Free Republic

Heavily-armed masked police arrested the suspects, one wearing a hood over his head, in Berlin's Neukoelln neighborhood. Another nine people are being questioned in the case. All suspects are related to one another and aged between 18 and 20, police said. The raids of 13 different buildings lasted several hours, but the gold coin was not recovered. "We assume that the coin was partially or completely sold," Carsten Pfohl of the Berlin state criminal office told reporters at a press conference. He added that police also confiscated clothes and cars to comb for traces of gold. The Canadian "Big Maple...

In accordance with a formal proclamation by Queen Elizabeth II of England, a new Canadian national flag is raised above Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Beginning in 1610, Lower Canada, a new British colony, flew Great Britain's Union Jack, or Royal Union Flag. In 1763, as a result of the French and Indian Wars, France lost its sizable colonial possessions in Canada, and the Union Jack flew all across the wide territory of Canada. In 1867, the Dominion of Canada was established as a self-governing federation within the British Empire, and three years later a new flag,...

Canada's "maple leaf" is one of the most readily recognized flags on earth. Meet the man who was given six weeks to come up with it, back in 1964. From pop artist Charles Pachter’s series of Canadian flag paintings: Will the flag he championed fly at half-mast?That was my first thought upon hearing that World War II veteran-turned Member of Parliament John Ross Matheson passed away last Friday.Given his keen amateur interest in heraldry, Matheson was the perfect choice to lead Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson’s quest to create a new Canadian flag, one that would symbolically separate the former...

The New York Times seems to have a special interest in Ted Cruz — in particular, his relation to Canada. As I noted in a February column, the Times referred to him as a “Canadian-born lawyer.” True, but such a curious thing to slip in, given that Ted is about as American — as Texan — as they come. Ted’s mother, a native of Delaware, and Ted’s father, a refugee from Cuba, lived in Calgary for a while. Their son was born there. They moved to Houston when he was four (as I understand it). I borrow an old saying:...

The Tunisian Embassy says one of two men accused of plotting to derail a train in Canada is a Tunisian citizen. The embassy said Thursday that 30-year-old Chiheb Esseghaier came to Quebec in August 2008 and is registered at the Consulate of Tunisia in Montreal. …

Terror never rests, even on the placid train trip between New York and Toronto. With the help of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Canadian law enforcement officials announced Monday that they had stopped an Al Qaeda-linked plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto Amtrak passenger train, and have arrested two suspects in Montreal and Toronto. Police charged Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser with "terrorism related offenses," officials said at a news conference Monday afternoon. The men were observed gathering information on trains in the Toronto area, officials said, which they planned to attack. The charges against the...

The Royal Canadian Mint is on track to raise sales of its silver bullion coins by around 30 percent to 25 million ounces this year and to match last year’s record gold sales of around 1 million ounces, an executive from the Mint said. Speaking on the sidelines of the London Bullion Market Association annual conference, John Moore, executive director of bullion and refinery services at the Mint, told Reuters investors believed silver had more room to rise than gold. “In terms of our sales this year, year to date we’re tracking to the same volumes as we had last...

Dallas-Fort Worth sports columnist likens our patriotism to Nazi Germany An American sports columnist gets a bizarre Nazi flashback in Vancouver By Cam Battley, Canwest News Service March 2, 2010 It took the investigative skills of intrepid Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist Gil LeBreton to uncover the ugly truth. Like Edward R. Murrow in pre-Second World War Vienna and London, Mr. LeBreton put his personal safety at risk to file a brave report from the turbulent city of Vancouver. Sure, Canadians seem multicultural, friendly and good-natured on the surface. But that's just what they want you to think. Dig a...

By JOSE RODRIGUEZ   This space is generally reserved for cutting commentary, venomous verbiage and the odd shot of comic relief. Not today. Because even those of us lucky enough to be in the opinion industry (read: professional whiners) know a good thing when we see it.   It's Canada Day and despite the chronic criticisms that clacks from this keyboard all the other days of the year, today is a day to toast the Maple Leaf and raise a beer to Mother Canada. So bottoms up -- we have plenty to celebrate. If it wasn't for Canadians, the world...

SEATTLE — Evil — a word usually reserved for the likes of Adolph Hitler or Usama bin Laden — is now being used by more than a third of Canadian teens to describe the United States.