Free Republic

French celebrations over the national football team’s World Cup victory on Sunday quickly turned to violence, with street clashes, vandalism, attacks on police, and scenes of looting in cities across the country. As many as a million people had been enjoying the “good-natured atmosphere” at an event on the Champs-Élysées in Paris following France’s 4-2 win against Croatia, which ministers had hoped would bring a “great moment” of “national unity”. But by 11 pm the jubilant mood had turned to chaos, with what local media describes as “bands of thugs” launching projectiles including bottles at police, who responded by firing...

The historic Manhattan cathedral that was gutted in a massive fire was one of four Christian Orthodox churches to go up in flames on Orthodox Easter Sunday — sparking fears of a coordinated attack on the religion. While FDNY officials said the blaze at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street does not appear suspicious, members of the Orthodox community have doubts. They are worried that the blaze — along with church fires in Australia and Russia — were set in retaliation for the religion’s role in blocking the canonization of Croatian Nazi supporter Cardinal Aloysius...

Out on a sunny Berlin balcony, Tim Keeley and Daniel Krasa are firing words like bullets at each other. First German, then Hindi, Nepali, Polish, Croatian, Mandarin and Thai – they’ve barely spoken one language before the conversation seamlessly melds into another. Together, they pass through about 20 different languages or so in total. It can be difficult enough to learn one foreign tongue. Yet I’m here in Berlin for the Polyglot Gathering, a meeting of 350 or so people who speak multiple languages – some as diverse as Manx, Klingon and Saami, the language of reindeer herders in Scandinavia....

A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities as "Jihad Jane" was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft. The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges that Colleen R. LaRose, and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

Ancient Oxygen-Rich Rocks Confound Evolutionary Timescale by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Many origin of life researchers have for decades argued that the early earth must have had a “reducing” atmosphere, meaning that it had very little oxygen. This argument has no direct evidence to support it other than the knowledge that oxygen destroys the delicate molecules that comprise cells today. If the first living cells evolved, they would have needed an atmosphere with little or no oxygen. But new research supports the idea that the earth’s surface was always oxygenated...

In his evidence at the trial of Croatian generals for crimes committed in the course of Operation Storm and its aftermath, Andries Dreyer, former security coordinator in the UN Knin base, described how Croatian soldiers drove over dead bodies in a tank. The bodies were those of persons killed in a mortar shell attack on the crowd that had gathered in front of the UN base on 5 August 1995. When the shelling of Knin began at dawn on 4 August 1995, Andries Dreyer, security coordinator in the UN Knin base, had to evacuate the personnel of the UN and...

Ford City's Slavic community a melting pot of eastern European customs By Tom Mitchell LEADER TIMES Friday, March 25, 2005 Although their Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Slovakian and Croatian languages and ethnic customs may differ to some extent, members of the Slavic community in Ford City and surrounding areas have many things in common. What brought Slavic immigrants to western Pennsylvania, and to Ford City in particular, can be summed up in one word: Work. Catherine Dilick of Ford City, a member of the former St. Francis of Paola Catholic Church, recalls her parents and other family members telling about the...

Hewitt stunned by giant 6-10 Croatian, playing first Wimbledon, topples No. 1 seed 06/24/2003 By JULIET MACUR / The Dallas Morning News WIMBLEDON, England – The giant who must duck through doorways stood on Wimbledon's hallowed Centre Court on Monday, wide-eyed and casting a long shadow. In front of nearly 14,000 fans, with the tournament's defending champion glaring at him from the other side of the net, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, who is 6-10, was terrified. He hadn't played in a Grand Slam tournament before – in fact, he had played only 10 tour-level matches in his career – and...

Croatia: Prime minister condemns Nazi salutes at handball team welcome party, AP, February 7th 2003ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - The prime minister on Thursday condemned parts of a crowd and the singer at a public welcome-home party honoring Croatia's newly crowned handball world champions for giving Nazi salutes. About 50,000 people gathered Monday in Zagreb's main square to welcome the team home. Folk singer Marko Perkovic Thompson, who performed at the party, shouted a slogan used by Croatia's Nazi forces during World War II. Dozens of fans answered with Nazi salutes. Prime Minister Ivica Racan on Thursday said such behavior "cannot...