Free Republic

Merkel herself did not act on humanitarian grounds when she decided to let these people through to us. She thought it was an opportune way to supplement her image given the current mood in the country, which was very pro-refugee. Many people, including me, thought it was the right decision in this exceptional situation to allow a limited number of people to come here for a short time. Nobody guessed that this “state of emergency” would become permanent, not even the Chancellor and the government itself. Die Welt journalist Robin Alexander revealed in retrospect in his book “The Driven” that...

Berlin, Sept 29 (CTK) - Pope Benedict XVI has won great respect in the atheist Czech Republic, the German daily Die Welt wrote Tuesday commenting on the Pope's visit to the country on September 26-28.Public Czech Television's (CT) cameras followed almost every move by Benedict XVI during his three-day visit to the Czech Republic, the daily says.The Pope managed to raise enthusiasm among young people and he even won respect of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, Die Welt wrote."Judging by the space provided by Czech Television to the coverage of Benedict XVI's visit it could seem that the Pope visited a...

German newspaper mocks John Paul II, beatification process Apr. 4, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A caustic article about the beatification process for Pope John Paul II (bio - news), published in the German newspaper Die Welt, has drawn a protest from the Polish ambassador to Germany. Die Welt referred to the late Pontiff as "an unsympathetic old man," and included a series of tasteless jokes about the Pope and the cause for his beatification. The newspaper crudely suggested that the late Pope, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, might have won a medal at the Para-Olympics. It joked that he should have...

Die Welt aims it teutonic wit at Polish stereotypes From Poland A.M. The German daily Die Welt has published a satire on Poles which does not shy away from stereotypes. One aspect of the satire presented ideas on how to improve Polish-German relations, including: legalization of the shadow economy, not locking new cars, a ban on jokes about potatoes and the proposal of vodka pipeline from Russia through Poland. The most shocking element is a joke about Pope John Paul II. Die Welt writes that Poland would like to dismiss Benedict XVI and replace him with John Paul II as...

A secret report prepared by the European Union's Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) concludes that tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid donated by the EU to the Palestinian Authority were actually used for terrorism against Israel. Remarkably, the conclusions are based on papers that Israel discovered almost two full years ago, during Operation Defensive Shield, and which it presented to the world immediately afterwards. The German weekly Die Welt reported this week that OLAF has finally accepted the Israeli claims that PA terror organs are using millions of EU aid dollars to subsidize terror by Fatah-Tanzim and even Hamas. OLAF...

<p>Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Germany faces an ``immediate threat'' of terrorist attacks, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper said, citing a report by Western secret services.</p> <p>Germany is ``within the spectrum of targets of Islamic terrorism and not just a retreat anymore'' for members of terrorist groups, the newspaper cited the report as saying.</p>