Free Republic

Colombia is hoping to expedite its mission to recover a three-century-old sunken treasure worth as much as $20 billion as the ownership of the fortune lies in legal limbo amid an ongoing court battle. President Gustavo Petro ordered his administration to exhume the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks” — the Spanish galleon San José — from the floor of the Caribbean Sea as soon as possible, the country’s minister of culture told Bloomberg last week. Petro wants to bring the 62-gun, three-masted ship to the surface before his term is up in 2026 and has requested a public-private partnership be formed...

A Las Vegas woman was slapped with grand larceny charges after she allegedly ditched her “sugar daddy” at a U2 concert and stole more than $50,000 from his hotel safe, according to cops. Hailey McNally, 27, was arrested last week after she allegedly took off with the cash and casino chips belonging to a man in his 50s who she met on “Seeking Arrangements,” a dating site that connects sugar babies and daddies. The victim called police to Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino on Oct. 15 to report the missing money and told cops he believed McNally stole it and...

The NYPD is searching for two young men who allegedly assaulted a cop during Twitch star Kai Cenat’s chaotic PS5 giveaway-turned-riot in Union Square Friday. The department on Tuesday released photos of two males wanted for allegedly hurling construction barrels at a 59-year-old cop, striking him in the head and body at about 3:45 p.m. The officer suffered multiple wounds including a head injury and both ran off. The two suspects are the latest delinquents involved in the massive melee to be wanted by police. On Sunday, cops announced they were looking for eight baby-faced teens caught on camera trashing...

he mass shooting suspect accused of gunning down five people during a violent shooting spree in Philadelphia Monday night reportedly told police that he was only trying to help them curb gun violence in the city. Kimbrady Carriker, 40, commended the officers who arrested him on a job well done following the deadly holiday weekend rampage, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. He then bizarrely told the cops that he allegedly opened fire on innocent people and children to try to help police since “all these guys are out there killing people,” sources familiar with the investigation told the outlet. Carriker also...

A landlord in Canada brutally killed a young engaged couple who lived in his building over an apparent housing dispute Saturday before he was shot dead by police. The 57-year-old fatally shot tenants Carissa MacDonald and Aaron Stone outside a home in Stoney Creek, Ontario, on Saturday evening, Hamilton police said. Both MacDonald, 27, and Stone, 28, were already dead when officers reached the property at 322 Jones Road around 5:40 p.m., the officials said. The couple was “fleeing the residence” when they were shot, Hamilton Detective Sgt. Steve Berezuik told reporters Sunday morning, according to CBC News. “They are...

An Illinois woman found her husband’s dead body inside their home nearly eight months after he disappeared. Jennifer Maedge reported her husband, Richard Maedge, missing on the afternoon of April 27. SNIP “I decided to put the Christmas tree up, and I was looking for a tote of Christmas ornaments, and that’s when I discovered him,” Jennifer told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in December. “He had committed suicide.” SNIP Jennifer, her neighbors, and even cops reported a foul odor coming from the home for months but believed it was sewage.

A California teachers union is being accused of spying on parents after emails reveal the union was conducting opposition research on parent groups fighting for schools to reopen during the height of the COVID pandemic. The California Teachers Association (CTA) employed a researcher who emailed a parent arm of the local union in April 2021, hoping to dig up information on the motives of San Diego County parents who had successfully sued the state to reopen schools a month earlier. According to emails obtained through a public records request, the union was seeking to uncover “some of the ideological leaning...

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at the home of an FBI-wanted Taliban lackey who was once given a platform by the New York Times. The jihadist, one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, was taken out by a CIA drone strike Sunday morning at a Kabul home belonging to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to initial reporting by the Gray Lady herself. The publication infamously published an op-ed penned by Haqqani — the leader of the insurgent Haqqani Network in Afghanistan linked to brutal and deadly attacks — to ask for a peace agreement between...