Free Republic

At a time when many U.S. defense programs are facing the budget ax, Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems is looking forward to an important stream of new international business from a ship-defense missile system co-developed with Germany. On Wednesday, Raytheon commemorated the first delivery of a new version of the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) to the U.S. Navy with a ceremony at its sprawling airport-area missile plant. RAM — which gets its name from its spinning action in flight — is a 30-year-old, cooperative program between the U.S. and German governments with industry support from Raytheon and RAMsys of Germany. Deployed...

Investigators now believe a fire which damaged a mosque in Berlin earlier in August was started deliberately. Police had believed that the fire at the Mevlana mosque in Kreuzberg might have been caused by a technical fault or started accidentally, but both of those possibilities have now been ruled out. […] The fire began in building materials stored in an unfinished extension to the structure and caused smoke damage to the façade and the interior of the mosque. Renovation and extension work has been going on at the site since 2013. …

The German government has announced proposals to tackle alleged abuses of the benefits system by migrants from elsewhere in the European Union. Under the plan, EU migrants would no longer receive social welfare benefits after six months out of work. EU citizens convicted of benefits fraud could also face deportation.

Germany’s Labor Minister Andrea Nahles has given her backing to an anti-stress law, announcing a study into workers’ mental health on Tuesday. Nahles told the Rheinische Post newspaper that she had commissioned the Federal Institute for Health and Safety at Work to come up with a report on the feasibility of a possible law to protect workers from stress caused by smartphones and constant contact with their bosses. “There is an undeniable link between having to be constantly available [for work] and the rise in mental illnesses,” she said, but she added it would be a challenge to implement any...

A report in Spiegel magazine says German air force is weaker than previously thought and a funding crisis means scores of aircraft are not operational The German air force is facing such a severe funding shortage that many of its aircraft are unable to fly, mechanics are forced to cannibalise parts from existing planes and only eight of the country's 109 Eurofighters are fully operational, according to a report in Spiegel magazine. German defence sources have rubbished the article, saying it is inaccurate and does not match up to official air force logs. But the claim that Germany's air force...

District Judge Ed McLean has denied a motion to change the trial venue for Markus Kaarma, the Missoula man accused of fatally shooting a German exchange student in his garage last April. In a 208-page motion to move the trial, Kaarma’s attorneys argued that local media reports have tainted Missoula’s jury pool by painting Kaarma as a “cold-blooded killer.” Katie Lacny, who filed the motion, argued her 30-year-old client has been held captive in his Grant Creek home and received death threats as the media “aroused sympathies and created a community outcry against” him. “The pretrial publicity has stirred up...

The German government proposed measures Wednesday to tighten migration regulations for citizens from elsewhere in the European Union amid accusations of welfare abuse by poor immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet was proposing a six-month limit on EU citizens staying in the country, which is Europe’s biggest economy, without a job. In addition, he said EU citizens suspected of having abused Germany’s welfare system can be banned from re-entering the country. “Freedom of movement is an essential part of the European integration, which we fully stand behind,” de Maiziere told reporters...

The European Union has had a pretty rough run over the past seven years. Economically, things are simply catastrophic. The Eurozone is not only experiencing an output slump that is even worse than the great depression, it is also teetering dangerously close to outright deflation. Unemployment remains persistently high everywhere except Germany: it is still above 25% in both Greece and Spain, and above 10% in Portugal, Italy, and France. The forecasts are hardly encouraging, with expectations of little or no growth in 2014 and an exceedingly modest rebound predicted for 2015. The situation is so desperate and hopeless that...

Germany’s Angela Merkel has said Ukraine is free to “go to” Russia’s “Eurasian Union”, amid signs of a new willingness to make peace with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Speaking to German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday (24 August), the German chancellor said her visit to Kiev on Saturday was designed to prepare for peace talks between Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Putin in Minsk on Tuesday, but warned the public not to expect a “breakthrough”. She mentioned Ukrainian “decentralization”, a deal on gas prices, and Ukraine’s “trade relations” with Russia as elements that could bring about an accord. “And if...

Germans could foot the bill for unemployment benefits in other European countries under an EU plan to tax the union’s richest states.László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, set out his proposal in June in Berlin to share the burden of unemployment benefits among EU countries. The plan is now “not far from the table”, CDU politician and MEP Herbert Reul told Welt newspaper on Monday. Andor claims that in a time of economic downturn, this concept could stabilize and revive struggling economies. He told the Welt on Monday that his plan would not replace countries’ unemployment...

NATO officials are considering deploying a long-planned missile defense system—aimed at protecting Europe from attacks from the Middle East—against Russia as well, Spiegel has learned. Calls for such an expansion to the system’s remit, which is backed by the United States, are growing in Poland as well as in NATO member states Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. […] But the majority of NATO members, especially Germany, are opposed to the proposal, warning that it could result in an unnecessary provocation of Moscow. …

As the crisis in Ukraine continues with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s contempt of the west growing, it’s becoming clear that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be a key player if the crisis is to be resolved without a wider conflict. Since the crisis began, Merkel has played the stern headmaster to the United States and Russia, which appear more as squabbling students than world powers. Amid heated rhetoric coming from both Washington and Moscow, Merkel has been measured, chastising Russia when necessary, but calling for restraint from countries eager to punish Russia. Related: Putin Wants Eastern Ukraine. Let Him Have...

Western intelligence agencies have been assisting the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad fight militants of Isis (now called the 'Islamic State'), by providing details on the location of militant leaders for targeted air strikes. The information was passed to Assad's government by German intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which acted as an intermediary, a source told the Independent... In recent weeks, Syrian forces have launched a series of airstrikes against Islamic State commanders and headquarters, as they battle to halt the advance of jihadist forces from their stronghold in the east of the country. The Assad regime has been accused...

WASHINGTON - There can be only one response to the barbaric beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic State terrorists. We must hunt them down and kill them. President Obama said as much in his brief remarks in the wake of the terrorists' grisly video that showed Foley's execution by a masked jihadist who spoke with a British accent and is believed to be a British citizen. The United States will "do what we must to protect our people," Obama said Wednesday. "We will be vigilant and we will be relentless" in bringing them to justice. No sooner had...

Iraqi Kurds have welcomed the German government’s expressed willingness to supply weapons in the fight against violent Islamists. Speaking on Deutschlandfunk radio on Thursday (21 August), Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq Rodsch Schawais said arms assistance should come as quickly as possible. The Kurdish leader addressed fears that German weapons could end up in the wrong hands or later be used in a possible conflict for an independent Kurdistan. This question is not relevant right now, he said. At the moment it is important to stop the advance of the extremist Islamic State (IS), Schawais explained. […] But the government’s...

BERLIN/KIEV (Reuters) - After months of ratcheting up pressure on Vladimir Putin, concern is mounting in Berlin and other European capitals that an emboldened Ukraine's military successes in the east are reducing the chances of a face-saving way out of the crisis for the Russian leader. As a result, the focus of German-led diplomatic efforts has shifted, according to senior officials, towards urging restraint from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and averting a humiliating defeat for pro-Russian rebels, a development that Berlin fears could elicit a strong response from Putin. Chancellor Angela Merkel's planned visit to Kiev on Saturday, her first...

The world's biggest defence deal is in danger of becom-ing one of the slowest in his-tory. More than two years after India zeroed in on the French Rafale fighter jet-after a tor-tured 11-year selection process-to replace its ageing MiG-21s, the Ger-man-led European consortium which was the runner-up in the race has sought to restart the dogfight by offer-ing a new, cheaper proposal for its Eurofighter Typhoon. The Narendra Modi Government, INDIA TODAY has learnt, is studying the German proposal even as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has been nego-tiating with France's Dassault, the maker of the Rafale, to finalise agree-ments to...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know what I thought we would do, and it would be instructive. Do you remember Obama's speech in Berlin in July 2008? Given that one of the things we're talking about today is people's frustration, people on the left -- they'd vote for him again, make no mistake. But the Drive-Bys and a lot of people, they're really wringing their hands over the fact that Obama gave a lukewarm, passionless, didn't look like he really cared set of remarks about the beheading of James Foley, and then, 10 minutes later, is on the golf course. You...

BERLIN—German voters are swinging behind their government's tougher line against Moscow after long being willing to give Russia the benefit of the doubt in its dispute with Ukraine. An opinion poll published Friday shows Germans widely support the European Union's latest sanctions against Russia and an overwhelming majority view the Kremlin's actions in eastern Ukraine with an increasingly critical eye, with 82% of Germans surveyed saying Russia can't be trusted.

Police and security services in Germany’s eastern state of Thuringia bungled the hunt for three neo-Nazis, who years later turned out to be the main suspects in a far-right murder spree, according to an official report published Thursday. A panel of lawmakers in the state assembly examined thousands of case files and interviewed dozens of former investigators, concluding that efforts to find the fugitive trio between 1998 and 2003 were a “complete disaster.” “In the best case, the comprehensive failure of many of those involved resulted from simple lack of interest,” the panel said in its 1,895-page report. But so...