Free Republic

The United States says it is "deeply concerned" about the death sentences handed down to former President Mohamed Morsi and more than 100 other defendants for a 2011 mass prison break. "We have consistently spoken out against the practice of mass trials and sentences, which are conducted in a manner that is inconsistent with Egypt's international obligations and the rule of law," a State Department official said Sunday. The sentences were handed down Saturday in a Cairo court. The Grand Mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, will make the final decision on the sentences on June 2. The former president is...

Murder rates were four times as high in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Gaza than in Israel in 2012, according to a new study on homicide released last week. The findings are part of a global study on homicide by the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian think tank. […] 134 people were killed in Israel in 2012, according to this database—assuming it is not including terror victims—at a rate of 1.8 murders per 100,000 people. By contrast, 312 people were killed in the PA that same year, or a staggering 7.4 murders per 100,000 people. …

Iraqi security forces attempting to retake control of the western city of Ramadi were routed in heavy fighting Sunday, the worst defeat for Iraq’s central government since Islamic State militants stormed across the country. In a replay of last year’s military debacle, elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area, leaving several hundred soldiers surrounded in the last government-held enclave in the city. Multiple security sources, none of whom agreed to be identified, speaking from both within the besieged Anbar Provincial Operation Center as well as with the units fleeing the city, described the...

Reports on the death of the fourth circulated in North Sinai, says resident Three judges were killed in an attack on the Al-Arish-Rafah international road Saturday morning as they were heading to a North Sinai court. A North Sinai resident told Daily News Egypt that of the four judges travelling together, four people were killed, including a driver and one judge was severely injured. He added that reports circulated that the fourth died after sustaining injuries as well. The incident comes after ousted former president Mohamed Morsi was handed a preliminarily death sentence Saturday morning, and his papers referred to...

The Iraqi government and army officials have sent a plea to United States officials in Baghdad, asking for military support as soon as possible to prevent Ramadi, the largest city in Anbar Province, from falling to Islamic State (IS). At a meeting held in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss the latest advances of IS in Anbar, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi warned that the jihadists may take the western Iraqi province. The meeting was attended by Iraqi army commanders, the Parliament Speaker, US Ambassador Stuart Jones and a number of Iraqi political leaders. They discussed a plan to repel the IS...

Jeb Bush began a talk the other day by addressing the issue of his brother George, noted architect of the Iraq war, and he did not shrink from the challenge. "I can't deny the fact that I love my family," announced Jeb. So if you suspected that the Bush Thanksgivings in Kennebunkport resemble "August: Osage County" -- with lots of screaming, sobbing and clawing -- you probably feel pretty silly right now. On a more pertinent question -- whether the war was a wise idea -- the answer is not so clear. The former governor of Florida first said that,...

Just under three years ago, Mohammed Morsi assumed office as Egypt’s first freely elected head of state, a milestone in the “Arab Spring” struggle for democracy. On Saturday, the same Egyptian state condemned him to die. A court in Cairo has sentenced the former president to death for conspiring with foreign militants during a prison escape in 2011. The ruling comes one month after Morsi received a separate 20-year sentence for inciting violence against protesters while in office. Egyptian authorities have detained Morsi since his overthrow in July 2013.

Ramadi, the provincial capital of western Iraqi Anbar, fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Friday, May 15 after its inhabitants were put to mass flight. The town, 110 km west of Baghdad, controls the traffic on the Euphrates River. Small pockets of Iraqi troops are still stranded there after taking hundreds of casualties. The jihadists are in mid-momentum of a fresh multi-pronged offensive, which they launched shortly after they lost Tikrit last month to the biggest counter-offensive they had faced since seizing large tracts of land in Iraq nearly a year ago. This momentum has carried...

Following Fatah loss during student elections at Bizreit University, 25 students have been arrested or questioned by PA security forces. The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to crack down on Hamas supporters within its borders, and is also targeting student leaders of a Hamas-aligned group at Birzeit University The crackdown began after a Hamas victory and Fatah defeat in student elections at the Palestinian university last month. Al Jazeera reported Sunday that PA security forces quickly began detaining and questioning students associated with the winning Hamas group. Two representatives were arrested, while over a dozen more were interrogated. One student, Jihad...

BIRZEIT, West Bank — Lina Halsa certainly made a splash at the student rally for the Islamist Hamas movement here at Birzeit University last month. Wearing a sleeveless top, tight jeans, and with her hair in a ponytail, Ms. Halsa’s attire was revealing even by the standards of this liberal, secular campus. But it was downright scandalous according to Hamas norms. Yet, Ms. Halsa was the very image of Hamas success on the campus, where the Islamist party beat out the more moderate Fatah faction in student elections. A photograph of her waving the faction’s signature green banner rocketed around...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Wednesday that Israel would defend itself against Iran, calling an emerging nuclear pact “a mistake that will cost dearly.” Speaking at the Knesset during a discussion devoted to the victory of the Allied forces in World War II 70 years ago, Netanyahu said world powers should learn a lesson from the rise of Nazi Germany and not go ahead with an agreement that would allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium and lift sanctions. “The lesson of history is never to make concessions to a radical regime which waves the banner of genocide and expansionism,” he...

Jpost editorial: Shortsighted Vatican By JPOST EDITORIAL BOARD 05/14/2015 The Vatican announced this week that it was poised to sign a treaty with the Palestinian political leadership. The Vatican announced this week that it was poised to sign a treaty with the Palestinian political leadership, representing what was referred to in official Holy See documents as the “State of Palestine.” News media played up the announcement, with The New York Times calling the specific mention of a “State of Palestine” a “significant symbolic weight to an intensifying Palestinian push for international support for sovereignty that bypasses the paralyzed negotiations with...

President Obama’s Camp David summit with the Gulf Arab states on Thursday will seek to boost arms sales to the Gulf neighbors but the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been taken off their wish list. White House officials on Monday sought to tamp down speculation that King Salman of Saudi Arabia canceled his attendance at Camp David when the U.S. made clear that his country would not be permitted to buy F-35s. “We do not and never anticipated this to be a summit that only focused on one capability, like the F-35, for instance,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy National...

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi to death over his part in a mass prison break that took place during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. As is customary in passing capital punishment, Judge Shaaban el-Shami referred his death sentence on Morsi and others to the nation’s top Muslim theologian, or mufti, for his non-binding opinion. He set June 2 for the next hearing. Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was ousted by the military in July 2013 following days of mass street protests by Egyptians demanding that he be removed because...

...Obama called Mr. Morsi...the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood [party] defeated Mr. Shafiq, the last prime minister of former President Hosni Mubarak, by 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent in the election held one week ago. Mr. Obama “underscored that the United States will continue to support Egypt’s transition to democracy and stand by the Egyptian people as they fulfill the promise of their revolution,” the White House said in a readout of the call...

[1]Also Hitler’s corpse would like reparations for not being allowed to conquer London.Considering that British rule helped bring in Muslim illegal aliens into the historical Jewish homeland, who then refused to leave and began killing people, Israel can then demand reparations from the UK for Hamas.Or maybe the UK can just resettle Hamas in Tower Hamlets. No one would notice the difference [2]. Hamas official Essam Adwan stated Friday that Britain “paved the way” for a “Zionist takeover” by preventing Palestinians from establishing an armed resistance against Jews in 1947 and by weakening the local economy and education system.The...

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi to death over his part in a mass prison break that took place during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. As is customary in passing capital punishment, Judge Shaaban el-Shami referred his death sentence on Morsi and others to the nation's top Muslim theologian, or mufti, for his non-binding opinion. He set June 2 for the next hearing.

The 2016 presidential election is attracting an unusually large number of hopefuls. The Republicans will probably field more than a dozen candidates and the Democrats, as many as five. Presently, very few of these supposed contenders have a real chance of becoming president. Republicans Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz are long shots. On the Democratic side, that term applies to everyone but Hillary Rodham Clinton.. ~snip~ If you tell them in private, "You do not have a chance to be president," they will point to underdogs who won, such as Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan, or front-runners who...

)—Five Iranian boats fired shots across the bow of a Singapore flagged cargo vessel in the Persian Gulf on Thursday in an attempt to potentially stop the ship, a U.S. official told CNN. For the first time, the incident brought another Persian Gulf nation into the recent rising maritime tensions in the region. It is not yet clear if any of the rounds hit the Alpine Eternity. There were no U.S. citizens or cargo on board. The Pentagon is still gathering information about the incident.

DOHA (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirate's coastguard said it went to the aid of a Singapore-flagged ship on Thursday after the vessel came under Iranian naval fire, the Gulf state's news agency reported. The coastguard said the cargo ship, flying a Singapore flag,