Free Republic

Ron Paul has basically said that Crimea has the right to self-determination and by extension a right to an independence referendum vote. The Obama administration seems to be goading Europe (not that it would take that much) into agreeing with it that Crimea (and Eastern Ukraine) do not have the right to self-determination, and that Western powers will not accept a referendum vote in Crimea (or Eastern Ukraine for that matter) that leads to Crimea joining Russia, or becoming independent. Margeurite, yesterday, nailed it on the head, though, in a thread of mine: "The West cannot have it both ways....

Bride’s family protests dance by groom’s relatives during weddingA wedding in Saudi Arabia quickly snowballed into a scuffle between the families of the groom and his bride after relatives and friends of the groom infuriated their opponents by performing the famous ‘penguin dance’, a newspaper said on Sunday. Relatives and guests began to pour into the massive wedding hall in the eastern Saudi town of Dammam when a heated argument erupted before it led to a scuffle between the relatives of the groom and his bride. Friends and other guests intervened and managed to end the fight that threatened to...

AFTER 40 years of hesitation and seven hard years of reform and lobbying, Turkey is basking today in the most qualified of invitations to begin the process of joining Europe - a continent whose eastern half the Ottoman empire controlled for centuries. A European Commission report released yesterday, which paves the way for a deciding vote by the 25-member European Union at its December summit, was heavily qualified, and Turkish leaders were muted in their expressions of delight at their initial success. Presenting the decision to the European parliament last night, commission president Romano Prodi said it was a "qualified...

Delegates at the U.N. General Assembly applauded enthusiastically on Monday as the Palestinian representative to the world body for the first time cast a vote on behalf of the “State of Palestine.” The vote itself—for a judge to serve on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)—was a relatively minor one, but Palestinian delegate Riyad Mansour called it symbolically significant. … The modern-day State of Israel came into being as a result of a U.N. resolution in 1947, which partitioned the then-British mandated territory into a Jewish and an Arab state. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish...

Two decades after Serb soldiers conducted house-to-house searches in a campaign of ethnic killings in Bosnia, forensic scientists are digging up what could turn out to be the largest mass grave from the 1992-95 war.

Albania’s new Socialist premier says former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will assist as an adviser in his country’s efforts to join the 28-nation European Union. Edi Rama said today that Blair would be “personally, totally and voluntarily” advising the Albanian government and helping with his “extraordinary experience and political geniality.” …

The DF-21D is China’s answer to America’s carriers, with an unusual origin in the Kosovo War In 1999, the U.S. was engaged in an air and missile war with Serbia. As NATO bombs exploded around Belgrade — part of a campaign to force an end to the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians by Serb forces — several U.S. missiles slammed into the Chinese embassy. It was the most controversial U.S. action of the war. China’s leaders were outraged, but could do little in response. The result? The bombing became a pivotal moment in the decision to pursue a sophisticated weapons project: a ballistic missile...

European banks would leave London “in very short order” if Britain voted to exit the European Union, a senior Goldman Sachs executive said in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Michael Sherwood, a vice-chairman at the bank, said the prospect of a British withdrawal was a real worry given Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to hold a referendum on the subject if re-elected in 2015. … Goldman’s Sherwood predicted European banks would quickly relocate if Britain did sever its EU ties. “Forget what we would do. Every European firm would be gone in very short order,” he was quoted as...

Balkan former guerrillas join Syria rebels AFP - Some fought as guerrillas during the bloody Balkans wars of the 1990s, battling powerful tanks and artillery. Others grew up under the influence of radical Islam that has gained ground in poverty-hit areas in the Balkan countries and regions populated by Muslims. Today, both experienced fighters and their younger followers are leaving the Balkans to join Syrian rebels on the front line. Many return home in body bags with their families often unaware they had even joined the fight.

Sometime early in the third century BCE, a ship carrying a cargo of amphoras wrecked near a rocky shore on the Albanian coastline. These ancient ceramic vases will break upon impact, but do not disintegrate once they have come to rest on the sea floor. This durability has left them as the sole witnesses to many ancient shipwrecks, and the stories they have to tell have transformed our understanding of history. During an underwater survey in July of 2007, conducted by the RPM Nautical Foundation, researchers discovered a grouping of these amphoras resting on the seabed. About forty of them...

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican Secretariat of State issued a tweet on Monday: “Intolerance against Christians, especially in the name of ‘tolerance’, should be condemned publicly.” The tweet referenced a Statement of the Holy See delivered by Bishop Mario Toso, SDB, at the High Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-discrimination (including Human Rights Youth Education), which took place May 21-22 in Tirana, Albania. The Conference was held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Since the last High Level Conference, Bishop Toso said, “examples of intolerance and discrimination against Christians have not diminished, but rather...

The gilded lifestyle of MEPs has been compared to the uncontrolled excesses of ancient Rome after research showed their perks have not been dented despite biting austerity measures. From Italian MEPs who enjoy free haircuts to Maltese ones who get 52 free gallons of petrol a month, the perks—and expenses—continue unabated for the representatives of European Union nations. MEPs from the 27 EU nations are paid salaries of £137 million ($207 million) a year, according to research by German pricing watchdog Preisvergleich.de, and some earn 740 percent more than the average citizen. …

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisan food makers. The small glass jugs filled with green- or gold-colored extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe, but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week. From next year, olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in prepackaged factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in...

Amid growing calls from Tory MPs for David Cameron to respond to the Ukip threat by bringing forward legislation on an EU referendum, Farage warned that his party would not go away even if No 10 "starts singing the same song". William Hague, who famously suffered a major defeat in the 2001 election after tacking to the right, called for a cautious response to Ukip as he warned of the dangers of "quick fixes". Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said many Ukip voters were "frustrated Conservatives". As the Tories work out their response to Ukip, which won nearly a quarter...

What’s it like to live and pray in an officially atheist state? CNS has a fascinating interview with Maria Dhimitri, who lived that way in Albania: “They said God didn’t exist. I couldn’t come to church or pray or speak of God at all,” she said of the communist regime that came to power in her country soon after World War II. The regime made worshipping increasingly difficult and finally imposed a ban on religion in the country in 1967, making Albania the first and only constitutionally atheist state.Dhimitri was teaching piano at one of the country’s top conservatories for...

"...Outside my windows, the dark-browed Serbian peasants, the men in somber black, the women in their bright embroidered clothes, passed unhurriedly but more silently, more grimly than usual to the early Sunday market. I watched them thoughtfully as I began to pour my tea and turned the short-wave radio knob... ...I heard no sound but the jingling of milk carts in the streets and the shuffling of peasant feet. But it was coming, this raucously heralded doom. ...Bomb after bomb exploded all round us, some not more than twenty yards away. The effect was almost inconceivable. It wasn’t the noise...

Once trust is lost it is very slow to recover. For now, much of Europe is acting as if it believes Cyprus is a "one time" thing? But isn't that what we heard about Greece? Who is next? Italy? In an article on Handelsblatt the chief economist of Commerzbank says: Italy should bring a unique wealth tax. It is a myth to talk of crisis-strapped states. Even the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) and the chief economist of Commerzbank, Joerg Kraemer says the numbers suggest a different view. Kramer relies on surveys of the European Central Bank. Net financial...

A great sense of alarm is spreading among ordinary Europeans today, especially in the south and east of the continent. Now even the elitist media are giving us the worst international news since the Cold War. Americans do not want to hear this, either. Well, you may not be interested in evil, but evil may be interested in you. Listen up. This could be important. The Washington Post just told us that a dictatorial strongman has risen to power in Hungary, a man named Viktor Orban. In a two-hour parliamentary session, Orban forced radical changes in the Hungarian constitution to...

A great sense of alarm is spreading among ordinary Europeans today, especially in the south and east of the continent. Now even the elitist media are giving us the worst international news since the Cold War. Americans do not want to hear this, either. Well, you may not be interested in evil, but evil may be interested in you. Listen up. This could be important. The Washington Post just told us that a dictatorial strongman has risen to power in Hungary, a man named Viktor Orban. In a two-hour parliamentary session, Orban forced radical changes in the Hungarian constitution to...

Controversy has erupted over next Tuesday's European Parliament resolution "on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU", meant to mark international women's day, after libertarian Swedish MEPs from the Pirate Party spotted the call for a ban in the small print. While not legally binding, the vote could be the first step towards European legislation as the EU's assembly increasingly flexes its political muscle within Europe's institutions.