Free Republic

In June 1495, the Italian historian Niccolo Squillaci wrote a letter describing a horrific disease that was sweeping through Europe. “There are itching sensations, and an unpleasant pain in the joints; there is a rapidly increasing fever,” he wrote. “The skin is inflamed with revolting scabs and is completely covered with swellings and tubercules, which are initially of a livid red color, and then become blacker.” And, tellingly, “It most often begins with the private parts.”

Reining in illegal Arab construction is simply "not a top priority" for the government, according to a statement the state conveyed to the Supreme Court. The state was responding to demands that it carry out demolition orders issued against an illegally built Arab school just outside of Jerusalem. The school's construction was funded by the European Union. The Supreme Court subsequently dismissed the case on Wednesday, rejecting claims by Regavim, an NGO which monitors illegal construction in the Arab sector, that the state is intentionally avoiding enforcement of building laws. ...

Sicily may be part of Italy, but so much of its history, culture, and cuisine are entirely unique from the rest of the country. Treat yourself with a visit to Sicily and your taste buds will be thanking you for the Mediterranean-Adriatic flavor combination found nowhere else in the world. Arancine Translating literally to 'little orange,' arancine are a culinary win all around. They're none too complicated, simply rice balls coated in breadcrumbs and fried, sometimes with a little butter or bolognese thrown into the mix. Heat one of these babies up and bada bing bada boom, you've got yourself...

Kuwait and Italy will finalize a multibillion-euro deal next week for the Gulf state to purchase Eurofighter jets, Kuwait's defense minister has said. Sheikh Khaled Jarrah Al-Sabah did not specify the number of planes involved in the deal but the Eurofighter consortium said in September that Kuwait had agreed to buy 28 fighter jets. 'Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti will visit Kuwait next week to sign the Eurofighter warplanes deal,' Al-Sabah was quoted as saying by the official KUNA news agency

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi rejected on Friday the Roman Catholic Church's interference in a parliamentary debate on legislation that offers homosexual couples legal recognition and limited adoption rights. Renzi spoke a day after the head of the Italian bishops' conference, Angelo Bagnasco, urged the upper house Senate to allow secret balloting when it votes on the bill, arguing this would allow lawmakers to follow their conscience. Italy is the only major Western country that has not yet recognized gay civil unions. "Parliament decides whether or not to allow secret votes......not the head of the bishops' conference," Renzi said during...

According to one source, Clooney loves his estate and the area, but he has received a huge offer for the villa, which he is considering, and "he would buy another, less accessible property in another area of Italy." George Clooney, and his wife Amal, met in private with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday and praised her leadership during the migrant crisis, as rumors circulate that the American actor may sell his luxurious Lake Como property because it isn't isolated enough. Clooney, who was accompanied to the Merkel meeting by former UK foreign secretary David Miliband, told reporters that he...

Japan's Asahi Group Holdings has offered €3.1 billion for two top European lager brands from British giant SABMiller, in what would be the biggest-ever overseas acquisition by a Japanese beer company, a report said on Wednesday. Board members finalised the 400 billion yen proposal on Tuesday for Peroni of Italy and the Netherlands' Grolsch, the leading Nikkei business daily said, without citing sources. The company refused to confirm the report but said in a statement it was "studying a variety of possibilities for a capital and business tie-up, including this case". Nothing has been finalised, it added. Acquiring the brands,...

The six founding nations of the European Union on Tuesday stressed their commitment to seek an "ever closer union" ahead of next week's summit where Britain is expected to seek a new agreement to help convince a skeptical public to remain part of the EU. The foreign ministers of host Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg said in a joint statement Tuesday they reconfirm their "strong commitment to Europe and the European project and invite all other member states to join." ...

DNA evidence lifted from the ancient bones and teeth of people who lived in Europe from the Late Pleistocene to the early Holocene -- spanning almost 30,000 years of European prehistory -- has offered some surprises, according to researchers who report their findings in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on Feb. 4, 2016. Perhaps most notably, the evidence shows a major shift in the population around 14,500 years ago, during a period of severe climatic instability... The researchers pieced this missing history together by reconstructing the mitochondrial genomes of 35 hunter-gatherer individuals who lived in Italy, Germany, Belgium, France,...

Electronic gear shifters on some newer Fiat Chrysler SUVs and cars are so confusing that drivers have exited the vehicles with the engines running and while they are still in gear, causing crashes and serious injuries, U.S. safety investigators have determined. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents posted during the weekend, has doubled the number of vehicles involved in an investigation of the problem, but it stopped short of seeking a recall. The agency found more than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries, mostly in Jeep Grand Cherokees. Agency tests found that operating the centre console shift...

Recent reports suggest that over a thousand converts to Christianity from Islam currently live in Italy, but hide their conversions for fear of retaliation from the Muslim community against themselves and their families.

An Italian actor has been left in a coma after a scene that involved his character being lynched went horribly wrong in front of a live audience. According to a report on The Times, Raphael Schumacher, 27, was accidentally strangled by the rope around his neck and lost consciousness while appearing in the play 'Mirages' at the Teatro Lux in Pisa. He's said to be "seriously ill". Police sealed off the theatre and have launched an investigation into how the stunt went wrong. Schumacher should have been stood on a box and wearing a body harness to ensure he was...

I saw a huge waterfall pouring over a beautiful rock formation and the water looked like liquid glass so pure and transparent you could see all the rocks behind it . All around the base of the waterfall were people and they were enjoying the refreshing spray and droplets covering them as a beautiful misty spray and the droplets just seemed to hang in the air effortlessly and the sound of the waterfalls was the roar of His Voice. As I looked over where the water goes over the falls I saw Jesus with his bare feet standing in the...

Belgium has called for vast refugee camps holding up to 300,000 refugees to be built in Greece in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of migrants from Syria and other nations outside Europe. At an emergency summit of European leaders yesterday, Belgian migration minister Theo Francken raised the spectre of setting up 'closed facilities' in Greece to be operated by the EU. He said that the Greeks 'now need to bear the consequences' of being too weak to guard their own borders and called for Athens to face an EU 'sanction mechanism' under which the rising number of refugees...

On the Friday broadcast of his HBO show Real Time, Bill Maher told liberals see the world the way they want it rather than the way it is when it comes to the threat of Islam and Islamic terror. Maher, a religious critic, told his fellow liberals he wishes they would have the same "intolerance" for Muslim-related terror around the world that they do for Christians and Christian fundamentalists at home. Maher brought up the decision by the Italians to cover up nude statues during a state visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. "This is the horribleness of what's going...

Arab teen terrorists from the Palestinian Authority moving to the beat of specially-crafted music. 'Lovers of Knives' is one of the hottest hits on the Arab street in the Palestinian Authority; with its hypnotic, rhythmic beat, the words are easily memorized by teens, tweens and adults alike, and the names of those being glorified for murdering Israelis are certain to ingrained in the memories of all. Photo Credit: YouTube / www.alaqsatv.ps Arab teen terrorists coming out of the Palestinian Authority are being moved by the beat of a specially-crafted form of music video. It is the music of the...

Rome (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people gathered in Rome's Circus Maximus arena Saturday to protest against a civil unions bill for same-sex couples, a hot-potato issue for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government. But while organisers had been hoping to attract one million people and authorities had prepared for 500,000, journalists at the scene estimated the numbers to be in the tens of thousands. Official numbers were not immediately available. "Without limits, our society will go mad!" organiser Massimo Gandolfini told the "Family Day" rally, as grandparents, parents and children held up banners reading "Wrong is wrong" in the...

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to protest in Rome's Circus Maximus arena Saturday against a civil unions bill for same-sex couples, a hot-potato issue for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government. "As many people as possible must take part. Remember; this is the only weapon we have!" organizer Massimo Gandolfini said ahead of the "Family Day" rally, which begins in the capital's ancient Roman chariot racing stadium at 1100 GMT. Gandolfini said he expected to fill the arena, which can take 350,000 people without counting the surrounding streets, while authorities in Rome said they were preparing for up to...

The academic boycott against Israel continues to broaden, with a new petition signed by 168 academics and researchers in Italy calling to suspend all agreements with Israeli universities as well as the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology in Haifa. The petition comes three months after 343 British academics signed another petition calling for an academic boycott of Israeli universities on the grounds that they participate in violations of international law and support the occupation. [...] Among the boycott measures proposed by the petition are the cessation of all collaboration with the Technion and other Israeli universities, including academic and cultural...

LONDON — No doubt Donald Trump will be thrilled that the entire world is mesmerized as he steamrolls over his Republican rivals for the presidential nomination. He probably doesn’t care that most of the international publicity is bad publicity—but even the master of ill-tempered putdowns and Twitter vitriol will struggle to keep up with the sheer number of attacks and jibes pouring in from every corner of the globe. He does have a select band of fans—more on those later—but they are being drowned out by an incredulity that stretches from Europe’s capitals to post-conflict Afghanistan; from the African deltas...