Free Republic

The euro slipped to a fresh 12-year low against the US dollar on Thursday as the common currency continued to buckle under pressure felt since the European Central Bank launched its massive quantitative easing scheme at the start of the week.

A black member of the University of Oklahoma fraternity plunged into scandal after film emerged of them has hit out at his so-called 'brothers'. William Bruce James II, who is one of just two black men ever to join the university's Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter, pledged in 2001 - but has now turned his back on the organization. The footage showed SAE members, riding a bus while wearing bow ties and dress shirts, chanting 'There will never be a n***** SAE' to the tune of If You're Happy And You Know It.

Parents of the second Oklahoma University student filmed conducting his Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers along to a racist chant on a bus have outed their 'disgusting' son - but insist he isn't a racist. Brody and Susan Pettit, from Dallas, issued an apology on behalf of 20-year-old Levi on Tuesday night - three days after he was filmed singing 'There will never be a N**** in SAE' in a sickening video that has shocked the nation. He, along with Parker Rice, a 19-year-old privately-educated former Catholic schoolboy, were immediately expelled by the university president who also booted the disgraced chapter...

Britain's historic bridges, buildings and roads are under threat from drivers blithely following satellite navigation directions, a conservation society warned yesterday. Among those which have been damaged by traffic driving down unsuitable roads is a 200-year-old bridge in Oxfordshire, a 300-year-old cottage in Greater Manchester and Pevensey Castle in East Sussex, according to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Phillip Venning, the society's secretary, said the cost of repairing some of the damage to the buildings had run into thousands of pounds. "Blind reliance on satellite navigation is fast becoming a serious issue for old buildings as motorists...

Archaeologists working in Oxford city centre have unearthed bones that could be more than 2,000 years old. A team of archaeologists has been excavating a site between St Giles and Blackhall Road since mid January - and last week the diggers struck bone, uncovering what could be a mass grave. Seven bodies, believed to date to the Roman or Saxon period, have been found at the site. Sean Wallis, project officer for Reading-based Thames Valley Archaeological Services, said "The whole of the site has been quite dense with archaeology but the area that the bodies turned up we only started...

Found in a farmer's field: The 2,000-year-old skeleton of the lost lady of Rome By CHRIS BROOKE Last updated at 09:14am on 23rd November 2007 In her lifetime she was a member of a wealthy family based in a bustling British outpost of the world's mightiest empire. The imperial glory has long faded. But, almost 2,000 years on, archaeologists have discovered a corner of an English field that is forever Rome. They have unearthed a coffin containing a remarkably well-preserved skeleton in the village of Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire - once the site of a major Roman town, Isurium...

Despite the 2012 Levy Report proving the legality of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria under international law, the European Union (EU) has bitterly opposed that presence and even threatened sanctions—however, a new report reveals that it is in fact the EU that is guilty of “illegal settlement” in the region. Judea and Samaria was divided into Areas A, B and C in the 1993 Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority (PA); and under the agreements, Area C is under complete Israeli administrative and security control. However, the new report by Regavim, a NGO watchdog group for Jewish national...

Quartet has been totally compromised--the peace process and its intricate negotiating structure irretrievably ended. Back to the drawing board for yet another new proposal Revelations that the European Union (EU) has been acting illegally in funding and facilitating the construction of more than 400 unauthorised buildings in areas in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) under exclusive Israeli control—signals the end of: negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation under the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap and the role of the Quartet - America, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - as mediator in...

The Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hosted on Sunday the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Yoav Mordechai, for a discussion of illegal construction in Judea and Samaria. According to information presented to the committee, about 550 illegal structures were built by Arabs in Areas C in the course of 2014, as opposed to 150 illegal structures built by Jews. Bearing in mind that the Arab population in Areas C is smaller than the Jewish one – about 90,000 Arabs compared with about 400,000 Jews – the rate...

A leading Israeli NGO has slammed the European Union over its alleged role in financing illegal Arab settlements in Judea and Samaria, saying its direct attempts to “subvert” Israeli internal affairs amounted to a form of “colonialism.” The remarks, made by the grassroots Im Tirzu organization, came in response to an article in the UK’s Daily Mail, which cited figures showing how the EU has channeled European taxpayers’ money into building some 400 homes and other buildings illegally in Area C of Judea and Samaria. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords—signed not only by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but by...

Everyone knows that Jewish settlements are illegal under international law. This is one of the endlessly repeated mantras that reinforce the denigration of Israel as a loathsome pariah state. Imagine: since the Six-Day War the State of Israel has displayed the temerity to authorize the construction of settlements for Jews in the biblical homeland of the Jewish people. To be sure, that defines Zionism, the return of Jews to their ancient cities (Jerusalem and Hebron), hills and valleys (Judea and Samaria). To Israel’s legions of enemies and critics, however, settlement is the illicit conquest and colonization of someone else’s land....

British tax payers have been funding illegal Palestinian homes on the West Bank despite the area being under Israeli jurisdiction, a dossier of photographs has revealed. A report by NGOs, international lawyers and MEPs say the 400 homes erected in Area C of the West Bank, break international law; specifically the Oslo Accords to which the EU is a signatory, the Daily Mail reports. British charity Oxfam is at the centre of the scandal, with Israeli officials calling for an investigation into their involvement. The homes, which cost tens of millions of euro to build and come from a fund...

Despite the European accord last month to extend a financial lifeline to Greece, Athens is rapidly running out of cash. So it is scrambling to find new, even radical ways to fill the shortfall — including a proposal to recruit citizens and tourists to spy on suspected tax evaders. Greece’s coffers may be empty before the end of this month, as tax receipts shrink and the economy shows signs of lapsing back into recession. Athens officials have hinted they may have trouble repaying or refinancing a total of about 7 billion euros, or $7.7 billion, owed in March to the...

The British government says it is committed to regulations issued by UN and EU on freezing potential assets of the deposed Yemeni president and two Houthi leaders The British authorities refused to comment on whether they have frozen any assets owned by former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh and two leaders of the Houthi rebels. On 18 December, the EU Council decided to impose financial sanctions, including asset freezes, on Saleh, the president of Yemen’s General People’s Congress Party Abd Al-Khaliq Al-Houthi, and the Houthi group's second-in-command Yahya Abdullah Al-Hakim. The council blacklisted Saleh for obstructing peace in Yemen, notably...

VENICE, Italy — President Reagan, who less than two years ago signed the most expensive farm aid bill in history, called Friday for the elimination of agricultural subsidies worldwide by the year 2000 as a way of promoting better world economic health.At the same time, Reagan said that the United States has made "real progress" in trimming its budget deficit, despite ongoing spending battles with Congress, thereby freeing for private investment abroad some of the foreign capital that has been tied up financing the U.S. debt.Reagan's remarks, made in a speech televised by Worldnet and provided to networks around the...

The leader of the Muslim group who defended ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi has sparked further outrage after he refused to condemn the stoning women. Asim Qureshi, the director of Cage, was last night quizzed about extremist positions advocated by Muslim scholars - including female genital mutilation, domestic violence and stoning as a punishment for adultery. But Mr Qureshi, appearing on the BBC's This Week programme, failed to speak out against the practices - while also defending the right of Muslims to wage jihad. It comes after he defended the London-raised fanatic Emwazi - unmasked as the infamous fanatic 'Jihadi John'...

Rodents To Be Given Human Rights Under Green Party Plans By Matthew Holehouse 07 Mar 2015 Animals would be protected under human rights laws and new taxes imposed on nappies under plans to be considered by the Green Party. The insurgent environmentalist party, which hopes to hold the balance of power after the General Election by winning up to ten seats, will also propose creating a fleet of hospital ships to serve the developing world, cutting the size of National Lottery prizes and banning the Grand National. The policies, set to become official policy during a series of debates on...

A woman waiting for a bus was raped and left for dead in a savage attack described by detectives as attempted murder. An 18-year-old woman was attacked in the Malvern Road area of Leeds shortly before 11pm on Friday night. >Snip< Police are seeking a slim Asian man in his 20s in connection with the assault.

Britain’s School of Oriental and African Studies joins the Jew-hatred parade. Last week, in yet another familiarly tiresome portrayal of anti-Semitism parading itself as Palestinian “solidarity,” students and staff at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) voted to initiate a boycott against all Israeli academic institutions. The vote at one of the United Kingdom’s top universities was conducted over the course of a week, and after the announcement late Friday afternoon, partying broke out on the central London campus—along with a request for university authorities to cut their ties to Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Unsurprisingly, the vote was part...

New Zealand is conducting mass surveillance over its Pacific neighbours, reports citing documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden say. Calls, emails and social media messages were being collected from Pacific nations, the New Zealand Herald said. The data was shared with other members of the "Five Eyes" network - the US, Australia, Britain and Canada.