Free Republic

Long feared by US intelligence, Muslim radicalisation is gaining momentum in the United States, which has had a spate of cases featuring youths recruited and trained overseas for jihad. The latest case - five US nationals arrested in Pakistan on Wednesday on suspicion of plotting an attack - deepened concern that militant Islamist groups are successfully enlisting potential attackers inside the United States, much as they have in Britain. (snip) "We've known for several years that al-Qaeda and its allies like Lashkar-e-Taiba have put a high priority on recruiting assets in the Pakistani communities in the United States, and the...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tumbled Tuesday afternoon across the board, as investors eyed weak global markets, a rising dollar, falling oil and gold prices and some disappointing profit news from 3M, McDonald's and Kroger. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) tumbled 100 points, or 1%, with more than two hours left in the session. The S&P 500 index (SPX) lost 10 points, or 0.9%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) shed 11 points, or 0.5%. Stocks slipped right out of the gate as investors took a cue from falling global markets and a rising dollar. The weak dollar has added to...

Car bombs exploded amid busy streets and official buildings in Baghdad this morning, killing at least 127 people and wounding 450 more, in the latest assault on the Iraqi government by militants, according to police officials.

Zhou Yongjun, 42, faces a third prison term in China after being handed over to the mainland by the police in Hong Kong. Mr Zhou, who has lived in the United States since seeking political asylum in 1992, was arrested last September. His subsequent transfer to the authorities in China, who have accused him of travelling on a false passport, has ignited fury in Hong Kong, which remains regulated by British law. Mr Zhou's lawyer, Chen Zerui, said the charges were without foundation. Mr Zhou emerged into the spotlight when he and two other students knelt on the steps of...

The international press finally reports on Castro's violence. Perhaps because the victim is a darling of the left as well as the right. ---------- Yoani Sanchez is a blogger who persists in offending Cuba’s dictatorial masters by continuing to think freely. For this reason, Time called her one of the most influential people in the world. I call her the most dangerous woman in Cuba, because the gravest offense a Cuban resident can commit is to think and act independently. On November 6, Sanchez — who writes about the absurdity of life in the “workers’ paradise” at a blog called...

Egypt (AINA) -- On October 24, 2009 Egyptian State Security arrested a Christian Copt in the village of Deir Samalout, Samalout, Minia province, for praying "without a license." He was held in prison for two days before being released on "compassionate grounds." Maurice Salama Sharkawy, 37 years old, had invited Pastor Elia Shafik, to conduct the sacrament of the 'Anointing of the Sick' for his sick father, who had suffered a stroke. State Security broke into his house while the prayers were ongoing, handcuffed Maurice, put him into a police car and took him to a police station for interrogation....

Republican Bob McDonnell easily won the Virginia governor’s race last night just a year after the state went overwhelmingly for President Obama and the Democrats. Unofficial results showed the former state attorney general defeated his Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds. The state had a Republican governor for the past eight years. The Virginia race and the contest for governor of New Jersey are viewed as the first referendum on Mr Obama and the Democratic Congress before the 2010 mid-term elections. A year ago, Mr Obama became the first Democrat in 44 years to carry Virginia in a presidential race. This time...

U.S. President Barack Obama and European Union leaders pledged on Tuesday to redouble efforts for a deal on climate change at a summit in Copenhagen, but gave no details of how to reach that ambitious goal. "We discussed climate change extensively and all of us agreed that it was imperative for us to redouble our efforts in the weeks between now and the Copenhagen meeting to ensure that we create a framework for progress," Obama told reporters. The U.N. conference to fight climate change will be held in Copenhagen from December 7 to 18, pitting emerging economic powerhouses China and...

NJ: 8,519 Christie [R] 4,019 Corzine [D] 1,125 Daggett [I]

TONIGHT: RESULTS... REPUBLICAN TAKES VA: 656,124 McDonnell [R] 427,075 [D] NJ: 11,652 Christie [R] 7,930 Corzine [D] 1,894 Daggett [I] NY: 9 PM Hoffman [C] Owens [D] ABCNEWS: Vast Economic Discontent Spells Trouble for Dems in 2010...

Fox News just called the Virginia gubernatorial race for Republican Bob McDonnell. Exit polls show him defeating Democrat Creigh Deeds in a landslide. Republicans also have captured the Lt. Governor and Attorney General spots, making it a clean sweep.

Steven MalangaFeral Detroit Nature is reclaiming the Motor City. Autumn 2009 We usually apply the word “feral,” which means “reverting to a wild state,” to domesticated animals that are abandoned and must survive on their own. But in rapidly shrinking Detroit, where tens of thousands of structures have sat empty for years, people are starting to describe houses and neighborhoods as feral—that is, as places where human activity ceased so long ago that nature has reclaimed them. Two Detroit residents writing for the blog Sweet Juniper describe these feral houses as places that “for a few beautiful months during...

It's been another dreadful week in the war of civilizations. On Sunday, 153 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in back-to-back car bombings in Baghdad. On Tuesday in Kabul, five UN staffers and three Afghans were killed in an attack on a UN guesthouse. And on Wednesday in Pakistan, 100 people - mostly women and children - were killed and 160 wounded in a shopping district bombing in Peshawar. The week also saw 24 American service personnel killed in Afghanistan, making 58 fatalities for the month - the deadliest since 9/11. This is a war of civilizations in...

Robert Kagan wondered this morning if The One will ever be prepared to play hardball with Iran or if the “plan” is, in fact, eternal negotiation while they perfect their bombmaking technique. We’ll know soon. The proposal would have depleted Iran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel below the threshold necessary for making a single nuclear bomb, possibly creating diplomatic breathing room for a broader agreement between Tehran and those worried about its atomic research program. But according to the diplomat, Iran wants to send its uranium abroad in smaller batches over an undetermined stretch of time rather than the lump transfer...

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BERLIN -- Midway through a propaganda video released last month by a group calling itself the German Taliban, a surprise guest made an appearance: a cleanshaven, muscular gunman sporting the alias Abu Ibrahim the American. The gunman did not speak but wore military fatigues and waved his rifle as subtitles identified him as an American. The video contained a stream of threats against Germany if it did not withdraw its troops from the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan... U.S. and European counterterrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits -- including Americans -- are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to...

A murder victim in a home invasion had just gotten out of the hospital when she was dragged by her hair, at gunpoint, through the house to wake up family members and show the robbers where the family's treasures were hidden, her uncle told the Post-Dispatch today. Whitrock says he thinks he knows why the family was targeted. "They have a very nice home and I think they are one of the only white families on that block," he said. Whitrock said there had been other problems with criminals at the Hickory Street family home. He said his brother, Stallis'...

If you’ve seen the movie Thelma and Louise, you’ll never forget the ending: In the last scene, the two main characters head down a dirt road in their top-down convertible. The road dead-ends at a very high cliff. The last picture of the movie shows the car in a dramatic free-fall off the cliff. That ending is a perfect metaphor for the fate of the United States dollar. Our currency is headed for a free-fall off a cliff in the international foreign-exchange markets. Why is this almost a certainty? Consider the following: At no other time in our nation’s...

Three Essex teenagers were charged Friday with first-degree murder in the strangulation last week of a 25-year-old man in a wheelchair. Baltimore County police identified the three suspects as Keon Torone Samuels, 18, of the 700 block of Walnut Grove Road; Andrew Minh Nguyen, 18, of the 1300 block of Kelly Case Lane; and Marlon Geovany Montes, 19, of the 1300 block of Elsing Road. The victim, Marin Jonathan Lendosky George, was found dead Sept. 18 in his Essex apartment by a maintenance man. Homicide detectives said he had been targeted by the three suspects and murdered in the course...

The sun is setting on the US dollar as the ultra-loose monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve forces China and the vibrant economies of the emerging world to forge a new global currency order, according to a new report by HSBC. The dollar looks awfully like sterling after the First World War," said David Bloom, the bank's currency chief. "The whole picture of risk-reward for emerging market currencies has changed. It is not so much that they have risen to our standards, it is that we have fallen to theirs.

Exhaustion Rate Hits New Record: More Than Half Of Unemployed Exhaust Benefits Before Finding A Job Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/24/2009 11:01 -0500 According to the BLS, the exhaustion rate, or the number of people who have used up their benefits, and will no longer be receiving unemployment checks, has hit an all time high of 52.40% for August. This is a staggering number, and whats worse it was grown in practically a linear fashion with not even a hope of a second (third or fourth) derivative green shoot in sight.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists' desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels—the latest in a flurry of such internal warnings as investigators chase a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York. In the two bulletins—sent to police departments Monday and obtained by The Associated Press—officials said they know of no specific plots against such sites, but urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant. These two bulletins followed on the heels of a similar warning about the vulnerabilities of mass transit systems.

The Met opened its season on Monday night with a new production of Puccini’s “Tosca� by the adventurous Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. When Mr. Bondy and the production team appeared on stage during curtain calls, the audience erupted in boos. If there were cheers among the jeers, they were drowned out.

Not sure what that means — were the Madrid bombings, for instance, “on the scale of 9/11″? — but an awful lot of people in the know are scrambling. Combine this with that ominous Journal piece from last night and it sure sounds like someone’s worried about WMD, probably of the chemical variety given the FBI warnings to cops about foul odors and large window fans.

‘Islam is coming to America the same way Christianity came to Rome... whether they like it or not. We talk about the Islamic State of North America by 2050... The people of Hamas and Hizbullah are good people; they don’t deserve condemnation, they do good things.” - Imam Abdul Musa of Washington, D.C. Inspired by Obama Islamic Coming-Out Party Set for September 25 by thelastcrusade.org “Our time has come!” proclaims Islam on Capitol Hill, a new non-profit, tax-exempt corporation that is seeking millions in sponsorship.And the time for the coming out party for Muslims in America is September 25,...

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Four men were arrested and a fifth is being sought in connection with the campus gang rape of an 18-year-old female Hofstra University student. The four suspects — only one of whom is a student at the school — were arrested on Long Island, N.Y., on Monday; a fifth is still at large. ... Police say 19-year-old Jesus Ortiz and 21-year-old Rondell Bedward, both of the Bronx, were arraigned on rape charges Monday. The other two, 19-year-old Stalin Felipe, of the Bronx, and 20-year-old Kevin Taveras, of Brentwood, are to be arraigned Tuesday in Hempstead. Police didn't...

Stocks aren't the only things falling--America's confidence in Wall Street and banks is plummeting too. Last year this time, the markets nosedived after the Lehman bankruptcy on Sept.14, 2008. One year later, how has public opinion fared? How do Americans feel about the institutions that have dominated the headlines in our cascading financial crisis? Fortunately for students of public opinion, several survey organizations have been asking identical questions about our confidence in the financial world for decades. In 1977, Harris asked about people "in charge of running Wall Street," and 19% of those polled expressed a great deal of confidence....

Authorities raided properties in New York City today in an effort that was intended to disrupt the plans of a terror suspect whose travels had been tracked by the FBI, according to an official briefed on the raids. "He was being watched and concern grew as he met with a group of individuals in Queens over the weekend," said Congressman Pete King (R-NY). "The FBI went to court late last night for an emergency warrant to conduct the raids this morning." A resident in the neighborhood said there was police activity around 2 a.m. Monday. Officials said the execution of...

Country Club Hills mayor Dwight Welch said today that the girlfriend of Christopher Kelly has "lawyered up" and is no longer talking to police investigating the Saturday death of the former top Rod Blagojevich adviser. Meanwhile, the Cook County medical examiner's office said this afternoon following an autopsy that a determination of cause and manner of Kelly's death was "pending further studies," meaning officials need to conduct additional investigations to officially rule whether Kelly committed suicide. At a morning press conference, Welch also said police are searching for a man who went to Oak Forest Hospital while Kelly was being...

Two sources with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune today they have been notified that Christopher Kelly, a key figure into the federal corruption probe into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is dead.

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, 2.5 million more Americans people were pushed into poverty in 2008. The latest results which were being calculated as the recession began to strangle the country mark an 11-year high for the poverty rate.The poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, from 12.5 percent in 2007. Financial analysts say it marked the first annual increase in four years and data for 2009 will be far worse.These figures are particularly grim because they come after the disappointing record of the 2001-2007 expansion. Poverty was actually higher --...

The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level in 11 years in 2008 as the worst recession since the Great Depression threw millions of Americans out of work, a government report showed on Thursday. The Census Bureau said the poverty rate -- the percentage of people living in poverty -- jumped to 13.2 percent, the highest level since 1997, from 12.5 percent in 2007.

Four Marines died yesterday in Afghanistan when the Taliban laid a trap: Four U.S. Marines died Tuesday when they walked into a well-laid ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province. Seven Afghan troops and an interpreter for the Marine commander also died in the ambush and the subsequent battle, which lasted seven hours. Three American service members and 14 Afghan security force members were wounded. It was the largest number of American military trainers to die in a single incident since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The battle took place around the remote hamlet of Gangigal, in a valley about...

The United States has no alternative to oil to meet its massive energy needs and should recognize its energy interdependence with the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal wrote in an article on Friday. U.S. President Barack Obama has been pushing to boost green energy which cuts emissions of heat-trapping gases and reduces the use of fossil fuels. In his election campaign, Obama raised some potentially disturbing issues for the Saudis, such as ending dependence on Middle Eastern oil. In the article translated into Italian and published by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Turki said energy independence was...

Prejudice in Paradise Hawaii Has a Racism Problem By Larry Keller Celia Padron went on a Hawaiian vacation last year, lured by the prospect of beautiful beaches and friendly people. She, her husband and two teenage daughters enjoyed the black sand beach at Makena State Park on Maui. But a Hawaiian girl accosted her two teenage daughters, saying, "Go back to the mainland" and "Take your white ass off our beaches," says Padron, a pediatric gastroenterologist in New Jersey. When her husband, 68 at the time, stepped between the girls, three young Hawaiian men slammed him against a vehicle, cutting...

al-Qaeda bombings kill almost 100 as multiple targets hit in Baghdad Almost 100 people have been killed in co-ordinated al-Qaeda bomb and mortar blasts across Baghdad, the deadliest attack since the US army pulled out of Iraq's major cities. Richard Spencer 19 Aug 2009 Iraqi officials said that 95 people had been killed and more than 500 were wounded. The attacks, blamed on al-Qaeda, hit government and media buildings in the heart of the city, away from the softer targets of recent explosions, such as Shia mosques. Baghdad bomb attacks kill 75 people in Iraqi capital Witnesses described seeing bodies...

A year ago, USAF had a fully funded modernization program. That program has unraveled. The Air Force is in the throes of what could prove to be one of the greatest upheavals in its turbulent 62-year history. The words “danger” and “difficulty” have become only too appropriate in describing the situation of USAF’s critical combat formations. Today is a time when aged fighters fall out of the sky and no replacement bomber is in sight. The nation bets its basic security on a force that is older—by far—than at any time since World War II. Some see the current turmoil...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private employers axed more jobs in July but at the slowest pace since October, offering a glimmer of hope the labor market is stabilizing. U.S. companies shed 371,000 jobs in July, compared with a revised 463,000 drop in June, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday. The June decline was originally reported at 473,000. The median of estimates from 26 economists polled by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for 345,000 private-sector jobs lost in July. "It is of course worse than expected, but...

August 3, 2009 Eight Christians burnt to death in Pakistan after Koran is ‘defiled’ Militants attacked dozens of Christian homes in Gojra Zahid Hussain in Islamabad Paramilitary troops patrolled the streets of a town in eastern Pakistan yesterday after Muslim radicals burnt to death eight members of a Christian family, raising fears of violence spreading to other areas. Hundreds of armed supporters of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outlawed Islamic militant group, set alight dozens of Christian homes in Gojra town at the weekend after allegations that a copy of the Koran had been defiled. The mob opened fire indiscriminately, threw petrol bombs...

A 12-year-old girl was arrested on aggravated sexual assault charges Sunday, accused of coercing four younger children to perform sex acts on one another. Dallas police say she told the children – two girls 5 and 7, and two boys 4 and 5 – that she would shut them in a closet Saturday afternoon if they didn't do as she said.

CAMPO - A U.S. Border Patrol agent was fatally shot in Campo near the border with Baja California Thursday night. The shooting was reported about 9:15 p.m. near the border on Shockey Truck Trail southeast of the San Diego Sheriff Department's Campo substation. Four engines, paramedics, and a medical helicopter were dispatched to the area, but the agent was declared dead at the scene, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Nick Schuler. Police report that the victim was shot in the head.

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to liquidate its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, a Japanese news agency reported Thursday. The Japanese carmaker will begin negotiating with the "Old GM" starting next week, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed company officials. Toyota spokesman Mike Goss would not confirm that the Japanese automaker had made a final decision on the fate of Fremont, Calif.-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. Goss said Toyota will begin negotiations with the GM officials about the plant and added that the company is conducting an "extensive...

<p>First, Judith Elizabeth Williams took her two cats to the shelter. Then she brought the family dog to the veterinarian, had it euthanized, and wrote a suicide note.</p> <p>Then, investigators say, the 51-year-old Walnut Creek woman got in the car with her 16-year-old son, Adam Findley Williams, and drove up Mount Diablo. Near the top of the 3,849-foot peak, at a lookout with panoramic views of the Bay Area, she shot the teenager to death with a .357 handgun and turned the gun on herself, authorities said Wednesday.</p>

A 3-month-old Westwego girl covered in rat bites was found dead in her home Thursday, and authorities were trying to determine whether they played a role in her death. Natalie Hill was found shortly after 7:30 a.m. in her crib by paramedics responding to an emergency call. When paramedics and police officers arrived, they found the child's father standing in front of the house in the 700 block of Central Avenue, yelling that his daughter was dead inside, said Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch Sr. The parents were identified by neighbors as Robby Hill and Casey Laine. Munch said the...

CYPRESS, Calif. -- A local mother is accused of leaving her two children home alone in a house filled with maggots, knee-high trash and overflowing toilets while she smoked pot with a friend.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nine months into the fiscal year, the federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever. The imbalance is intensifying fears about higher interest rates and inflation, and already pressuring the value of the dollar. The Treasury Department says the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to nearly $1.1 trillion. The deficit has been propelled by the huge sum the government has spent to combat the recession and financial crisis, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. Paying for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...

A hoped-for summer drop in California unemployment has failed to materialize this year, with jobless claims in recent weeks nearing their January highs, reports the state Employment Development Department. Claims had been trending slightly downward to 336,317 in April after skyrocketing to 525,000 in January. “The typical pattern is the unemployment insurance activity declines in the summer,” says Loree Levy, an EDD spokeswoman. “Not so this year. We are back near January’s pace.”

In the "US Economics Analyst", Goldman Sachs economist Ed McKelvey predicts the unemployment rate, which averaged 9.2% in the 2nd quarter of 2009 (2009Q2), will increase as follows: 2009Q3 9.7 2009Q4 10.0 2010Q1 10.2 2010Q2 10.3 2010Q3 10.4 2010Q4 10.5 I'd be interested to know what informed Freepers project. If these predictions are correct, the 2010 midterms ought to be ugly for the Dems.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - A series of car bombs targeted seven Chaldean and Orthodox churches of Baghdad tonight. The worst hit church is the Chaldean Church of St Mary, in Sharaa Philistine, where the patriarchal vicar of Baghdad, Mgr. Sleimon Wardouni officiates. The car bomb exploded on the road that runs alongside the church and left four dead and dozens wounded many seriously. The other churches, because of their distance from the road, suffered slight damage and some wounded, other churches have not reported damage to people or buildings. The other churches targeted were: the Chaldean Church of Saint George in...