Free Republic

Speculation: The mystery sea creature with razor sharp teeth has been confusing people ============================================================================================================= The image has divided social media with some claiming it is a large hairtail, a long, slender fish found in tropical seas, while others suggest it has been photoshopped With the body of a legless crocodile and the head of a dolphin, this strange sea creature looks more like something out of medieval myth than a real animal. It was photographed after washing ashore on the banks of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales in Australia. Ethan Tipper snapped an image of the creature before posting...

Mr. Tyrrell said he then heard his wife screaming and turned to see the man attacking her and ran to her aid. He got the man into a headlock but then he said up to eight other men ran in to join the fight. Mr. Tyrrell, a combat veteran and martial arts instructor, said he ended up on the ground and was kicked in the head. He says the main attacker was Muslim and believes the violent attack was racially and culturally motivated. "I'm a war veteran and I fought in the Middle East. The main attacker was Muslim and...

The corporate executive at the head of Japan’s submarine bid has warned of the “risk” in retro-fitting a nuclear submarine with a diesel engine as proposed by the French bid, and that scaling up a smaller design would create technical “challenges”. The caution comes as bid ­leader Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also said it would be willing to bid for future warship contracts in Australia and to launch satellites for the Australian government or telecommunications companies to augment its campaign for the $20 billion submarines contract. MHI chief executive Shunichi Miyanaga, when asked about converting a nuclear submarine to run on...

"Is he nuts or is he a genius?" That's the question many Australians ask about Barnaby Joyce, the new Nationals leader and deputy prime minister. From the moment he set foot in Parliament in 2005, Mr Joyce has been anything but dull. His outspoken, sometimes rogue approach to politics could not be more different to his calm and quiet colleague Warren Truss. The Liberal Party will be nervously wondering whether the man, who once threatened to euthanase a Hollywood superstar's pet dogs, is orderly enough to keep the Nationals in line. Who is Barnaby Joyce? Mr Joyce was educated by...

SYDNEY – A 93-year-old World War II veteran from the United States embraced his wartime girlfriend in Australia in their reunion Wednesday after more than 70 years apart.

SUBTITLE: Because the science is settled there is no need for more basic research, the government says. With an ax rather than a scalpel, Australia's federal science agency last week chopped off its climate research arm in a decision that has stunned scientists and left employees dispirited. As many as 110 out of 140 positions at the atmosphere and oceans division will be cut, Larry Marshall, the agency's chief executive, told staff Friday. "The situation is very bad here," the scientist said. "Eighty percent of our climate capability will be gone; it is clear that climate modeling will be cut...

Police prosecutors have dropped a charge against a soldier who caused panic after jogging through suburban Brisbane with a gun-shaped object last year. A full-scale police response was launched after 26-year-old Nicholas Paul Latham was spotted running through Rochedale South wearing camouflage clothing and carrying the object in December last year. Several schools were shut down and Mr Latham was eventually tackled by police. He told police it was all a misunderstanding as he was training with a metal object shaped like a gun, but was charged with public nuisance. His matter went before the Holland Park Magistrates Court on...

Australia's biggest Islamic School has been stripped of $20 million in government funding following allegations the money was not being used only on education. Malek Fahd Islamic School in Greenacre, south-west of Sydney, which has more than 2,400 students, could be forced to close its gate after the Federal Government said it would stop funding. On Monday, the Department of Education issued a notice to the Islamic institution - revoking its Commonwealth funding - and leaving hundreds of teaching jobs on the line. Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the funding will be axed as of April 8 after the school...

Holding hands and singing Kumbaya in Gaza. Sure. Maybe you're right to keep the rest of us away from Israel, might confuse us. Dear Mr Fooley (or may I call you Luke?*) Just got back from my Labor Parliamentary Excursion, dividing my time equally between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as you requested. What a trip! My feet hardly touched the ground! Monday: Arrived at Lod Airport, after circling around to avoid being blasted out of the sky by IS, Hamas, Hezbollah, and a bunch of other peace-loving friends of the Palestinian Arab People's Struggle to Wipe The Perfidious Jew...

THE relatives of slain British soldiers have accused the Department of Veterans' Affairs of banning them from attending centenary commemorations for a catastrophic WWI battle that killed thousands of Australian soldiers. The Battle of Fromelles is among Australia's bloodiest military encounters and the brutal loss has long been blamed on a disastrous incompetence of British military strategy. A special service to mark the battle's 100th anniversary is to take place on July 19 this year at the Pheasant Wood military cemetery in Fromelles, northern France. The slaughter is viewed by historians as the darkest 24 hours in the Australia's history...

IN 1999, Sydney was at its peak. The Olympic Games were imminent and there was unbridled optimism that Sydney was about to emerge as an international city as the millennium approached. Internationally, Sydney was renowned as an incredibly fun place to live; the entertainment was world class, with great restaurants and venues to visit at any time of night. Something pernicious has happened in the 17 years since, and Sydney has not just regressed into a ghost town, but there is an undercurrent of something much more sinister in the way the city is being run. As I write this...

Australia's High Court threw out a challenge to offshore immigration detention camps on Wednesday, clearing the way for the deportation of dozens of infants born in Australia to detained asylum seekers. The court rejected a legal test case brought by an unidentified Bangladeshi woman that challenged Australia's right to deport detained asylum seekers to the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru. The detention centre on Nauru houses about 500 people and has been widely criticised by the United Nations and human rights agencies for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse. The Bangladeshi woman was on a boat...

A submission to a Senate inquiry into the feasibility of Government’s planned purchase of at least 72 F-35 Lightning II fighter jets says that the multirole planes will be instantly outmatched in air superiority by the airborne wings of competing countries in the region like China and Indonesia, and will fare even worse against future threats. It suggests — hypothetically — that Australia instead push for the F-22 Raptor, a jet that the United States has never sold to even its closest military allies. In the submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade’s Joint Strike...

NEARLY 20 schools have been evacuated or placed in lockdown after another wave of suspicious phone calls threatening shootings and bombings. The scare comes after hundreds of students were on Friday evacuated from schools across Victoria and New South Wales, and a kindergarten, in a chilling bomb hoax. Several schools in Queensland have received similar threats today.

19-year-old on trial for plot to 'pack' kangaroo with explosives and set it loose on police officers on veteran's day. Islamic State (ISIS) inspired jihadists have come up with creative terror attack plans in the past, but one 19-year-old in Australia who appeared in court Thursday topped them all by planning to launch a "kangaroo bomb." According to court documents Sevdet Ramadan Besim of Hallam, to the southeast of Melbourne, planned to "pack" a kangaroo with explosives, paint an ISIS symbol on it and then unleash it on police officers in Melbourne for Anzac Day, Australia and New Zealand's veteran's...

A new book tells the fascinating story of one of Australia's most lethal military men and how his exploits are now part of army folklore. ..... Opie won a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) in Korea for almost single-handedly capturing an enemy position. Many thought he should have got a Victoria Cross (VC) - amazingly no Australian got a VC in the Korean War. Leading a team of only six men he captured a hill known as 'Hill 614' that had held up the whole brigade of 3,000 men. The Chinese were well dug in and it was a very steep...

Australia's prime minister gave a personal assurance on Friday that his government would legalize gay marriage if a majority of Australians choose marriage equality in a popular vote. The center-right government has promised to hold a plebiscite on the gay marriage question if the government is re-elected in a vote due this year. But a number of the government's most conservative lawmakers have recently announced that they might vote down gay marriage against the wishes of a majority of Australians. ...

Australia’s former top weapons tester has warned of serious problems with the country’s $24 billion share of the F-35 stealth fighter program. The ex-official, Keith Joiner, issued the warnings in a Jan. 4 letter to the Australian Senate’s formal inquiry into the Joint Strike Fighter project. Joiner’s biggest criticisms involve the F-35’s repeated delays, lack of Australian input in the project and the fighter’s powerful computer brain. The retired official wrote that Canberra must either speak out about the stealth warplane’s problems or pull out of the project. He also favors delaying Australia’s commitment until developer Lockheed Martin and the...

The Australian government came under mounting pressure on Australia's national day on Tuesday to appoint an Australian head of state to replace the British monarch. Every Australia Day, an eminent Australian citizen is made Australian of the Year in recognition of his or her contribution to Australian society. The 2016 Australian of the Year, former Chief of Army David Morrison, said in his acceptance speech on Monday night that he intended to use his new public profile to campaign for Australia severing its constitutional ties to Britain. ...

Let me be clear - I am pro-life. I support that position with exceptions allowed for rape, incest or the life of the mother being at risk. I did not always hold this position, but I had a significant personal experience that brought the precious gift of life into perspective for me. My story is well documented, so I will not retell it here. However, what I will do with the remaining space is express my feelings about life, and the culture of life, as we just marked the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I build things. There is...