Free Republic

Slovenia's regulation forbidding people without 'COVID certificates' from pumping fuel shows governments are getting increasingly creative in their coercion. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s fake on the internet these days. So when I stumbled on a Twitter post that claimed automobile drivers in Slovenia were forbidden from pumping gas without a COVID certificate, I was skeptical. All the tweets I found were screenshots of a single story published by TV N1 Zagreb, a news partner of CNN. Attempts to find information of this alleged regulation on the Slovenian government’s website didn’t go well (I don’t read Slovenian!),...

Explanation: A single, long exposure captured these star trails above a remarkably colorful sea of clouds. As seen from Medvednica mountain, the surrounding peaks and lights illuminating the clouds from below are north of Zagreb, Croatia. Near the center of the also colorful star trail arcs, the North Celestial Pole is off the upper right edge of the frame. Even though this is the age of the digital camera, the well composed skyscape was recorded using color slide film in a medium format camera. The dreamlike scene's starry sky and ephemeral ocean could be reminiscent of an older age still,...

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Hamlet has become a Muslim prince at the Ottoman court in an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which its Bosnian director says reflects the world after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. In possibly the biggest theater co-production the war-torn Balkans region has seen in some 20 years, Haris Pasovic is seeking to put "Hamlet" into a 21st Century setting. "One of the most important issues of the 21st century is the world's increased understanding of the Muslim issue following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York," Pasovic, himself a Bosnian Muslim, told Reuters...

Croatia's prime minister gave a firm show of support Feb. 8 to the U.S. policy of preemption. During a joint press conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who made a brief stop in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader voiced his agreement with "preventive action." Sanader said the war among former Yugoslav nations in the early 1990s could have been prevented if the international community had had "the will to undertake preventive actions to preempt (Serbian President Slobodan) Milosevic's aggression and aggressive policies." Tens of thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars in...

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived here late Feb. 5 on the first leg of a five-day European trip that will also include stops in Zagreb, Croatia, and London. The secretary is in Munich to attend the Wehrkunde Security Conference, attended by defense ministers from countries throughout NATO and elsewhere. Rumsfeld said this conference is important because talks here will lay the groundwork for an international summit in Istanbul, Turkey, in June. This is also the first conference Rumsfeld will attend with new NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Top topics at the conference are likely to include Afghanistan, Iraq...

THE VAMPIRE NURSE OF VUKOVAR VESNA BOSANAC http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/war_crimes/vukovar/vukovar9d.html Involuntary blood taking from Vukovar Serbs In the Vukovar Hospital, which was between 30 July and 19 November 1991 managed by Dr. Vesna BOSANAC, many serious abuses of medical ethics and international law of war have been committed - from refusal to provide adequate medical treatment to wounded Serb civilians and members of the Serb territorial defense to physical liquidation. Among the gravest crimes committed in the Vukovar Hospital, which are that more serious since some perpetrators were physicians, is involuntary blood taking from Serb civilians, who were for this particular...