The Pirate Parties of Europe may still form a very small part of the political spectrum, but they are an extremely vocal section. Slowly but surely, they seem to be becoming the party to watch in European politics. The German party recently won 7.4 percent of the votes in a state election last month, beating the FDP (the junior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition) by miles (they could only scrape together 1.2 percent of the votes, Spiegel Online reports). Incredibly, one recent poll suggests that the party could enjoy a record 12 percent nationally. Now armed with parliamentary seats, as...

Russia has warned Western and Arab nations against arming the Syrian rebels, saying it would only make the situation worse. "It is clear as day that even if the opposition is armed to the teeth, it will not defeat the Syrian army, and there will simply be slaughter and mutual destruction for long, long years," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to RT. Lavrov added the Friends of Syria group of Western and Arab nations was undermining Kofi Annan's efforts to end the crisis. He emphasized that Annan’s path was the only way forward, as Friends of Syria, which the...

Ryanair is infamous for its cost-cutting prowess, but with jet fuel prices still rising, it's going further than ever to trim the bill. The budget airline is getting increasingly imaginative. Here are some of the things it's doing, according to Oliver Smith at The Telegraph: It's encouraging cabin crews to watch their weight, and incentivizing it with the potential of appearing in the annual Ryanair calendar The in-flight magazine is being cut down in size and will double as a menu There will be less ice taken aboard flights, and it's reducing the weight of its seats and trolleys Ryanair even considered, but...

Günter Grass, one of Germany's best-known authors, has caused controversy with a new poem in which he says Israel is threatening world peace. The poem, entitled 'What must be said' and published in German newspaper the Süddeutsche Zeitung this morning, has already prompted criticism from Germany and Israel. GlobalPost series: Echoes of Hitler in Eastern Europe In it, Nobel laureate Grass writes that "nuclear-armed Israel is endangering already fragile world peace." An Israeli strike against Iran could "wipe out the Iranian people," he claims, arguing that both countries should submit their nuclear programs to international monitors. Grass says he has "kept quiet" until now because...

Spanish home prices have so far declined 25 percent since the peak, but they still remain 50 percent over their historical average. And now Societe Generale analyst Michala Marcussen thinks Spanish house prices are expected to decline 15 percent in 2012 - 2013. This is worrisome for banks, since back in February the Spanish government ruled that banks would have to set aside additional €50 billion in provisions, in an effort to clean up their real estate exposure. Even though future price declines were already built into these measures, banks are likely to be under further duress since they are unlikely to receive...

Remember Jurre Hermans? Yesterday he took the world by storm with his solution to the Greek crisis that involved all Greeks depositing their euros in an ATM-like Machine and getting Drachmas in exchange. The Euros would then be clumped together into a giant pizza-like shape, which would then be divided up among Greece's lenders. Anyway, Hermans was on CNN today where he explained the source of his idea. Apparently he had it for a long time, and mainly entered it into the contest for the prize money. He's not a huge fan of pizza, and he's not interested in becoming...