Free Republic

What sent EgyptAir flight 804 plummeting into the Mediterranean Sea last month, remains a mystery. Egyptian investigators have failed to extract any information from the badly-damaged memory chips of the crucial black boxes. Defeated, Egypt is now sending both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder to the BEA in France for analysis. The BEA -- the French version of the NTSB -- are considered some the best in the world at analyzing this type of equipment. In a statement released on Thursday, EgyptAir said the French will "carry out repair and removal of salt accumulations." "Then (the...

SWITZERLAND has withdrawn its application to join the European Union just a week before Britain votes on its own EU membership.

There was little support among Swiss politicians for the idea and not a single parliamentary party came out in favour, but the proposal gathered more than 100,000 signatures and was therefore put to the vote under the Swiss popular initiative system. Critics of the measure said that disconnecting the link between work done and money earned would have been bad for society. But Che Wagner from the campaign group Basic Income Switzerland, argued before the vote that it would not be money for nothing. "In Switzerland over 50% of total work that is done is unpaid. It's care work, it's...

School students must shake their teachers’ hands or their parents will be liable to pay a fine of up to 5,000 francs, authorities in the canton of Basel-Country have ruled. The decision, announced on Wednesday, comes nearly two months after two Muslim schoolboys refused to shake their female teacher’s hand at a school in Therwil, near Basel, because they said physical contact with a woman who wasn’t a family member went against their religion. The incident caused outrage across Switzerland, not only because it was seen as sex discrimination but because their refusal was considered an affront to an intrinsic...

One of Europe’s wealthiest villages is refusing to accept any asylum seekers - and has instead voted to pay a fine of £200,000. Fears women and children could be at risk from sex attacks as well as the disruption to their peaceful way of life has led the super-rich of Switzerland’s alpine resort of Oberwil-Lieli to vote ‘no’ in a referendum to accept just ten migrants. The picturesque village, where 300 millionaires make up 2,200 population, they all used their financial muscle to reject a Government imposed quota.

With the main route (reportedly shut down) being from Turkey to Greece, and up through the Balkans... But now, in response to Balkan countries closing down traditional migrant routes to Europe, Switzerland's military is taking steps to prepare for a potential new wave of immigrants in case it becomes part of a new route. As such, Switzerland has put together a formal emergency preparedness plan, which outlines three scenarios, one of which would call for military intervention.

Dangerous Freedom versus Peaceful Slavery I am often asked what we would do if, for example, the US were to come out with a confiscation order. My reply is: We would do nothing whatsoever! Why? Quite simply, because no one in Switzerland has the political power to execute such an order! Even if Swiss politicians were to support such a confiscation order, the Swiss people would likely have the final vote. I am confident that any such confiscation order wouldn’t have any chance to be supported by a majority in Switzerland, especially one concerning assets held outside the banking system...

Switzerland will hold a referendum to decide whether to ban commercial banks from creating money. The Swiss federal government confirmed on Thursday that it would hold the plebiscite, after more than 110,000 people signed a petition calling for the central bank to be given sole power to create money in the financial system. The campaign - led by the Swiss Sovereign Money movement and known as the Vollgeld initiative - is designed to limit financial speculation by requiring private banks to hold 100pc reserves against their deposits. "Banks won’t be able to create money for themselves any more, they’ll only...

Muslim women can no longer wear the full-body garment in shops, restaurants or public buildings and anyone caught flouting the ban could be struck with a £6,500 fine. The local government of Ticino approved the referendum after the Swiss Parliament ruled that the ban did not violate the country's federal law. Two in three voters in the canton backed the move in an overwhelming result for a referendum, in the wake of heightened terrorist alerts across Europe. The law which MPs voted for only applies to veils which covers the body from head to foot worn by the 40,000 Muslim...

Switzerland has active criminal proceedings against 33 individuals over suspected ties to extremist Islamist groups, but only three people are currently in custody, the attorney general's office said on Sunday. 'Isis cell operating out of Winterthur mosque' (18 Nov 15) Iraqi jailed for posting Isis propaganda online (13 Nov 15) Switzerland extradites French teen jihadist (22 May 15) Some of those cases have been opened in the last two to three months, but the most serious involves a cell of possible Islamist radicals uncovered in the Canton of Schaffhausen last year, said Andry Marty, a spokesman for Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber.  ...

Posters telling Muslims not to vote in the election were plastered across an area of Cardiff yesterday. They read: 'Democracy is a system whereby man violates the right of Allah.' Posters were stuck on lampposts and bus stops across the Grangetown suburb telling the Muslim electorate: 'Islam is the only real workable solution for the UK'. Cardiff Council have begun removing the posters, dubbed 'chilling' and 'threatening' by locals. The full message on the poster reads: 'Democracy is a system whereby man violates the right of Allah and decides what is permissible or impermissible for mankind, based solely on their...

A Dutch-Turkish journalist has been detained in Turkey after posting tweets critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, her newspaper said. Ebru Umar wrote a column for the Dutch Metro newspaper criticising President Erdogan's clampdown on dissent. Since 2014, prosecutors have launched cases against more than 1,800 journalists for insulting Mr Erdogan. Last week, Germany allowed the prosecution of a prominent TV satirist for insulting Mr Erdogan to proceed. Jan Boehmermann had read a crude poem on TV, aimed at testing German law. Germany and the Netherlands have old lese-majeste laws against insulting the head of a friendly state. Both...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a great passion for mosques. Since he took power in Turkey, Mr. Erdogan has built 17,000 Islamic prayer sites. The largest in the world stands on the Camlica Hill, dominating the Asian side of Istanbul, where the East, in the words of Cocteau, extends to Europe “its old bejeweled hand”. The Turkish president is committed to the construction of mosques in European capitals as well. Erdogan seeks to create the image of an Islamic civilization on the rise once again with the Turks acting as the vanguard of this revival. Ten mosques have been financed by...

Christians in Turkey have become a tiny minority. The few remaining Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Christians in Turkey have – throughout the centuries -- been turned into a tiny, dwindling minority. The remaining few Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Hagia Sophia in Trabzon: Church-mosque-museum and now mosque again. The Hagia Sophia, Greek for “Holy Wisdom,” was one of the many historic Orthodox churches located in the city of Trabzon. ... The city of Trabzon .. is located in the ancient land of Pontos, in the...

A German comedian whose satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed a bitter row about freedom of speech has decided to suspend his own TV show, he announced on his Facebook page on Saturday. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday authorised criminal proceedings sought by Turkey against the popular comic Jan Boehmermann who could be convicted under the rarely-enforced section 103 of the criminal code -- insulting organs or representatives of foreign states. Merkel's decision has appalled rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch which on Saturday called on the German authorities to defend freedom of speech "even...

The center-left Social Democratic Party said on Tuesday that Germany should scrap a law against insulting foreign leaders — which has been used by the Turkish President to target a German comedian. “The honor of a head of state is just as important as the honor of a normal citizen,” SPD leader in the Bundestag (German parliament) Thomas Oppermann said in Berlin. SPD MPs are ready to repeal the paragraph banning insults against foreign leaders, Oppermann went on, calling it an “antiquated rule” that should not be updated but simply abolished. Changing the law would also allow the federal government...

German authorities are investigating comedian Jan Boehmermann for reciting a satire spoofing Turkey’s President Erdogan. They say they are offended by the comedian’s remarks. This once-democratic government is now enforcing the sharia and serving a vicious jihad dictator who has all but destroyed the modern advances Turkey made in the 20th century under Ataturk’s secularism. Further, the invasion of Germany (and Europe) was made possible by Erdogan — and now Germans can’t criticize him? Merkel should be thrown out on her considerable ass. She covers for Muslim refugee mass rapes. She continues to import these haters into Germany, and she...

BERLIN – Germany is considering a request from Turkey to prosecute a TV comedian who wrote a crude poem about the Turkish president, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Monday. The request poses an awkward choice for the German leader as she relies on Turkey to reduce the influx of migrants to Europe. Turkey sent a diplomatic note making "a formal request for criminal prosecution" of comedian Jan Boehmermann, Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said. Seibert told reporters Monday that officials would take several days to decide whether to allow prosecutors to proceed in the case, but stressed that Merkel holds free...

Germany’s hippest young comedian faces a jail sentence of up to five years if Turkey decides to press charges over a poem he wrote insulting its head of state. Jan Böhmermann knew what he was doing when he read out a self-penned poem insulting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan live on his late night show on Thursday evening. He introduced the piece by speaking directly to the Turkish president. “What I’m about to read is not allowed. If it were to be read in public — that would be forbidden in Germany,” Böhmermann said, before proceeding to perform his “smear...

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost a German court battle against a top media boss Tuesday when his appeal in a bitter row over free speech was thrown out. Erdogan had sought a court order to stop the Axel Springer media group's chief Mathias Doepfner from repeating support for a TV satirist who crudely insulted the Turkish leader. After failing to get an injunction from a lower court last month, Erdogan also lost an appeal before the higher regional court in the western German city of Cologne. The judges said they considered Doepfner's letter of support "a permissible expression of...