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WASHINGTON -- From time to time, I put down my duties of writing about politics and other human follies and pick up a book, often a book of poetry, often by W. B. Yeats. The other night I read Yeats' poem "The Fiddler of Dooney." It is a little masterpiece, but then Yeats wrote so many masterpieces. It begins: "When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, Folk dance like a wave of the sea; My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet, My brother in Mocharabuiee. " And on it dances for a few more stanzas, delighting the eye and the...

A cow injured two men in central Germany on Wednesday while making a break for freedom from an abattoir. One of the victims was so badly hurt he had to go to hospital. A farmer in Hesse planned to take the eight-year-old cow to slaughter. But as he was unloading her from the truck, she bolted, injuring the 66-year-old driver on her way out. The animal raced about 500 metres away from the abattoir at Tann near Fulda at around 10am, eventually coming across two brothers who were walking down the road carrying tools. One of the men, a 53-year-old...

Germany is Russia’s third biggest trading partner and some commentators have argued this is the reason behind Berlin trying to steer a middle course between Moscow and Washington over the Crimea crisis. It takes 24 percent of Russia’s natural gas exports - more than any other European country - and has an 8.7 percent share of Russia’s foreign trade. As of October 2013, investment by German companies in Russia was valued at €16 billion, according to the German Foreign Office. Germany is also Russia’s biggest oil market taking almost 700,000 barrels a day in 2012, figures from the US Energy...

"9/11 plotter released in Syria prisoner exchange" SNIPPET: "The al-Qaeda recruiter reputed to have assembled the so-called Hamburg Cell, which planned and largely carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, has been set free in a prisoner exchange between rebel and regime forces in Syria. Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has secured the release of 9/11 plotter and alleged al-Qaeda core member Mohammed Haydar Zammar, adding to concerns about the composition of the Islamic Front. A naturalized German citizen of Syrian origin, Mohammed Haydar Zammar left Germany shortly after the attacks and traveled to Morocco, where he was reportedly...

<p>MILAN (AP) — Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirm that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysian airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.</p> <p>Italy's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that an Italian man whose name was listed as being aboard is traveling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane.</p>

Vacationing in Florida, President Barack Obama continued his telephone consultations with world leaders on Ukraine, speaking one on one Saturday with the leaders of three European powers and collectively with the heads of the three Baltic states, White House said. Obama held individual conversations with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and French President Francois Hollande. He also held a conference call with Latvian President Andris Berzins, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. On the conference call, Obama reaffirmed the United States' "unwavering commitment" to its collective defense commitments under NATO and...

BERLIN, A postcard dated May 17, 1913, and found in a bottle by German fishermen appears to be the oldest such message ever found. Konrad Fischer, captain of a fishing boat from Schleswig-Holstein, told Kieler Nachrichten, a local newspaper, that he was about to throw the bottle back in the sea when someone told him it was not empty, the Local.de reported. "When I saw the date I got really excited," he said. The postcard, from Denmark, had German stamps on it. It was signed by Richard Platz and addressed to his own home in Berlin with a message asking...

School students should be given a “European Union education” in the classroom to tackle “ignorance” and growing public Euro-skepticism, according to an election manifesto signed by Angela Merkel and eight other of Europe's leaders. The European People’s Party (EPP), the EU’s biggest political grouping, is convinced such a program would improve the public image of Brussels, which has never been lower. Its manifesto for May’s European elections calls for the introduction of “EU education in schools across Europe in order to prepare the next generation for future challenges and to nurture a European approach”. […] Rather than scaling back the...

On March 7, 1945, the first soldiers of the United States Army captured and crossed the Ludendorff Bridge, one of the few remaining bridges over the Rhine, entering Germany for the first time during World War II. The bridge withstood numerous attempts by German forces to destroy it until March 17, when it collapsed suddenly into the Rhine. By then, American forces were moving over other pontoon bridges steadily into their established bridgehead in Germany.

Free-trade talks between the United States and the European Union are in danger of being derailed by populist groups opposing everything from globalization to multinationals, EU ministers and business leaders said on Friday. The rise of anti-EU parties, reports of U.S. spying in Europe and accusations that a trade pact would pander to big companies have combined to erode public support for a deal that proponents say would dramatically increase economic growth. "We have an uphill battle to make the argument that this EU-U.S. free-trade agreement is a good one," he said in remarks that were broadcast to reporters.

The nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years. Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars. “The smaller and less capable military outlined in...

<p>You're a 16th century German prince plotting to crush a peasant rebellion, or perhaps you're leading an army against the Ottoman Empire or looking to settle the score with a rival nobleman. What's a guy looking for a tactical edge to do?</p> <p>Bring on the rocket cats!</p>

For now, the Romeikes get to stay in America. Homeschoolers Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled their native Germany in 2008 and brought their five children to the U.S. They have since had a sixth child. Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal to stay here. It seemed the Obama administration would succeed in its efforts to have this devout Christian family deported. But at the eleventh hour, the Department of Homeland Security relented. The family has been granted an indefinite stay of the deportation order. This is a matter of grave concern not only to...

Today, a Supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security called a member of our legal team to inform us that the Romeike family has been granted “indefinite deferred status”. This means that the Romeikes can stay in the United States permanently (unless they are convicted of a crime, etc.) This is an incredible victory that can only be credited to our Almighty God. We also want to thank those of who spoke up on this issue–including that long ago White House petition. We believe that the public outcry made this possible while God delivered the victory. Via Home School Legal...

The Department of Homeland Security has granted a special status to the Romeikes, a German homeschooling family that was under threat of being deported after being denied a Supreme Court review Monday, that will allow them to stay in the United States. DHS has granted them "indefinite deferred status," according to a Home School Legal Defense Association press release. The Romeikes were initially granted asylum in the United States after they were threatened with jail time and losing custody of their children for choosing to homeschool. The Obama administration, though, appealed that decision and won, arguing that there is no...

Polish news site Thenews.pl is reporting that President Obama in a telephone call on Sunday to Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski “assured him ‘unequivocally as to Poland’s security, knowing that Poland is not only a neighbor of Ukraine but Russia as well.’ Speaking Monday after a meeting of Poland’s Nations Security Council – with Poland’s Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and opposition party leaders in attendance - Komorowski informed the media that he had directed Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to “request NATO consultations under Article 4 of the alliance’s founding treaty.” Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty that was...

If ever there was evidence of the upside down world of our immigration system, it would be the story of the Romeike family from Germany. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike are Christians and because of their Christian beliefs, they decided to home school their children, even though German law does not grant them that right. They felt it important enough that they defied that law and were facing increasingly higher fines and the possibility of losing custody of their children. Because of their strong belief that they should be able to educate their children themselves, they moved to Morristown, TN in...

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal from the Romeikes, a German homeschooling family that had asylum in the United States. The U.S. Justice Department sought to deport them back to Germany where they could lose custody of their children due to their religious beliefs. "Today, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Uwe and Hannelore Romeike's asylum case," Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association, wrote in a letter to supporters. "We knew it was an uphill battle since the Court only accepts 80–100 out of nearly 10,000 requests each year....

For the next several months, Washington won’t be seeing as much of President Barack Obama as usual. In February, March and April, the president is traveling to nine countries: Mexico, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. His trip to Mexico is next week. He is heading to Europe in March and Asia in April. On Friday, Mr. Obama is traveling to California to visit the drought-stricken Central Valley and meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage. The president’s domestic travels are expected to pick up as the midterm...

My ordination in you is divine there is nothing fractured about it as man's ordination for truly you have been set apart for such a time as this and I am moving you into positions of authority though others believe they are in control and as my spirit guides you to them Then I will speak through you disassembling their hierarchy of pride and vanity before their submissers and redeem what is truly mine for my wisdom is greater and they do not walk in the knowledge of my kingdom but their own. So watch as pride takes a fall...