Free Republic

“Arrested Americans show no remorse about their terror plans” PTI Monday, December 21, 2009 14:44 IST SNIPPET: “Lahore: Five American Muslim youth arrested by Pakistani authorities on suspicion of terror links have shown no remorse about their plans to commit terrorist acts and one has even said they should be hanged so that they could become martyrs, a senior police official said today.” SNIPPET: “Zamzam, Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, Ahmed Abdullah Minni, 20, Iman Hasan Yemer, 17 and Omar Farooq, 24, were arrested in Sargodha, located 200km from Islamabad, on charges of planning terror attacks in Pakistan and abroad.” SNIPPET:...

Breaking News: Pakistan Reportedly Detains Five D.C.-Area Muslims on Suspicion of Terror IPT News December 8, 2009 **Updated December 9, 9:00 a.m. EST A Pakistani newspaper reports the arrest of five foreign nationals after a raid in a town called Sargodha. The raid took place at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001. According to the report, "The DPO told that these people had been living in Sargodha since Nov 30 and it was quite a possibility that they were engaged in acts of...

The tactic of bashing Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk show hosts to score political points is apparently no longer the exclusive realm of national-level Democrats and moderate Republicans. Now, even local politicians are adopting this political maneuver in their local campaigns. Democrat David Englin, member of the Virginia House of Delegates for the 45th District (and currently my own delegate), sent out a direct mail piece which I received on Thursday where Englin boldly proclaimed his opposition to the top conservative talk show host: “If Rush Limbaugh is for it, I’m probably against it.” (image at right).Englin’s mail piece, paid...

Note: The following text is a quote: 09 July 2009 EGYPT ARRESTS TERRORIST CELL OF 25 MEMBERS CAIRO, July 9 (Xinhua) The Egyptian authorities have arrested a terrorist cell of 25 members, 24 Egyptians and one Palestinian, for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Suez Canal, Egyptian Interior Ministry said in statement issued on Thursday. According to the statement, the members of the cell who believe in Jihad (Holy War) were located in Cairo, Alexandria and Daqahlia governorates and communicated through internet with other terrorist groups outside Egypt. The cell's members, mostly engineers, were developing high-tech and electronic devices...

It's not every day that a congressman asks for terrorists to be shipped to his hometown. So we were surprised to see Rep. Jim Moran, Democrat of Virginia, pen a column entitled "From Guantanamo to Alexandria" in Saturday's Washington Post. He actually championed the idea of bringing terrorists like 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other al Qaeda detainees to historic Alexandria. What's next? Does he want the nuclear waste that Nevada won't take? We understand why congressmen work to bring federal office buildings to their district or fight off noisome incineration plants. So we read Rep. Moran's column with...

Alexandria Democrats Allegedly Pledging Vengeance Ms. Hughes is a federal employee who ran as an independent. An African-American non-democrat with tax lowering sensibilities drives the local Democrats bonkers. Democratics are gearing up to attack her election as improper under the Hatch Act which would go to the Obama Office of Special Counsel.

This morning, the liberal Democrats who run Alexandria, Virginia learned that beloved president wants to bring terrorists to Northern Virginia. And the wailing from the NIMBY lefties began.

In the Old Town historic district here, tourists and shoppers stroll brick sidewalks along King Street and peer into a wide range of boutiques — rug shops, antiques dealers, a cheese shop, even a comic book store. Old Town’s latest offering, though, has been stopping visitors in their tracks since it opened in January. It is called Le Tache, a “couples boutique,” more commonly known as a sex shop, which is sandwiched between art galleries whose offerings are more common in Old Town than colorful vibrators and steamy DVDs. The boutique’s owner leased the building after a dispute between the...

To many in Old Town Alexandria, the sex shop that opened recently on King Street is nothing short of scandalous, a historical desecration just blocks from the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee. But to Michael Zarlenga, it's justice. Zarlenga spent $350,000 on plans to expand his hunting and fishing store, the Trophy Room. He worked with city officials for almost two years and thought he had their support -- until the architectural review board told him he couldn't alter the historic property. Furious and out of money, Zarlenga rented the space to its newest occupant, Le Tache. "I can't...

While driving into the office this morning I heard the "expert" guest on Coast to Coast tell everyone not once but several times it was the terrible Christians that burned down the Library at Alexandria. Sadly, facts do not matter or go challenged on that political show any longer. The fact is: Amr bin Aas at the behest of the Second Caliph, Umar burned the Library in Alexandria. Umar the Great or Omar the Great was a Muslim convert from the Banu Adi clan of the Quraysh tribe,[1] and a sahaba (righteous companion) of Muhammad. He became the second Caliph...

Faced with painful choices about who will suffer most from looming budget cuts, Alexandria officials have taken the unusual step of paying a professional ethicist to help them grapple with the moral issues involved. Just a few of the vexing decisions his advice helped Alexandria policymakers confront in recent weeks: They took apartments being built for the mentally ill and temporarily turned them into housing for the disabled. They cut a parenting counselor for jailed minors with kids but preserved aid for belligerent preschoolers. They scaled back drug prevention but kept the methadone pills available to ease the cravings of...

The unique library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, buried beneath lava by Vesuvius's eruption in AD79, is slowly revealing its long-held secretsSTORED in a sky-lit reading room on the top floor of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples are the charred remains of the only library to survive from classical antiquity. The ancient world's other great book collections -- at Athens, Alexandria and Rome -- all perished in the chaos of the centuries. But the library of the Villa of the Papyri was conserved, paradoxically, by an act of destruction. Lying to the northwest of ancient Herculaneum, this...

PARIS (AFP) - "The sea was driven back, and its waters flowed away to such an extent that the deep sea bed was laid bare and many kinds of sea creatures could be seen," wrote Roman historian Ammianus Marcellus, awed at a tsunami that struck the then-thriving port of Alexandria in 365 AD. "Huge masses of water flowed back when least expected, and now overwhelmed and killed many thousands of people... Some great ships were hurled by the fury of the waves onto the rooftops, and others were thrown up to two miles (three kilometres) from the shore." Ancient documents...

A pastor at a Cold Spring church was arrested on two counts of carrying a concealed weapon on Christmas Eve. According to the Cold Spring Police Department, Johnny R. Coleman (Randy), 1069 Parkside Drive, Alexandria, the pastor of Christ Baptist Church in Cold Spring, was arrested after police found him at 12:30 p.m. with a loaded Glock 9mm handgun and a loaded .25 caliber handgun, in a briefcase at the Mr. Spotless Car Wash in Cold Spring. Cold Spring Police Chief Ed Burk III confirmed Coleman is a pastor at the church. According to the police report, Coleman told an...

The city of Alexandria, Va., is expected to pass a resolution tonight renewing its commitment to extend public services to illegal aliens. "We are reaffirming and recommitting our services and outreach to international citizens," Mayor William D. Euille, a Democrat, said yesterday. The seven-member City Council will vote on a two-page resolution that outlines Alexandria's intent to comply with state and federal immigration laws but not question the immigration status of people seeking public services. Mr. Euille said that the resolution should pass unanimously but that Alexandria has no figures on the cost of providing services to illegal aliens. "We...

St. Cyril of Alexandria VATICAN CITY, OCT. 3, 2007.- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today at the general audience in St. Peter's Square. * * * Dear brothers and sisters! Today, continuing our itinerary following the footsteps of the Fathers of the Church, we meet another great figure: St. Cyril of Alexandria. Linked to the Christologic controversy at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the last outstanding representative of the Alexandrian tradition, Cyril was later defined by the Greek eastern church "the custodian of exactitude" - in the sense of being custodian of the...

Alexandria’s sanitation authority is trying to take more than 10 acres of property through an eminent domain seizure, offering nearly $10 million less than it bid on the land in 2005. The authority needs to expand its wastewater treatment plant, according to a condemnation petition filed in Alexandria Circuit Court in June. But it is not willing to pay the $51 million value of the property located between Eisenhower Avenue and the Beltway, said the property’s owner, Charles Hooff III. The sewer authority has made several offers on the property over more than two years, according to the authority’s petition....

Fairfax County police said they arrested an Alexandria man in connection with the sexual assault of a teenage boy. Raymond Craig Alexander, a 34-year-old Fairfax County Park Authority employee, was arrested Wednesday after property taken during a search of his home established probable cause, according to police. Alexander is charged with aggravated sexual battery, forcible sodomy and custodial indecent liberties with a child. Federal authorities also are investigating Alexander, and more charges could be filed. Anyone with information about the case should call Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS/8477 or police at 703-691-2131

Hidden City Found Beneath Alexandria Charles Q. Choi Special to LiveScience LiveScience.com Tue Jul 24, 4:45 PM ET The legendary city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great as he swept through Egypt in his quest to conquer the known world. Now scientists have discovered hidden underwater traces of a city that existed at Alexandria at least seven centuries before Alexander the Great arrived, findings hinted at in Homer's Odyssey and that could shed light on the ancient world. Alexandria was founded in Egypt on the shores of the Mediterranean in 332 B.C. to immortalize Alexander the Great. The...

A residents advisory committee is preparing studies on abortion and sexual orientation to be used in classes required for early teens in Alexandria public schools. Proposed additions to the curriculum include studies about why women seek abortions and about homosexuality, heterosexuality and sexual discrimination.... Officials said the answers would be private but provide basis for teachers to explain the differences in philosophies between pro-life and pro-choice groups without using "insulting, attacking or prejudicial language." One lesson would include a history of abortions, beginning in the Colonial era when the practice was permitted under English law and continuing through 1997 when...

A Malian walks out of the Great Mosque in Djenne, Mali in this August 10, 2003 file photo. Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. (Yves Herman/Reuters) Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of...

June 27, 2006 Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Tuesday 27 Reading 12 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent envoys to Hezekiahwith this message: “Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive youby saying that Jerusalem will not be handed overto the king of Assyria.You have heard what the kings of Assyria have doneto all other countries: they doomed them! Will you, then, be saved?’” Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it;then he went up to the...

Last weekend the first of the weekly Tridentine Masses was celebrated at St. Lawrence Church in Alexandria. In March, Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde granted permission to two parishes to celebrate the pre-Vatican II form of Mass. The Mass was offered on the feast of Pope St. Pius V. The Tridentine form is celebrated in accordance with the 1570 Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Pius V for the Latin West and revised in 1962. Ancient rites, those older than 200 years, were able to retain their traditions. Following the Council of Trent, Pope Pius wanted to standardize worship in...

Alexander wasn't quite so great after all. Sure, he conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks, but he didn't found the Egyptian city of Alexandria - he just rebranded it. It now seems that this part of the Nile has been settled for at least 4500 years, pre-dating Alexander's arrival by a good two millennia. Alain Véron from the Paul Cézanne University in Aix-en-Provence, France, and colleagues made the discovery by measuring the variations in lead concentration in a mud core from Alexandria's ancient harbour. They determined how lead levels had changed over time by carbon-dating seashells...

Two employment agencies and nine individuals charged with hiring and harboring illegal aliens, mail fraud and laundering $5.3 million -- ICE agents arrest suspects in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two temporary employment agencies and nine individuals affiliated with the agencies have been charged in a $5.3 million scheme involving the employment of illegal aliens, harboring of illegal aliens, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, according to a federal indictment unsealed today in the Northern District of Ohio. This morning, agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of...

Al Qaeda High - Alleged Bush Assassin a Graduate of Local Saudi Madrassa Stella Jatras, who normally follows the Balkans for us, reports on efforts to establish yet another Saudi Madrassa outside Washington, D.C. Nestled snuggly in the Northern hills of Virginia, lies the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), better known as Al-Qaeda High. ISA's most notable graduate - so far - is Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. Ali was arrested recently for plotting to assassinate President Bush. Ali was born in Houston and later moved to Falls Church, Va., where he was valedictorian of his class at ISA. After graduation, a...

Hamas' victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections is already being sanitized by the politically correct, despite the terrorist group's bloody track record and its fallacious and dubious historical claims to the land of Israel. Thankfully, some Western leaders are condemning the selection of murderers by Palestinians for their government. At the top of a BBC article yesterday regarding the Hamas terrorist group winning Palestinian elections: The win poses problems for efforts to restart peace talks with Israel, say analysts. Israel insists it will not deal with an authority including Hamas. So this is all just Israel's problem/fault because the majority of...

Taddeo CrivelliItalian, Ferrara, about 1469 SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA VIRGIN, MARTYR C. 310 A.D. Feast: November 25 From the tenth century onwards veneration for St. Catherine of Alexandria[1] has been widespread in the Church of the East, and from the time of the Crusades this saint has been popular in the West, where many churches have been dedicated to her and her feast day kept with great solemnity, sometimes as a holy-day of obligation. She is listed as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of mankind among the saints in Heaven; she is the patroness of young women, philosophers,...

November 25, 2005Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Friday 50 Reading IDn 7:2-14 In a vision I, Daniel, saw during the night,the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea,from which emerged four immense beasts,each different from the others.The first was like a lion, but with eagle’s wings.While I watched, the wings were plucked;it was raised from the ground to stand on two feetlike a man, and given a human mind. The second was like a bear; it was raised up on one side,and among the teeth in its mouth were three tusks.It was given the...

SOUTHWEST ASIA - An Air Force officer was killed Sept. 19, and two Airmen were injured as a result of a motor vehicle accident that occurred along the El Alamein Highway, between Cairo West and Alexandria. They were participating in Exercise Bright Star, a recurring joint/combined training exercise held in Egypt. The cause of the accident is under investigation and the names of the personnel are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.

Nothing lasts forever. Just ask Ozymandias, or Nate Fisher. Only the wind inhabits the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in Colorado, birds and vines the pyramids of the Maya. Sand and silence have swallowed the clamors of frankincense traders and camels in the old desert center of Ubar. Troy was buried for centuries before it was uncovered. Parts of the Great Library of Alexandria, center of learning in the ancient world, might be sleeping with the fishes, off Egypt's coast in the Mediterranean. "Cities rise and fall depending on what made them go in the first place," said Peirce Lewis,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Army News Service, August 4, 2005) – The first round of Military Idol competition began this week on U.S. Army installations around the world. The program, a takeoff of FOX Television’s “American Idol,” will determine which Soldier is the inaugural Military Idol after a final week of singing competition Oct. 17 through 23 at Fort Gordon, Ga. To reach the finals, Soldier-vocalists must first win a competition on one of 36 installations. Depending on the number of local competitors, that process could take from one to eight weeks. The Military Idol program is the brainchild of Coleen Amstein,...

Alexandria officials have approved adding a maximum $3-a-month tax on city residents' cell phone bills beginning this fall. The city joins a growing list of local jurisdictions and localities nationwide that are beginning to impose such a levy on their respective cell phone users. So far locally, cell phone users in Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, and Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun counties in Virginia must pay up to $3 in taxes each month. "That clearly is a burden to taxpayers, on top of all the other taxes" said James Parmelee, president of Virginia-based Republicans United for...

June 27, 2005Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Monday 29 Reading IGn 18:16-33 Abraham and the men who had visited him by the Terebinth of Mamreset out from there and looked down toward Sodom;Abraham was walking with them, to see them on their way.The LORD reflected: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,now that he is to become a great and populous nation,and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?Indeed, I have singled him outthat he may direct his children and his household after himto keep the way...

Italy probes possible CIA role in abduction By John Crewdson (Chicago) Tribune senior correspondent An Italian prosecutor investigating the apparent kidnapping of a suspected Islamic militant in the streets of Milan served military authorities this week with a demand for records of flights into and out of a joint U.S.-Italian air base in northern Italy. Italian newspapers have reported that the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, is investigating the possible role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the disappearance of Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan, better known as Abu Omar, a popular figure in Milan's Islamic community who vanished Feb. 17, 2003....

The Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria is an outpost of militant Islam, say critics who point out that the school's 1999 valedictorian is charged with joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush. Two other persons connected to the academy also have been linked to terrorism-related cases, and a U.S. senator has asked the Justice Department to investigate the school. The school was founded in 1984, primarily to serve children of the Saudi diplomatic corps. Today, the student body is more diverse, with nearly three dozen countries represented, but much of the funding still comes from the Saudi government....

  ATHANASIUS Also known asAthanasius of Egypt; Athanasius the Great; Champion of Christ's Divinity; Champion of Orthodoxy; Father of Orthodoxy; Greek Doctor of the Church; Holy Hierarch; Pillar of the Church Memorial2 MayProfileStudied the classics and theology in Alexandria. Deacon and secretary to bishop Alexander of Alexandria. Attended the Council of Nicea in 325 where he fought for the defeat of Arianism and acceptance of the divinity of Jesus. Formulated the doctrine of homo-ousianism which says that Christ is the same substance as the Father; Arianism taught that Christ was different from and a creation of the Father, a...

Sir John Mills, the actor who epitomised the glory years of British cinema, died last night at the age of 97. Sir John, who starred in more than 100 films and worked into his 90s, died at his home in Denham, Buckinghamshire. He was knighted in 1976 and had been married to Lady Mills for 64 years. He had been in failing health for some time. Sir John's career, which began as a chorus boy at the London Hippodrome in 1929, spanned more than 70 years and included leading roles in five films by the director David Lean: In Which...

Emotional tribute to sailors who helped Nelson rout the FrenchBy Inigo Gilmore in Alexandria (Filed: 19/04/2005) The remains of sailors who died in Nelson's daring Nile campaign were reburied yesterday, just a few miles from where they died two centuries earlier. As the sound of Last Post drifted across the Commonwealth war cemetery in Alexandria, five simple wooden coffins, draped in Union flags, were carried to their final resting place by Royal Navy sailors in crisp, white uniforms. The coffins were lowered into the graves and three volleys of gunfire provided a final salute. The ceremony closed an extraordinary story...

PHILADELPHIA -- I have found the heart of the Philly sports scene ... and it isn't pretty. You know Paulie, Adrian's brother in "Rocky"? Multiply him by the thousands, dress them in Eagles jerseys, fill each with a six-pack and stick them in a line so long it wraps around the Wachovia Center, throughout the parking lot and practically into New Jersey. Sprinkle some of these guys among the parked cars where they can urinate in semi-privacy. Carpet the lot with crushed beer cans and broken beer bottles. Throw in a cold wind and a winter rain. Now, close the...

ASSOCIATED PRESS Alexandria police yesterday were investigating an apparent kidnapping that included the discovery of a freshly dug grave. The man's wife called police to their apartment, where she told them three men posing as law-enforcement officers forced their way in late Tuesday night, pulled a weapon and took the man away. Soon afterward, several residents of the Watergate at Landmark apartments called 911 to report suspicious activity in some nearby woods.

November 25, 2004Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading IRev 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9a I, John, saw another angel coming down from heaven,having great authority,and the earth became illumined by his splendor.He cried out in a mighty voice: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.She has become a haunt for demons.She is a cage for every unclean spirit,a cage for every unclean bird,a cage for every unclean and disgusting beast." A mighty angel picked up a stone like a huge millstoneand threw it into the sea and said: "With such force will Babylon the great city be thrown down,and...

Alexander defends late party switch in 5th District debate By ADAM NOSSITER Associated Press writer MONROE -- Congressman Rodney Alexander defended a last-minute party switch that infuriated Democrats Sunday night, in the sole televised debate of an otherwise quiet race to represent a broad swath of central and north Louisiana. Alexander, boosted by polls showing him way out in front and likely to win the 5th Congressional District race without a runoff, spoke calmly about an issue that initially threw his race into an uproar, and had Democrats from Louisiana to Washington denouncing him in harsh terms. He brushed off...

Theodoros Elected Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria VOA News 10 Oct 2004, 12:53 UTC The leading official of the Orthodox church in Zimbabwe, Metropolitan Theodoros, has been elected Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, becoming the spiritual leader of hundreds of thousands of Greek Orthodox faithful in Africa. He succeeds Patriarch Petros, who died last month with 16 other people when a helicopter taking his entourage to the Mount Athos monastic community crashed into the Aegean Sea. The 50-year old Theodoros was born on the Island of Crete. He became priest in 1978. In 1997 he was elected Metropolitan of Cameroon, followed...

As if he doesn’t have enough trouble, eyewitnesses say Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) got into a nasty battle with the Rev. Michael Dobbins, a Roman Catholic priest, at the Congressman’s parish of Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria, Va., this past Sunday.

Why do priests use incense at Mass? — A reader in AlexandriaIncense is an aromatic substance which is the resin from certain trees. When burned over charcoal, the incense produces a sweet smelling aroma. To make the smoke thicker and to enhance the fragrance, sometimes other perfumes are blended with the incense.The use of incense in the ancient world was common, especially in religious rites where it was used to keep demons away. Herodotus, the Greek historian, recorded that it was popular among the Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians. In Judaism, incense was included in the thanksgiving offerings of oil, grain,...

Ancient vessel retraces voyages of the past By Stefanos Evripidou IT LOOKS like a tree house stuck on a bamboo banana. In reality it's the incarnation of a pre-Pharaonic reed boat, designed and built to unravel the mysteries of prehistoric navigation. The Abora II drifted in to Larnaca marina yesterday. Weighing in at six- tonnes, the vessel is a totra-reed boat. It is 11.5 metres long, 3.5 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. The man responsible for building the huge boat is Dominique Goerlitz, a biology teacher at a school in Germany. As a student, Goerlitz was fascinated by the...

WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C. reports that a possible security breach has happened regarding jailed Al-Qaeda suspect Zacarias Moussaoui. An investigation has been launched into reports that a jail guard repeatedly allowed Massaoui to use his cell phone. Moussaoui is being held in Alexandria, Virginia near the federal courthouse where his trial proceedings take place.

CAIRO, May 26 - Polish archaeologists have unearthed 13 lecture halls believed to be the first traces ever found of ancient Egypt's University of Alexandria, the head of the project said Wednesday. "This is the oldest university ever found in the world," said Grzegorz Majderek, head of the Polish mission. The lecture halls, with a capacity of 5,000 students, were part of the fifth-century university, which functioned until the seventh century, according to a statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. "This is the first material evidence of the existence of academic life in Alexandria," Mr. Majderek said. Knowledge of...