Free Republic

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisan food makers. The small glass jugs filled with green- or gold-colored extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe, but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week. From next year, olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in prepackaged factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in...

Even as President Obama is following in Eurosocialist footsteps, the 14-year utopian experiment on a single currency is collapsing. The architect of the euro just ran up the white flag on the biggest policy mistakes in history. Former German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine called his own brainchild a "catastrophe". "The economic situation is worsening from month to month," he wrote on his Left party blog. "unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt." "Catastrophe" is the right word. Today Greece is suffering more than 50% unemployment. That's worse than the Great Depression in the US....

<p>"Jobless. Help me. Thanks."</p> <p>At 27.2%, Spain is suffering the worst unemployment rate in modern history.</p> <p>Spain is tied with Greece, and is worse than the approximately 25% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw during The Great Depression.</p> <p>The causes, by now, are familiar — the end of a massive, bubble-fueled construction boom in 2008 led to spiraling unemployment and a deep recession, wreaking havoc on the Spanish economy.</p>

... For decades, corruption was accepted in Southern Europe as a fact of life, a way to distribute the spoils, and few people — including, in many cases, prosecutors — gave it a second thought. But the grinding economic crisis, which stalled projects and ended the flow of cash, has helped lift the veil on corrupt officials, exposing graft, bribery, payoffs, secret favors and other misdeeds on a scale that few imagined. At a time when Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal are imposing deficit-cutting austerity plans on their hard-pressed citizens, these revelations of widespread political corruption are stoking bitter resentment,...

Amid growing calls from Tory MPs for David Cameron to respond to the Ukip threat by bringing forward legislation on an EU referendum, Farage warned that his party would not go away even if No 10 "starts singing the same song". William Hague, who famously suffered a major defeat in the 2001 election after tacking to the right, called for a cautious response to Ukip as he warned of the dangers of "quick fixes". Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said many Ukip voters were "frustrated Conservatives". As the Tories work out their response to Ukip, which won nearly a quarter...

Even if Germany had to write off the loans it extended to Southern European countries as part of the eurozone’s emergency rescue measures, the economic advantages of its membership would still be overwhelming, according to a recent study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung. … “Without the euro, growth of the real gross domestic product [GDP] in Germany would be lower by about 0.5 percentage points per year,” the study says, warning that without that euro, Europe “would fall apart politically” and become “a losing player in international competition.” And projections for the future are looking bright, the study adds. “Adding up...

The World Gold Council has advised Italy to deploy its 2,000 tonnes of gold to break free of EMU austerity dictates. By using the reserves – the world's fourth largest – to collateralise the first chunk of any losses for bondholders, Italy could raise €400bn or so on the capital markets and determine its own future for a while. Italy did this in 1974 when it borrowed $2bn from the Bundesbank, using gold as collateral. Portugal did the same thing to borrow $1bn from the BIS in the 1975-1977, and India used its gold to borrow from Japan in 1991....

As Biden speaks at event named for Old Hickory tonight, more appalling stories show party should dump him as icon Spring means that appeals for money are bursting forth from both major political parties. It also means Democratic officials in states and counties around the country are busy getting people out to their major fundraiser, the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. And theyÂ’re bringing in the big guns: Vice President Joe Biden will keynote the South Carolina DemocratsÂ’ dinner tonight.But after an election in which Democrats rode a wave of minority support to keep the White House and Senate, party activists should...

Two years ago today, SEAL Team Six sent Osama bin Laden on his way to Davy Jones’ Locker — but his Islamist terror machine is anything but sinking to the depths. It remains a vicious, global threat. Since Osama’s demise, the terror group’s strength has ebbed in some areas, but flowed strongly in others. Indeed, one current estimate concludes that al Qaeda affiliates and associates (i.e., groups, cells or operatives) are active in more than 30 countries (of some 190) on four continents. Including our continent. While we don’t yet know the whole story behind the Boston bombing, just last...

Given the good relations Gibraltar has now established with the EU in our own right, our government needs to use those to ward off a new attack by Spain. The Ministro de Hacienda y Administraciones Publicas, Cristobal Montoro, says that Spain has signed an accord with other European countries to form a working group to force the EU to eradicate what Spain calls “paraisos fiscales”. Montoro has Gibraltar firmly in his sights, and confirmed Spanish media reports that the Agencia Tributaria had formed a working group to stamp out tax evasion; specifically, the millions of euros Madrid insists are implanted...

Spain's unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures. The total number of unemployed people in Spain has now passed the six million figure, although the rate of the increase has slowed. The figures underline Spain's struggle to emerge from an economic crisis which began five years ago. On Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil fiscal and policy measures aimed at halting recession in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy. "These figures are worse than expected and highlight the serious situation of the Spanish economy as well...

The Spanish Consul in Boston was sacked for his behaviour in the wake of the bombings which took place at the end of the Boston Marathon Monday. Pablo Sanchez-Teran, was sacked by foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo for "failure to fulfil his consular obligations" as a result of Sanchez-Teran's decision to maintain the usual office hours in the Spanish Consul in Boston and close his doors just two hours after the explosion of two bombs at the finish line of the race which killed three people and injured over a hundred, reports Xinhua. Ninety-one Spaniards were participating in the Boston...

An anarchist group in Spain has been sending bombs to prominent Roman Catholics, hiding the explosives inside packages containing vibrators. At least two such mini-bombs have been sent by a group that calls itself the Anticlerical Pro Sex Toys Group, according to Spain's state-owned EFE news agency. One device exploded at a postal sorting office, slightly injuring the woman who was handling the package. "Please accept our apologies," the group said in an email apparently sent to an anarchist website at the beginning of last month. "Next time we won't fail." The group targeted the Roman Catholic archbishop of Pamplona,...

A video game in which Pope Benedict XVI is depicted as a pimp for pedophile Roman Catholic cardinals is facing calls to be banned. Vatican Quest, released by U.S. firm RoundGames.com on Mar. 14, has sparked outrage in Spain with critics saying it makes fun of both sexual abuse victims and the Catholic Church. Human rights group Maslibres.org has launched a petition demanding the free arcade game is removed from the Web, reports El Huffington Post. The game's main character is a doll, resembling the recently retired Pope, who has to collect young children for cardinals waiting at the gates...

Perhaps the best measure to gauge the European recovery is by the soaring number of companies going bust, because only from this perspective is Europe finally "fixed." As Reuters reports citing a report by Axesor, a record 2,564 companies filed for "insolvency proceedings", a more palatable version of the word bankruptcy, in the first quarter - an increase of 10% from Q4 and up a whopping 45% from Q1 2012. The reasons given: "tight credit conditions and meager demand." Or in other words: no actual cash flow to fund demand for products and services. Obviously it will take some...

Eurozone Faces New Challenge As Portugal Blocks Cuts The eurozone crisis threatens to flare up again this week after Portugal's constitutional court blocked the country's planned austerity programme. By Philip Aldrick 07 Apr 2013 The single currency bloc has already been destabilised by Cyprus and now faces fresh uncertainty if Lisbon cannot find new savings to meet the conditions of its €78bn (£66bn) bail-out. Pedro Passos Coelho, Portugal’s prime minister, said last night that the rejection posed “serious obstacles and risks” to Portugal’s progress in meeting its bail-out commitments, but that it would “do everything to avoid a second rescue”....

Portugal's prime minister said he will address the nation Sunday over a crisis triggered when the country's highest court ruled some of the unpopular pay cuts in this year's budget are unlawful, depriving the government of about 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) of expected revenue. Pedro Passos Coelho will speak after his government said in a statement that the position taken by the Constitutional Court "places the country in serious difficulties in meeting obligations to which it is committed internationally and also the budgetary goals it must meet."

The global financial convulsion of 2007-2008 was followed by the resounding announcement of new priorities: international finance was to be better regulated and there was to be no mercy in the fight against tax havens. In short, we were to put an end to the black holes in a system that was wide open to abuse—at least if the very virtuous conclusions of the G20 held in London were to be believed. … Revelations of individual cases, no matter how fascinating they are, should not be allowed to distract attention from the underlying problem: tax havens are a threat to...

Two wealthy German states have filed a lawsuit in the country’s highest court challenging a system under which money is redistributed to less prosperous regions. Bavaria’s state government said it and the state of Hesse filed the suit Monday with the Federal Constitutional Court. … The system is supposed to help ensure equal living conditions nationwide. …

Japan and the European Union agreed Monday to start negotiations for a free-trade pact encompassing nations that account for nearly a third of the world economy. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso spoke by telephone for 30 minutes late Monday, a Japanese government spokesman said. A Japan-EU summit set to begin Monday in Tokyo was shelved because of the financial crisis in Cyprus. The leaders agreed to launch the negotiations toward a “deep and comprehensive” free-trade deal, with the first meeting set for next month, both sides said...

The UK Independence Party leader said that the European Union had “crossed a line” by trying to extract funds from savers under the terms of the abandoned Cypriot bail-out. Mr Farage said: “Even I didn’t think that they would stoop to actually stealing money from people’s bank accounts. “There is going to be a big flight of money and that flight of money won’t just be from Cyprus, it will be from the other eurozone countries, too. There are 750,000 British people who own properties, or who live, many of them in retirement, down in Spain. “Now that we see...

Europe Has A Crisis — And It's Much Bigger Than Cyprus Joe WeisenthalMarch 23, 2013REUTERS/Christian Hartmann In a way, Europe should be thrilled by the week that was because financial markets barely batted an eye at the crisis in Cyprus. But Europe has a problem on its hands that's bigger than Cyprus: The economy stinks. This week we got fresh proof that things are bad or getting worse. In France, the Flash PMI report (which is a mid-month look at the combined services and manufacturing sectors of the economy) came in dismal, with the output index falling to a four...

Apparently it takes a former Federal Reserve senior economist to ground everyone in reality. The European Union is no more and disintegrating rapidly: "The European project is crashing to earth,” Athanasios Orphanides told the Financial Times in an interview. "This is a fundamental change in the dynamics of Europe towards disintegration and I don’t see how this can be reversed.” ...This week’s events had made “a mockery” of EU treaties, he added. “It suggests that in Europe not all people are equal under the law.”“We have seen other eurozone countries, the Netherlands, for instance, put national interests ahead of the...

High profile-gang rapes in India have been in the headlines since December. The phenomenon is growing across Europe too, but tends to be under reported due to the high incidence of Muslim perpetrators which makes it politically incorrect to mention. In December 2011 a Swedish mother-of-two was subjected to a brutal gang-rape by 12 Afghan immigrants in a refugee camp . ... The main perpetrator Rafi Bahaduri, 25, had already committed four other rapes in Sweden. The case is not unique. There is a growing trend of gang-rapes perpetrated against white women by Muslim rapists. In the U.K. there has...

During the Great Depression criminals like Bonnie and Clyde, Willie Sutton, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson robbed banks. They attained some degree of folk hero status by sticking it to banks that some felt were responsible for the Depression era misery.  With liberal ideas firmly in the saddle, civilizing us, so to speak, we have come a long way from those dreary days. No longer would we applaud such criminals. Instead, today, we send them to Congress, or parliament, or the legislature, where governments try to achieve folk hero status by robbing banks and depositors alike....

Controversy has erupted over next Tuesday's European Parliament resolution "on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU", meant to mark international women's day, after libertarian Swedish MEPs from the Pirate Party spotted the call for a ban in the small print. While not legally binding, the vote could be the first step towards European legislation as the EU's assembly increasingly flexes its political muscle within Europe's institutions.

i>The Minister of Finance and Public Administration, CriThe sheer stupidity out of nannycrats in Brussels is staggering. Smack in the midst of a depression, Brussels once again calls on Spain to hike taxes. Via Google translate from El Economista ... The European Commission today called on Spain to restrict the application of the reduced VAT rate and raise fuel taxes to reduce the deficit, and continue reforms in the labor and pensions, delaying the effective retirement age. These requests collide with the ideas defended by the Spanish Government no further adjustment and lower taxes in 2014. Brussels also calls on...

'More than 500 years ago, tens of thousands of Jews fled Spain because of persecution. Now their descendants are being invited to return. Before the infamous Spanish Inquisition of the 15th Century, some 300,000 Jews lived in Spain. It was one of the largest communities of Jews in the world. Today, there are about 40,000 or 50,000 - but that number could be about to swell dramatically. In November, Spain's justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced a plan to give descendants of Spain's original Jewish community - known as Sephardic Jews - a fast-track to a Spanish passport and Spanish citizenship....

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched through cities across the country on Saturday to protest deep austerity, the privatization of public services and political corruption. Gathering under the banner of the "Citizen Tide," students, doctors, unionists, young families and pensioners staged rowdy but non-violent demonstrations as a near five-year economic slump shows no sign of recovery and mass unemployment rises.

The Gatestone Institute reported yesterday that the government of Spain has agreed with the government of Morocco that Moroccan children adopted by Spanish families will be required remain culturally and religiously Muslim.  The Spanish government will create a "control mechanism" that will allow Moroccan religious authorities to monitor the children until they reach the age of 18 to see that they have not converted to Christianity. Spain agreed to these conditions so that Spanish families who are in the process of adopting Moroccan children can bring them to Spain. Morocco has a high rate of child abandonment, and Spain has been...

Nationalised Spanish lender Bankia is expected to reveal a €19bn loss next week, the largest in the country’s corporate history. ___ The bank has been struggling to close 1,100 branches and sell assets since its bailout in 2012. On Thursday Bankia will report full-year earnings, including a €12.6bn provision taken at the end of last year. The writedown is a result of the lender moving assets into Spain’s “bad bank” at heavy discounts. Bankia, which is seen as a symbol of Spain’s financial woes, was created through the merger of seven smaller savings banks before being listed on Madrid’s stock...

King Juan Carlos's daughter likely to be formally named as a suspect in multimillion-euro scandal ahead of possible indictment As a financial scandal engulfs the royal family and politicians begin to call for his abdication, Spain's King Juan Carlos faces one of the worst weeks in his 37-year reign, with prosecutors set to ask a judge to formally name his daughter Princess Cristina as a suspect in a multimillion-euro fraud and money-laundering case. The request, which would be a preliminary step to a possible indictment, is poised to be made next week and will be based on the testimony of...

Thursday during the 1 PM hour CNN’s “Newsroom,” this exchange took place between CNN reporter Ali Velshi and Time Magazine’s deputy international editor Bobby Ghosh: VELSHI: The name Cordoba- some people are associating it with Muslim rule and bloody battles, when, in fact, Cordoba was one of the finest times in relations between the major religions. GHOSH: Exactly right- in interfaith discourse- VELSHI: Yeah- GHOSH: And the great mosque of Cordoba that people are talking about and that Newt Gingrich was talking about- the man who built it, the Muslim prince who built it, bought it from a Christian group-...

Thursday during the 1 p.m. hour, CNN’s “Newsroom,” this exchange took place between CNN reporter Ali Velshi andTime Magazine’s deputy international editor Bobby Ghosh: VELSHI: The name Cordoba- some people are associating it with Muslim rule and bloody battles, when, in fact, Cordoba was one of the finest times in relations between the major religions. GHOSH: Exactly right- in interfaith discourse- VELSHI: Yeah- GHOSH: And the great mosque of Cordoba that people are talking about and that Newt Gingrich was talking about- the man who built it, the Muslim prince who built it, bought it from a Christian group- paid...

Of all of the characteristics one might ascribe to Susan Rice, prescience is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Surprisingly however, five years ago she said something that demonstrated a momentary clarity of vision that is staggering. In a March 2008 interview she said the following: “Clinton hasn’t had to answer the phone at 3:00 in the morning, and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They’re both not ready to have that 3 AM phone call.” If the events immediately following Benghazi showed Ambassador Rice to be a hapless marionette of the administration, the...

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

Spain offers Eurofighters to Peru Spain's government has tendered a proposal to its Peruvian counterpart covering the possible sale of 18 Tranche 1 Eurofighter combat aircraft currently in service with its air force. Reportedly valued at €45 million ($61 million) per aircraft, the proposal was submitted at the request of the Peruvian defence ministry. If negotiations go forward, the intention would be to transfer all of the fighters to Peru within one year of a contract signature. The airframes have flown an average of around 600h each, sources suggest. Faced with a looming shortfall in its air defence capabilities, the...

The European Union's massive spending on farm subsidies and infrastructure projects will be in the spotlight at difficult talks this week to set the bloc's next longterm budget. Sources at both the European Commission and the European Parliament say EU leaders will be looking to trim a further 20 to 25 billion euros ($30-$35 billion) off the almost trillion-euro ($1.36 trillion) budget for 2014-2020 at a February 7-8 summit... The summit will be the second attempt by the 27 leaders to reach a deal on the budget after a November summit collapsed in acrimony. The Commission had originally sought 1.047...

The Daily Telegraph has seen confidential spending proposals and internal documents planning an unprecedented propaganda blitz ahead of and during European elections in June 2014. Key to a new strategy will be “public opinion monitoring tools” to “identify at an early stage whether debates of political nature among followers in social media and blogs have the potential to attract media and citizens’ interest”. Spending on “qualitative media analysis” is to be increased by £1.7 million ($2.7 million), and while most of the money is to be found in existing budgets, an additional £787,000 ($1.24 million) will be need to be...

There’s been a lot of discussion within some in the media regarding the demographic changes taking place in Europe. But those of us who’ve travelled there have observed it firsthand: namely, the decreased birthrate among Europeans compared to the enormous birthrate increase among Muslim immigrants. Overall, the birthrate across the continent is far below the replacement level of 2.1 children per couple. Italy, Spain, Austria, and Germany have a fertility rate of only 1.4, while Poland and Russia languish at 1.3 and 1.2, respectively. However, as a subgroup, Muslims in Europe are producing from 4 to 6 children per couple....

Catalonia regional parliament has approved a declaration proclaiming the Catalan people a “sovereign political and legal entity”. The motion also calls for a referendum to be held to allow Catalans their say on independence. The motion was passed by 85 votes to 41. The ruling Convergencia I Union coalition was backed by its parliamentary partner Esquerra Republicana (ERC), and the communist green coalition ICV. The Partido Popular, most of the Catalan socialists (PSC) Party, and Ciutadans, a non-separatist platform, voted against. The growing separatist movement in wealthy Catalonia - which has its own language - presents a major challenge for...

Whittaker Chambers and Totalitarian Islam Playwright David Mamet recently acknowledged that he had been profoundly influenced by Communist apostate Whittaker Chambers’s 1952 anti-Communist memoir, Witness. Mamet described how reading Chambers’s opus inspired “the wrenching experience� of forcibly reevaluating the way he thought, particularly his confessed leftist-herd co-dependence. Also, echoing the delusive herd mentality of the Left’s ad hominem attacks in the 1950s on Chambers — whose allegations of Communist conspiracies have been entirely vindicated with irrefragable documentation from the captured Soviet Venona cables — Congressman Peter King’s staid initial hearings of March 10, 2011, on American Muslim radicalization engendered similarly...

Ramón Mercader from Barcelona killed Trotsky with an ice axe in Mexico City. On 20th August 1940, the exiled Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded at his home in a suburb of Mexico City when an ice axe was driven into his skull. He cried out to his guards as they burst into his study, ‘Don’t kill him! He must talk.’ Despite struggling fiercely, and even managing to bite the hand of his assassin, Trotsky died the next day, and the man who wielded the murder weapon was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He insisted throughout his trial and his...

MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials broke up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the U.S. border, Mexican immigration authorities said Tuesday. The "Defensores de Cristo" or "Defenders of Christ" allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ, according to an official of a victims' advocacy group, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Followers were subjected to forced labor or sexual services, including prostitution, according to the National Immigration Institute that said it...

SPANISH house prices could drop by a further 50% and may not recover for the next 15 years, according to experts. The Costa del Sol is among the worst affected areas in the country, with the total fall in values predicted to be as much as 75% in some areas. There are 800,000 used homes on the Spanish property market, with another 300,000 having been foreclosed by the banks and a further 150,000 in foreclosure proceedings. What’s more, developers have 700,000 completed units not on the market and another 250,000 still under construction. “The market is broken,” said Fernando Rodriguez...

It feels strange visiting a country like Morocco and listening to people extol the virtues of a political system my country waged a revolution against. Morocco has a king, and he’s a real one too, not some kind of a figurehead. But I went there, I listened, and after almost ten years of visiting Middle Eastern countries wracked by tyranny, terrorism, botched revolutions, and wars, I was perhaps a bit more willing to hear what they had to say than I might have been a decade ago. A monarchy is a tough sell for Americans. The founders of our country...

"IRI recruitment and support activities in Latin America - the Uruguay connection" SNIPPET: "You can add Uruguay to the countries in Latin America where the Islamic Republic of Iran is well-represented by indigenous supporters. What brings these folks to my attention in the first place is their support for Suhail Assad, the IRI's point man in Latin America, and their connection to the IRI's recruiter in Peru, Edwar "Hussein" Quiroga Vargas. I'll get back to that, but first, the websites."

Hundreds of Egyptians demonstrated on Wednesday Jan. 2 in Safenex Square in Cairo to commemorate the 521st anniversary of the fall of Granada. The demonstration was called by The Free Movement (Harakat Ahrar). The protesters organized a human chain around the square and held signs that said: “Obligatory return”,”We have not forgotten Al Andalus” and “Of course we will return” … And they really mean it. Demonstrator: As we speak, in Islamic Andalusia, in Spain, they are marching to celebrate the fall of the Islamic state of Andalusia, or Spain. While they are celebrating, we here are upset, because the...