Free Republic

Men of "Arab background" were likely responsible for sexual assaults on dozens of women in central Cologne over the New Year, police said on Monday - as a social media storm accused police and media of a cover-up. Around 60 complaints have been made to the police in Cologne after a group of around 1,000 men attacked revelers in the city center in a brutal and "completely unheard of" way, Wolfgang Albers, Chief of Police in the Rhineland city said at a press conference on Monday afternoon. Around a third of the complaints were of sexual assault, regional paper Express...

Nigel Farage fears he has been the victim of an assassination attempt after his car was sabotaged, causing a terrifying motorway crash. The Ukip leader careered off a French road after a wheel on his Volvo came loose while he was driving from Brussels back to his home in Kent. When the police arrived at the scene, they told him that the nuts on all of the wheels had been deliberately unscrewed, The Mail on Sunday has established...

It hasn't been legal tender for 14 years, but in January a German supermarket chain will start accepting Deutschmarks again. Kaufland supermarkets will be accepting the former German currency at their cashiers. To support the campaign, many of the company's products will also be given a 1960s design to enhance the nostalgic theme. [...] (T)his is a limited campaign, lasting from January 4th until January 30th, and the aim is to get Germans to use the old currency they still have lying around. The estimated value of that currency is over €6 billion. ...

It's every cyclist's dream: no red lights, no trucks, just a clear, smooth lane to zoom down with the wind in your face. Welcome to Germany's first bicycle Autobahn. Fans hail the smooth new velo routes as the answer to urban traffic jams and air pollution, and a way to safely get nine-to-fivers outdoors. As a glimpse of a greener urban transport future, Germany has just opened the first five-kilometer (three-mile) stretch of a bicycle highway that is set to span over 100 kilometers. It will connect 10 western cities including Duisburg, Bochum and Hamm and four universities, running largely...

The practice among many European Union European states to fund extremist anti-Zionist groups inside Israel is so entrenched that it has become an integral part of those countries' foreign policies, a leading expert has said. Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the NGO Monitor watchdog which tracks extremist anti-Israel NGOs, explained to Arutz Sheva that that troubling fact was the reason behind his group's surprise withdrawal of its previous firm opposition to the so-called Transparency Bill, which was officially approved by the Israeli government yesterday. [...] But despite the issue being on the radar for several years at least, European states...

The conservative state government in Bavaria has called on Berlin to allow the Free State's own police to secure its border with Austria, saying that federal officers are overwhelmed. But Bavarian interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Sunday that the federal government had rejected the request from Munich. "I can't understand at all," Herrmann told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "That we are not carrying out reliable controls, even five weeks after the Paris attacks and despite the blatant danger, is a sign of weakness." ...

German gun club lobbyists were invited to the German Interior Ministry (BMI) last week to discuss something that has been bothering them for a while - the European Commission's proposed plans to tighten Europe's gun laws, which were suddenly revived from legislative stagnation in the wake of the "Islamic State" attacks in Paris in November. By all accounts, the visit was a success. "The proposal contains things that the BMI said would be difficult for them, and where changes would be called for," said Joachim Streitberger, head of Germany's association of shooting ranges (BVS), after he emerged from the meeting....

Shocked by the bloody Paris attacks, European Union leaders on Friday vowed an "uncompromising fight against terrorism" and called for wide-ranging countermeasures ranging from beefed-up immigration controls to a crackdown on illicit weapons-trafficking. Leaders of the 28 EU member countries also pledged quick action to better restrict violent extremists' ability to finance their actions, including via the imposition of asset freezes. The Brussels summit was the first time the EU leaders had assembled since the Nov. 13 attacks, claimed by the Islamic State organization, that killed 130 and wounded hundreds more in Paris. ...

Good advice not just for national policy but for life in general: If you find yourself in the company of someone who needs it carefully explained to them that rape is wrong, you’re probably better off not trying to cultivate that acquaintance.Actual quote from a supervisor at the asylum center offering the course: With training, new arrivals will "at least know the difference between right and wrong." As a Twitter pal said, what would the “precautionary principle” tell us to do about immigration in a situation like this? A course manual sets out a simple rule that all asylum...

Slovenia rejected on Sunday a law that would give same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children in its second vote on gay rights in four years. About 63.4 percent of voters rejected the law in a referendum while 36.6 percent supported it, a preliminary result of the State Electoral Commission showed after 99 percent of votes were counted. Parliament passed a law in March giving same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, but the measures have not been enforced because a civil society group called For Children appealed to the top court, calling for a referendum....

The German teachers' association (Deutschen Lehrerverbandes) says an annotated edition of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" should be taught in senior high school to help "inoculate" teenagers against political extremism. The Nazi leader's anti-Semitic diatribe has not been printed in Germany since the end of World War II, but an annotated and critical edition is set to be published next year. ...

A thorough medical check-up awaits anyone who applies to join Germany's police or fire service. But transsexual or intersexual applicants probably won't make the cut, it emerged on Friday. Those who have undergone gender reassignment surgery will probably be rejected if they apply for Germany's police or fire service, says Berndt Krömer (Christian Democratic Union), a member of the Berlin city government responsible for security policy. [...] To be fit for duty, an applicant has to have "an intact andrological [male] or gynecological [female] hormone system," Krömer wrote. ...

The European Commission has unveiled a controversial plan for a European border guard agency that would deploy to member states overwhelmed by migrants -- whether those nations want it or not. The new agency would have a standing reserve force of at least 1,500 border guards that could be sent to EU border chokepoints within three days, rather than relying on time-consuming calls to nations for volunteers during emergencies. [...] The plan is contentious because it requires countries to surrender some of their sovereignty -- something many have viscerally opposed so far -- and it's unclear whether the scheme will...

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday ahead of an EU summit that Germany would not give in to Britain's demands for EU reform if it meant sacrificing achievements made by the bloc on integration. "On the one hand, we want to reach an agreement with the British government," Merkel told MPs in an address to the Bundestag (German parliament) on Wednesday. "On the other hand, we will not put the fundamental achievements of European integration in question, in particular, the principles of freedom of movement and non-discrimination of European citizens," the Chancellor added. ...

Police in Moenchengladbach have arrested infamous Salafist Sven Lau on suspicion of supporting a terrorist group. [...] In a statement, the prosecutors said that Lau, 35, had been arrested on suspicion of acting on behalf of "Jaish al-mujahirin wa-l-ansar" (army of emigrants and helpers, or Jamwa). That could make him culpable of supporting a foreign terrorist organization, a serious crime that carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in jail. ...

Facebook, Google and Twitter have agreed to delete hate speech deemed illegal in Germany within 24 hours. The move follows pressure from German authorities concerned about the increasing volume of racist abuse being posted on social networking sites. ...

The European Union is refusing to back down on its decision to put special labels on exports from the West Bank even though Israel has frozen some of its contacts with the bloc on Middle East peace issues. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said after talks with foreign ministers Monday that the EU is "united on these technical guidelines on the indication of origin, which is in no way a boycott." ...

Lithuania said Friday it would buy 88 German-made armored fighting vehicles in its biggest-ever military purchase amid concerns over neighboring Russia. "We have come to the unequivocal opinion to choose and acquire the Boxer infantry fighting vehicles," said Lithuania's defense chief Jonas Vytautas Zukas. [...] The three Baltic states and Poland have also called for a permanent NATO presence in the region to deter Russia, but the allies have so far stuck to back-to-back troop rotations. ...

SIS has released chilling new footage depicting its apocalyptic vision of the end of the world. It has titled the video 'Meeting at Dabiq' which refers to the location of a final battle between the 'Crusaders' and the 'Believers'. The video also shows an ISIS 'armoured unit' advancing towards the Colosseum in reference to the 'armies of Rome'. In the footage the terrorist organisation shows a dead fighter being kissed by his comrades, a Jihadi on horseback trying to look like a honourable soldier and groups of men with the majority too scared to show their faces to the camera....

The European Union is considering a plan to introduce a permanent external border control force that could be deployed if it deems that a member state is in need of help to police its frontiers even without the EU country's consent, the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal reported Friday (11 December). The migration crisis has exposed the bloc's leaky external border control, and the Paris attacks, where two suspects entered the EU posing as refugees, added to the anxieties about external border checks. There have been repeated calls by EU leaders to step up efforts to police external...