Free Republic

(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Pope Francis on Saturday and, apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless "dictatorship of the economy", called for stronger regulation of financial markets. On Thursday, Francis appealed in a speech for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries. Merkel visited Rome for a few hours specifically to meet the pontiff and spoke with him privately in his library for 45 minutes, unusually long for a private papal audience. She told reporters afterwards that the scandals and excesses criticized by Francis...

A new investigation released by Wall Street Daily just revealed a disturbing pattern of price manipulation in the energy markets. The six-month investigation, conducted by renowned energy analyst, Karim Rahemtulla, was triggered by the incredible disparity in gas prices between the United States and Europe. The price of natural gas in the United States is presently about $4/mcf. Yet the price in Europe is upwards of $15/mcf. “Such mispricing simply cannot occur in an efficient market,” says Rahemtulla. For the global economy to function properly, the energy markets must be priced efficiently. It can be no other way. Any malfeasance...

'In May 1943, an audacious raid by the RAF's 617 squadron destroyed the industrial heart of Nazi Germany. Twelve years later, it was immortalised on film. Now, never-before-seen photographs from the set of classic movie The Dam Busters have emerged ahead of the 70th anniversary, on Thursday, of the legendary World War II mission. The backstage images give a new insight into how the famous attack on the Ruhr dams was recreated for the 1955 film.'

A United Nations agency has caused a firestorm after an official of the organization proudly posed with a map that only lists Palestine. The U.N. official posed with the map in which Israel did not exist in Lebanon, and the whole area from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea was listed as "Arab Palestine." During a presentation of German-funded projects in Lebanon earlier this month, Ann Dismorr, the director of the United Nations Agency Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in Lebanon, held up the map which included Jordan, Syria and other neighboring countries, but...

'Two of the surviving Dambuster airmen have attended a ceremony after a flypast to mark the 70th anniversary of the World War II raid on German dams. Hundreds of onlookers gathered as a Lancaster bomber flew over Derwent reservoir - one of the practice sites used ahead of the top-secret mission. More than a third of the men never returned from the raids, when they had to fly just 60ft above ground. RAF Scampton later hosted a sunset service. The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and 617 Squadron flew over the dam in Derbyshire's Hope Valley on Thursday lunchtime....

Multiple factions gathered to protest the exhibition. A topless woman from the Femen protest group, who had "life in plastic is not fantastic" written across her bare chest, burned a Barbie doll tied to a cross. A pink-clad man wearing a blond wig had a sign that said "Do you like me now?" draped across his neck. Others held signs with phrases like "Dear Barbie - don't just bake cupcakes, eat them too!" and "I will free you from the horror house."

Top Japanese chef Miki Nozawa has died after apparently being attacked by two German men who were unhappy with the fried noodles from his restaurant on the North Sea island of Sylt. The men, aged 36 and 50 are thought to have beaten 57-year-old Nozawa to death outside a strip club on the upmarket holiday island, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday. Earlier in the evening the pair had eaten Nozawa's beef, vegetable and fried noodle dish, which they disliked and refused to pay for. They left his restaurant and headed to a nearby strip club, where they bumped into...

A U.S. appeals court sided with the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday and denied asylum for the Romeikes. They fled from Germany after they were threatened with the possibility of losing custody of their children when they decided to homeschool and refused to send their children to the German public schools. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Justice Department, in Romeike vs. Holder, that the freedom to homeschool one's children is not among the fundamental rights protected for asylum seekers. The Home School Legal Defense Association, which represented the Romeikes in the case, said it will appeal...

A new biography covering Chancellor Angela Merkel’s life in East Germany has caused a stir by suggesting she was closer to the communist apparatus and its ideology than previously thought. Published this week and written by journalists Günther Lachmann and Ralf Georg Reuth, the book quotes Gunter Walther, a former colleague of hers at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin, as saying she had been secretary for “Agitation and Propaganda” in the Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ) youth organization at the institute. Merkel, a trained physicist, worked at the academy from 1978 until 1989. … Merkel has said in the...

Germany’s political parties will receive more state money than ever before, it was reported on Monday. In the run-up to September’s election, the country’s parties will be fueled by over €154 million ($199.7 million). The ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, socialist Linke party, and the ailing junior coalition partner the Free Democratic Party (FDP) will be getting four percent more state funding this year, the Saarbrücker Zeitung reported. …

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the Obama Administration’s denial of asylum granted to the Romeike family. The Romeikes fled Germany in 2008 when they were subjected to criminal prosecution for homeschooling. They were granted asylum in 2010 by Immigration Judge Lawrence O. Burman, but that grant was overturned by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2012. A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit heard the Romeikes’ appeal on April 23 in Cincinnati, and issued today’s unanimous decision against the family. “We believe the Sixth Circuit is wrong, and we will appeal their decision,” said Michael Farris, HSLDA...

In the 1980s, some members of Germany's Green Party advocated the legalization of sex with minors. Now the party wants to come to terms with this dark chapter via an independent review of internal documents -- some of which show that the influence of pedophiles on the young party was much stronger than previously thought. He is a boy, roughly 10 years old, with a pretty face, full lips, a straight nose and shoulder-length hair. The wings of an angel protrude from his narrow back, and a penis is drawn with thin lines on the front of his body. The...

How many of you have flower or vegetable gardens at your home? I know many people are growing their own herbs to use for cooking as well as indoor and outdoor vegetable gardens. Others have flowers in pots, window boxes, hanging baskets, in flower beds and outdoor gardens.My wife and I have a number of vegetables and fruit growing outside which include apples (2 varieties), beans (purple and wax), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupes, carrots, cherries, cucumbers (bush), grapes (5 varieties), onions (red), peas (green and snap), potatoes (3 varieties), sage, radishes, tomatoes (6 varieties), and watermelons (3 varieties). We also...

Former US President Jimmy Carter has once again expressed his blatantly anti-Israel allegiances by calling on the European Union to “introduce proper labeling of goods produced on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” Carter was in Dublin together with former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso for talks with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore and diplomats from some 20 European countries on revitalizing the peace process in the Middle East. “With the Middle East peace process making no significant progress, we call on Europe to play a stronger and more independent role in...

DUBLIN -Former US President Jimmy Carter said in Dublin “the EU should move to introduce proper labelling of goods produced on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” (snip)It could therefore introduce a clear labelling of products made in Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law,” he added. Ireland currently holds the rotating EU presidency until end of June. Mary Robinson said this was not “an anti-Israel move,” but rather “a concrete step, supported by many of our Israeli friends, to revive the hope of a future state of Palestine

President Hollande of France recently got a whiff of what is coming from an open letter addressed to him by a 20-year old student named Clara G. “This will probably shock you, but it is mainly for fiscal reasons,… simply because I do not feel like working all my life to pay taxes, a large part of which will only service the 1.9 trillion Euros of debt that your generation has kindly left us. If these borrowings had at least been invested to prepare the future of the country, if I was getting a small benefit from them, it would...

On Sunday, an estimated 150,000 people marched in Paris and gathered in the Place de la Bastille to listen to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the Left Front. Afterwards , the Socialist Party officials were prompt to call the event highly divisive for the left. Accusations of populism and gauchisme (unrealistic policies) also rapidly surfaced from Solférino, the Socialist headquarters. To paraphrase Bertolt Brecht: would it not be easier for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?

Even as President Obama is following in Eurosocialist footsteps, the 14-year utopian experiment on a single currency is collapsing. The architect of the euro just ran up the white flag on the biggest policy mistakes in history. Former German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine called his own brainchild a "catastrophe". "The economic situation is worsening from month to month," he wrote on his Left party blog. "unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt." "Catastrophe" is the right word. Today Greece is suffering more than 50% unemployment. That's worse than the Great Depression in the US....

Former Maoist revolutionary and current European Commission President José Manuel Barroso (declared this week that a federal Europe ruled by the European Union from Brussels would be a “reality within a few years,” sparking furious criticism from Europeans and renewed calls in Britain and other countries to withdraw from the increasingly power-hungry EU. Whether the formerly sovereign member states use the controversial single euro currency or not, Barroso announced, all of the 27 EU governments will be ensnared in the dubious project. While acknowledging that today the idea of a federal regime ruling over Europe may seem like “political science...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - ‘Bible Belt’ County Schools Promote Terrorism Against Jews?Posted By Laurie Cardoza Moore On May 9, 2013 @ 12:05 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments The Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum. Germans and world leaders turned blind eyes to the growing anti-Semitism in Germany while Adolf Hitler incrementally executed his evil agenda. Despite annual reminders to “never forget,” schools across the United States, and specifically in the State of Tennessee, are once again oblivious to the anti-Semitic rhetoric that has infiltrated our schools.One such community is Williamson County, Tennessee that sits in...

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15 2011. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world. THIS WAS IN A SPANISH NEWSPAPER: "EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ" By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez "I walked down the street in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture,...

More Germans need state help to supplement their wages—because their jobs pay so badly they cannot pull themselves above the poverty line, figures from the Federal Employment Agency (BA) showed on Wednesday. This could fuel an ongoing debate over introducing a minimum wage. Lots of people in Germany have part-time “mini-jobs” for which they earn just enough to have to pay social contributions—around €800 ($1,052.80) per month—and according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, many of these people claim basic welfare support, Hartz IV, as they cannot live off their wage. There were also, the paper said, people with full-time jobs...

A 93-year-old man who was deported from the U.S. for lying about his Nazi past was arrested by German authorities Monday on allegations he served as an Auschwitz death camp guard, Stuttgart prosecutors said. Hans Lipschis was taken into custody after authorities concluded there was "compelling evidence" he was involved in crimes at Auschwitz while there from 1941 to 1945, prosecutor Claudia Krauth said. Lipschis has acknowledged being assigned to an SS guard unit at Auschwitz but maintains he only served as a cook and was not involved in any war crimes.

I was shocked when I heard that Sen. Harry Reid had proposed background checks for people who want to buy firecrackers/explosive powders: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3012168/posts Do you all realize the danger to your freedoms and those of your children, now and in the future? Americans need to wake up and pull their heads out of their behinds. Politicians cannot protect your freedoms. Only pro-freedom citizens groups, who ensure that all congressional legislation complies with the constitution, can help preserve freedom. Since 9-11, Americans have given the indication that they love safety more than freedom. Did you know that Nazi Germany had very...

The average German family struggles financially with large tax burdens and as a result have only 1.3 children per family due to high financial costs. One of the lowest rates in Europe Meanwhile Muslim immigrants have as many as 3-4 wives, perhaps 6-7 children from each wife, and all of this is funded by welfare as none of these wives work. 35 % of Muslims living in Germany have multiple wives, nearly all of them live comfortably on welfare funded by German taxpayers. This is not only in Germany too, nearly all of Europe has the same situation, including the...

Amid growing calls from Tory MPs for David Cameron to respond to the Ukip threat by bringing forward legislation on an EU referendum, Farage warned that his party would not go away even if No 10 "starts singing the same song". William Hague, who famously suffered a major defeat in the 2001 election after tacking to the right, called for a cautious response to Ukip as he warned of the dangers of "quick fixes". Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said many Ukip voters were "frustrated Conservatives". As the Tories work out their response to Ukip, which won nearly a quarter...

'Hunched over a wireless set, alone in a safe house in a Parisian suburb on a rainy morning in July 1944, Didi Nearne tapped out a Morse Code message. It contained urgent information from the leader of her Resistance network to intelligence chiefs back in London. The average SOE wireless operator in Occupied France lasted for just six weeks before being arrested. Didi, 21, had survived for five months, making an astonishing 105 transmissions. The questioning began. What was she doing with a wireless set? Didi had her answer ready: she was a simple French girl and had been sending...

Even if Germany had to write off the loans it extended to Southern European countries as part of the eurozone’s emergency rescue measures, the economic advantages of its membership would still be overwhelming, according to a recent study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung. … “Without the euro, growth of the real gross domestic product [GDP] in Germany would be lower by about 0.5 percentage points per year,” the study says, warning that without that euro, Europe “would fall apart politically” and become “a losing player in international competition.” And projections for the future are looking bright, the study adds. “Adding up...

Muslim leaders criticized on Saturday the agenda of the German Islamic Conference taking place next week. They do not want terrorism as a key subject, nor should Islam critics attend, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. They are also unhappy that the entire agenda has been drafted by the interior ministry. The event, which debuted in 2006 with the proposed aim of promoting dialogue between the government and Muslim communities, has witnessed a loss of support over stalled talks and lack of progress. Erol Pürlü of the Association of Islamic Cultural Centres (VIKZ) which says it represents 300 Muslim communities nationwide, told...

India likely to vote with U.S. on Iran in IAEA URL: http://www.india-defence.com/reports/377 Date: 17/9/2005 Agency: The Hindu India will vote with the United States, France, Britain and Germany in the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors if forced to make a choice on referring the question of Iran's nuclear intentions to the United Nations' Security Council. Highly-placed South Block sources told The Hindu that such a decision to vote with the U.S. in a crunch situation was taken even before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went into a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in New York. At...

The World Gold Council has advised Italy to deploy its 2,000 tonnes of gold to break free of EMU austerity dictates. By using the reserves – the world's fourth largest – to collateralise the first chunk of any losses for bondholders, Italy could raise €400bn or so on the capital markets and determine its own future for a while. Italy did this in 1974 when it borrowed $2bn from the Bundesbank, using gold as collateral. Portugal did the same thing to borrow $1bn from the BIS in the 1975-1977, and India used its gold to borrow from Japan in 1991....

Five Iranians have been arrested after allegedly posing as police officers in order to rob motorists in northern Italy. ... The band of thieves allegedly set up fake control points at motorway service stations, where they would walk away with tourists' documents and money under the pretext of checking their authenticity.

Muslim men in Germany take advantage of the social welfare system by bringing two, three, four women from across the Muslim world and then marrying them in front of an imam. Although polygamous marriages are not officially recognized -- and are technically illegal and punishable by fines and imprisonment -- government agencies are reluctant to take action. Once in Germany, the women request social welfare benefits, including the cost of a separate home for themselves and their children, on the claim of being a "single parent with children." ... Rather than asking Muslims to take responsibility for their "image problem"...

The Franco-German axis that has driven EU affairs ever since Schuman and Adenauer in the early 1950s is collapsing before our eyes. This was inevitable. Their interests have become incompatible under monetary union. The currency that was supposed to bind them is turning them into enemies, as this newspaper long warned. The latest argument gaining traction – advanced by Prof Bernd Lücke and the German eurosceptic party AfD among others – is that the only way to save the Franco-German relationship and therefore the EU is to break up the euro before it does more damage. Interesting twist. In the...

Here’s how a Typhoon multirole aircraft can hit two targets at the same time with a single targeting pod The recent article about the Typhoon fighter jet performing first laser guided, self designating, simultaneous guided bomb drops sparked some debate. Although other aircraft are known to have similar capabilities, some readers asked how a combat plane could hit two targets at same time with only a single laser designator of the Litening pod. I asked Andrea Kay, Senior Communications Advisor at BAE Systems, one of the companies of the Eurofighter consortium, to shed some light on the matter. Andrea inquired...

Israel's 5th Dolphin submarine unveiled in Germany By YAAKOV LAPPIN 'INS Rahav' set to undertake long-range classified missions, can carry missiles armed with nuclear warheads, foreign sources say. Israel and Germany unveiled the fifth Dolphin-class submarine constructed for the Israel Navy at a ceremony at the German port of Kiel on Monday. The submarine – called the INS Rahav – is the most expensive defense platform ever purchased by Israel. The vessel is set to undertake several long-range classified missions that are critical for Israel’s security. The submarine is viewed by the navy as an important “force multiplier” that will...

Italian protest party leader Beppe Grillo on Tuesday said he wanted a “German invasion” of Italy to ensure “honest, competent” politicians. “In our parliaments, there are still 30 MPs who have been convicted of serious offenses. I’d also like honest, competent and professional people in the right positions,” Grillo, 64, told Bild newspaper. …

One in five Germans would like to see the monarchy restored, according to a survey released on Thursday. Young Germans were even keener on replacing the president with a new Kaiser. … Despite swelling support among the young, most Germans still oppose the idea. 51 percent of all respondents said that having a king or queen would cost too much money. Sixty nine percent said they were completely against the idea. …

With their economy appearing to slow dramatically, if the PMI and Ifo data is anything to go by, and a nation increasingly disavowed with the European project, it seems the 'people' are not amused. As MNI reports, a poll by Forchungsgruppe shows Merkel's CDU/CSU support fading. Critically, with only 40% backing Merkel, and the 'Merkel bloc' down to only 44%, the opposition and more anti-Europe SPD party gained a point and shifted their 'bloc' vote to 48%. Given that the mainstream parties have excluded a coalition with the Left party, such results would allow only coalitions of Merkel's CDU/CSU...

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest, will face legal action in Los Angeles after a US court denied the bank’s bid to dismiss a case claiming it let hundreds of properties fall into disrepair and illegally evicted tenants. … Slamming the bank as a “slumlord,” Los Angeles accused it of illegally evicting low-income tenants to sell houses off at a higher price, letting empty properties fall into disrepair and failing to maintain those being lived in, the website of Der Spiegel magazine reported on Thursday. …

(AFP) Serbia's nationalist President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday personally apologised for the first time for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, but stopped short of calling it genocide.

Greece is planning to pursue a long-dormant claim for reparations from Germany over World War Two, a further strain on relations with Berlin, which foots most of the bill for its 240-billion euro rescue. The Finance Ministry has compiled a report that takes stock of all relating available documents spanning more than six decades, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos told parliament on Wednesday. It will be submitted to Greece's legal advisers and then Athens will decide how to officially press its claim, he said.

Speaker: Nigel Farage MEP, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Co-President of the 'Europe of Freedom and Democracy' (EFD) Group in the European Parliament - Video 3:03

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed on Tuesday to "expel by force" any attempt by China to land on a disputed island chain after eight state-owned Chinese ships sailed into the territorial waters surrounding the archipelago. Japan's prime minister Tuesday vowed to "expel by force" any Chinese landing on islands at the centre of a territorial row, after eight government vessels from China sailed into the disputed waters.The latest clash over the islands came as 168 Japanese lawmakers visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in central Tokyo, seen as a potent symbol of Japan's imperialist past, riling its neighbours China...

Around 400,000 Britons live or own homes in the south of Spain, which is suffering a deep recession that is hampering Madrid’s attempts to balance the public finances and stave off a bail-out. Senior figures in Germany are now arguing that some richer home owners in countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece have so far avoided paying their fair share to rescue the euro, leaving Germany paying too much. Taxes on property or other assets would mark a significant change in Europe’s approach to funding bail-outs for eurozone members. Until now, the cost of rescue packages for countries like Ireland,...

Many Apple fans have dreamed of one day getting the chance to drive a car crafted by people behind the iPhone and the iPad. In fact, according to the New York Times, just before he died, Steve Jobs said he wanted to build an Apple car. Now Volkswagen hasteamed upwith the computermakerto deliver the next best thing until Apple decides to actually make its own. The vehicle is called the iBeetle, and while it doesn't look like a sleek iPhone-on-wheels, it does include a decidedly Apple-centric dashboard. Unveiled at this month's Shanghai Auto Show, the iBeetle features an embedded iPhone...

LUXEMBOURG (AP) -- The European Union on Monday lifted its oil embargo on Syria to provide more economic support to the forces fighting to oust President Bashar Assad's regime. The decision will allow for crude exports from rebel-held territory, the import of oil and gas production technology, and investments in the Syrian oil industry, the EU said in a statement. Any export or investment initiatives will be taken in close coordination with the leaders of the Syrian opposition, the bloc's 27 foreign ministers decided at a meeting in Luxembourg. The move marks the first relaxing of EU sanctions on Syria...

Inquiring minds in the US note the upcoming German election and may be wondering about the platforms of the major political parties. Reader Bernd from Germany explains. Die Linke (The Left): Die Linke is made up of the former SED/PDS (The East German Communist Ruling Party), some former West German Communist and Socialist Parties and a “rebel group� of the SPD. They all have merged and are now called "Die Linke". By and large they have a communist/socialist platform, albeit not Stalinist. Their main requests are: dissolve NATO and replace it with a new organization to include Russia in it,...

Angered by the British media’s coverage of Brussels, the European Commission says it wants to be a “moral compass” against press misconduct, seeking new national and Europe-wide regulatory powers over journalists. The EU has spent £2.3 million on the previously unpublicised “Mediadem” project to “reclaim a free and independent media”. In a “policy brief” co-authored by its lead British researcher, Rachael Craufurd Smith, Mediadem says it is “simplistic” to “see state influence [over the press] as inherently stifling”. Dr Craufurd Smith, an Edinburgh University academic, said that it was also “simplistic” to believe that “market-driven media” were now “free and independent”....

A Tennessee family of devout evangelical Christian asylum-seekers who face deportation to their native Germany has reached a milestone in their quest to remain in the United States, now that their petition on the White House's website collected more than 100,000 signatures in less than 30 days. That's the magic number that the Obama administration says will trigger an official review and a formal response. The total currently stands are more than 111,000. 'Every state in the United States of America recognizes the right to homeschool,' reads the petition filed by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), 'and the...