Merkel dreamt of US road trip 'listening to Springsteen'

Yahoo – AFP, 5 November 2019

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says if the Berlin hadn't fallen, she
would have driving around the US listening to Bruce Springsteen

If the Berlin Wall hadn't come down, German Chancellor Angela Merkel would have become a pensioner five years back and embarked on her dream US road trip listening to Bruce Springsteen.

"In East Germany, women went into retirement at 60. So I would have already picked up by passport five years ago, and travelled to America," the 65-year-old told Spiegel magazine in an interview Tuesday.

"Pensioners in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) were free to travel -- those who are no longer needed as socialist workers can leave," said Merkel, who was born in West Germany but grew up in the communist East.

Merkel said she would of course have also used her travel freedom to visit West Germany.

"But I would have wanted my first trip to be to America. Because of the size, the diversity, the culture.

"To see the Rocky Mountains, drive around in a car and listen to Bruce Springsteen -- that was my dream," Merkel said.

The US rockstar was hugely popular in East Germany and even played a rare gig there in 1988 as communist leaders sought to placate the GDR's increasingly restless young people.

Asked if she would have driven an American cruiser on her trip, Merkel said she prefers smaller cars.

"But it should be something better than a Trabant," the chancellor quipped, referring to the dinky and famously unreliable "Trabi" car made in East Germany.

Speaking at an event at a Volkswagen factory in the eastern town of Zwickau on Monday, Merkel recalled that she had been in line to get a Trabant but it never got delivered in time before the communist regime came crashing down.

Merkel's musings come as the country is holding a string of events this week to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 -- a momentous occasion that led to the reunification of Germany a year later.

Merkel was born in the port city of Hamburg in 1954, but her father, a Lutheran clergyman, moved the family three months after her birth to a small-town parish in the communist East at a time when most people were headed the other way.

She grew up in Templin, Brandenburg and would eventually become the first East German to take the top job in reunified Germany.

Related Articles:

30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“No Coincidence” + “Peace” + “New Beginnings” + “The Coming Reformation” + “How Big Can Forgiveness be?” + “On the Water” + “The Many Walls” + “Compassion”, Kryon Berlin Tour & Seminar, Berlin, September 17-22, 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) 

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… The Great Shift began in 1987 with the Harmonic Convergence. The first part of that shift ended in 1999. It's important that you understand that this first portion of the shift included the galactic alignment. For the true galactic alignment energy began in the first phase of the shift. As my partner indicated, this astronomical alignment is not coming in 2012. It's already here. This is not esoteric information, but something that your astronomers will verify with their telescopes and computers. The ancients did their best, and a good estimate it was. But the 2012 date for the galactic alignment is incorrect.

There are those of you sitting in the chairs who know what I mean. These past 20 years have been remarkable for you, have they not? Look at what has taken place and the awakening and changes that have occurred... all without any prophesy that foretold of them. Those who walk this stage today were not interested in spiritual things 20 years ago. Oh, they may have been seekers, but they had no core, they had no center, they had no purpose. This includes the one who channels in front of you [Lee Carroll], and the ones that have channelled before me on this stage [Geoff Hoppe-Tobias]. Twenty years ago, they were all separate and unknown to each other, without any spiritual purpose. They had no idea what Kryon was or Tobias was. None at all. Their lives were those of men with careers and of an age where starting another passion wasn't something they would do. But they did, and it coincided with the Great Shift.

Remember, there is no such thing as predestined prophecy. God cannot tell you what's going to happen, for on this planet, humans are in charge. "If that's the case, Kryon, how can you tell us about a plan?" It is because these things I speak of are the potentials in front of us, generated by the consciousness of humanity. Therefore, what I give you is something we read into the consciousness of potentials. They are not predictions, but potential energies of what you are about to accomplish as you act upon the energy of the consciousness you have now. Much has happened in these 20 years, and it's part of the shift. Here was the plan from 1987 to 1999 - we told you the following things would take place:

Remember, as I speak to you now, this is history. But when I gave it to you in 1989, it was your future. The first thing that was at hand was moving the magnetic grid. That's why I came here. The grid group came in 1989 and left in 2002, and the grid was moved for the reasons I've been giving you and itemizing for 20 years. It was to build a matrix for a change in your DNA. This is, indeed, what happened, for the grid's magnetic field moved greatly in that time, and it has intersected with the magnetic field of your DNA elements. This overlap has transmitted information and energy and a new quantumization to your DNA, which has always been quantumly prepared for this.

The second item in this first phase was the voiding of the energy of Armageddon. Now, for those of you who think nothing happened, a great deal happened: This planet moved into another energy at that time. One of the largest political systems on the planet fell over and didn't come back, known as the Soviet Union. Again, we say to you there is no Nostradamus quatrain that predicted this, and that should tell you something. It changed the future greatly, yet no prophet called it. Something was happening that was out of synch with everything you had been told. This one event changed the future of a potential war that would never happen. The Armageddon scenario simply didn't take place. Look back at your prophesy, but clearly it said it would. …”


“… Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes. …”

"Wild Cards" (3) - Nov 19 - 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)- (Text version) 

Kryon.com, November 19, 2016

This live channelling was given in Wilmington, North Carolina

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Sometime information is even added or condensed. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Wilmington, NC.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service.

Today I want to talk about wild cards. I wish to help explain what or who they’ve been over time, but in order for this explanation to be understood and accepted and beautiful to your soul, you’re going to have to do some pretending.

Adjusting Your Attitude

If you were a scientist coming from another planet to observe Human history, you would need to do it without emotion or bias. I can tell the story about wild cards, both for your grandfathers and for you, but there is often emotion and bias involved. Because of this, I will say one thing, and you may hear another. Dear ones, it can’t be that way for you to understand this message.

Warning: What comes next has to be disengaged from what you think you know, or from the emotions of who you think you are, what you think has happened, or even from what you feel is historical. Remember, in his pretending scenario, you’re aliens coming from another planet to learn what has happened. You’re pretending so you will disengage. Pretend history will be told to you about a race you’re not part of. This is so you will have no attachment to anything as you listen. This is the only way you will understand this lesson today. It is the only way you will begin to understand the beauty of a spiritual system that pushes you when you need to be pushed.

Wild Cards Examined

Wild card, as used in spiritual language, is a term that is difficult to define. Wild cards can be events, they can be inventions, they can involve one Human or a few. They can be one of many things or many of one thing, but they follow a timeline that you can look at. We want to talk about some of the wild cards that you’ve had in the past, and some attributes of their occurrence that you might not have thought of.

The basic attribute of any kind of wild card is that it’s a surprise event. It’s often shocking, sometimes revealing, but always a surprise. We’re also going to do some of the numerology as we go, and also take a look at the energies that help define what the energy is around specific wild cards.

Numerology is an ancient system that helps define an energy around something. For instance, an event may seem to be one thing, but the numerology will tell a story around it that may be more explanatory. When you see what we will call synchronized numerology – the same numbers repeated around a wild card – it’s very telling, for there are no accidents.

Dear Kryon, you might ask, “Does spirit create wild cards for the planet?” Answer: No, you do. Your consciousness at a certain point in time gives an allowance for a wild card. Sprit is ready to enhance some wild card scenarios and not others. But the energy and consciousness of humanity allows for their occurrence.

A wild card can be a person, an invention, a thing, an event, a new system or a new paradigm that changes the planet. It is unexpected, sometimes startling and often dramatic in its influence. If it’s an invention, it has to be outside of the purview of what would normally have occurred through the evolution of science or the timing of expected scientific evolution. It is often a paradigm shifter, and it’s usually from one person. When you see that, you will know there it’s a wild card. It isn’t always an individual invention, and sometimes it’s collective. But, dear one, you can tell because every single wild card takes everybody by surprise.

Wild Cards in History

You’ve had a number of them, and I’ll list a few so you get the idea. You’ll also get to see a system of singularity that comes to inventors. You’ll see this as I go.

Tesla was a wild card. His ideas were unexpected, controversial and advanced to a degree that even to this day those in electronic engineering shake their heads. They will take a look at what he invented and will comment, “How is it possible for any one person to have seen that? If you study alternating current, it’s a conundrum. Phase relationships of alternating current are brilliant beyond brilliant.” This was Tesla.

However, what you know about him is only what he brought to you. Now, a brilliant mind like that would have other things, don’t you think? Indeed, he did, so you might ask, “Well, where are those other things?” The answer is that those other things were stopped cold – all of them. He only was able to promote the one thing that you needed for the planet. The brilliance of his mind had many other profound ideas, but he was unable to proceed. He saw ways to alter mass in his workshops, but couldn’t. He was frustrated that he didn’t have the elaborate tools to be precise enough to make it work on a regular basis. That’s just one. Transmission of electricity without wires through the ground was the other. However, it would not have been correct at the time for those things to have been presented to humanity. You weren’t ready, but you were ready for alternating current, one of the most needed inventions for the time. Tesla died frustrated, poor, in a small room and alone. He came to do one thing, and was stopped from anything else, then he passed. If you have analyzed the people who were wild cards in your history, there is a pattern.

Other wild card inventors have come into the planet just because the earth was ready for a specific invention. Remember, Spirit does not give the information, but allows for it to be released, often all at once, all over the earth. Let me give you some examples.

Another wild card is the Wright brothers. Isn’t it odd to you that it wasn’t that long ago that you got powered flight? It was just yesterday! Some of your relatives were alive when flight was discovered! Dear ones, the Chinese have been flying kites for thousands of years. Don’t you think that they knew the dynamics of a bird? Do you think that century after century after century occurred and nobody figured out how to sustain flight with any kind of power source? Two bicycle makers figured it out!

That’s odd enough, but the fact that they only beat the French by two weeks is something worth looking at. That’s odd! It’s almost like this profound invention was ready to be given to the planet simultaneously, all over the earth, at the same time. Whoever got to it first would be the ones who got the credit. The real oddity is the timing. It’s not logical that it was so hidden, then suddenly so many were working on it all at once.

The Wright brothers were here to show it to you, then stop. All they did was what you saw at Kitty Hawk. They never went past basic wing warping, and did not have first intuitive thought about ailerons, or the basics of flight control today. For them, it stopped there. Dear ones, there was great frustration, and perhaps even health issues from it, from having others take the basics and develop flight so fast beyond them. Dysfunction and sorrow followed them both, and they died without ever being able to participate fully beyond the initial invention. One died far earlier than the other, creating sorrow for the one left behind. They came to do what they did and move on. This is more common than you know with wild cards, especially when it comes to inventions that change this planet.

Who invented the radio? Was is the Italian Guglielmo Marconi, or our frustrated wild card Tesla? Marconi got the credit, but the invention was everywhere, ready to be claimed. The earth was ripe and ready for it, and it was delivered to the consciousness of the planet at the right time. But both men got it at the same time, apart from each other. I’m giving you things to think about.

We have told you that there are wild card inventions coming in the future. One in particular is ready, but you will not receive it until the time is right. It’s almost like there’s a thinking ceiling on what you can do. We even gave you some of the attributes of the coming invention, but not the one who will bring it. We’re not even concerned that you’ll do it in advance, because we know the wild card is coming. An invention is coming. It is an invention that will rewrite physics as you know it. You’d see the patterns in quantum fields, and there would be the big aha! It would be like reinventing the wheel.

“Kryon, why can’t we have it now? What’s stopping it?” We told you, it’s too easy to weaponize. When you reach the point where you won’t weaponize it, it’s yours. All this is coming. It’s natural, and it will come when it’s time just like the Wright brothers, just like Tesla, just like Einstein.

Einstein was a genuine wild card. He was not a quantum thinker at all, but what he presented is still alive and well today and they’re still looking inside the atom for the concepts he gave you. So I will make this statement: Einstein isn’t finished yet, because the very concepts that continue to be received from his work are going to be applied to the invention of the century. So the Einsteinean principles, even though they are not quantum, will be very much involved in what is coming. You might say he was a wild card and continues to be one. The joke is that his concepts last and last, outside of time, yet his main ideas were with time. If you asked Einstein if he was happy with what he brought to the planet, he would tell you no. He was frustrated that he didn’t get to do what he really wanted. Like Tesla, he felt that something was just “out of reach” and he didn’t get to do it.

Then there was World War II. Dear ones, pretend you are an alien scientist. Disengage your emotion. You’ve come in from another planet to look at this.

World War II (WWII) was not a wild card, but the man who created and enhanced it was. This planet was teetering on the edge of ultimate dark energy and destruction. Nobody expected it. The most despicable old energy card played itself out exactly as it should have, with the consciousness of this planet going to where it had brought itself. You had just finished World War I (WWI), yet WWII ignited and continued. So WWII was simply an extension of WWI. You did it again, only this time the weapons were getting bigger and more able to destroy all of humanity. Remember the prophecy of your scripture? You were headed for mass destruction. WWII would become World War III, and by the year 2000, you would be almost gone.

As I mentioned, WWII wasn’t the wild card, rather it was the man who led the lowest consciousness in recent history who was. He was the wild card, and you know of whom I speak. This wild card killed millions of people who were not even participants in the military portion of the war. Genocide had begun, a race war had begun, and many were following his lead. It showed the darkest side of humanity – more than you had ever seen before, and it almost targeted the demise of civilization if he had won.

It was a horror wild card, and the planet had created it. However, when it was over, the entire world took a breath and for a moment, just for a moment, there was a glimmer of realization: “This cannot go on, for we will do it again.” Many things took place due to this realization. Without the wild card, you would not have the European Union, you would not have the United Nations or any attempt at unity on Earth. Disengage from your logic and emotion, dear ones. These things were not created from Spirit, but rather from the depth of lower humanity. This is the dark side at its worst, showing itself with almost free reign, but the world objected to it and started to climb out of it. It was the beginning over half a century ago of what you’re starting to see now in the shift.

The amazing shift that you’re in right now is something that goes slow. It didn’t happen all at once. The Cold War was a natural occurrence out of the consciousness that was part of the end of WWII. But, dear ones, you could never have the shift if that Cold War had continued the way it was. Enter another wild card: The Soviet system fell over.

The Cold War could not continue, and it was stopped in the form it was in. Dear ones, for those reading now, that was one of the biggest wild cards of all. The consciousness of earth said “no” and it ended. That was a huge wild card. It changed everything; it wasn’t expected; nobody saw it coming, and it changed everything. It may not have changed things immediately to the way you want it right away, but it created that which you needed at that time.

Then there was Steve Jobs. He was a wild card. What he did had little to do with technology, for that would have happened anyway soon enough. Instead, it had to do with the paradigm of the business of music on Earth. He freed it, and the paradigm of how music is obtained and heard will never be the same. However, Steve Jobs did basically one thing for all of you, and then he died. Do you see any kind of connecting of the dots to some of the inventors who come and give you the one thing, then leave? If he had lived, would there be more? Yes, but you’re not ready for it. Consciousness has to support what happens.

Yes, it would seem we have left some things out – the invention of DNA, the atomic bomb, etc. However, these were not wild cards. These are your civilization, within a normal evolution of science. Wild cards are very unexpected things, and there are more coming your way.

The Wild Card of 2016

Remember: No emotion now. You have come from another planet and you’re looking at the end of 2016 – and there is the election. Understand without bias.

So for 2016, let’s do the numerology. You add the numbers and get nine. Nine is completion in simple numerology, and when you see a nine it often means the completion of something. Often it is of a time cycle, an energy or the completion of a paradigm. But it’s very strong.

The nines are stronger than many of the other numerological aspects and you feel them. The president-elect (at this writing) is a strong wild card. He is scheduled to become the 45th president. What a coincidence! Forty-five is a nine. A nine and a nine together are more than significant. They tell a story about what is happening. I will tell you something else. This story is not finished yet and there is more coming. You don’t know what you don’t know, so don’t make up your mind in advance about any outcomes. You’re from another planet, remember? There’s no emotion, no bias, no politics and nothing to judge. Look at it for what it is.

A big stick has just been inserted into what is normal and it’s going to be turned. As the big stick turns, other things will respond that never would have responded otherwise. I wish to tell you, dear one, old soul, relax with upcoming wild cards. They do what they do on purpose so that you will have a better civilization in the future. Sometimes they show you what won’t work, and sometimes they change paradigms that would have never changed otherwise. But what you have now is a profound wild card. That is the message.

It’s so common for you to respond certain ways when you are invested in the process. The knee-jerk reaction is expected or you wouldn’t be a Human. However, for this lesson, you’re from another planet and you’re looking down and you’re seeing it. Pretend.

Isn’t that interesting about a nine and a nine together? It means that truly the end of something is here. Perhaps it’s the end of the old way things were done? Perhaps it’s a shake-up of the system so it can correct itself? Don’t dare make up your mind where it’s going, because it’s not finished yet. However, wait a moment. Did you also realize that 2017 is a “one” year? Not only is the energy one of completion with a double nine, but it moves into “a new beginning” (the definition of a one in numerology).

I have more to tell you about numerology, and also something that will be clearer about this whole situation. I will give this to you in the next channelling.

Can you relax in the face of uncertainty when it’s your own country? Can you relax in the face of not knowing what’s next? When you’re so involved, can you disengage from either side of the fray? That is the test of a Lightworker.

There’s something else coming. Dear ones, this is beautiful. No matter what you think and no matter what your reaction is to this channelling, what is happening is correct for your time and needed for your immediate future. I will speak of this later. The beauty is when you step away and see how grand it is, that Spirit cares enough that it would allow a big stick to occur that would stir your complacency at this time. The real reason? The shift is here.

How do you feel? I want you to relax and smile at what the shift has brought you. For those of you who felt all the “shift talk” was nonsense, this may be your wake-up call. It’s real. Here it comes.

This is the message of the day. I am Kryon, in love with humanity, and for good reason.

And so it is.

KRYON

German puzzlers reconstruct Stasi files from millions of fragments

Yahoo – AFP, Hui Min NEO, November 4, 2019

There are still 400 to 600 million fragments of surveillance reports, private letters
or policy papers to be matched (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

Berlin (AFP) - Barbara Poenisch spends most of her days at work doing puzzles -- piecing together a mountain of documents torn up by the hated East German Stasi secret police.

The former bookbinder is one in a team of 10 people painstakingly reconstructing surveillance reports, private letters or policy papers that the Stasi accumulated and desperately tried to destroy as the communist regime came crashing down 30 years ago.

When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, the secret police began shredding their files.

The machines broke down under the strain, so they were forced to tear up the documents by hand to then pulp or burn the scraps.

But "citizen committees" stormed the Stasi's offices -- including its East Berlin headquarters -- on January 15, 1990, seizing millions of files along with 16,000 bags of torn up documents to preserve them for the future.

The East Berlin-based Ministry of State Security, known as the Stasi, had been one of the world's most effective instruments for state repression during its nearly 40 years of existence.

It employed more than 270,000 people -- many of them informants seeded throughout the population -- during the Cold War, making East German society the most intensely monitored in the Eastern bloc.

Three decades on, its secrets are still being revealed as Poenisch and her colleagues at the BStU federal office for Stasi records reconstruct the ripped up papers.

"I enjoy doing puzzles and the search, that's a little like detective work," said Poenisch, herself an east German, with a smile.

More crucially, she said, "it is gratifying to be able to put together these things that were once torn up 30 years ago... because I know that this material will then be looked at by an archivist and make a contribution towards our coming to terms with the past."

On average it takes each puzzler 18 months to completely reconstruct each 

sack of shreds (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

'Huge responsibility'

Thousands of spies were unmasked as the Stasi files became available to the public in the years following German reunification in 1990.

Many East Germans learned that their friends and even family members had been keeping tabs on them as "unofficial collaborators" of the Stasi.

What Poenisch describes as her "small contribution to coming to terms with the past" is therefore in fact a Herculean task with an impact on the real lives of thousands if not millions of people.

Among personal items that she had pieced together is a letter written by a mother pleading with the Stasi to free her son.

"That was from a few years back and really touched me," she said.

Carefully aligning two scraps of papers, holding each side down with paper weights before firmly sticking them together, Poenisch underlined that the key to her job is not only patience, but more importantly, recognition of the "huge responsibility" it carries.

Manual reconstruction of the ripped up papers began in 1995 (AFP Photo/John 

MACDOUGALL)

Technology overwhelmed

Since manual reconstruction of the ripped up papers began in 1995, some 500 bags of fragments -- equivalent to more than 1.5 million pages -- have been pieced together.

Bombshells turned up by the archivists as they reconstruct the documents include papers proving the state-sponsored doping of East German athletes or papers about extreme left Red Army Faction militant Silke Maier-Witt, who went underground in the GDR.

Many more may lay hidden for years, as on average, it takes each puzzler 18 months to completely reconstruct each sack of shreds, said Andreas Loder, who leads the manual reconstruction team.

With each bag containing fragments making up as many as 3,500 pages, it means there remain up to 600 million fragments to be pieced into some 55 million pages.

Hopes had been raised in 2013, when technology was deployed to help in the process.

But the so-called e-Puzzler developed by research institute Fraunhofer IPK proved helpless in the face of hundreds of thousands of fragments. Eventually, only 23 bags or around 91,000 pages were put together.

A new machine is being designed and archivists hope it will be deployed in the coming years.

The former headquarters of the Stasi, which was one of the world's most effective 

instruments for state repression during its nearly 40 years of existence (AFP Photo/

John MACDOUGALL)

'Claim their rights'

For now, it is back to human labour.

Ute Michalsky, who oversees the reconstruction work, admits that she cannot say if there will come a day when all the fragments will be pieced together.

But she stressed the importance of pushing ahead with the work, noting that the priority will be to put together documents that carry personal significance.

"The bags in which documents with information about people who the Stasi kept tabs on" are first on the list, she said.

"For many affected people, such things are still very important for rehabilitation... so we're not looking particularly for controversial documents or explosive finds.

"For us it's more important to help victims of the dictatorship claim their right" to know what the secret police knew about them.

Romania parliament gives green light to minority liberal govt

Yahoo – AFP, Ionut IORDACHESCU, November 4, 2019

Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban is applauded by members of his
cabinet after a vote for a new government at the Romanian Parliament in
Bucharest on November 4, 2019 (AFP Photo/Daniel MIHAILESCU)

Bucharest (AFP) - Romania's pro-European liberals on Monday succeeded in getting parliamentary approval to form the next government, ending months of political uncertainty and paving the way for the new prime minister to appoint an EU commissioner.

The EU member's previous left-wing government -- besieged by protests over controversial judicial reforms and a perceived failure to fight corruption -- collapsed in a no-confidence vote last month.

President Klaus Iohannis then tasked Ludovic Orban, chief of the National Liberal Party (PNL), to form a new government, but his proposed minority line-up needed parliamentary approval.

A total of 240 lawmakers of the 465-member parliament -- just enough for the simple majority needed -- voted in favour of Orban's government.

"Our objective is to re-establish the confidence in Romania of our Euro-Atlantic partners," the former transport minister, 56, told lawmakers from his PNL and four small parties whose support he secured before the vote.

Orban is expected to appoint a new EU commissioner after nominees from the previous Social Democrat (PSD)-led government were rejected, leaving the new European Commission unable to start work.

"We will make a decision as soon as possible, after consulting the president and after a hearing in the parliament," Orban said after the vote.

He blamed PSD leader Viorica Dancila for the rejection of the first candidates in Brussels.

Incoming European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen -- who wants her new team to be up and running by December 1 -- has urged Romania to propose a new EU commissioner "without delay".

Presidential race

The crucial parliamentary vote also comes just ahead of a first round of presidential elections on Sunday with incumbent Iohannis, a former PNL leader himself, the clear front-runner.

The 17 cabinet members -- all from the PNL except for the defence and foreign ministers who have no party affiliation -- will be sworn in later on Monday.

Among its priorities, the government -- seen as a transitional one until the next parliamentary elections in late 2020 -- aims to keep the annual budget deficit under three percent of output, the EU limit, and to reverse the judicial reforms introduced by the PSD.

Dancila, whose government collapsed in the October 10 no-confidence vote, is also running in the weekend's presidential elections, but her chances are seen as slim.

The PSD boycotted Monday's vote. Afterwards, Dancila accused Iohannis of "confiscating the executive power".

"The aim of this government is to give Iohannis a second (presidential) term, and this is an insult to democracy," Dancila said.

Since taking power in late 2016, the PSD government faced massive protests and criticism from Brussels over reforms seen as helping politicians to escape corruption sentences.

Thousands march for Scottish independence

Yahoo – AFP, November 2, 2019

Nationalists argue Brexit means another independence referendum is necessary
because a majority of Scots voted to stay in the EU (AFP Photo/ANDY BUCHANAN)

Glasgow (AFP) - Thousands rallied in Glasgow on Saturday calling for Scotland to become an independent country, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon telling the crowds that their goal was "within touching distance".

The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader was the headline speaker at the event in George Square, the first time she has addressed an independence rally since the 2014 referendum campaign, with a crucial general election looming next month.

"Make no mistake, the general election we face now on December 12 is the most important election for Scotland in our lifetimes," she told the crowds.

Supporters waved the St Andrews cross and Catalan flags in solidarity with

the fellow independence campaign in Spain (AFP Photo/ANDY BUCHANAN)

"The future of our country is on the line.

"We must come out in our numbers and vote in this election," she added, insisting that the "prize" of independence was "within touching distance."

"We must seize that prize," she urged.

Sturgeon is expected, before Christmas, to formally ask Johnson for a Section 30 order, which would give Scotland's devolved government permission to stage a referendum.

The protest came ahead of Britain's crucial general 

election next month (AFP Photo/ANDY BUCHANAN)

Supporters waved the St Andrews cross emblazoned with the word "Yes" and Catalan flags in solidarity with the fellow independence campaign.

Others wore kilts and played bagpipes, including one musician who had flames leaping from his instrument.

Scotland voted against independence in a 2014 referendum by 55 percent.

But nationalists argue that the 2016 British referendum in favour of Brexit means another independence referendum is necessary -- because Scotland voted by 62 percent to stay in the European Union.

Scotland voted against independence in a 2014

referendum by 55 percent (AFP Photo/ANDY BUCHANAN)

Nationalists also argue that some people voted against independence thinking it would guarantee their place inside the EU.

Sturgeon promised supporters on Saturday to "lead you to an independence reference next year".

"It's time for Scotland to choose our own future, time for Scotland to be an independent country," she added.

Pro-union supporters organised a counter protest near the rally calling for 

Scottish independence in Glasgow (AFP Photo/ANDY BUCHANAN)

A small number of pro-Union protesters carrying Union Jack flags staged a counter-demonstration.

Order! Order! Britain's speaker quits Brexit hotseat

Yahoo – AFP, Robin MILLARD, October 31, 2019

John Bercow is the youngest person to hold the role of speaker in 100 years
(AFP Photo/HO)

London (AFP) - John Bercow stepped down on Thursday after 10 years as speaker of Britain's House of Commons -- a role that rocketed him into the heart of the Brexit battle, and won him European fans.

The man in the middle of more than three years of fiery parliamentary debates has proved a controversial figure, loathed by pro-Brexit supporters and hailed by its foes.

Animated, verbose and with an idiosyncratic style, the 56-year-old Bercow has yelled "Order! Order!" more than 14,000 times during his tenure as the 157th speaker.

His detractors call him pompous -- one MP even branded him a "sanctimonious dwarf" -- but his backers say he has bolstered the rights of backbenchers to hold the government to account.

A social media mash-up by German television of Bercow trying to calm down rowdy MPs has been seen thousands of times. A Belgian newspaper called him "irreplaceable".

Dutch daily De Volksrant wrote: "The only order in British politics comes from John Bercow's mouth in these turbulent days."

Both Britain's main party leaders paid tribute to Bercow Wednesday as he chaired the weekly prime minister's questions session for the final time.

Bercow is loathed by Brexit supporters (AFP Photo/DANIEL SORABJI)

'Unreturnable volleys and smashes'

"Although we may disagree about some of the legislative innovations you have favoured, there is no doubt in my mind that you have been a great servant of this parliament and of this House of Commons," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson, in his own inimitable style, said the tennis fan had been "peppering every part of the chamber with (his) own thoughts and opinions, like some uncontrollable tennis ball machine, delivering a series of literally unplayable, unreturnable volleys and smashes".

He also likened Bercow's glare to a "trademark Tony Montana scowl", after Al Pacino's character in the 1983 film "Scarface".

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn added: "You've done so much to reform this House of Commons and our democracy is the stronger for the way you have done it."

Bercow will not stand in the December 12 general election.

His replacement as speaker will be chosen on Monday. Nine candidates are standing, including his three deputies and former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman.

Bercow's number two, Lindsay Hoyle, is the bookmakers' odds-on favourite to win.

By convention, the main parties give the speaker a clear run in a general election, standing down their candidates.

John Bercow will not be standing in the December 12 election in Britain 

(AFP Photo/Tolga AKMEN)

'Egotistical preening popinjay'

Born in 1963 into a modest family, Bercow grew up in London and was a child tennis champion, leading to his lifelong love of the sport, notably Swiss great Roger Federer.

He was always a Conservative, but in his youth held hard-right views that he now rejects.

He became an MP in 1997 and 12 years later was elected as speaker, becoming the youngest person to hold the role for 100 years.

While the Brexit clashes came to dominate his tenure, Bercow also caused a stir by saying he would not allow US President Donald Trump to address parliament during a planned visit.

Bercow married Sally Illman in 2002 and they have three children.

She became a household name after posing for a photoshoot in Bercow's official residence in the Houses of Parliament draped only a sheet, and appearing on the "Celebrity Big Brother" reality television programme.

Critics say Bercow is filled with self-importance.

The Daily Mail newspaper called him an "egotistical preening popinjay" who had "shamelessly put his anti-Brexit bias before the national interest -- and is a disgrace to his office".

But Bercow's supporters say he has sought to modernise parliament, abandoning the speaker's traditional robes for a simple gown over a suit, and seeking to make it easier for female MPs with new babies.

Joy in Armenia, fury in Turkey as US House recognizes 'genocide'

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Mathes, 30 October 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was honored to join her colleagues
"in solemn remembrance of one of the great atrocities of the 20th century"

Armenia rejoiced but Turkey was furious on Wednesday after the US House of Representatives passed a historic resolution recognizing mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide.

With tensions already high over Turkey's assault on Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, US lawmakers voted 405 to 11 on Tuesday in support of the measure to "commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance."

The move was a first for the US Congress, where similar measures with such direct language have been introduced for decades but never passed.

The resolution says the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 amounted to genocide, a claim recognized by some 30 countries.

Turkey strongly denies the accusation of genocide and says that both Armenians and Turks died as a result of World War I. It puts the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.

Ankara was swift to condemn the measure, summoning the American ambassador and calling the vote a "meaningless political step".

"This step which was taken is worthless and we do not recognize it," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech.

"A country whose history is full of the stain of genocide and slavery neither has the right to say anything nor to lecture Turkey," he said.

Ties between Washington and NATO member Turkey have been strained by Ankara's offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, which came after US forces withdrew from the area.

'Historical justice'

The House also passed a measure on Tuesday imposing sanctions on senior Turkish officials involved in the Syria offensive.

The international recognition of the killings as genocide has long been the top priority of Armenia's foreign policy, supported by vigorous campaigning by Armenian diasporas around the world.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed the House move, tweeting that it was a "bold step towards serving truth and historical #justice that also offers comfort to millions of descendants of the Armenian Genocide survivors."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed a US House of Representatives 

resolution officially recognizing the "Armenian genocide"

The Armenian foreign ministry said the resolution was of "profound significance" and thanked US lawmakers for "their overwhelming commitment to truth, justice, humanity and solidarity, and to universal values of human rights."

The sentiment was shared by Armenians on the streets of the capital Yerevan.

"I am so happy that the US has finally recognised the Armenian genocide," said 69-year-old cobbler Koryun Hakobyan.

"Other countries will now follow suit."

The hilltop genocide memorial that dominates Yerevan's skyline draws hundreds of thousands on April 24 each year to mark the anniversary of the start of the tragedy.

In April 2015, on the centenary of the killings, the Armenian Church conferred sainthood on victims of the massacres.

Kim Kardashian, the US reality star who is a prominent member of the Armenian diaspora and visited Yerevan for the 2015 anniversary, hailed the Washington vote on social media.

'Anti-Turkey groups'

"WOW LOOK AT THESE INCREDIBLE NUMBERS!!! THE U.S. JUST RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE!!!!" she wrote in a Tweet to her 62 million followers.

Turkey's foreign ministry suggested the House measure was the result of domestic politics in the United States, where people of Armenian origin number between 500,000 and 1.5 million.

"Its sole addressees are the Armenian lobby and anti-Turkey groups," the ministry said.

In 2017, newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump criticized the killings as "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century," but in keeping with longstanding US practice he stopped short of using the word genocide.

Before being elected in 2008, Trump's predecessor Barack Obama had pledged to recognize the killings as genocide, but ultimately did not do so during his two terms in office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that the truth of the "staggering crime" had been denied too often.

"Today, let us clearly state the facts on the floor of this House to be etched forever into the Congressional Record: The barbarism committed against the Armenian people was a genocide."