Free Republic

At least 17 people, mostly teenagers, were killed and 50 more wounded when a student went on a shooting spree in his high school in Russia-annexed Crimea on Wednesday, Russian authorities said. Russian investigators identified 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov as the attacker, saying he fatally shot himself after the rampage in Kerch, a city in the east of Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine four years ago. Reports had initially described the attack as involving explosives with possibly terrorist motives. Russian investigators had initially opened a terrorism probe into the attack, but later changed it to murder. “A preliminary examination of...

The government and media harangued voters to go to the polls Tuesday in the second and final day of Egypt’s presidential election, worried that turnout was weaker than expected in a vote in which the front-runner, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is trying to garner an overwhelming show of support. There were no official figures on turnout in the previous day’s voting. But monitoring groups said Monday saw moderate in some places and often thin or non-existent in other areas, particularly where Islamists—el-Sissi’s top opponents—dominate. El-Sissi, who removed Egypt’s first freely elected president last year, is poised for an almost...

Mona Al Beheiri known as the ‘Shut up your mouse, Obama’ woman attends Arab Media Forum.Arab Media Forum visitors crowded around for a chance to take pictures, not with a renowned Arab media figure or celebrity, but with a simple woman from rural Egypt who told Obama to shut up his ”mouse.” Mona Al-Beheiri, a suporter of candidate Abdel Fattah Al Sissi, became famous after a TV interview of her delivering a message in broken English to US President Barak Obama went viral. The video became popular because of Mona’s pronunciation of mouth as ‘mouse’ in her now famous catchphrase...

SNIP Sissi: The dilemma between the former president and the people originated from [the Muslim Brotherhood’s] concept of the state, the ideology that they adopted for building a country which is based on restoring the Islamic religious empire. That’s what made [former president Mohamed Morsi] not a president for all Egyptians, but a president representing his followers and supporters. Weymouth: When did that become obvious to you? It was obvious on the first day – the day of his inauguration. He started with offending the judiciary and not giving them the appropriate treatment. The Brotherhood experience in ruling a country...