Free Republic

A series of lines scratched into rock in a cave near the southwestern tip of Europe could be proof that Neanderthals were more intelligent and creative than previously thought. The cross-hatched engravings inside Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar are the first known examples of Neanderthal rock art, according to a team of scientists who studied the site. The find is significant because it indicates that modern humans and their extinct cousins shared the capacity for abstract expression. The study, released Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined grooves in a rock that had been covered with...

One of the main pro-independence parties in Spain’s northerly Catalonia region has fueled the country’s growing row with Britain over Gibraltar after expressing sympathy with “bullied” residents in the British territory. The separatist Esquerra Republicana party (ERC), a junior coalition partner in the Catalan regional government, wrote to Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo deploring the “improper” behavior of Spain’s central government. Tensions over the disputed British outpost on Spain’s southern tip rose in late July amid a spat over fishing rights and border controls and are now at their highest level in years. While Catalan support for Gibraltar’s position is...

The tiny British-held territory of Gibraltar complained to London on Wednesday that four Spanish air force jets entered its territory without permission, the latest in a string of disputes over alleged Spanish incursions into its territory.

Chief Minister Peter Caruana's growing determination to stifle any criticism of himself and his regime took a new and ominous twist on Wednesday when he used Parliamentary procedure to avoid answering a series of potentially embarrassing questions set down by Opposition Leader Joe Bossano and fellow GSLP MP Fabian Picardo. It took Gibraltar one step further down the shoddy path away from democracy and confirmed the Chief Minister's own steady descent to autocracy. Caruana's ploy -- described as "leaving a lot to be desired" in terms of Parliamentary courtesy and behaviour -- came only a few days before the Privy...