Free Republic

In Germany, the birthrate has sunk to just 1.36, worse even than low-fertility Spain (1.48) and Italy (1.4). Western Europe as a whole will most likely shrink from 460 million to just 350 million by the end of the century. And barring dramatic reversal of the foolish One (sometimes Two) Child Policy, China’s population will be reduced in half. Even the USA where a large immigrant Hispanic population immigration has kept birth rates higher, is now facing reduction. A Pew Research Center report found that immigrant births fell from 102 per 1,000 women in 2007 to 87.8 per 1,000 in...

Britain remains the world's leading recruiting ground for al-Qaeda. ... British school teachers are afraid to teach their students about Christianity out of fear of offending Muslims. — Roger Bolton, BBC Radio 4's Feedback program. Rather than taking steps to protect British children, police, social workers, teachers... and the media deliberately played down the severity of the crimes [of Muslim sexual grooming gangs] in order to avoid being accused of "Islamophobia" or racism. — From the report "Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slavery." ... The problem of honor-based violence and forced marriages in England is "worse than people...

US President Barack Obama acknowledges that Iran would become a “very successful regional power” if a long-term nuclear agreement is reached. “They have got a chance to get right with the world,” Obama said in an interview with NPR News, which was taped at the White House on Dec. 18 and aired on Monday. More than a year ago, Iran agreed to an interim agreement to suspend 20-percent uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions pending on a long-term deal. Despite progress in the talks, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council...

Skiers trying to make their way to and from French Alps resorts were plunged into chaos on Saturday night as 15,000 cars were trapped on the roads and emergency overnight centres were set up to shelter trapped tourists. Across the Savoie region, thousands of people were trapped in their cars, snowed in their chalets or stranded at airports as long-awaited snow finally dumped on the Alps - several feet, in some places.

’Tis the season for abject folly? There has long been a movement to ban authentic Christmas carols from American schools. Now some German politicians and religious leaders are recommending that Muslim “carols” be sung in some of their institutions — their churches — during Christmas services. The idea, which supposedly would increase “tolerance,” also involves the singing of Christian songs in mosques. Of course, critics would point out that the two actions are not equivalent, since no Muslim high holy day falls on the 25th. Many would also suspect that church leaders are far more likely to entertain the idea...

Radical Muslims are rebuked by young German woman in Frankfurt Germany. Psalms 94:16 - Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17 Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. 18 When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? 21 They gather themselves together against...

Dear friends, we are slowly recovering from the stress the journey into the “Islamic State” has induced on us. Frederic, my son, has lost several pounds. Of course, I have been aware that both, meeting with ISIS and American and Syrian bomb attacks, could put me into high risk. In Mosul, low-flying US aircraft circled over us numerous times. And our “apartment” in the Syrian town Raqqa was largely destroyed by a Syrian bomb while we were staying in Mosul, Iraq. Hence, our last night in Raqqa had to be spent in a bombed-out and glass-splittered apartment. It’s difficult to...

In Russia, the overnight lending rates between banks has soared to 19%, a sign of widespread and warranted mistrust between banks, as one bank has failed. To stabilize the situation, Putin is considering bank deposit insurance up to an amount equivalent rate of about $26,000. Meanwhile, and although Russia is still burning through currency reserves, the value of the Ruble has been rising. CNN Money reports Russia Empties the Vault to Prop Up Ruble. So far this year the central bank has burned through more than $110 billion in foreign currency supplies. That's more than a quarter of what it...

Another life lesson from the religion of peace. A trio of well wishers were telling passersby “Merry Christmas” in Cologne, Germany, when they happened on a Muslim man accompanying two Muslim women. The man took offense at the greeting and proceeded to attack one of the men with a knife, stabbing him multiple times in the back and neck. Considering the attack took place on Christmas Eve, the Muslim man was probably out searching for a patsy, looking to be offended just enough so that he could carry out his cowardly attack and then claim himself as a victim of...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday confirmed that Israel had acquired four new Sa’ar-class warships from Germany, reportedly to help protect off-shore gas extraction facilities. ... A spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office said that for the time being the deal remained an understanding, and that Germany would be footing a “nice” part of the cost. He refused to detail the cost of the ships.

In the course of an educational dig in Gernsheim in the Hessian Ried, archaeologists from Frankfurt University have discovered a long lost Roman fort: A troop unit made up out of approximately 500 soldiers (known as a cohort) was stationed there between 70/80 and 110/120 AD. Over the past weeks, the archaeologists found two V-shaped ditches, typical of this type of fort, and the post holes of a wooden defensive tower as well as other evidence from the time after the fort was abandoned. An unusually large number of finds were made. This is because the Roman troops dismantled the...

Keeping up with the empire by Thijs Westerbeek, 24 May 2004 Hard currency: this silver Roman coin (a denarius, front and back shown) from the 2nd century AD indicates trade between the inhabitants of De Bloemert and Rome The Roman Empire has been well documented. Over the years written history and archaeology have brought to the surface, sometimes literally unearthed, a whole society. Thus Roman architecture, religion, military strategy and legal structures hold little mystery. Compared to this depth of knowledge, many of those living outside the boundaries of the Empire are lost in time. But now an archaeological excavation...

In the 7th century BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib constructed an 80-kilometre-long, 20-metre-wide stone-lined canal to bring fresh water to his capital Nineveh. Compared to 20th century standards, one is surprised to learn that the project, which included a 330-metre-long aqueduct, was completed in only one year and three months time.

Until now no traces of a sanctuary or riverine context have been found, which might indicate a religious deposition for the wine-set. It is possible that the valuable bronzes were hidden underground during the period of the hostile Germanic incursions in the second half of the 3rd century AD.

Ancient Roman road found in Netherlands By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 5, 3:19 PM ET AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Archaeologists in the Netherlands have uncovered what they believe is part of the military road Roman soldiers patrolled nearly 2,000 years ago while guarding against hostile Germanic tribes at the Roman Empire's northern boundary. Known in Latin as the "limes," the road was in use from roughly A.D. 50 to A.D. 350, before it fell into disrepair and eventually disappeared underground, said archaeologist Wilfried Hessing, who is leading the excavations in Houten, about 30 miles southeast of Amsterdam. The...

FRANKFURT - Scientists say a Roman horse head made from bronze and plated in gold has been discovered at an archaeological site in Germany. Hesse state archaeologist Egon Schallmeyer says the head is part of a horse and rider statue and "qualitatively one of the best (pieces) created at that time."

Ukraine likes to conjure up the magic word "Galicia" to create an identity of European belonging. Richard Wagner picks apart this myth-cum-trademark in an EU bid he believes is misplaced. Ukraine is firmly anchored in the Eurasian region that traditionally answers to Moscow. The cultural-historical fusion with Russia reaches deep into the past to the Kievan Rus, the original formula of the East Slavic concept of state, as does the Byzantine-Orthodox hold on mentality and society. The majority of the population speaks Russian and geographically and geo-politically speaking, the country has a number of non-European coordinates that are indispensable to...

ROMA, January 19, 2006 – The first words of Benedict XVI’s first encyclical letter, almost the motto of his papacy, are “Deus Caritas Est,” God is love. But not everyone in the upper levels of the Church is full of love and solidarity for this new pope. Resistance to his guidance is tenacious and widespread, and in some places it is on the rise. And almost all the resistance shields itself behind the protection of anonymity. The only open and avowed resistance is that of the Neocatechumenal Way, which has opposed a papal directive issued last December, which struck at...

Take a German course. We Europeans sometimes err, but didn't you know we're glorious? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23945btJYw

BrusselsWHEN EUROPE THREW a big party in Copenhagen in December, Poland nearly spoiled the fun. Unhappy with the membership terms offered by the European Union, the Poles held out for a few extra billion euros, knowing full well the "historic" enlargement jamboree couldn't take place without the biggest of the Central European candidates. The E.U. caved and put up extra cash, securing the claim to have "reunified Europe" and "buried Yalta." Polish prime minister Leszek Miller, a veteran of one of his country's last Communist governments, thanked native son Pope John Paul II for getting Poland into "Europe." The theatrics...