,000 motorists trapped in their cars on major roadways around Madrid, according to the Associated Press.

During the Bush administration, the media made much of political appointees supposedly editing and otherwise interfering with the integrity of the work of career federal government scientists, particularly on studies pertaining to global warming/climate change. Well now the Associated Press is reporting that an inspector general's report from the Interior Department released yesterday found that the Obama White House "edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it falsely appear that scientists and experts backed the administration's six-month moratorium on new deep-water drilling."

CHICAGO (AFP) – A massive storm buried much of the central United States in dangerous ice and snow Wednesday, stranding scores of motorists with massive drifts that shut down major roads and defeated plows. Strong winds created drifts as high as 15 feet (4.6 meters) as the storm dropped as much as four feet of snow (1.2 meters) in some areas, said Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. "This has been a really big season opening storm," Slattery said. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, schools were closed and the freezing rain that preceded the snow in many...

France buries the EU constitution By David Rennie in Luxembourg (Filed: 14/06/2005) France performed a historic about-turn yesterday and abandoned the European Union constitution to its fate, dropping demands that other nations ratify the treaty. The unexpected move appeared to seal the constitution's doom, even if its most passionate supporters still refuse to accept its demise for several months more. Days before a crisis EU summit, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, simply waived Paris's insistence that the treaty still be put to the vote, country by country. Philippe Douste-Blazy "Our humble and modest position says we simply respect the...

US and Britain isolated as Iraq angrily buries its deadTensions rise in Iraq over massacre of policemen By Rupert Cornwell in Washington, Andy McSmith and Jo Dillon in London 14 September 2003 Bitter divisions re-emerged yesterday among the world's five most powerful countries about how soon America is prepared to return power to the Iraqi people. The United States slapped down as unacceptable a French plan to end its occupation within a month, although Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, talked down the differences after the Geneva meeting of the United Nation's big five. The failure to reach agreement...