Free Republic

And who wants Global Warming when you can face avalanches, deep snow, and record cold?How much fun can you have with 2 meters of snow on your house, and none of that evil coal powered electricity?What’s happening in Europe and Russia over the last two weeks is not just your average cold-snap. Temperatures reached -28C in Moscow. One point in Russia hit -52.8C (-68F) on Monday. MOSCOW — Some 215 Russians have died this year in a prolonged period of abnormally cold winter weather, the health ministry said Monday as the overall death toll for Europe rose to well over...

The Troika went to bail out Europe's banks (for the nth time) and all we got was this postcard of night time Athens...

Legislation will allow country to cut debt; protesters set fire to 34 buildings; deputies expelled for opposing vote The Greek parliament approved on Monday a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid a messy default. The vote occurred after 100,000 demonstrators marched to the parliament and buildings were burned down in central Athens. Following the vote, black-masked protesters created a wall of fire with petrol bombs and set fire to cinemas, cafes, shops and banks. Fifty police officers and at least 55 protesters were hospitalized. Forty-five suspected rioters...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the public rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal. As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuters photographer saw the buildings engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky. The air over Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths...

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Police turned tear gas and stun grenades on protesters outside Greece's parliament Sunday as lawmakers inside debated another round of austerity measures. Riot police dispersed many of the demonstrators, who were protesting plans for new cuts in government spending, wages and pensions in return for a new eurozone bailout of the debt-stricken country. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has urged approval of the deal, warning in a speech to the Cabinet Saturday evening of "social explosion, chaos" if it fails. "The state will not be able to pay salaries and pensions or import basic goods" such as...

Thousands of cows, sheep and goats have been infected with a flu-like virus across Germany, with the number of infected herds increasing sharply over the weekend. According to a report in Bild newspaper, the number of herds infected with the “Schmallenberg virus” has jumped from 34 to 314 since Friday, and more and more farms are reporting premature births and deformed baby animals since the virus hit. Eight cow herds, 12 goat herds and as many as 294 sheep herds have been affected by the virus so far, mostly in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, but individual cases have...

One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?” Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion....

The Russian-Orthodox Church canonised one of the founders of the anti-fascist group the "White Rose," Alexander Schmorell, over the weekend in Munich, nearly 70 years after his execution by the Nazis. Schmorell, who was born in Russia, was celebrated as a new martyr in the church during a special service in the Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Munich on Saturday. He was 25 at the time of his death. The White Rose, or Weiße Rose, was founded by a group of Munich students and their philosophy professor Kurt Huber, all of whom actively voiced...

The half-century habits of Franco-German condominium die hard. It is a painful process for French elites to admit that monetary union is asphyxiating their economy and must inevitably trap France in mercantilist subordination to Germany. The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with “silken cords”. How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning...

J’lem and Berlin sign contract for sixth submarine By YAAKOV KATZ 02/05/2012 02:38 Exclusive: German defense official dismisses reports that Merkel considered canceling deal in response to Gilo construction. Israel and Germany signed a contract a few weeks ago finalizing the sale of a sixth Dolphinclass submarine to the Israel Navy, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The Defense Ministry initiated talks with Germany last year about buying a sixth submarine but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government initially balked when Israel asked that it underwrite part of the cost. In late November, though, Germany announced that it had approved the deal and...

In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League on Saturday night called on Arab countries to shut down their embassies and consulates in Syria, and remove Syrian ambassadors from their countries. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that Washington was "disgusted" by the vetoes. The vetoes followed a particularly bloody night...

Freezing weather has hit transport hubs across Europe, closing airports, blocking roads and halting trains.London's Heathrow cancelled 30% of Sunday's flights, and dozens of flights were delayed at Amsterdam's Schiphol.Transport hubs in Central and Eastern Europe have been forced to close amid the biggest freeze in decades, which has claimed more than 200 lives. Bosnian officials have declared a state of emergency in Sarajevo, where snow has paralysed the city.In Serbia, a state of emergency is in place across much of the country.Thousands of people are said to be trapped in their homes across both countries, and many travellers have...

Animal sex abuse is on the rise in Germany, with bestiality brothels being set up across the country, according to a state animal protection officer demanding stronger laws to protect mankind's furry and feathered friends. Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government, said the law needed to be changed to make sex abuse of animals – known as zoophilia – a crime. “It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not,” she told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily paper on Friday. “There are even animal brothels in Germany,” she said. Sex with animals was...

A German pensioner who had kept a tub of lard in his cupboard for 64 years, took it to authorities who pronounced it very much fit for consumption -- if a little tasteless. Retired chemist Hans Feldmeier, 87, told AFP he had received the pig fat as a student in 1948 near the northern city of Rostock as part of the post-war US aid programme.

SNIPPET: "But the solicitor helped to nab a major international dealer to the Iranian missile programme since he came to the job two years ago. He said: "One of our first cases started with a suspected heroin trafficker, so the National Drugs Enforcement Agency got this information that this guy Dugash was heading out to Kenya to buy heroin and they met him at the airport and seized his cash, which was something in the order of $10,000 which was a huge sum for this jurisdiction. "As part of the explanation he said it was cash belonging to himself and...

In Athens, the war of nerves over the debt haircut is nearing a finale. The negotiations between private creditors and the government, however, are taking some dangerous stumbles. Before Greece gets €130 billion in aid, it must show some success with its reforms. And that, with all the good will in the world, cannot be achieved. Every day we see the same images. Men and women in suits and with serious expressions step briskly up to a revolving door, wind their way into an unfamiliar building and disappear into the darkness. The scenes are playing out in Athens, and they...

A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka - scuppering the claims of Holocaust deniers who say it was merely a transit camp. Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War but a lack of physical evidence in the area has been exploited by Holocaust deniers. Forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has now undertaken the first co-ordinated scientific attempt to locate the graves.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has signalled that Greece will have to give up autonomy over its budget if it is to receive the full backing of the international community for its second €130bn (£109bn) bail-out. With the country on the brink of a default, Christine Lagarde, the director general of the IMF, said that a new "fiscal compact" was set to be signed by European Union members at the vital leaders' summit on Monday that would centralise budgetary powers. Greece is under increasing pressure to give up control of its budget. A document released over the weekend revealed German...

BERLIN, January 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Berlin’s “Topography of Terror,” museum, which features exhibits on the murderous crimes of German police forces during the Nazi era, has begun a temporary display on the thousands of children euthanized during the same period as “life unworthy of life.” The exhibition, entitled “In memory of the children. Pediatricians and crimes against children in the Nazi period,” displays photos and documents related to various Nazi projects concerning the murder and torture of children, such as Action T4 and Lebensborn. While Action T4 focused on exterminating children who were physically or mentally handicapped, Lebensborn...

'Far-right' Vienna ball condemned on Holocaust Day Protesters voiced their outrage over the timing of the ball Continue reading the main story Related Stories Hitler's hometown revokes honour Vienna to honour WWII deserters Austria still haunted by Nazi past Protesters in Austria marking Holocaust Remembrance Day have condemned organisers of a ball which was expected to be attended by far-right leaders. Greens' Party head Eva Glavischnig said guests at Vienna's WKR event would be "dancing on the graves of Auschwitz" - a reference to the Nazi death camp. But the organisers rejected the accusations, saying the ball was always held...

AN alarming number of under-age girls – some as young as nine – are being forced into marriage in Islington, according to a leading campaign group. The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) claim that at least 30 girls in the borough were forced into marriage in 2010. The practice was condemned by the Imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, who said such marriages were against Islam and “unacceptable”. He pledged to invalidate any marriage which he said were carried out by “back-street Imams”. IKWRO, which made headlines last month when they revealed there had been almost 3,000 “honour-based” violence...

Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday. "There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that's enough," the source said. The source added that under the proposals European institutions already operating in Greece should be given "certain decision-making powers" over fiscal policy.

Duqu, Stuxnet malware developed by same groupPosted on 20 Jan 2012 at 2:29pm The infamous Trojan software Duqu and Stuxnet were developed by only one group of malware developers, according to Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab. In fact, Kaspersky said the malware development team could already have developed other malwares using the same platform that was flexibly adaptable to specific targets. Kaspersky released a report stating that Duqu and Stuxnet, as well as a number of malware discovered in 2011 were using a development platform called “Tilded,” citing the use of the tilde symbol (“~”) in many of these malware....

'The young airman was desperate to be back with his family and friends at the end of the war. He had done his bit to see off Hitler and make the world a safer place. His one wish now was to be home with ‘my people’. But, instead of a hero’s welcome, what Irishman Martin Walsh feared was being arrested and locked up. ‘Sir,’ he wrote plaintively from England to the authorities in Dublin in 1946, ‘I wish to return as a free Irish citizen once more, without detention or punishment. I would like to have my freedom in Eire...

'Ireland has admitted for the first time that its 'morally bankrupt' regime of the 1930s denied visas to desperate Jews trying to escape from Nazi persecution. Justice Minister Alan Shatter said that, following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Ireland's anti-semitic Berlin ambassador Charles Bewley ensured 'the doors to this state were kept firmly closed to German Jewish families trying to flee'. The admission came as he apologised for the way brave soldiers who 'deserted' the Irish Army to fight with the Allies during the Second World War were treated. He suggested the 4,983 servicemen, who were barred from jobs and...

If Canada’s “green” media — especially in the Parliamentary Press Gallery — demanded the same standards of accountability of themselves as they do of politicians, they would be killing entire forests right now apologizing to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Why? Because in sidestepping the economically suicidal stampede onto the green energy bandwagon which they relentlessly shilled for, Harper was right and they — along with the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Greens — were wrong. Today, so-called “green” energy is in retreat all over the developed world, as taxpayers and consumers in countries that blindly raced into it are in open...

What on Earth does the Jewish community in Germany make of the flurry of headlines this week that described substantial anti-Semitism, and how have they reacted to plans to publish extracts from Mein Kampf? Here, they live in the land that produced the Holocaust, and a rigorous academic study indicates that one in five Germans has at least a "latent" antipathy towards Jews. Separately, a British publisher planned to put extracts from Hitler's manifesto on news stands and only held back as a court in Bavaria got involved. You would expect loud and righteous outrage - but you would be...

BRUSSELS—A six-point plan drafted by France and Germany has suggested corporate tax "coordination," an EU financial transactions tax and the redeployment of EU funds in troubled countries as ways to spur growth and jobs. Following Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of nine euro-countries, including France, in which the ratings agency warned that austerity and budget cuts are not the way out of recession, Paris and Berlin have teamed up once more and drafted a six-page paper called "Ways out of the crisis—strengthen growth now!" The paper—seen by EUobserver—is supposed to be discussed at the EU summits on 30 January and...

TWO weeks ago, dozens of cars were set alight in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand after a 30-year-old truck driver, Wissam El-Yamni, was roughed up and then died while in police custody. The uproar underscored the hostility of young minority men toward authority across communities in Europe, an antipathy that has at times led to deadly violence. The failure of Islamic integration in Europe is often attributed — especially by right-wing parties — to an excess of tolerance toward the large-scale Muslim immigration that began in the mid-1970s. By recognizing Muslim religious requirements, the argument goes, countries like France, Britain...

BERLIN - The German government released on Monday the findings of a two year inquiry into modern anti-Semitism in the Federal Republic, showing that latent anti-Semitism affects one of every five Germans. The 202 page study, entitled "Anti-Semitism in Germany," covered a wide spectrum of German anti-Semitism, including hatred of the Jewish state as a manifestations of anti-Semitism within the Left movement and Islamic-animated loathing of Israel and Jews, especially from Iran's regime and the Turkish media. Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a member of the ten member commission, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, that the "experts came to the conclusion...

Al Qaida 'planned to take German hostages' Published: 22 Jan 12 14:15 CET Share8 Documents seized in May linked to al Qaida leaders indicate that the terrorist organisation was aiming to take hostages in Germany and other Western countries as part of a "war of attrition," according to a newspaper report. •Cathedral usher caught stealing cash donations (23 Jan 12) •German 'spies' detained in Pakistan (23 Jan 12) •Megaupload founder had 'lavish' lifestyle (23 Jan 12) In an article published on Sunday, German daily Tagesspiegel said security sources traced the papers to al Qaida leaders on the border of Pakistan...

Every summer, Volkmar and Vera Kruger spend three weeks vacationing in the south of France or at a cool getaway in Denmark. For the other three weeks of their annual vacation, they garden or travel a few hours away to root for their favorite team in Germany's biggest soccer stadium. The couple, in their early 50s, aren't retired or well off. They live in a small Tudor-style house in this middle-class town about 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. He's a foreman at a glass factory; she works part time for a company that tracks inventories for retailers. Their combined income...

The Rheine district court sentenced 21-year-old Ahmad Sherzai to prison for two years and nine months for interruption of a pregnancy in an especially severe case according to German Penal Code § 218 StGB. The chamber exceeded the request of the district attorney who had asked for two years and six months incarceration. Sherzai had boxed his erstwhile girlfriend forcefully in the belly, according to the belief of the court, because he disapproved of treatment by a male gynecologist. The unborn child of the pregnant mother in the seventh month suffered massive cranial hemorrhages from this and died two days...

While Germany appeared to offer Britain alternative proposals to the controversial Europe-wide levy on financial transactions today, a draft Franco-German paper, seen by The Daily Telegraph, reveals that the financial transaction tax is seen in Berlin and Paris as the first step to giving the EU a new power to "coordinate" taxation. The text also links existing European Commission proposals on energy taxation and a common method for calculating corporate tax to the push for new EU powers, heralding a major battle over sovereignty this spring. "European institutions and member states should accelerate the process of tax co-ordination," the Franco-German...

The mainstream media will spend ten days losing their ever-loving minds blaming a Sarah Palin campaign map a killer never saw for that killer’s actions, but this news about a confessed terrorist admitting that a clip from Brian De Palma’s “Redacted” “prompted” him to murder two American airmen gets buried at the bottom of a Salt Lake City newspaper article: [Arid] Uka gave a teary confession as his Frankfurt state court trial opened in August, saying that the night before the attack he had seen a video on Facebook that purported to show American soldiers raping a teenage Muslim girl....

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Researchers at I.B.M. have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms, pushing the boundaries of the magnetic storage of information to the edge of what is possible. The findings, being reported Thursday in the journal Science, could help lead to a new class of nanomaterials for a generation of memory chips and disk drives that will not only have greater capabilities than the current silicon-based computers but will consume significantly less power. And they may offer a new direction for research in quantum computing. “Magnetic materials are extremely useful...

<p>BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is honoring two Americans for helping apprehend an Islamic extremist who attacked a U.S. Air Force bus last year and killed two airmen.</p> <p>Friedrich was to present the Federal Cross of Merit on Monday to Staff Sgt. Trevor Brewer and a civilian airport employee, both of whom chased the suspect after the March 2nd shooting, helping police arrest him at the scene.</p>

While it will hardly come as a surprise to many that after making it abundantly clear that Germany is in total disagreement with ECB monetary policies, culminating in the departure of Jurgen Stark from the European central printing authority, Germany will not permit irresponsible, Bernanke-esque monetary policies, it probably should be noted that even following the most recent escalation of adverse developments in Europe, which are now on the verge of unwinding the entire Eurozone and with it the affiliated fake currency, that the German central bank just said that any European QE could only come over its dead body....

As Greece and its lenders prepare for another week of tense negotiations, European officials now say that the task is less to help the country through its troubles than to avoid the sort of uncontrolled default that many experts fear could threaten the global financial system. Officials from the so-called troika of foreign lenders to Greece — the European Central Bank, European Union and International Monetary Fund — have come to believe that the country has neither the ability nor the will to carry out the broad economic reforms it has promised in exchange for aid, people familiar with the...

(BERLIN) - Germany's government Monday categorically ruled out any hike in bailout fund guarantees following the ratings downgrade of nine countries by Standard and Poor's. "The guarantees for the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) are largely enough for what it has to do in the coming months," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Deutschlandfunk public radio. He said the EFSF had already had to pay higher rates to borrow on the markets in the past, meaning "that it does not therefore only depend on the rating". Germany, Europe's top economy, is already the EFSF's main guarantor, which began with 440...

Global markets are set for a rocky day of trading after German leader Angela Merkel warned that it could take many months to rebuild confidence in the eurozone and schisms over financing the bloc's bail-out fund re-emerged. The German chancellor warned that Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade nine eurozone countries on Friday evening demonstrated that politicians needed to step up their efforts to resolve the crisis, warning that it was a "longer process" that would take more than a few months. "The decision confirms my conviction that we have a long way ahead of us before investor confidence returns,"...

German authorities have officially confirmed that they are monitoring German-language Internet websites that are critical of Muslim immigration and the Islamization of Europe. According to Manfred Murck, director of the Hamburg branch of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), his organization is studying whether German citizens who criticize Muslims and Islam on the Internet are fomenting hate and are thus criminally guilty of "breaching" the German constitution. The BfV's move marks a significant setback for the exercise of free speech in Germany and comes amid a months-long smear campaign led by a triple alliance of leftwing...

Viva la gaffe... Mercedes-Benz apologises for using image of Che Guevara to promote 'revolutionary' car sharing programme (Viva la revolucion: Mercedes Benz used an iconic image of Marxist revolutionary leader Che Guevara to promote a new ride-share initiative) Che Guevara, the famous Argentinian-born revolutionary and military theorist, wore many hats – including that of physician, author, and guerrilla leader. But he almost certainly never wore one with a Mercedes-Benz logo. The high-end car company, known for its impeccable - and pricey - motor vehicles, used the late leader to promote a new car-sharing program, much to the horror of Cuban...

FRANKFURT—Germany paid a negative yield to investors at a debt auction for the first time in its history Monday, underscoring the haven appeal of German debt as the European debt crisis continues. In contrast, yields on French Treasury bills climbed from the previous sale, indicating that investors have more unease over French debt, with concerns rising that the euro zone's second-largest economy may soon lose its cherished triple-A rating. Germany joins Switzerland and the Netherlands in having negative yields at auctions. The pile of assets deemed to be safe is shrinking and investors are so nervous about the potential loss...

It is amusing to see how other writers portray a story vs. what I would say about the same data. For example, Bloomberg columnist Rainer Buergin reports German Factory Orders Declined Most in Almost Three Years. Please consider Buergin's interpretation of the story vs. mine. Both follow.

German unemployment fell to its lowest rate in December since 1991, according to the German Federal Labour Agency. The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said.

The Daily Mail stirs up some Euro anxiety with a headline today "Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London about to erupt?" The story talks about the little known Laacher See volcano in northwestern Germany. It last erupted about 12,000 years ago and the Daily Mail believes it is due to erupt again. It is not considered extinct, merely inactive. An eruption of the Laacher See volcano would destroy much of Europe as we know it. London is 390 miles away. The German capital of Bonn is about 25 miles away. The potential eruption of the Laacher See volcano...

Strong exports of German cars are helping drive employment figures The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said. This marked a new record low since figures for unified Germany were first published. The seasonally-adjusted total for the number of people out of work in Germany fell 22,000 to 2.88 million in December. The agency said the number of people out of work averaged 2.976 million over the course of last year. News of the figures saw the German Dax stock exchange rise almost 1% by noon on Tuesday. This was equal to...

Germany’s national railway has hired a strategic communications and outreach firm to lobby Congress on legislation that could clear the way for lawsuits from Holocaust survivors. Strategy XXI Group will work for Deutsche Bahn AG, a railway company “wholly owned by the German government,” on the Holocaust Rail Justice Act, according to Justice Department records. The railway will pay $45,000 over the three-month span of the contract. The firm has been hired to“[f]acilitate meetings and conversations with members of Congress and staff related to legislation that may affect principal. This relates to H.R. 1193 and S. 634,” the registration states....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A State Department official says a German man was identified as a suspect in the Los Angeles arson spree because his mother was the subject of a provisional arrest request by Germany. Speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing, the official told The Associated Press Tuesday that authorities learned about Harry Burkhart while working on the mother's case and recognized him in security video of the arson suspect. "When they saw the security footage, they recognized him and they contacted the arson task force," the official said. The official said the footage was...