Free Republic

People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama wants the federal government to set the example when it comes to global warming. In an executive order signed Monday, Obama required all agencies to do what he wants companies operating power plants, running refineries and making automobiles to do: reduce heat-trapping gases.

Officials at a U.K. high school were aghast after a stripper visited a student during class and whipped him in front of other students and a horrified teacher, Sky News reported Thursday. A booking error is to blame after a mother arranged to send a "gorilla gram" to her son on his 16th birthday, an arrangement she cleared with Nottingham's Arnold Hill School and Technology College. Instead, the agency sent a stripper clad in a policewoman costume, Sky reported. After whipping the teen, the stripper placed a collar around his neck and led him around the classroom with a leash,...

I'll never forget him in "Young Frankenstein." Rest in peace.

Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases. Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the northern frontier region after four days of shelling by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory. . . . Frustrated by the reluctance of the US and the government in Baghdad to crack down on the PKK bases inside Iraq, Turkish generals have hinted...

Better late than never? On CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday, CNN’s senior international correspondent Nic Robertson added all of the caveats and disclaimers that he should have included in his story last week that amounted to his giving an uncritical forum for the terrorist group Hezbollah to spout unverifiable anti-Israeli propaganda. Back on July 18, Hezbollah took Robertson and his crew on a tour of a heavily damaged south Beirut neighborhood. The Hezbollah “press officer” even instructed the CNN camera: “Just look. Shoot. Look at this building. Is it a military base? Is it a military base, or just civilians...

An illegal immigrant who was a passenger in an uninsured motor vehicle when it crashed can collect from a fund set up to reimburse state residents for such injuries, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled today. The justices overturned rulings by two lower courts that Victor Manuel Caballero could not qualify as a New Jersey resident because he illegally crossed the Mexican-United States border in 2001. Caballero, then 17, flew to New Jersey after first going to Los Angeles. Justice James Zazzali ruled New Jersey courts should not consider federal immigration law in determining whether someone is a resident...

Gas stations in three East Coast states ran out of fuel on Thursday as gas prices soared. Shortages were reported in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania starting on Thursday afternoon. They could last as long as 30 days. NBC 10 was live at one gas station when the pumps went dry at rush hour. Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, says she knows of eight stations in the Philadelphia region that were out of fuel yesterday. Wayne Hummel of Liberty Petroleum says there's a derth of fuel in the New York and Philadelphia areas. He says four of the...

BERLIN, Germany - German authorities are changing 150 locks at a nuclear power plant after its owner said they had lost keys to a security area, a ministry spokesman in the south western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said Monday. Plant operator EnBW said that in spite of intensive searches and questioning it had not been able to recover 12 keys for its Philippsburg plant after discovering they were lost in March. The environment ministry said EnBW informed it the keys were missing and the operator had put extra safety measures in place to control access to the secure area. "This has...

Signs warning of bird droppings were posted along a stretch in downtown Orlando this week after cars, benches, sidewalks, plants and even people are hit and covered by the white bird waste, according to a Local 6 News report. The problem began when city workers removed cypress trees on "bird island" at Lake Eola in Orlando. The trees had to be removed because the bird droppings were polluting the water, according to the report. Now, the birds have moved into the city and are covering anything and anyone between Lake Eola and Central Avenue with droppings. "You have to brace...

Key Points 1. We have used laser produced plasma technology to make a flashpoint in the air. 2. We have greatly improved the brightness, contrast, and production distance of the plasma by optimizing the laser beams. 3. Using a laser plasma, we have been the first to succeed in displaying "real 3D images" in a space where there is nothing but air. Synopsis The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, President: Hiroyuki Yoshikawa) and Keio University (President: Yuichiro Anzai), in collaboration with Burton Inc. (CEO: Hidei Kimura), have succeeded in the experimental fabrication of a device displaying...

In wake of U.S. pullout, clerics impose radical regime Posted: June 4, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com In the wake of the U.S. Marines pullout, the Sunni city of Fallujah has become a Taliban-style theocracy, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service. In the city of 300,000, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, al Qaida-inspired clerics are the ruling authorities, backed by the guns of Saddam loyalists who have imposed their own version of Islamic law. The comparison to Afghanistan under the Taliban is not coincidental. Many of the clerics who have taken over Fallujah either studied in...