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A German teenager has been rescued from a Bosnian couple who are accused of starving and beating her for years and of harnessing her to a horse cart and making her pull it.The 19-year-old, kept in a hamlet near the northeastern town of Kalesija since 2004, had been taken to safety and the couple had been detained for investigation, regional prosecutors said on Sunday. Damir Arnautovic, a spokesman for the prosecution in Tuzla, said the woman had been in a bad physical and psychological state and had no papers. She was not named. He said Milenko Marinkovic, 52, and his...

Researchers have identified what they say are the oldest-known musical instruments in the world.The flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, come from a cave in southern Germany which contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans - Homo sapiens. Scientists used carbon dating to show that the flutes were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old. The findings are described in the Journal of Human Evolution. A team led by Prof Tom Higham at Oxford University dated animal bones in the same ground layers as the flutes at Geissenkloesterle Cave in Germany's Swabian Jura. Prof Nick...

The advent of a new administration in Paris has shifted the balance of power in the European Union away from Berlin and German austerity — a development that has been welcomed in Athens as a source of renewed hope and a light at the end of the tunnel for the Greek population. by Giorgos Malouhos With regard to what we have seen in recent years, something changed at yesterday’s extraordinary summit: there were no “guidelines” prepared a few hours in advance by the German chancellor and the French president. François Hollande did not adhere to the “tradition” established by Nicolas...

Supporters of independence for Scotland will launch on Friday what they say is the biggest grassroots campaign in Scottish history, a move that could result in the demise of a 305-year-old union with England and the breakup of Britain. Seeking to tap into a cocktail of historical rivalry, opposing political tastes, and a perception that the British parliament in London does not nurture Scotland's national interests, the "Yes Scotland" campaign says it wants to win a referendum on independence in 2014 and for the country to become fully independent by 2016.

The UK’s double-dip recession is deeper than originally estimated, according to new figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). An updated assessment shows that gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of 2012, revised from last month’s initial estimate for the quarter of 0.2%. ...Although last month some analysts believed that the GDP estimate could be revised upwards, today’s second estimate confirms that the UK is in recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock index futures edged higher Friday, taking a cue from Europe as investor hopes appeared to rise for further stimulus action by the European Central Bank as European officials wrestle with a potential Greek exit from the euro zone. Wall Street saw a late-session reversal Thursday to post a mostly positive close after Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said he expected Greece to remain in the euro zone and that he believed German Chancellor Angela Merkel could be persuaded to accept the introduction of euro bonds.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International, in its annual State of the World Human Rights report, lambasts the UN Security Council for being “tired, out of step and increasingly unfit for purpose.” It highlighted the failure to take stronger action in Syria as evidence that a “sclerotic” council was hamstrung by vested interests. …

This week everyone is talking about the possible Greek exit from the euro and the apparently appealing idea of "why not Spain?". Let's press the reset button and start over. The Greek state, which has more public employees than Spain with four times fewer inhabitants, wasted bailout after bailout and continues delaying reforms, saying that "they'll come, be patient". And now, some demand breaking the agreement-yes-after having accepted the money. One thing is to belong to the European club with its obligations and rights, and another is to demand to participate only for the party and not to collect the...

Europe’s Greek tragedy has now entered its final act, with potentially fateful consequences for the global economy—and for Barack Obama, whose reelection may hinge on the decisions of Germany in the coming weeks. The 2012 election will pivot on the public’s evaluation of the president’s economic stewardship, and a perceptible decline in the U.S. growth rate—which a badly handled Greek exit from the Eurozone would cause—could easily spell the difference between victory and defeat. Obama’s fate, then, may well lie in Angela Merkel’s hands. That doesn’t mean, though, that there’s nothing he can do about it. What are the economic...

Ok; I’ll admit that shipping Obama off to be president of Europe isn’t a very original idea. But still it bears repeating at this critical time because: 1) I don’t like Old Europe very much; 2) Under socialists it just got older; 3) Obama’s work is done here and the Mothership looks like it ran out of “green” fuel on 2008; and 4) Europe’s response to their reckless spending problem happens to be…BEGGING for more reckless spending. And I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see steward Europe’s newest, bestest, reckless stimulus plan than our first King-of-the-World: Barack Hussein Obama....

'First girlfriend': Valerie Trierweiler has been given an official title and her own team of civil servants and security She declared she would not copy the high profile of her predecessor Carla Bruni. But now Valerie Trierweiler has been given an official title and her own team of half-a-dozen civil servants and bodyguards at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Despite not being married to the new president Francois Hollande, she will be known as the The First Lady of France. Ms Trierweiler, 47, a twice-married mother of three, also has her own page on the French presidency’s website. An official...

The Prime Minister said Britain should be able to decide whether its tens of thousands of prisoners vote, rather than a "foreign court". He backed MPs for last year deciding to keep the 140-year-old ban on prisoner voting, even though the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that this must be changed.

The Bank of England should cut interest rates, print more money and ease the regulatory pressure on banks as part of a radical set of measures to return Britain to recovery, the International Monetary Fund has urged. In an unusually alarmist annual assessment of the UK, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said that "growth is too slow and unemployment too high, and policies to bolster demand before low growth becomes entrenched are needed" Warning that weak growth was putting the country at risk of permanently high unemployment, the Bretton Woods institution called for swift and co-ordinated action between the Bank...

The European Commission has said it will soon bring forward plans for an economic and political union it says is necessary for the creation of debt-mutualizing eurobonds—one of the most controversial proposed solutions to the current eurozone crisis. "We need to reflect what kind of European union would be required to deepen economic and political integration, for instance so that joint issuance of debt would make sense for all member states sharing the single currency," economics commissioner Olli Rehn told MEPs on Tuesday (22 May). He said the commission would "soon" come up with a "medium to long term roadmap"...

A statement issued by the European Union on Tuesday seemed to suggest it supports Palestinian Authority Arabs’ rights to throw stones during non-violent protests. The statement, released on Tuesday by the spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, criticized Israel for convicting PA Arab Bassem Tamimi of dispatching stone-throwers and protesting illegally. An Israeli court convicted Tamimi on Sunday, according to an AFP report. The 45-year-old was charged with soliciting stone-throwing based on evidence that he directed such incidents from the roof-tops. He was arrested on March 24, 2011, AFP reported,...

The euro zone isn't the only economy reeling from "failed states." The United States has several of its own — most notably California and Illinois. According to the CIA's world factbook, California's economy is the ninth largest in the world with a gross state product of $1.9 trillion. Illinois' economy is the world's 23rd largest economy with a gross state product of nearly $630 billion. These are impressive figures, to be sure, but both states have seen their global position slip in recent years — and further erosion is likely thanks to poor fiscal stewardship and anti-competitive tax increases. Both...

Euro-zone Politicians Polishing The Brass On The Titanic Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis May 22, 2012 - 06:09 AM By: Graham Summers France and other, weaker EU members have begun pushing for “growth.” This in of itself reveals how clueless the political elite in the EU are (economic growth in Europe is synonymous with living beyond one’s means and/or living off of others… the very policies that have lead to the EU Crisis). Indeed, this shift from focusing on austerity to growth is really just a switch from one side of a coin to the other… without actually addressing the...

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, said Britain had done well with its programme to cut its budget deficit so far but "unfortunately economic recovery has not taken hold". The global financial watchdog concluded that measures to boost economic growth by raising spending on infrastructure have only been "modest" so far. In its report on the health of the UK economy, the IMF said the Bank of England could consider cutting interest rates even further, helping small businesses get loans and doing more "monetary easing" - effectively money printing.

Campaigning for France's parliamentary elections officially begins Monday in what is expected to be a fierce battle between left and right. Without a majority in the lower house, President Hollande will struggle to deliver on his campaign promises. The battle to take control of France’s National Assembly begins in earnest on Monday when the four week campaign period is officially launched. The Socialist Party is hoping to follow up the presidential triumph of François Hollande by gaining a majority in France’s lower house when the elections take place over two rounds on June 10 and 17. Although poll numbers look...

THE REGION TO BE INVESTIGATED FOR TAX REIMBURSEMENTS Navarra in €1.7bn tax inquiry The Spanish tax authorities are stunned, and they have every reason to be so. A discovery of a tax maneuver involving Volkswagen’s car production in the small region of Navarra in northern Spain, has disclosed that the region is indirectly funded by the central government in Madrid through tax returns that add up to 10 percent of the region’s yearly budget.

Israel denied Monday reports in the Turkish press that it planned to deploy thousands of troops in Cyprus to protect oil and gas interests in the sensitive region... Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted a Greek Cypriot official saying that Israel planned to send 20,000 troops to the Greek part of the divided island to protect 30,000 Israelis to be employed in nascent joint oil and gas projects. Turkey on Friday threatened reprisals against companies bidding for oil and gas drilling projects off Cyprus, in the latest spat between Ankara and the island's internationally recognised government... Turkey's warning came after the...

Every once in a while we come across a story that is really outrageous. Some or outrageous because they are inaccurate. Others are outrageous because they are simply offensive. Today we bring to you an article from John King, an attorney with one of Ireland’s most prominent law firms, in which he makes the case that the financial crisis that occurred in the West, the US housing market in particular, would never have happened if the US markets were Shariah-compliant.

Italian police have arrested two suspects over the bombing of a school that killed a 16-year-old girl and seriously injured five more teenagers, media reports said yesterday. The men were identified from security cameras at the vocational school in the southern city of Brindisi, where the bomb ripped through a group of students as they waited to begin classes early Saturday. One of the suspects is an ex-soldier with knowledge of electronics, the daily Corriere della Sera reported, citing local news website Brindisireport. Melissa Bassi died from her injuries in hospital, an only child from a working-class family who was...

A weekend summit of G8 leaders hosted by US President Barack Obama stressed the need for the eurozone to focus on keeping Greece inside the euro—although plans are reportedly being drafted to deal with its potential exit. "Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs.The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist," leaders from the US, Japan, Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia, as well as the heads of the EU commission and the European Council, said in their final statement on Saturday (19 May). The informal meeting at Obama's retreat in Maryland was...

The European Union needs to become more integrated with a common finance policy and a central government, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Wednesday (16 May). "I would be for the further development of the European Commission into a government. I am for the election of a European president, he said at an event in Aachen, reports Reuters. "I am in favor of being more courageous on Europe," said Schäuble, who is one of the German government's most pro-European ministers. He said this is a long-term response to the current eurozone crisis, which many have said has been exacerbated by...

Europe was plunged into fresh economic chaos last night as France rejected austerity and elected a tax-and-spend socialist president. Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Francois Hollande, who ran on a platform of tearing up last December’s controversial deal to save the euro from oblivion. The inexperienced Mr Hollande is now seeking talks with the European Central Bank and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to demand further borrowing to boost growth. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140427/Francois-Hollande-victory-French-presidential-election-spell-disaster-Euro.html#ixzz1u8xkQvsA

Ahead of Saturday's Champions League final and with Euro 2012 just around the corner, animals of all shapes and sizes are queuing up to succeed Paul the Octopus, the famous clairvoyant cephalopod from the 2010 World Cup. Paul, an octopus who lived at an aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen, rose to fame during the last World Cup for correctly 'predicting' the outcome of eight consecutive matches at the tournament. The tentacled soothsayer, who picked winners by selecting food from boxes decorated with teams' national flags, passed away after the tournament, but there are now plenty of animals bidding...

Can the U.S. lead the world back to prosperity? The global economy is lurching toward the cliff. Twice before over the last 75 years Washington took the necessary action, and after November, with a new President and Congress, there will be the opportunity—and imperative—to do so again. The 1970s were a decade of economic turmoil and stagnation. The 1930s were worse. And now the world is headed to the brink again. ~snip~ The destruction of Bretton Woods in early 1970s led to a horrific, inflation-wracked decade. The U.S. experienced a stagnant economy and rising inflation and was seen as a...

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, wrapping up the G8 summit he hosted at Camp David, welcomed Europe's focus on rekindling growth and warned the crisis in the euro zone was dangerous for the world. Obama, whose re-election chances in November depend heavily on the U.S. economy continuing to shake off recession, said there was now "an emerging consensus" that Europe ought to invest in job-creating infrastructure and other programs at the same time as it tackles its deficits and debt.

Real estate agents have been aware of a new wave of interest for months, but it's been especially noticeable since Feb. 28. The night before, the then Socialist candidate for French president, François Hollande, who famously said "I don't like the rich," announced that, if elected, he would raise the top rate of tax on incomes over €1 million to 75 percent. At home, he got much applause for the announcement. But in London, the news produced a reaction that was noticeable on the computers of the London-based property company Knight Frank. "Since February, when Hollande announced his wealth tax,...

Reports began trickling in earlier this week that savers in Greece were withdrawing hundreds of millions of euros from their bank accounts—the German news agency DPA reported that almost €900 million was withdrawn just on Monday alone. Since then Europe has been seized by the fear of a worst-case scenario in Greek's banking system: a so-called bank run, as customers who have lost confidence in their banks rush to take out their savings. Such a run would be the final stage in the loss of confidence in the banks. For months now, wealthy individuals in crisis-hit countries have already been...

With the planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline in southern Europe hitting snag after snag, Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is considering the construction of a second Baltic Sea pipeline to go with the just-finished Nord Stream. With unconventional natural gas from the US flooding the market, however, the strategy is not without risk. … Indeed, it is beginning to look as though the erstwhile competition between the two pipelines has been overwhelmingly won by Nord Stream. (Gerhardt) Schröder's team has just decided to expand the Baltic Sea pipeline's capacity. The owners, Gazprom, E.on-Ruhrgas, Wintershall, Gaz de France and the Dutch...

… By the end of 2014, at the latest, almost all international troops are to be withdrawn from the country in the Hindu Kush mountains, at least according to plans by nations present in the country going into the NATO summit in Chicago that begins on May 20. NATO leaders are hoping that the Afghan security forces can take over full responsibility for their country by then. The German government likes to call this plan the "responsible handover." But if that happens, then (Muhammad) Shah* and his colleagues will have to fear for their lives. "The Taliban knows exactly who...

A Northern Jutland daughter was stunned but had to accept a decision by a Lutheran vicar in North Jutland, who refused to bury her 74-year-old mother because she had lived in a lesbian relationship. “I thought – can this really be possible that we have to be ashamed? I looked at my mother’s partner and she was silent. I was upset for her. What a terrible situation to put her in,” Kirsten Østergaard told DR1. The mother’s partner was 80 years old and the couple had lived in a registered partnership for some 20 years. The Aalborg diocese vicar has...

Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal is calling for a produce labelling system for all produce emanating from Israeli settlements which are, as he says ‘illegal under international law’. “This is a move that will clearly show consumers that this produce has been produced under conditions that not only the Danish government, but also the European governments have rejected. Then it is up to consumers whether they are prepared to buy the produce,” Søvndal says. In practice, the labelling system will be an option for supermarkets that will be able to choose whether to introduce it or not – rather like the...

WikiLeaks: The sleazy criminal organization dedicated to publishing U.S. secrets may loudly deny its leaks led to the hanging of a man in Iran Tuesday. But that's irrelevant because WikiLeaks gave Tehran the pretext it sought. A 24-year old Iranian man was the latest victim of the mullahs' monstrous tyranny this week, executed as a spy for Israel, supposedly for killing an Iranian nuclear scientist on behalf of his Zionist masters. That's a whiff of the twisted kangaroo court verdicts typical of Iran. In reality, Majid Jamali Fashi was a young kick-boxing instructor who visited Baku, Azerbaijan, for a tournament...

European Union Committee for Foreign Affairs chairman Dr. Fiorello Provera said this week that the EU was obligated to intervene on behalf of Muhammad Abu Shahala. Abu Shahala was sentenced to death by a Palestinian Authority court for selling the Beit HaMachpela (House of the Patriarchs) to Jewish families in Hevron. "Abu Shahala's conviction has no justification, and therefore the European Union will intervene to save his life," Provera wrote in response to a plea by Hevron's Jewish community asking the EU intervene on Abu Shahala's behalf. "It is inconceivable that a man who sells his house will be convicted...

To reach its strict climate targets and fulfill Chancellor Angela Merkel's nuclear exit plans, Germany needs to avoid coal and build a stack of gas power plants to secure clean energy supplies beyond 2020. Yet the challenge facing Merkel's new environment minister Peter Altmaier, his predecessor fired this week following a disastrous state election defeat, is finding a way to make gas an attractive option while coal remains the more profitable way to produce electricity for Europe's biggest economy. "At current prices, you create a future that is comprised of renewables and lignite (coal) power generation," Klaus Schaefer, CEO of...

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the German baritone whose beautiful voice and mastery of technique made him the 20th century’s pre-eminent interpreter of art songs, died on Friday at his home in Bavaria. He was 86.

For years now, Greeks have been bombarded with warnings about the dire consequences of leaving the euro, and never more so than since the recent, indecisive election that left the country saddled with a caretaker government. But those pronouncements seem to be falling on increasingly deaf ears, and for one simple reason, as one woman explained as she stood in central Syntagma Square: “We have nothing to lose,” she said. “We have no fear.”

The head of Greece's radical left party—throwing down a gauntlet that could increase tensions between Greece and its frustrated European creditors—said he sees little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country but that if it does, Athens will stop paying its debts. A financial collapse in Greece would drag down the rest of the euro zone, said Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, and potentially the country's next prime minister. Instead, he said, Europe must consider a more growth-oriented policy to arrest Greece's spiraling recession and address what he

Conservation groups have condemned a move by European agricultural ministers to tone down some of the most controversial environmental proposals in the next phase of the EU's farm support program. Agricultural and fisheries ministers from the 27 EU countries called yesterday (15 May) for replacing conservation measures recommended by the European Commission with a more flexible system. The decision was not a surprise—ministers have indicated in the past that there was little political appetite for creating requirements in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that tie direct payments to farmers to measures aimed at cutting carbon emissions and reducing other pollutants....

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she welcomes the new French president, Francoise Hollande, and is looking forward to working with him. In an interview with USA Today, Clinton said even though Hollande, who is a socialist, will have very different policies from conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, she believes the strong relationship between France and the United States will continue. "Different voices may be louder on growth than they have been, but the overall approach of how we support Europe's recovery hasn't changed," Clinton told USA TODAY. "It's been our view that there needed to be some adjustments...

The newly elected French Socialist president, Francois Hollande, is warning Germany that Mediterranean ideas of "growth," not Germanic "austerity," should be the new European creed. No surprise there -- reckless debtors often blame their own past imprudence on greedy creditors, especially if the latter are supposed to be guilt-ridden over causing two world wars. All over Europe, the gospel is that tight-fisted Germans are at the root of the European Union meltdown: They worked too hard, saved too much, bought too little and borrowed not at all. All that may be true, in theory. But, in fact, faulting thrift...

ATLAS ELEKTRONIK sets new range record for Torpedoes, reaching more than 140 Km ATLAS ELEKTRONIK has increased the reach of its torpedoes substantially, setting a new range record for torpedoes. At a test-firing in March 2012, the heavyweight torpedo SeaHake® mod4 ER (Extended Range) achieved a range of over 140 kilometres. SeaHake® mod 4 is the latest advancement of the DM 2 A4 heavyweight torpedo, which is in service with the German Navy as well as the navies of Turkey, Pakistan and Spain. By fully exploiting the system’s unique propulsion and battery technology, it became possible to surpass the maximum...

Prime Minister David Cameron will promise on Thursday to do whatever is needed to protect Britain's economy and banks from a breakup of the eurozone, and will urge leaders of the single currency bloc to "sort out its problems". Cameron's remarks, in a speech to business leaders in northwest England, are likely to irritate European leaders trying to keep the eurozone intact as Greece prepares for a new election and struggles to cope with its debt crisis. Britain's Conservative-led coalition has long blamed its own economic woes on the turbulence in Europe, its main trading partner, though critics say Cameron's...

A tsunami of capital flight from Greece threatens to overwhelm the authorities, forcing the country out of the euro before fresh elections in June. Economists warned that the Greek financial system could crumble within weeks or days unless the European Central Bank steps up support. President Karolos Papoulias told party leaders that banks had lost €700m in withdrawals on Monday alone as citizens rush to pre-empt capital controls and a much-feared return to the Drachma. He cited central bank warnings that "great fear" might soon escalate to panic. The leaked details lend credence to claims that capital flight by both...

Would anybody accept similar attacks and aggressiveness from the Right or Left wing protesters? These groups are also constantly provoked. Soccer fans, too. There are plenty of football fans who have an almost religious respect for their club. But Muslims are always forgiven for their violence.

The European Central Bank has stopped providing liquidity to some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalized, the ECB said on Wednesday, confirming news earlier reported exclusively by Reuters. The news sent the euro lower against the dollar, fanning concerns among investors and in Greece that the country may have to leave the euro zone. The development highlights the weak state of the banking sector in Greece, where Greeks are pulling euros out of the banks in fear that their country may exit the European single currency despite the declared determination of EU powers Germany and France to...

The country's economy is in a meltdown, raising fears that Greece will exit the Euro Zone completely and default on its huge pile of debt. Political leaders in Athens were due to discuss an emergency government Wednesday to deal with a possible run on banks as it emerged Greeks withdrew almost $900 million in a single day, fearing their country could crash out of the euro currency by the end of the week. An interim government would take the country through to new elections on June 17, triggered by the collapse on Tuesday of talks to form a coalition between...