Free Republic

Scientists have analysed DNA extracted from the remains of a 30,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer.> The researchers were able to assign the Kostenki individual to haplogroup "U2", which is relatively uncommon among modern populations. U2 appears to be scattered at low frequencies in populations from South and Western Asia, Europe and North Africa. Despite its rarity, the very presence of this haplogroup in today's Europeans suggests some continuity between Palaeolithic hunters and the continent's present-day inhabitants, argue the authors of the latest study. >

U2 performed a short set in Germany on Thursday, November 5th to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. According to the Associated Press, the band kicked off show at the Brandenburg Gate with the hit song "One." Frontman Bono thanked the crowd "for coming out in the cold" before wishing Berlin a happy birthday. The 30-minute, six-song set also featured "Beautiful Day," "Vertigo," a cover of Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up," as well as a special guest appearance by Jay-Z on "Sunday Bloody Sunday." But the free concert wasn't without controversy for the some...

Achtung, baby: U2 will play a free concert in Berlin to help the city celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Music network MTV said the Irish rockers will perform in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Nov. 5 during the MTV Europe Music Awards U2 manager Paul McGuinness said it would be exciting to be in Berlin, "20 years almost to the day since the wall came down."

In an e-mail blast sent out to fans today, U2 announced that it will stream Sunday night's concert on YouTube. The show begins at 8:30 p.m., Pacific time. - This marks the first time that YouTube is streaming a full length concert live. As previously reported, Sunday's U2 gig will be the largest-ever attendance for a concert at the Rose Bowl. The design of U2's 360 stage allows for a whopping 95,000 people to attend. Typically, Rose Bowl concerts top off at about 65,000 people.

Bono’s appearance in a pre-recorded video message at the Conservative Party Conference caused a bit of an internet uproar. Such was the outpouring of hostile comments on Twitter (with popular taglines including #Bonoisat— and #BonoToryScum) that the social networking site temporarily broke down. So you are a rock superstar for 30 years, a Nobel peace prize nominee and tireless charity proselytiser and what do you have to do to become a trending topic on Twitter? Talk to the Tories. (snip) If Bono speaks to the Labour party (as he did last week, introducing Gordon Brown’s key note speech), or sends...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Not everyone who paid to see Irish rock band U2 perform at Carter-Finley Stadium got to see the Saturday night show due to traffic back-ups. "We were really disappointed,” concertgoer Carrie White said. White spent $250 on U2 360° tour tickets for her husband’s birthday. She said they were stuck in traffic for three hours, and were then told no parking was available. "One of the state troopers told us, ‘Too late. All lots are full. Go home and see you next year,’” White said. The state Highway Patrol said the traffic congestion was not due to...

Bono and The Edge have described their forthcoming Spider-Man musical as "dizzy" and "not a straight take on the myth". Turn Off The Dark, the production the Dublin band has written music and lyrics for, is set to open on Broadway in New York in 2010. They also confirmed American actress Evan Rachel Wood would play the part of MJ and revealed more about the other characters. ...Bono said: "We've got a new villain, it's a girl. It's a very extraordinary role. We've taken it to a much more dizzy place than you'd expect. We've got big tunes. We're very...

’Something I’ve Never Seen Before’ Saturday 8 August 2009, by Corinne/Dead I had to write about this. I simply had to. I hope I’m not speaking out of turn here as this is U2’s site and hallowed ground for all of you but this story needs to be told. The shows so far on this tour have all been amazing and each night the crowd’s reaction to U2 has been loud and joyous and passionate. Last night in Poland though was something else. Hard to explain. Let me try. I have never in my life seen a crowd reaction like...

The big problem with renewable energy is that it just doesn’t renew itself. The sun does not shine enough and the wind doesn’t blow enough to power the towns, cities, factories, hospitals and schools that make our lives so livable. No environmentalist would ever allow their child to be treated in a hospital fully powered by “renewables”. They would not take the risk that the wind might stop whilst their baby was on the operating table. They would insist that the hospital and the life support systems had a fossil fuel powered back-up. And so it is with “sustainable development”....

Five former military personnel have come forward to reveal that they worked at the secretive Area 51 testing facility. While stationed at Area 51 they claimed they worked on top secret CIA and military projects including a supersonic jet that could travel at three times the speed of sound. The appearance and flight performance of the top secret OXCART program led it to being often mistaken as a UFO according to the whistleblowers. A Los Angeles Times article with their testimonies concluded that the UFO mystery has been solved. Before celebrating the solution of the UFO mystery, it’s worth considering...

[photo] Irish demonstrators have had enough. They’re tired of U2 rocker Bono haranguing world leaders to increase taxes when the hypocritical Hibernian band won’t pay its fair share of taxes. While the band staged an concert on the roof of BBC headquarters, a group of demonstrators staged a protest on the street below. They chastised the band for moving its business to the Netherlands to avoid increased Irish taxes. The protesters’ placards read “Bono: pay your taxes” and “Bono: don’t be a banker” and the poetic “We’ll downl’d it 4 free and give the money to charity.”... ...continued

Bruce Springsteen isn’t the rock ’n’ roll Obama. U2 is. The Boss tried to sell “Working on a Dream” as the flip side to “yes we can,” but Springsteen’s latest is W.-style art - blunt, burgers-and-fries, stay-the-course-through-diminishing-returns rock. It’s U2’s new “No Line on the Horizon” - now streaming for free on U2’s MySpace [website] page and in stores March 3 - that personifies No. 44. U2 was Obama before Obama was: political sloganeers of hope, from “Beautiful Day” to “Pride (In the Name of Love).”

NEW YORK The New York Times will start running Op-Ed columns from rock singer Bono of U2 on Sunday, the paper announced Friday. He will also do a podcast of the piece. Describing him as a "lead singer and anti-poverty activist," the announcement said he has been invited to write a column for the Times beginning this Sunday, and "his columns will appear occasionally on The New York Times Op-Ed page and online at nytimes.com/opinion and will cover a broad range of subjects." “Bono is a great addition to our Op-Ed line-up,” Andrew Rosenthal, Times editorial page editor, said in...

His humanitarian campaigning has earnt him the nickname St Bono. Off duty, however, the U2 singer seems to have been tempted into a spot of hell-raising. Pictures show the 48-year-old with his arm round two bikini-clad girls as they carouse at a beach bar in St Tropez. He also joined his angel-faced companions for more drinking and dancing aboard a private yacht. Bono is usually seen in his role as rock star, family man and anti-poverty campaigner, work for which he earned an honorary knighthood. Only last week, he appeared at a conference to make a call to ‘change the...

3/27/2008 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- In its 50 years of flight, only six women pilots have been at the controls of the U-2 Dragon Lady. Three of those six are currently in the Air Force, and two of those three are currently fighting in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, flying with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, the only U-2 squadron in Southwest Asia. Maj. Merryl Tengesdal and Capt. Heather Fox, both U-2 pilots with the 99th ERS and deployed from Beale Air Force Base, Calif., continue to add to women's and the U-2's history,...

Paul McGuinness, long-time manager of rock band U2, on Monday launched a verbal attack against illegal music downloaders, as well as internet service providers, device makers, Silicon Valley and even hippies in a speech at a conference in France. McGuinness blamed these forces for "destroying the recorded music industry," with illegal downloading through peer-to-peer file-sharing networks the single biggest reason for why the business is in decline. ISPs have for years profited from that illegal downloading, which occurs on their networks, and their arguments that it isn't their job to police the internet are no longer valid, he said. The...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was unfased when he met U2 rock star Bono - as he had no idea who he was. The With Or Without You star met the politician at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on Thursday (24Jan08), as part of his efforts to persuade world leaders to increase aid to developing nations. The U2 frontman and humanitarian has already pressed French president Nicolas Sarkozy to stick to plans to raise development assistance to poorer countries, particularly those in Africa, and he continued his campaign with a low-key meeting with Gates. But the 64-year-old admits he was...

U2 has two big projects for the coming year — a new album and a Broadway musical of "Spider-Man" directed by "The Lion King" guru Julie Taymor. At last week’s Broadway premiere of "Young Frankenstein," sharp-eyed observers noticed U2’s own guru, manager Paul McGuiness, scoping out the Hilton Theater on 42nd Street with an eye toward putting "Spider-Man" in there. The show requires a very high ceiling stage for all the flying that will go on. Alas, McGuiness is said to have commented, "I guess we’re out of luck" when he saw how successful "Young Frankenstein" is going to be.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- American U2 reconnaissance planes have been flying over the Turkey-Iraq border to observe military movements, said three U.S. military sources Wednesday.Word of the flights comes a day before top-level meetings between U.S. and Turkish government officials and prior to a regional conference aimed at easing tensions between Ankara and Kurdish rebels across Turkey's border with Iraq. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed Wednesday that U.S. military and intelligence communities are sharing information with Turkey to help them fight members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who have made cross-border attacks. "We are assisting by supplying them, the...

Big Paychecks for U2 Millionaires Oct. 26, 2007 The Associated Press U2 Ltd., the Irish band's music publishing company, raked in $30 million-plus last year — and $25.8 million of it went to five unidentified "employees," according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press. Those "employees" are suspected to be the band members and their longtime manager, Paul McGuinness. But U2's public relations firms in Dublin and London refused to confirm that. While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid...