Free Republic

A 26-year-old white Bosnian woman was dragged out of her car early this morning and beaten by three black assailants in the same South St. Louis neighborhood that saw a Bosnian man bludgeoned to death with hammers earlier this week. Via St. Louis CBS Local: According to a police report, at about 5:30 a.m., a Bosnian woman was driving on the 4600 block of Lansdowne when three black males in their late-teens to early-20s stepped in front of her vehicle. When the woman tried to drive around them, the suspects reportedly pulled out a firearm, so she stopped the car....

Al-Qaeda’s Network: Iran to the Balkans, via Turkey

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – The violent death of a 32-year-old man beaten to death with a hammer by a group of teens sparked a spontaneous protest where demonstrators blocked traffic at Gravois and Itaska Sunday night in south St. Louis. Zemir Begic, 32, was found unconscious with apparent injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth in the 4200 block of Itaska at 1:15 a.m. Police say Begic was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased. "I want everybody to know I take your safety and everyone in the community's safety very seriously," said St. Louis Police...

From Times OnlineOctober 26, 2007 Putin warns Europe over Iran and Kosovo at EU summit (Miguel A Lopes//EPA) Vladimir Putin at the EU-Russia Summit at Mafra Palace, near Lisbon, today Jack Malvern and agencies Tensions between Russia and the West over sanctions against Iran will be laid bare today as President Vladimir Putin attends a summit with EU leaders in Portugal. The Russian leader described supporters of tough policies as "mad people wielding razor blades" after the US imposed economic sanctions on the Islamic republic yesterday in an attempt to curb its nuclear programme. Mr Putin, who is at the...

Nationalists with little shared vision of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future were in the lead in an election for the three-person presidency yesterday (12 October), likely portending more dysfunction in a country still haunted by the divisions of a 1992-95 war. Based on a partial vote-count, authorities said Bakir Izetbegović, Dragan Čović and Željka Cvijanović were out in front in the race for the tri-partite state presidency, as the Bosniak, Croat and Serb representatives respectively. […] Izetbegovic campaigned on the need for a strong, unified state, Čović on the creation of a Croat entity within Bosnia, while Cvijanović is part of...

For over a decade, a Bosnian soldier, former Staff Sergeant Wayne Ingram, has been helping a boy with a condition called Tessier facial cleft. This condition is so rare that there are only 26 cases reported worldwide. And, unfortunately, in some countries cleft or palate deformities are considered reasons for abortion.Ingram met four-year old Stefan Savic while on patrol in Eastern Europe and decided he should help him by having fundraising drives. Stepan told the Daily Mail more about Stefan’s condition:“The condition had been left untreated and had grown between Stefan’s eyes, crushing his skull, forcing his eyes apart to...

Turkey's energy minister has declared a gas pipeline a "peace corridor" linking the Caucasus with the Balkans. "We open the project as a peace corridor that is the result of 15 years hard work by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Through the South Caucasus pipeline and its backbone, the Trans-Anatolia pipeline, we connect the Caucasus with the Balkans. I wish every country could understand the true value of these projects and contribute with us," Taner Yıldız said while speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the South Caucasus pipeline in Baku on Sept. 20. The minister said energy security "ranks as one of...

Hoping some Freepers might take interest in this local race in west Kentucky. My candidate is running for judge executive in Marshall County, Kentucky. His name is Kevin Neal, and he's a decorated U.S. Marine. During his 20 years of service he served security tours in Bosnia and Haiti and three combat tours in Iraq. During his time in Iraq he led five 6-man sniper teams on 50 Guardian Angel missions as a Scout Sniper Sergeant. He was wounded in a mortar attack in 2004. He returned to Iraq in 2006. His medals include the Purple Heart and the USO...

The 19th anniversary of Serb exodus from Croatia in Operation Storm was marked in Serbia and the Serb Republic (RS) in Bosnia on Monday [August 4, 2014].The victims of the continuation of the military operation that took place in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, known as Operation Mistral, were also remembered. In St. Marko's Church in Belgrade, Bishop Jovan of Slavonia headed the memorial service honoring slaughtered Serb civilians and soldiers. The memorial was co-served by priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In the speech delivered after the service, Bishop Jovan said that nobody can say that they seized Lika, Banija...

War On Terror: The death of skilled diplomat Richard Holbrooke is said to be a devastating blow to our Afghan war effort. But diplomats don't win wars; they do, unfortunately, often lose them. 'A huge vacuum." "A major void." "A towering, one-of-a-kind presence." These are some of the extravagant descriptions bandied about after the unexpected death Monday of the 69-year-old Obama administration envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, "AfPak czar" Richard Holbrooke. The media love personalities, so it's no surprise to see this foreign policy adviser to four Democratic presidents rendered larger than life, especially since he'd been expected to become...

Dino Dizdarevic, whose family had fled to Kentucky from Banja Luka, Bosnia, in 1995 as war refugees, had no wallet when he was found. It wasn't until he was reported missing to Philadelphia police over the weekend that cops in Chester were able to identify his body. Just what drew the handsome, raven-haired chemical engineer - who moved from Louisville to a North Philly loft with his boyfriend in August - to the gritty town 18 miles south is a mystery. Neither his sister nor his boyfriend of nearly two years, Nick McBee, could imagine why he'd go to Chester,...

Could the Balkans, rather than previously accepted areas such as the Strait of Gibralter, have been the entry point for the first men in Europe? ORESHETZ, Bulgaria (AFP) - A team of 20 Bulgarian and French archeologists are trying to prove this theory after 11 years of excavation and research in the Kozarnika cave in northwestern Bulgaria. The digging up at this mountainous site of traces of human activity dating back 1.4 to 1.6 million years throws into question theories about when and where man first set foot in Europe. According to current theories, the Europeans' prehistoric ancestors came into...

Angelina Jolie, is like the criminal in a low budget film who always returns to the scene of the crime. Jolie is shameless in returning to Bosnia after her propagandized rape movie entitled, In The Land of Blood and Honey—an irresponsible piece of film footage costing $50 million to produce that has failed miserably at the box office earning less then $5 million. Did she return to Srebrenica to mourn the dead or to rehabilitate her damaged career? Bringing with her William Hague, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is like bringing a fox to a...

Bosnia’s decision to include preventing sexual violence in military training is “groundbreaking” and should become the standard for U.N. peacekeeping missions, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Angelina Jolie said Friday. “Warzone rape has been a taboo subject in all countries. You are helping to break down those taboos and redefining soldiering in the 21st century,” Jolie said as the two addressed a conference on sexual violence in war organized in Sarajevo by Bosnia’s Defence Ministry.

It's happening in Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand, Bosnia, Syria, and beyond. Revolutions, unrest, and riots are sweeping the globe. The near-simultaneous eruption of violent protest can seem random and chaotic; inevitable symptoms of an unstable world. But there's at least one common thread between the disparate nations, cultures, and people in conflict, one element that has demonstrably proven to make these uprisings more likely: high global food prices. Just over a year ago, complex systems theorists at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned us that if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be...

Earlier this month a young, female Bosnian judge was photographed from nearby offices working out and sunbathing in the nude on her office desk... Once the above snapshot was handed to Sarajevo police, an internal investigation at the court building found her to be a justice on Bosnia's High Court(!) She was promptly fired when the image hit the newspapers and her identity revealed- but in Saudi Arabia they'd have boiled her in oil... And they've got a dark/naughty sense of humor over there, too: Three men die on Christmas Eve, an Englishman, an Italian and a Bosnian, and they all go to...

A protester outside a government building in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, during protests over job losses. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters Thousands of Bosnian protesters took to the streets in the centre of Sarajevo on Friday, setting fire to the presidency building and hurling rocks and stones at police as fury at the country's political and economic stagnation spread rapidly around the country. As many as 200 people were injured in protests that took place in about 20 towns and cities. Government buildings were set on fire in three of the largest centres – Sarajevo, Tuzla and Zenica. At one point in the central...

Demonstrators in Bosnia-Hercegovina have set fire to government buildings, in the worst unrest since the end of the 1992-95 war. Hundreds of people have been injured in three days of protests over high unemployment and perceived inability of politicians to improve the situation. Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to quell unrest in the capital Sarajevo and the northern town of Tuzla.

Sensational confession of Ibran Mustafic, Bosnian Muslim war veteran and politician: "We were killing our own people in Srebrenica."At least 1,000 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica were killed by their compatriots during the breakthrough to Tuzla in July 1995, because there were lists of those who ” have to be prevented from reaching the freedom,at any cost” said one of the founders of the SDA in Srebrenica, Ibran Mustafic. ** Ibran Mustafic is the author of the book “Planned Chaos” whereas some of the crimes committed by soldiers of the (Muslim) Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbs are for the...

Delegates at the U.N. General Assembly applauded enthusiastically on Monday as the Palestinian representative to the world body for the first time cast a vote on behalf of the “State of Palestine.” The vote itself—for a judge to serve on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)—was a relatively minor one, but Palestinian delegate Riyad Mansour called it symbolically significant. … The modern-day State of Israel came into being as a result of a U.N. resolution in 1947, which partitioned the then-British mandated territory into a Jewish and an Arab state. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish...