Free Republic

Almost every country leads the World in some single field. Tiny Sweden does not have the best cuisine on the planet, neither do we Swedes enjoy the highest salaries on Earth and Sweden could not, rightfully, claim to house the World's most beautiful landscapes. Italians eat better (forget about France, Italy has a way better climate for nearly every kind of food production and Italians are even more concerned when it comes to "mangiare bene"; eating well). Danes are paid higher wages than any other people including the Norwegians and the Swiss (but having traveled around some in Denmark, I...

Are you aware that you could be violently attacked in Denmark, if you are suspected of being Jewish? According to Ynet News: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4319563,00.html [Israeli and Jewish officials in Denmark on Wednesday warned Jews to avoid openly wearing religious symbols and dress when moving about Copenhagen amid rising anti-Israeli sentiment. "We advise Israelis who come to Denmark and want to go to the synagogue to wait to don their skullcaps until they enter the building and not to wear them in the street, irrespective of whether the areas they are visiting are seen as being safe," Israel's ambassador to Denmark, Arthur...

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...

Danes and Swedes are the highest taxed people in Europe, according to research published on Monday (29 April). Denmark and Sweden claim tax revenues accounting for 47.7 percent of economic output and 44.5 percent respectively. The two countries also have the highest top rates of income tax at 55.6 and 56.5 percent respectively. Meanwhile, citizens in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Latvia are the least taxed, with governments taking between 26 percent and 28 percent. Tax rates have risen across the board, particularly among the four EU bailout countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus), as cash-strapped governments bid to balance budgets against...

Grandparents are being roped into help, companies are turning themselves into temporary crèches, and employees are being forced to take leave as Denmark enters its fourth week of a teacher lockout. Since 1 April, around 875,000 children, aged from six to 16 years, have been unable to attend school after a breakdown in talks between the teachers’ union and local government over the setting of working conditions for the coming years. The deadlock, affecting 69,000 teachers, has had profound effects in a society where it is normal for both parents to work. … The standoff is over the length of...

High profile-gang rapes in India have been in the headlines since December. The phenomenon is growing across Europe too, but tends to be under reported due to the high incidence of Muslim perpetrators which makes it politically incorrect to mention. In December 2011 a Swedish mother-of-two was subjected to a brutal gang-rape by 12 Afghan immigrants in a refugee camp . ... The main perpetrator Rafi Bahaduri, 25, had already committed four other rapes in Sweden. The case is not unique. There is a growing trend of gang-rapes perpetrated against white women by Muslim rapists. In the U.K. there has...

Greenland's prime minister warned the European Union he could scrap a preliminary deal intended to safeguard the bloc's access to his country's huge mineral resources, saying Brussels has failed to follow through. "I don't understand the behavior of the (European) Commission," leftist Kuupik Kleist said on Wednesday in his office... Kleist's comments to Reuters signal Greenland may be increasingly willing to play off rival powers from Brussels to Beijing that are drawn by its minerals as global warming opens up sea routes and mining prospects. Kleist, who grew up harpooning whales from a remote village in northern Greenland, faces a...

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.

"Op-Ed: EXPOSÉ: Something is Rotten in a Denmark Unsafe for Jews" March 08, 2013, INN It’s just as unsafe in 2013 to be a Jew in Copenhagen as it is to be a Jew in an Arab country. In 2001, a poster in Arabic was pinned up on the notice board at a Copenhagen college. It promised a reward of $35,000 to anybody who would kill a Jew. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet there is a line that has become famous: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Denmark, the first Scandinavian country to permit Jews to settle in the 17th...

FORT HUACHUCA — “You are definitely not members of the National Danish Shooting Team.” That’s what one of the EST 2000 range instructors said Monday afternoon, as members of the National Danish Performance Team were given a quick lesson on how to fire Army weapons. And there was no disagreement from the Danes, who had a good laugh at the comment. There were more misses — showing up as green dots — than hits, which were indicated by red spots. But it didn’t take long for some of the Danes to catch on to the intricacies of shooting. One even...

Assailant’s gun jammed after firing first shot - police now searching for two men wearing ski masks seen climbing into Copenhagen Zoo The renowned anti-Islam journalist and scholar Lars Hedegaard reportedly survived an assassination attempt outside his home on Pelargonieviej in Frederiksberg this morning. According to Ritzau, the assailant fled when his gun jammed after firing the first shot at around 11:20. “A man shot at the victim but he missed and the bullet went over his head,” police commissioner Lars-Christian Borg told Ritzau. “When he tried to fire again, the pistol clicked and the assailant ran away.” While Borg...

SMALLISH countries are often in the vanguard when it comes to reforming government. In the 1980s Britain was out in the lead, thanks to Thatcherism and privatisation. Tiny Singapore has long been a role model for many reformers. Now the Nordic countries are likely to assume a similar role. That is partly because the four main Nordics—Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland—are doing rather well. If you had to be reborn anywhere in the world as a person with average talents and income, you would want to be a Viking. The Nordics cluster at the top of league tables of everything...

THIRTY YEARS AGO Margaret Thatcher turned Britain into the world’s leading centre of “thinking the unthinkable”. Today that distinction has passed to Sweden. The streets of Stockholm are awash with the blood of sacred cows. The think-tanks are brimful of new ideas. The erstwhile champion of the “third way” is now pursuing a far more interesting brand of politics. Sweden has reduced public spending as a proportion of GDP from 67% in 1993 to 49% today. It could soon have a smaller state than Britain. It has also cut the top marginal tax rate by 27 percentage points since 1983,...

The Daily Telegraph has seen confidential spending proposals and internal documents planning an unprecedented propaganda blitz ahead of and during European elections in June 2014. Key to a new strategy will be “public opinion monitoring tools” to “identify at an early stage whether debates of political nature among followers in social media and blogs have the potential to attract media and citizens’ interest”. Spending on “qualitative media analysis” is to be increased by £1.7 million ($2.7 million), and while most of the money is to be found in existing budgets, an additional £787,000 ($1.24 million) will be need to be...

RPT-Swiss opt for Saab's Gripen fighter jets - paper (Repeats to additional subscribers) ZURICH Nov 30 (Reuters) - Switzerland has chosen to replace its fighter jet fleet with Swedish defence and aerospace group Saab's JAS-39 Gripen, Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources close to the government. Neutral Switzerland has wrangled for the past three years over whether to replace its ageing Northrop F-5E/F Tiger fighters, purchased in 1976 and 1981, with up to 33 new aircraft. Saab shares were up 8.5 percent to 117.10 Swedish crowns by 1345 GMT after the newspaper report. The newspaper said the...

Czech fighter contract as Gripen deal runs down Fighter manufacturers are preparing to battle for the right to provide the planes that should protect Czech airspace after 2015 © ČESKÁ POZICE A fight between the Gripen JAS-39 and F-16 to patrol Czech airspace looks on the cards The clock is ticking down to the expiry of the 2015 contract under which JAS-39 Gripen supersonic jet fighters hired from the Swedish government to protect Czech skies. And while the date might still seem a long way off, speculation has been mounting about whether a deal for the Gripen planes will be...

US concerned over Norway's $8bn fighter selection programme, Saab's Gripen may be favoured news 15 January 2008 Helsinki: Almost immediately after the Eurofighter consortium distanced itself from the Norwegian fighter replacement programme in December last year, citing alterations in the bidding process as favouring the US JSF-35 programme, it is now the turn of the US to cry foul saying that the process may actually be skewed in favour of the Swedish JAS-39 Gripen-N programme. Post-withdrawal of the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter from the competition, the Lockheed Martin JSF-35 and the Saab JAS-39 Gripen-N fighters are now in contention for the...

Gripen operational cost lowest of all western fighters: Jane’s The study conducted by IHS Jane's Aerospace and Defense Consulting, compared the operational costs of the Gripen, Lockheed Martin F-16, Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Dassault’s Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and the F-35 aircraft. The operational cost of the Swedish Saab Gripen aircraft is the lowest among a flightline of modern fighters, confirmed a White Paper submitted by the respected international defense publishing group IHS Jane’s, in response to a study commissioned by Saab. The paper says that in terms of ‘fuel used, pre-flight preparation and repair, and scheduled airfield-level maintenance together with...

Saab Receives FMV Funding for JAS-39 Gripen Upgrades Posted 10-Jul-2006 10:17 Saab received a SEK 1 billion ($130 million equivalent) order from the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV), covering continued development of the JAS-39 Gripen fighter. The order reportedly covers various software upgrades, as well as other development activities supporting the long term development of the Gripen system. Work will be performed at Saab Aerosystems and Saab Aerotech in Linkoping, Sweden as well as at Saab Avitronics in Jarfalla and Kista, Sweden. See release. The JAS-39 Gripen is a 4th generation lightweight fighter in service since 1993, and adopted by...

Saab waits on Brazil and India for Sea Gripen go ahead By Gareth Jennings 18 June 2010 Saab will only develop an aircraft carrier-capable version of its JAS 39 Gripen NG fighter should either India or Brazil select the land-based variant to fulfil their fighter replacement programmes, the company has said. Eddy de la Motte, Gripen campaign director for India, told reporters on 12 June that development of the aircraft has, to date, been driven by its core customer, the Swedish Air Force (SwAF). With no Swedish requirement for a navalised aircraft, it requires a customer with a carrier capability...