Free Republic

An explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials said, and neighboring buildings - including the National Theatre - had to be evacuated. The explosion, in a building facing the Vltava river just a few dozen meters (yards) from the 19th-century theatre, was heard as far away as Prague Castle about a mile away. A police spokesman said the blast was probably caused by gas and that there had been about 15 people in the building, which included an office of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and an art gallery.

GENEVA (AP) - Physicists said Thursday they are now confident they have discovered a crucial subatomic particle known as a Higgs boson - a major discovery that will go a long ways toward helping them explain why the universe is the way it is. They made the statement following study of the data gathered last year from the world's largest atom-smasher, which lies beneath the Swiss-French border outside Geneva. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said that what they found last year was, indeed, a version of what is popularly referred to as the "God particle."

Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card has called gay marriage 'the end of democracy' – and some comics fans want him fired Superman fans are up in arms at the decision of the publisher to appoint a noted anti-gay writer to pen the Man of Steel's latest adventures. Comic giant DC has commissioned Orson Scott Card, author of the award-winning and best-selling Ender's Game sci-fi series, to write for DC's Adventures of Superman series. The digital comic is set to be published in April. The news has sparked a furious backlash from Card's critics. Card is a long-time critic of...

Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage found "numerous" new bodies on Sunday as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a security official said, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the bodies were badly disfigured and difficult to identify.

Federal prosecutors have filed a fraud charge against Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway, just a few days before she leaves the state's highest court in a scandal involving the sale of a Detroit-area home and suspicious steps taken to conceal property in Florida. [...] Hathaway was halfway through an eight-year term on the court, the result of a major election upset over then-Chief Justice Cliff Taylor in 2008. Her victory put Democrats in control of the court for a two-year period. She was a Wayne County judge before joining the Supreme Court.

The Long Island mother of Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher told investigators her son argued with his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins over their baby’s paternity before he shot her dead and killed himself, The Post has learned. Cheryl Shepherd — who was in her son’s suburban Missouri home the morning he shot Perkins nine times — told investigators after the shootings that there were questions about whether the West Babylon, LI-raised linebacker was the father of the couple’s 3-month-old daughter, Zoey, said sources familiar with the situation.

Birthmarks, be damned: the FBI has officially started rolling out a state-of-the-art face recognition project that will assist in their effort to accumulate and archive information about each and every American at a cost of a billion dollars. (snip) New Scientist reports that a 2010 study found technology used by NGI to be accurate in picking out suspects from a pool of 1.6 million mug shots 92 percent of the time. The system was tested on a trial basis in the state of Michigan earlier this year, and has already been cleared for pilot runs in Washington, Florida and North...

(snip) But Mr. Draghi has lowered the gravest of risks to Mr Obama: a pre-election meltdown in the eurozone that would have blown up banks, pulverized Wall Street, and routed a fragile US economy back into recession.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's unemployment rate surged to 24.4 percent in June, according to official figures Thursday, as protests continued against a massive new austerity package, with police blocking their colleagues from starting work.

NEA VYSSA, Greece (AP) -- Border police jeeps hurtle along hot, dusty tracks past potato fields on their way to the river that marks the Greek-Turkish border. Sirens blaring, the convoys have been repelling wave after wave of migrants. ... In Athens, the operation is being bolstered by mass roundups of suspected illegal immigrants. They are seen lined up on the streets of the capital every day, many in handcuffs, waiting to be put in detention until they can be deported. In the first week of the crackdown in early August, police said they apprehended nearly 7,000 people for identification...

Two destroyers and three amphibious landing vessels carrying marines set sail from Russian bases in the Arctic and the Black Sea, according to Russian military sources. Russia's defence ministry insisted that the mission was part of a previously scheduled exercise in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea and at least one of the vessels in the flotilla has patrolled waters off Syria earlier this year. But Western diplomats say the purpose of the mission is to show tangible support for Mr Assad, to warn the West against military intervention in Syria and to prepare for the possible evacuation of Russian...

The Commerce Department is considering naming Arab Americans a socially and economically disadvantaged minority group that is eligible for special business assistance. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) petitioned Commerce earlier this year to ask that Arab Americans be made eligible for the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), which helps minority entrepreneurs gain access to capital, contracts and trade opportunities. ... Commerce is asking for comment about whether there is social and economic discrimination against Arab Americans, along with examples of it occurring. The MBDA will decide whether or not to accept the petition by June 27.

On March 17th, three white men were leaving an Applebees restaurant after midnight in Seneca, South Carolina. One of the men, Terry Moore, 32, of Macon County, NC, went to the bathroom while his two friends went straight to their car. When Moore walked to the car alone, he encountered between 15 and 20 black men. The men allegedly yelled racial slurs at him like "tree honkey" and "cracker," then brutally attacked him. Moore's friends say that he was zapped with a tazer and then stomped on after he fell to the crowd. The victim suffered several serious head injuries...

Fox News segment. A Colorado student who refused to sing a song praising Allah quit the choir this week. This morning FOX and Friends reported that James Harper quit school in Grand Junction after receiving death threats. Harper received the death threats after the story broke this week. The school defended its decision to sing the song to Allah. Hat tip to Gateway Pundit

Despite a world of skepticism about E-Cat and other devices, proof is adding up Italian physicist and inventor Andrea Rossi has conducted a public demonstration of his "cold fusion" machine, the E-Cat, at the University of Bologna, showing that a small amount of input energy drives an unexplained reaction between atoms of hydrogen and nickel that leads to a large outpouring of energy, more than 10 times what was put in. The first seemingly successful cold fusion experiment was reported two decades ago, but the process has forever been met with heavy skepticism. It's a seemingly impossible process in which...

... It is called "corrective rape" - where men force themselves on lesbians, believing it will change their sexual orientation. The extent of the problem is hard to know as South African police do not compile corrective rape statistics separately from other rape cases. But human rights groups in the country -- where gay rights are constitutionally protected -- are outraged.

WASHINGTON—U.S. authorities said Tuesday they had charged two men in an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. The alleged assassination plot would represent an escalation in the confrontation between mostly Shiite Iran and mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia, two longtime Middle East rivals. The charges are also a rare instance of Washington accusing Iranian groups of fomenting terrorism on U.S. soil. Elements of the Iranian government were ready to spend $1.5 million to hire what they believed was a drug-cartel hit squad from Mexico, said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Prosecutors filed several criminal charges against...

An unnamed computer virus is compromising the security of U.S. Reaper and Predator drones as they fly missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Pakistan. Wired reports the virus was found about two weeks ago and hasn't kept the drone pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from conducting missions. There haven't been any reports of classified data breaches, but the virus has resisted the military's best efforts to remove it.

AP is maintaining vote-count pages for both the NY special election and the Nevada special election for the US HouseNew York District 9, Weprin v TurnerNevada District 2, Amodei v Marshall

President Obama issued an executive order yesterday titled, “Establishing a Coordinated Government-Wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce.” It’s quite vague, extolling the value of diversity without defining it, and setting up a “government-wide initiative” for “all agencies” that will “develop and issue a Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan.” Details later, and the devil, of course, will be in the details. Still, it’s bad enough already. If government personnel are told to strive for diversity, then of course they will be putting their fat thumbs on the scale to ensure a politically correct racial, ethnic,...

(CNN) -- Texas police arrested a U.S. soldier who went AWOL this month after being charged with possessing child pornography, a Defense Department official told CNN Thursday. Pfc. Naser Abdo was assigned to Fort Campbell in Kentucky but was arrested in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood, the military base where a 2009 shooting spree left 13 people dead and 32 others wounded.

The European Union was brought into existence by what Karl Popper called "piecemeal social engineering". A group of far-sighted statesmen, inspired by the vision of a United States of Europe, recognised that this ideal could be approached only gradually, by setting limited objectives, mobilising the political will needed to achieve them and concluding treaties that required states to surrender only as much sovereignty as they could bear politically. That is how the post-war Coal and Steel Community was transformed into the EU - one step at a time. [...] It should be possible to mobilise a pro-European silent majority behind...

MADRID -- Spain's ruling Socialist party has suffered a bruising defeat to conservatives in the municipal leg of elections and looked headed to suffer big losses in regional government races as well.

Gov. Christie said last week that he had mulled defying a possible order from New Jersey's Supreme Court to restore funding to schools. ... If Christie ignores the ruling, scholars said, he could be ruled in contempt of court and personally fined, he could be impeached for violating his oath of office, or he could trigger a constitutional crisis and the statewide closing of schools. ... The current case had its origins nearly 40 years ago. The nonprofit Education Law Center sued the state for more money for poor schools, saying equitable funding was a right under the state constitution...

An Baltimore LGBT group called Equality Maryland confirmed the victim of the Baltimore McDonalds’ beating is a transgender woman. Lisa Polyak, vice president of the board of directors for Equality Maryland commented on the video. “It does appear that the victim was a transgender woman, and she was brutalized while people stood by and watched,” “There’s no excuse for that violence under any circumstances, but we would encourage police to investigate as a hate crime.” Equality Maryland called on state Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to investigate the case as a hate crime.

The recent surge of scepticism in Finland toward the eurozone bailout package has gone down badly in Portugal, where many have taken offence. Finland can now scupper the whole package, which is currently being negotiated in Lisbon. Former Portuguese President Mario Soares wrote on Thursday that Finland has become an ‘arch-conservative country’. The True Finns’ charge has affected Finland’s image in many countries. The True Finns are seen as extreme right wing nationalists who are anti-Europe and anti-foreigner.

The head of the euroskeptic True Finns party, confident his opposition to the terms of a Portuguese bailout was gaining traction, said on Wednesday euro zone members might face a new solution to the debt crisis by next month. ... He said the best solution to the European debt crisis would be to require banks to recapitalize and bear more of the liability for debts, as he had suggested during his campaign. ... Under the existing rules, funding for the expected 80 billion euro package would come roughly one-third from the IMF and two-thirds from the EFSF and a smaller...

LONDON - Global stocks sank Monday as investors fretted over a possible Greek debt default, a day after China's central bank took another anti-inflation move in an attempt to get a grip on fast-rising consumer prices. In addition, huge election gains for a nationalist euroskeptic party in Finland added to the tensions over Europe's debt crisis, on a day that Portugal began discussions on a financial bailout and Spain had to pay much higher interest rates to borrow in the markets. ... "The victory of the True Finns party in yesterday's general election in Finland will make further bailouts much...

HELSINKI (AFP) - Finns began voting in general elections Sunday after a campaign marked by the meteoric rise of the nationalist True Finns party, which is expected to send parliament lurching to the right. ... The populist, nationalist, immigration-averse True Finns, who are adamantly opposed to European Union bailouts, have meanwhile seen their 4.1 percent tally from the last elections in 2007 balloon to nearly 20 percent in recent polls, although the latest survey put it at 15.4 percent, or fourth place.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is asking for a federal investigation into the surprise discovery of 14,000 votes in Waukesha County for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The Wisconsin Democrat sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Friday night asking him to assign the Justice Department Public Integrity Section. It oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes.

Kloppenburg's campaign is working with Marc Elias, an attorney with Perkins Coie, a Washington D.C.-based firm with an office in downtown Madison. Elias is the same attorney who represented Democratic challenger Al Franken in his eight-month epic recount battle with incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. Franken eventually prevailed, winning his U.S. Senate seat by 312 votes. Prosser has hired Ben Ginsberg, a Washington-D.C. attorney who played a prominent role in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential recount effort in Florida. He was also part of the team that represented Coleman in his recount effort. Prosser has also retained Madison attorney Jim Troupis, and...

State appointees could terminate contracts for teachers, government workers ... LANSING, Mich. — Legislation that would give broad new powers to emergency managers appointed to guide financially struggling cities and schools in Michigan moved one step closer to becoming law Wednesday, winning approval from the Republican-led state Senate. ... emergency financial managers who are appointed by the state would have the power to terminate union contracts held by school teachers and local government workers...Managers also could strip local elected officials of most powers,

See article at link below. Cannot post excerpts due to copyright complaints.

link only

Fox 29 has confirmed the Philadelphia police have caught a suspect in the case of the Kensington Strangler, a serial attacker who killed three women in the past two months. Fox 29 first reported that police would make an announcement in the case on Monday night. The announcement turned out to the naming of a suspect in the case. The man was taken into custody about 20 minutes after a police press conference. Police say a DNA match confirms the suspect is Antonio Rodriguez, a 21-year-old man, from Philadelphia’s Kensington section. He is described as a black male, 5’ 9”,...

A 60-year-old university administrator in the southern port city of Karachi is wistful as he recalls the more tolerant, freewheeling Pakistan of his youth. Once, when a teacher suggested no book can be perfect, the boy asked if that included Islam's holy book, the Quran. That sparked a candid class discussion about religion. But in today's Pakistan, Muqtida Mansoor said he would never dare to ask the question in public. After all, "anyone could shoot you." [snip] "The silent majority does not want to take out a gun and shoot anyone, but at the same time they're not appalled by...

Senate is now debating changes to filibuster rule.

Senate Republicans on Saturday voted against extending the Bush tax cuts to only the middle class in a pair of votes Democrats are seizing to paint the GOP as guardians of the rich. The Senate voted 53-36 to extend all expiring tax cuts on individuals with incomes of less than $200,000 a year and married couples making less than $250,000 -- seven shy of the required 60 to advance. The other proposal, which drew opposition from White House officials, would have renewed them for all tax filers with incomes of $1 million or less. That also failed in a 53-36...

The Senate bill contains fees that could be considered tax provisions, which under congressional rules supposed to originate in the House, according to House and Senate aides who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the situation. House Republicans could call a vote to send the bill back to the Senate for another vote. That could hurt the bill's chances as Congress rushes to wrap up for the year.

RedState.com has received exclusive video showing the events leading up to the now infamous curb-stomp of MoveOn.org activist Lauren Valle. What is seen on the video contradicts Ms. Valle's account that she has repeated on main stream media programs and has been regurgitated on left-wing web sites.

The number two at the Dutch embassy in Ankara was called by Turkish government officials on Monday to explain parts of the coalition accord which relate to Turkey, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday, quoting diplomatic sources. In particular, the Turkish authorities are concerned about parts of the agreement which anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders made a condition of his support for the minority agreement. They want to know about the clause which will limit social security payments to people who return to Turkey and calls to renegotiate the terms of Turkey's association agreement with the EU. A court in Rotterdam ruled...

It may well become the trial of the century: this week, Dutch MP [Member of Parliament] Geert Wilders stands before the judge on charges of “sowing hate” through his speeches and writings about Islam. ... For Wilders, however, its timing could not come at a more strategic moment. As the founder and leader of Holland’s far-right Freedom Party (PVV), Wilders is not only Holland’s most controversial politician, but also its most-favored, ranking higher in the polls now than it did after a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections this past June. Moreover, just last week, after months of debate, the Dutch...

[From CNN CEO memo making the announcement]: Ultimately, the goal is that the kind of front-page reporting and analysis that captures a news event, translates its meaning and shapes the dialogue about the story will continue to emerge in even more prominent and more accessible ways to CNN’s audiences. The search for this person is currently underway.

The crash of Sweden's long-ruling Social Democrats to their worst defeat since 1914 highlights the decline of socialist parties in much of Europe, drained by social change, economic crisis and the rise of new issues. ... Socialists' long-standing support for European unification, religious tolerance and integrating immigrants has made them vulnerable to right-wing populists like the Sweden Democrats, Geert Wilders' Dutch Freedom Party or France's National Front.

For the month of July, Site Analytics shows Free Republic as having 6,187,862 visits (1,320,954 unique visitors).MSNBC.com had 5,224,538, down 16.9% (2,002,914 unique visitors).

Reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries - but on a much more dramatic, determined scale - China's rulers believe Africa can become a 'satellite' state, solving its own problems of over-population and shortage of natural resources at a stroke. With little fanfare, a staggering 750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade. More are on the way. The strategy has been carefully devised by officials in Beijing, where one expert has estimated that China will eventually need to send 300 million people to Africa to solve the problems of over-population and pollution....

Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders has emerged as a possible member of the next Dutch government after the centrist Christian Democrats agreed to informal talks with Wilders and the VVD party that won recent Dutch elections. Wilders says the Christian Democrats' move is "positive news" and he is prepared to start the talks as soon as possible.

AMSTERDAM—The Netherlands lurched deeper into political limbo Tuesday after renewed efforts to form a coalition government broke down amid disagreements about the scope and speed of economic overhauls. [snip] The center-right Liberals were negotiating with a center-left trio of the Labor Party and the smaller Democratic Liberals and Green Party.

AMSTERDAM/JAKARTA (BosNewsLife)-- The Dutch far right Party for Freedom (PVV) says the Netherlands should demand that Indonesia improves protection of Christians amid reports that hard-line Muslims prepare for a religious war with that country's Christian minority. In a petition, PVV-leader Geert Wilders and party representative Raymond de Roon ask the government to summon the ambassador of Indonesia and suggest that the Netherlands "freezes" cooperation with its former colony. They wrote Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime to tell the Indonesian ambassador that "the Netherlands demands immediate action of the Indonesian government to protect the Christian minority in the city of Bekasi and...