Free Republic

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble confirmed on Tuesday that Germany has agreed to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), despite pressure from the US.Germany, France and Italy “want to bring our long experience … to help the bank build a solid reputation,” Schäuble said at a joint press conference in Berlin with Chinese vice-premier Ma Kai. “We want to make a contribution to the positive development of the Asian economy, in which German companies are actively taking part,” he said. France and Italy have also agreed to become members of the $50-billion institution, seen as a rival to the...

The French government is expected to throw its weight behind amendments to a new health bill that would ban the fashion world from hiring underweight models, slapping violators with fines or even prison sentences, the health minister said Monday The bill, which will be debated in parliament on Tuesday, also proposes banning websites and other forums that are viewed as promoting anorexia and other eating disorders. “This is an important message to young women, young women who see these models as an æsthetic ideal,” Health Minister Marisol Touraine said, adding that the Socialist government is likely to back the bill....

French experts re-examining evidence have confirmed their earlier conclusion that the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not the result of poisoning, a prosecutor told AFP Monday. The prosecutor for the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said the experts found there was no foul play in Arafat’s death, which sparked immediate and enduring conspiracy rumors. […] Arafat died aged 75 on November 11, 2004 at the Percy de Clamart hospital, close to Paris. He had been admitted there at the end of October that year after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city...

Recent scientific findings date their arrival earlier than ever thought, sparking hot debate among archaeologists For much of its length, the slow-moving Aucilla River in northern Florida flows underground, tunneling through bedrock limestone. But here and there it surfaces, and preserved in those inky ponds lie secrets of the first Americans.For years adventurous divers had hunted fossils and artifacts in the sinkholes of the Aucilla about an hour east of Tallahassee. They found stone arrowheads and the bones of extinct mammals such as mammoth, mastodon and the American ice age horse.Then, in the 1980s, archaeologists from the Florida Museum of...

You are mine entirely now for My Flames have touched you and bathed you in My Glory among the coals and now I AM the Gold and Silver in your life for "The Veil is torn " and now the Fullness and Saphire of My Spirit (( ( RESIDES ) )) in you in a abundantly overflowing manner and My Eyes( 7 Spirits of The Lord) are yours for you have already obediently sat quietly at my feet and listened intently for my Voice and will . So now "Take" the Fullness of My Kingdom to the reckless and lost...

<p>Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed Greek Diplomatic Offensive Is Failing.</p> <p>Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc in parliament has agreed not to give in to any “bad compromise that “defacto adds up to a debt writedown,” Hans-Peter Friedrich, a deputy leader of the caucus, said in an interview today.</p>

Brussels- European leaders agreed on Friday to extend Greece's bailout for four months after weeks of terse negotiations.

Two helicopters carrying passengers filming a popular European reality show crashed Monday in a remote area of northwest Argentina, killing eight French citizens and two Argentines, authorities said. The helicopters crashed while flying near Villa Castelli in La Rioja province, about 730 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, La Rioja Secretary of Security Cesar Angulo told television station TN. All 10 people on board both aircraft were killed. "An explosion occurred and it's believed that they must have collided," said Angulo. "Aeronautical experts will have to determine that." La Rioja police commissary Fabian Gordillo told state news agency Telam that the...

The Peace of Jesus ~ He gives us his Peace but More importantly he Gives Us Himself and His Authority to quiet any Storm ... Peace to you "As I AM" for where ever you go now in these days ahead My Peace shall not only calm the Seas and quiet the Storms turmoil but The Lions shall lay quietly with The Lamb as My Spirit moves AS The Father's Will endowed now in You ! My Shalom is not only with you but "I AM". My "BE STILL" IS yours to breathe ~ ~ ~ John 14 :1,27 Do...

The cauldron is finely decorated with designs and figures, including the head of the Greek god Achelous.France’s National Archaeological Research Institute (Inrap) on Wednesday revealed the discovery of an ancient grave site, probably that of a Celtic prince, which is helping shed light on trade between some of Europe’s earliest civilizations. Archaeologists uncovered the tomb dating from the fifth century BC in an industrial zone in the small town of Lavau, in France’s Champagne region. Inrap, which routinely scours construction sites in order to find and preserve the country’s archaeological heritage, began excavating at Lavau site in October 2014....

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Sunday that the far-right Front National (FN) party could win the next presidential election in 2017, saying their policies were a “disaster” for the country. “Do you not think that a FN which wins 25 percent in European elections and maybe 30 percent in local elections… cannot win the presidential election?” Valls said on French television channel iTele. “Not in 2022, not in 2029, but in 2017,” he added. Polls showed that the FN could win an “unprecedented” score in forthcoming local elections on March 22nd and 29th, Valls said. …

VENICE, Italy — President Reagan, who less than two years ago signed the most expensive farm aid bill in history, called Friday for the elimination of agricultural subsidies worldwide by the year 2000 as a way of promoting better world economic health.At the same time, Reagan said that the United States has made "real progress" in trimming its budget deficit, despite ongoing spending battles with Congress, thereby freeing for private investment abroad some of the foreign capital that has been tied up financing the U.S. debt.Reagan's remarks, made in a speech televised by Worldnet and provided to networks around the...

Paris (AFP) - Top US diplomat John Kerry on Saturday sought to smooth differences with France over nuclear talks with Iran, agreeing with the French that there were still gaps to overcome in the "critical weeks" ahead. The US secretary of state said it was up to Iran to prove its peaceful intentions to the world if it wants a deal on its nuclear programme ahead of the looming March 31 deadline. He was speaking to reporters after a 20-minute meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris where they tried to iron out their differing views on the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Having topped the polls in last year’s European Election, Marine Le Pen’s National Front is set to become the biggest party in France with the French Prime Minister accusing the party of wanting to “kidnap France” at this month’s regional elections. The latest polling data, which comes after it was revealed French Jews are increasingly turning to the right wing party, puts the National Front on 29 per cent, four points clear of the opposition UMP and creating a significant gap between them and the socialists on 21 per cent, The Local reports. The country votes on March 22nd...

Four people, including French and Belgian nationals, have been shot dead in a restaurant on a busy street in the Malian capital Bamak. Witnesses said they saw four people running away and shouting "God is Great" in Arabic ("Allahu Akbar") as they fired machine guns and throw a grenade at La Terrace in Bamako's lively Hippodrome district following the attack shortly after midnight. "This is a terrorist attack, although we're waiting for clarification. Provisionally, there are four dead - one French national, a Belgian and two Malians," a policeman told AFP, adding that the dead included a police officer passing...

My Love for you is immense and in its abilities of Divine and "Eternal Forgiveness" lies the wisdom of " Eternal Freedom " for Each of My Children willing to receive it and walk in it . These "ARE" ~ Rules of Engagement ~ for your lives ARE full of Choices but these choices effect your Eternity not just your day. "Choose the Life" of " Eternal Freedom " for I AM your "In" Heritance of your very Heart "in" Me. "Choose Life" for UN-Forgiveness of your Self and others leads to Death . . . Deuteronomy 30:15-20 15 See,...

An "exceptional" tomb from the fifth century BC, likely that of a Celtic prince, has been unearthed in a small French town, shedding light on Iron Age European trade, researchers said Wednesday. The grave, crammed with Greek and possibly Etruscan artefacts, was discovered in a business zone on the outskirts of Lavau in France's Champagne region, said the National Archaeological Research Institute, Inrap. A team from the institute has been excavating the site since October last year, and have dated it to the end of the First Iron Age -- a period characterised by the widespread use of the metal....

Unexpected victor ... The 30-year-old French nucler powered attack submarine Saphir. Source: Wikipedia Source: Supplied WITH a good submarine, a navy can do amazing things. Ask the French. They’ve just managed to “sink” a nuclear-powered US super carrier — and half its battle group. The French Ministry of Defence has revealed one of its attack submarines pulled of an astounding upset during recent war-games in the North Atlantic. The Aviationist blog spotted an article on the French defence force’s website — quickly withdrawn — which told how one of their submarines, the “Saphir” tackled the might of the United States’...

Workers digging underneath a Paris supermarket have made an unsettling discovery: as many as 200 skeletons. The grocery store, Monoprix, was doing some renovations in January and workers removing an underground wall discovered the bones. The area was apparently part of a cemetery for the Hospital of the Trinity, according to CNN affiliate, France's BFM-TV. The cemetery operated from the 12th century to around the 17th century. Researchers and archeologists are conducting carbon dating and DNA testing to try to figure out when and why the people died, the affiliate said. It's clear they all died around the same time,...

President Barack Obama is holding a video conference with European leaders to discuss their push for peace in Ukraine and other global security issues. The White House says other leaders planning to be on the Tuesday morning call include British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Donald Tusk.