Free Republic

... "The fact is that in Spain and elsewhere in Europe, voters have come to associate the centre-left with many of the (unpopular) policies traditionally championed by the right: austerity, deregulation, liberalisation, free trade." ...

The yield on the 10-year benchmark German bund fell into negative territory for the first time ever on Tuesday morning, amid global growth concerns and jitters over the U.K.'s upcoming referendum on its European Union membership. At around 8.30 a.m. London time, the yield hit zero and briefly fell into negative territory as investors continued to flock to safe-haven assets. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions and a negative yield implies that investors are effectively paying the German government for the privilege of parking their cash. By the end of the European trading day, the yield was still...

Neolithic group found in silo appeared to have suffered violent deaths, with multiple injuries to legs, hands and skulls. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 6,000-year-old massacre that took place in Alsace, in north-eastern France. The corpses of 10 individuals were found in one of 300 ancient silos, used to store grain and other food... The Neolithic group appeared to have had violent deaths, with multiple injuries to their legs, hands and skulls. The way in which the bodies were piled on top of each other suggested they had been killed together and dumped in the silo. “They were...

The girl was reportedly stabbed in Rennes, France, by an attacker marking the Islamic month of fasting. Prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet confirmed the attack today, in which the 19-year-old victim sustained three stab wounds. He said the man, who had known psychiatric problems, claimed he heard voices demanding a sacrifice for Ramadan.

THE sick ISIS killer who brutally hacked down a police chief and his wife has sent out a chilling message warning of mass murder at Euro 2016. French jihadi Larossi Abballa posted the terrifying Facebook live video just moments after he murdered Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his wife. The pair were stabbed at their home on the outskirts of Paris last night. In the video he said: “Did you think that we would say inattentive? Well you have another thing coming. We have other surprises for you, the Euros. “The Euros will be a cemetery. You too (President) Hollande, I haven’t...

French media mocked President François Hollande on Tuesday after he described sexual orientation as “a choice”, in his reaction to the Orlando gay nightclub massacre, comments that had provoked outrage on social media. In Orlando, “it is America that has been hit but it is also freedom, the freedom to choose one’s sexual orientation and to determine one’s style of life”, Hollande said in condemning “the appalling homophobic killing in Orlando.” Hollande was speaking as he left the US embassy in Paris on Monday, where he had expressed France's condolences over the massacre in Orlando at the weekend that left...

Islamic State claims responsibility after officer was stabbed to death outside home in Manganville before woman and boy were taken hostage inside President François Hollande has convened crisis talks after a man claiming allegiance to Islamic State stabbed a French police commander to death in front of his house outside Paris, then killed his partner who also worked for the police. The 42-year-old police commander was in plain clothes when he was stabbed to death as he arrived home at around 8.30pm on Monday night in a quiet residential area of Magnanville, north-west of Paris. The attacker then entered the...

Retired Col. Steve Pisanos, a World War II ace who was decorated by four nations, has died, his family confirmed through the San Diego Air and Space Museum on June 9. Pisanos was 96. Born in Athens, Greece, Pisanos [sometimes spelled Pissanos] came to the United States in 1938. He joined the British Royal Air Force in 1941 and served with an Eagle Squadron until American members were absorbed by the US Army Air Forces 4th Fighter Group. Pisanos was then commissioned a USAAF lieutenant. On May 3, 1942, Pisanos became an American citizen during a ceremony in London, England,...

An ISIS attacker murdered a police commander and his wife at their home near Paris before being shot dead by officers during a dramatic raid that saw a child hostage rescued. Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, suffered nine stomach wounds at a private address is Magnanville, in the Yvelines department, north of Paris, shortly after 8.30pm. Explosions were heard towards midnight as elite Raid commandos entered the building, where they killed the attacker who had taken the officer's family hostage. Inside the house, they found the lifeless body of Mr Salvaing's wife, who also worked for the police force. The only survivor...

Deep in a dark cave in southwestern France lie half a dozen mysterious structures that scientists believe were built by Neanderthals 176,000 years ago -- about 140,000 years before the first modern humans arrived in Europe. The structures, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, are located in what is known as the Bruniquel Cave. They are made of roughly 400 pieces of stalagmites, all roughly, almost eerily, the same size. Archaeologists say these mineral formations were probably broken off the cave floor by ancient hands and then deliberately arranged into two large rings and a series of four round piles...

A man claiming allegiance to so-called Islamic State (IS) stabbed a French police commander to death before being killed when police stormed a house, officials have said. The attacker took the officer's partner and their son hostage in their home in Magnanville, near Paris. The partner was found dead but the child was rescued. French prosecutors have launched an anti-terror investigation, AFP news agency reports. Islamic State's Amaq news agency said an IS fighter carried out the attack, although there has so far been no official claim of responsibility........

Mysterious structures found deep inside a French cave are the work of Neanderthal builders who lived in the region more than 100,000 years before modern humans set foot in Europe. The extraordinary constructions are made from nearly 400 stalagmites that have been yanked from the ground and stacked on top of one another to produce rudimentary walls on the damp cave floor. The most prominent formations are two ringed walls, built four layers deep in places, which appear to have been propped up with stalagmites wedged in place as vertical stays. The largest of the walls is nearly seven metres...

Witnesses are reporting gunfire and explosions in the Paris suburb commune of Magnanville. French special police have surrounded a house where a man is holding hostages. The attacker stabbed the home owner, a police officer who was reportedly his neighbor.

This time it’s Paris that will show solidarity with the victims of a terror attack elsewhere in the world. The Eiffel Tower will be lit up in the rainbow colors of the gay flag in solidarity with the victims of the shootings in Orlando, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted. The City Hall also raised the Stars and Stripes and the rainbow flag on Monday, with Hidalgo expressing her “compassion, solidarity and affection” for the American people after the massacre. …

Britain’s influence in the European Union will be stronger if it votes to remain in the bloc in a June 23 referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday with the latest polls showing Britons almost evenly split over whether to stay or go. One poll published late on Saturday gave a two-point lead to supporters of “Remain” and the other showed those in favor of Brexit were one point ahead. In an interview on BBC television, Cameron — whose “In” campaign has been branded as scaremongering by pro-Brexit supporters for warning of the risks of quitting the 28-nation EU...

The headlines go from bad to worse for the UK and EU establishment as yet another new poll this weekend, by Opinium, shows "Brexit" leading by a remarkable 19 points (52% chose to leave the EU against 33% choosing to keep the status quo). This result comes after 2 polls Friday night showing a 10-point lead for "leave" which sparked anxiety across markets. This surge in "leave" probability comes despite an additional 1.5 million voters having registered this week (which many expected to increase "remain" support). Further anger towards EU was exposed when former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith warned...

The massive structure - almost a mile long - contains a spiral design, with several rectangular spirals that form a giant structure, archaeologists say. "This structure, which has dimensions of more than 1,500 m × 600 m (about 1 mile by 1,970 feet) is the most striking discovery associated with Angkor Wat to date. Its function remains unknown and, as yet, it has no known equivalent in the Angkorian world," Roland Fletcher, a University of Sydney professor, said in a statement put out by the university. Today, the spiral structure is hard to make out on the ground, having been...

Jean-Baptiste Chevance senses that we’re closing in on our target. Paused in a jungle clearing in northwestern Cambodia, the French archaeologist studies his GPS and mops the sweat from his forehead with a bandanna. The temperature is pushing 95, and the equatorial sun beats down through the forest canopy. For two hours, Chevance, known to everyone as JB, has been leading me, along with a two-man Cambodian research team, on a grueling trek. We’ve ripped our arms and faces on six-foot shrubs studded with thorns, been savaged by red biting ants, and stumbled over vines that stretch at ankle height...

Mary Beth Day, University of Cambridge Bayon temple, constructed by Angkorian King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The faces may be representations of Buddha, the bodhisattva Lokesvara, Jayavarman VII, or a combination. The ancient city of Angkor — the most famous monument of which is the breathtaking ruined temple of Angkor Wat — might have collapsed due to valiant but ultimately failed efforts to battle drought, scientists find. The great city of Angkor in Cambodia, first established in the ninth century, was the capital of the Khmer Empire, the major player in southeast Asia for nearly five centuries....

Australian archaeologists using complex radar and satellite technology to map the medieval city of Angkor have discovered more than 70 new temples scattered across a vast area of farmland and forests in north-west Cambodia. University of Sydney archaeologist Damian Evans said, "It's huge. We've mapped a massive settlement stretching well beyond the main temples of the World Heritage tourist area in Siem Reap. "We've found the city was roughly five times bigger than previously thought." The newly discovered ruins of the ancient Khmer empire metropolis sprawl across 1000sqkm "about 20km in every direction" outside the United Nations listed World Heritage...