Free Republic

Although Russia has not responded to US sanctions over the Ukraine crisis by putting a travel ban on President Barack Obama, there is one part of the country he is now barred from entering: Chechnya. On Saturday Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the small Russian republic that has been the scene of two devastating separatist wars in the past 20 years, said he was placing Obama on a list of people banned from visiting. The list also includes European Union figures José Manuel Barroso, Herbert van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton. Kadyrov, wrote on his Instagram account that the ban was...

Two US F16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Panama City-bound flight from Canada back to Toronto on Friday after a man on the plane apparently threatened to blow up the aircraft, authorities said. Major Julie Roberge of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the jets flew up to join Sunwing Airlines flight 772 as a "precaution" less than an hour after it took off from Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft struck 30 houses in the Gaza Strip early Friday, killing a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group and two of his sons, as Israel's Security Cabinet was to decide whether to expand its operation or consider ideas for a cease-fire.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says a loophole that lets companies dodge U.S. taxes by moving their headquarters overseas is unpatriotic.</p> <p>Obama is denouncing "tax inversions" in his weekly radio and Internet address. He says companies are essentially renouncing their citizenship to avoid paying their fair share.</p>

Economic inequality in the United States has been receiving a lot of attention. But it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical American household has been getting poorer, too. The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation. Those are the figures for a household at the median point in the wealth distribution — the level at which there are an equal number of households whose worth is higher and lower....

12-hour humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas went into force on Saturday morning, as top diplomats pressed efforts to secure a longer-term ceasefire. The fragile ceasefire began at 8:00 am (0500 GMT). Hamas said it and other groups in Gaza had reached “national consensus on a humanitarian truce”, and Israel later confirmed it would observe “a humanitarian window in the Gaza Strip”. The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza advised people not to approach bombed-out buildings and militant bases for fear of “explosive objects”. The Israeli military warned Gaza residents who had been told to evacuate their homes not to return...

DOVER — Misinformation has surfaced this week regarding the relocation and settlement of Congolese refugees to Tri-City communities; however, one aspect of the program through the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success is true — the communities of Dover, Somersworth and Rochester will have no say in the matter. Dover Mayor Karen Weston said Friday that the notion of 3,000 refugees being resettled in the Garrison City is not accurate and also the GraniteGrok.com report by Skip Murphy that a meeting scheduled with ORIS Aug. 13 will not allow for residents to ask questions is a total fabrication. What is...

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Secretary Kerry arrived in Cairo earlier this week. No one wanted him there. Egypt’s ruler, General Sisi, has no interest in saving Hamas through international diplomacy: The Muslim Brotherhood is his mortal enemy. Kerry then went from Cairo to Jerusalem, where he met with U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who flew to the meeting on a plane chartered by Qatar, Hamas’ primary source of cash. Kerry also met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is too gracious to tell the secretary to go back to Boston. (Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has said publicly what the Israeli...

Hamas is not an isolated player. It is part of a Muslim Brotherhood regional alliance bankrolled by the Emirate of Qatar. The last year has not been good for this alliance. In 2011-12, they were riding high. They had come to power in Egypt and in Tunisia and seemed fairly placed to triumph in Syria too. Hamas elected to back what looked like an emergent Muslim Brotherhood power bloc – and drew away from its alliance with Iran. Not much is left of all that. Egypt and Tunisia are gone. In Syria, only the regime, Islamic State and the Kurds...

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe turned up the rhetoric on immigration late this week, telling a national television audience that young immigrants at Fort Sill and elsewhere are in the U.S. “at the invitation of the president” and comparing the situation to the administration’s exchange of five Guantanamo Bay prisoners for U.S. serviceman Bowe Bergdahl. Inhofe also signed on to a bill by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that would effectively end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama administration’s policy of giving low priority to deportation of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and have been in the...

Capitol computers have been barred from modifying Wikipedia for 10 days, due to “persistent disruptive editing.” The legislative body was told by Wikipedia administrators that it is welcome to make “useful contributions” once the ban expires. “You have been blocked from editing for a period of 10 days for persistent disruptive editing, as you did at Mediaite. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make useful contributions,” a Wikipedia message said. “If you think there are good reasons why you should be unblocked, you may appeal this block,” administrator Tom Morris told Congress on Thursday. The ban follows...

**SNIP** At one meeting with an undercover FBI agent, Jackson allegedly told Yee that the agent knew the owner of an NFL team. Yee then told the agent about a pending law that would limit NFL players from filing workers' compensation claims in the state if they played for out of state teams. Yee told the agent that he should "convey this information to the owner of the NFL team" with an offer of help from Yee. Asked about the cost of such a vote, Yee reportedly said, "Oh no...we gotta drag it out, man. We gotta juice this thing."...

A young Ukrainian has prompted widespread outrage after posing in make-up apparently looted from the crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. Ekaterina Parkhomenko, who describes herself as a ‘separatist’ from the eastern region of the country, posted images of herself on Instagram along with the claim that she was wearing make-up ‘from the field’ – hinting the products were taken from the same area where the bodies of victims of the plane crash lay. ‘Mascara from Amsterdam, or rather from the field. Well, I think you know what I mean,’ she reportedly wrote on her social media page, before...

**SNIP** The figures, released late Thursday, cap the fine for not buying insurance at $2,448 per person and $12,240 for a family of five. The standard rule of thumb is 2% of household income, with a minimum of $325 per person. The caps are equal to the national average premium for a bronze-level health plan. Those who choose to go uninsured will owe one-twelfth of the annual payment for each month they or their dependents don’t have either coverage or an exemption, the IRS said. All fines will be due during tax return season, which can be deducted from tax...

Disadvantaged groups in China have been dubbed a variety of names, such as the “ant tribe,” “cupboard tribe,” “well tribe,” and now “rat tribe.” A large number of people belong to these groups whose living conditions paint a clear picture of the sad and bitter life they are facing. The names given these groups are taken from how they live. It is hard for people to imagine there are still people living under wells, inside shipping containers, or even inside air shelters and basements with no exposure to the sun. According to definitions given on the Hudong Chinese encyclopedia website,...

REUTERS - Air France said on Friday it would resume flights to Tel Aviv later in the day, the latest major airline to lift a ban on flights to Israel imposed earlier in the week over security concerns. The airline suspended flights to Tel Aviv on Tuesday after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel's main hub. Germany's Lufthansa said it would resume flights to Israel's Tel Aviv airport on Saturday.

Egypt's Air Sinai has continued its scheduled flights to Israel, despite the cancellation of flights by numerous American and European airlines, according to Calcalist. The Egyptian carrier runs four weekly flights to Ben-Gurion International Airport. The decision to continue flying to Israel must have been made at the highest echelons, and is meant to send a message to Hamas, which Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi regards with disdain, Calcalist reported. The Egyptian decision has prompted harsh criticism by many Arab web users on social networks.

The Government should stop claiming Islam is a religion of peace in the light of the Trojan horse allegations, a former leader of Ukip has said. Lord Pearson of Rannoch said the problems could only be cured from "within Islam". An investigation led by former anti-terror chief Peter Clarke today reported there had been a deliberate effort to introduce an "intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos" into a number of Birmingham schools. The damning report, commissioned by former Education Secretary Michael Gove in April, was highly critical of Birmingham City Council, accusing the authority of failing to support under-pressure headteachers dealing...