Free Republic

Human activities have little to do with the Earth's current warming trend, according to a study published by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). In fact, S. Fred Singer (University of Virginia) and Dennis Avery (Hudson Institute) conclude that global warming and cooling seem to be part of a 1,500-year cycle of moderate temperature swings. Scientists got the first unequivocal evidence of a continuing moderate natural climate cycle in the 1980s, when Willi Dansgaard of Denmark and Hans Oeschger of Switzerland first saw two mile-long ice cores from Greenland representing 250,000 years of Earth's frozen, layered climate history. From...

There's only one real way to compare military strength, and thankfully the world hasn't had many opportunities lately. Despite the potential powder keg in the South China Sea, standoffs in Ukraine, and proxy wars throughout the Middle East, inter-state warfare between the world's military powers has been all but banished from the global scene (for the time being, at least). For a simpler evaluation of military power, we turned to the Global Firepower Index, a ranking of 106 nations based on more than 50 factors including overall military budget, available manpower, and the amount of equipment each country has in...

The Swiss central bank plans to charge depositors a 'negative' interest rate of -0.25 per cent to discourage spooked investors from using it to shelter their cash. Money has flooded into Switzerland as market turbulence caused by the Russian rouble collapse and oil price slide has prompted a desperate search for safe havens in recent days. The Swiss National Bank said it would slash its interest rate on balances of over 10million Swiss francs from January 22 - effectively imposing a charge on depositors wanting to hold francs in a bid to keep its currency artificially weak against the euro.

Fareed speaks with Naftali Bennett, the economic minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, about Iran's nuclear program. Watch the full interview on GPS this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN. Iran - you have said that you thought a bad deal would lead to war, but a good deal could lead to peace. So the question is, do you regard the deal that is under discussion as a good deal or a bad deal? From what we can tell, the area where they seem to be at right now is that Iran would go from about 19,000...

News.com.au: Patients’ pain ends Ebola vaccine trial in Switzerland 3 minutes ago "A CLINICAL trial of an Ebola vaccine has finished early after some patients started complaining of joint pain. The trial was stopped a week early in all 59 volunteers “as a measure of precaution”, the University of …"

My children of light you have arrived for you abide in My presence in Zion yet many remain earthbound in distractions. Therefore throw off these hindrances "yeah" fast the earth for though I am coming I have already arrived in "you" My Zion on earth. You see as you strip your wellspring of earthly desires Heaven arises in you in all the fullness of The Godhead and it is then My will "is" done. Let there be freedom for My Spirit to "speak" to you of new things and allow Me to bless you through your obedience to My Voice...

SWISS VOTERS overwhelmingly rejected a so-called gold standard referendum. They were right to do so. The wording of the referendum revealed a major obstacle to any return to a genuine gold standard: ignorance of what makes such a system work. The proposition was actually focused on the levels of Switzerland’s gold reserves, not on an actual return to a gold standard. But it was seen as a step in that direction. The purpose of a gold standard is to keep a currency stable in value. Other currencies not on a gold standard may go up or down vis-à-vis the gold-linked...

(Google Translate)(Full Speech below) Vatican City (kath.net/KAP/red) Francis Pope has spoken out against a common celebration of the Eucharist by Catholics and Protestants. "If we have to hide our Eucharistic faith under the pretext of a certain accommodation by, then we take our own treasure neither nor our interlocutor seriously enough," he said on Monday in front of the Swiss bishops at the Vatican. In ecumenical dialogue, the bishops should make sure that the believers of all faiths could live their faith "unambiguous and free of confusion" and "without the differences at the expense of truth wegzuretuschieren". At the same...

Myles Udland November 30, 2014 On Sunday night, gold was down more than 4% to as low as $1,143 an ounce after voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected a measure that would have required the Swiss National Bank to increase its gold reserves from 8% to 20% of its holdings. The vote failed by a margin of 78%-22%. In addition the drop in gold, crude oil prices are resuming their tumble, and the price of other precious metals — silver and platinum — were also down sharply. Silver futures were down 12% early Sunday night and platinum futures were down...

30 November 2014 Ecopop Referendum: Swiss Reject Immigration Curbs Voters in Switzerland have decisively rejected a proposal to cut net immigration to no more than 0.2% of the population. The country's 26 cantons rejected the proposal, with about 74% of people voting no in Sunday's referendum. Supporters of the measure argued that it would have reduced pressure on the country's resources. Opponents said it would have been bad for the economy. Around a quarter of Switzerland's eight million people are foreigners. The measure would have required the government to reduce immigration from about 80,000 to 16,000 people a year

In today’s Swiss gold referendum, roughly 78% voted against expanding central bank gold reserves to 20% of central bank assets from the current 7%, according to Swiss national broadcaster SRF. The vote is a blow to the movement to “Save Our Swiss Gold” that had the hopes of moving Switzerland back toward a gold standard which the country left in 1999.

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Voters in Switzerland Sunday rejected a referendum designed to limit immigration into the country for reasons of environmental conservation, along with other items dealing with tax breaks for expatriates and boosting gold reserves. The "Ecopop" initiative called for a massive reduction of net immigration into the country down to 0.2 percent of the total population. The annual number of foreigners entering Switzerland would have been cut from roughly 80,000 down to 16,000. Swiss voters rejected the measure by 74 percent.

Swiss voters have overwhelmingly rejected a plan to force the Swiss National Bank to buy thousands of tonnes of gold, giving the SNB breathing space as it attempts to protect the franc against a quantitative easing blitz from the European Central Bank. Switzerland's government said on Sunday afternoon that 77pc of voters in Sunday’s referendum rejected proposals to make the central bank hold 20pc of its assets in the precious metal. This result was a blow to a right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which launched the “Save Our Swiss Gold” campaign in a reactionary backlash against the SNB accumulating hundreds of...

On Sunday, the people of Switzerland will go to the voting booth to decide their nation’s economic future. The “Swiss gold vote,” as it’s being called, would require that the nation put its currency back onto a gold standard, which would require the Swiss central bank to buy large amounts of gold from the global market in order to put their currency on a gold-based standard. The Swiss gold vote will have historic implications whether the citizens of Switzerland vote yes or no this weekend. This referendum is a measure that sets requirements for the Swiss National Bank (SNB) with...

For most of my career in international investing, I had always placed a great deal of faith in Switzerland's financial markets. In recent years, however, as the Swiss government has sought to hitch its wagon to the flailing euro currency and kowtow increasingly to U.S.-based financial requirements, this faith has been shaken. But this week (November 30th) a referendum in Switzerland on whether its central bank will be required to hold at least 20% of its reserves in gold, will offer ordinary Swiss citizens a rare opportunity to reclaim their country's strong economic heritage. It's a vote that few outside...

* Relatives of Brown, including parents, attack police officer who killed teen * Say his 'brazen confidence' meant he was sure he would not be punished * Darren Wilson, 28, killed Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, this August * Brown family complained about treatment of his body in report for UN * The Browns will fly to Geneva, Switzerland, to deliver document tomorrow The family of the black teenager shot dead by a white cop in Ferguson, Missouri, have claimed that he knew all along he would get away with it. Relatives of Michael Brown said that Darren Wilson had...

More than 1,500 years after its demise, the Roman Empire remains a vibrant part of modern-day Trier. Near the borders of France, Luxembourg and Belgium, today’s city of 105,000 was once the administrative capital of the Western Roman Empire and with its monolithic architecture became known as Roma Segunda — the Second Rome. The Romans brought to Trier a high standard of living, exquisite artwork and their famed architectural and engineering skills. In northern Europe, on an arc from the Alps to the North Sea, in what was once called northeast Gaul and Upper Germania, the remnants of Roman civilization...

Swiss officials have announced that the country is banning the Islamic State and related entities from their lands. The ban went into effect on Wednesday, when the Swiss cabinet voted to forbid Islamic State membership for at least six months. The ban disallows providing information or soliciting funds and recruiting for the jihadi terror group. Authorities said that doing so may result in three years in jail or a fine. The seven-member Swiss cabinet released a statement, which said that the Islamic State’s “massive human rights violations” have forced the country, which is known for its unapologetic neutrality, to act...

I’m a huge fan of Switzerland, largely because its voters approved a spending cap that should be a role model for other nations.It’s called the “debt brake” and it has helped reduce the burden of government spending in Switzerland at a time when most nations in Europe have been moving in the wrong direction.But that’s not the only reason I like Switzerland.I also appreciate the fact that Swiss voters seem to be much more sensible than voters in other nations.Every so often I see polls, for instance, suggesting that French voters overwhelmingly want less government spending. But then they go...

Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a plan for a seismic shift from the country's all-private health insurance system to a state-run scheme. Referendum results showed that almost 62 percent of voters had shot down a reform pushed by left-leaning parties which say the current private system is busting the budgets of ordinary residents. The results also underlined the national divisions over the hotly-contested issue as the country's German-speaking regions voted against the plan, while their French-speaking counterparts were in favour. Switzerland's private insurance lobby hailed the vote.