Free Republic

(Reuters) - In a small town in Syria's east, Islamist militants have taken unclothed mannequins they see as sexually enticing out of the shops. ... Of all the hundreds of rebel units, al-Nusra is considered the most effective. Its fighters, who seek out death in battle as a form of martyrdom, have achieved victories in attacks on several military bases across the country. They still represent a small fraction of the armed anti-Assad groups fighting in Syria but are growing in size and influence. ... Al-Nusra have been shrewd. They took control of the nearby al-Ward oil and gas field...

Pakistan’s most urbanized province lacks the “political commitment” and resources to properly educate its people, so the Obama Administration is stepping in to offer a little of both. Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the five-year Community Mobilization Project (CMP) which will deploy contractors to advise officials and communities in Pakistan’s Sindh Province. CMP represents one component of the broader U.S. –funded Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP), for which the White House last year pledged to infuse about $86 million toward improving targeted Pakistani educational systems.

Italian magistrates investigating losses at Banca Monte dei Paschi say the mushrooming scandal has taken a dramatic turn, with political fallout that threatens to rock the country’s elections next month and upset eurozone plans for a banking union. “The situation is explosive,” said Tito Salerno, head of the prosecuting team in Siena, describing the fast-moving events at Italy’s third-largest bank as extremely grave. The Milan bourse tumbled 3.4pc and yields on 10-year Italian bonds spiked 15 basis points to 4.31pc as the political scandal widened. Monte dei Paschi (MPS), the world’s oldest bank dating back to 1472, is under investigation...

The impact is from some kind of anti-tank weapon. Can't tell if it's been doctored, but the footage is pretty dramatic:

The Israeli Air Force reportedly carried out an airstrike on a Syrian weapons convoy last night. While some accounts have suggested that the convoy may have been carrying chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Associated Press reports that the primary target was Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which were likely destined for Hezbollah. It is currently unclear whether the strike, which was confirmed to Reuters by four sources, took place in Syrian or Lebanese territory. A high-ranking Lebanese security source told the Daily Star that "[n]o strike took place on Lebanese soil." Haaretz reports that a Lebanese source has...

Newly confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Iran’s “continued violation of the universal right of freedom of religion” and urged the release of an American Christian pastor imprisoned for his religious beliefs. In a written response to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to questions during his confirmation hearing last week obtained by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Kerry, a liberal Massachusetts Democrat, said he is “deeply concerned” about Saeed Abedini, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison for his Christian faith on Sunday. … Abedini, 32, who is from Boise, Idaho, has been jailed in Iran...

A new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [photo 2nd left] was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft crash landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border.

Israel conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria, foreign officials and Syrian state TV say, amid fears President Bashar al-Assad's regime is providing weapons to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah. A statement from the Syrian military read aloud on state TV confirmed the strike, saying the jets bombed a military research centre in the area of Jamraya, northwest of the capital, Damascus.

My amendment to prohibit the sale of F–16 fighter jets to Egypt will be voted on tomorrow afternoon. Please call your Senator and let them know you support this amendment: 202-224-3121 http://www.facebook.com/RandPaul2010/posts/10151321849161107 Contact Your Senator's: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

• Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference declaring: 'Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 in government coffers' • However he today contradicted his claims by saying the following day $30m was paid into government accounts • Result is culmination of years of ruinous economic policy by Zimbabwe's despotic President Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe's finance minister has taken a hard look at the cash strapped country's bank accounts - and discovered it only has £138 and 34 pence left. Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference yesterday declaring: 'Last week when we paid civil servants...

South Korea for the first time has successfully sent a satellite into space from its own soil, joining an exclusive club that only 12 other nations in history have entered. South Korea failed previously to achieve a flawless launch, allowing impoverished North Korea to beat its rival into space. During South Korean launches in 2009 and 2010, the protective barrier around the payload failed to separate properly from the rocket. This time all appeared to go according to plan after the KSLV-1, with a Russian first stage, lifted off from the Naro Space Center, 480 kilometers south of Seoul. Its...

MONTERREY, Mexico - Police pulled 17 bodies from a well in northern Mexico and 14 of them have been identified as members of a musical band kidnapped by gunmen last week, an official said Tuesday. Investigators have finished searching the well but are still trying to determine a motive in the killings of the Kombo Kolombia band members and crew, said a Nuevo Leon state official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the case. Kombo Kolombia was playing at a ranch in the town of Hidalgo when 10 gunmen entered the...

The Department of Defense released a report in February 2012 raising significant concerns to Congress about integrating women into combat units, an issue receiving renewed attention given outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s recent announcement that women would be allowed in combat roles. The report(PDF) raised five “serious practical barriers, which if not approached in a deliberate manner, could adversely impact the health of our service members and degrade mission accomplishment.”The largest difficulty yet to be overcome are the “physically demanding tasks” that the Department of Defense used to exclude “the vast majority of women” in combat roles.“The elimination of...

A $40 million engineering structure belonging to Iran's South Pars gas field, which was to be used in offshore platforms, sank into the Gulf as it was being installed, media said on Wednesday, as reported by AFP. The equipment was built by Maritime Industrial Company (SADRA), an affiliate of the industrial wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, over a 30-month period." An investigation is under way," SADRA's managing director Mehdi Etesami told the ISNA news agency, without elaborating. The incident occurred Monday night as the 1,850-tonne jacket developed for South Pars Phase 13 sank to a depth of 80 meters (264...

Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, Commander of the IAF, described the chaotic threat facing Israel from its neighbors Tuesday, just hours before jet fighters under his command reportedly hit a major weapons convoy between Syria and Lebanon. Video .....

Open defiance of Egypt's president in street protests shows how much the Muslim Brotherhood needs to leave Islam outside the door of democracy.Five days of protests in Egypt, with dozens of people killed and entire cities in turmoil, have revealed a whopping deficit of public trust in the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic group that dominates the leadership of this young democracy of the Arab Spring.*************************************************SNIP************************************* In cities like Port Said, the protesters have displayed an open defiance of President Mohamed Morsi’s orders on a curfew and state of emergency. Egypt’s Army chief warns of the state collapsing. And indeed, many...

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi defended his rancorous anti-Semitic comments, claiming that they were taken out of context. Morsi asserted in September 2010 that peace negotiations are "a waste of time and opportunities" as Arabs and Muslims get nothing out of engagement with "the descendants of apes and pigs." An Egyptian television shown this month aired the remarks, which were translated and distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "I was talking about the practices and behavior of believers of any religion who shed blood or who attack innocent people or civilians. That's behavior that I condemn," Morsi said,...

Norway is failing to live up to its obligations as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), including imposing extra taxes on EU products and not implementing more than 400 directives, according to an EU report to be published later this year. … Moreover, the EU also dislikes the fact that Norway has rejected several directives coming from Brussels. The Norwegian government has for example warned it won’t implement the EU’s postal directive about competitiveness for letter mail weighing less than 50 grams. … (Denmark MEP Bendt) Bendtsen said the problems in the EU-Norway relations could eventually affect the...

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard surprised voters on Wednesday by announcing that national elections will be held September 14, in a country where governments have traditionally given the opposition little more than a month’s notice to keep a strategic advantage. September 14, 2013, falls on Yom Kippur, leading former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull to post on Twitter that he was “deeply disappointed that Julia Gillard chose to hold the election on Yom Kippur — the most solemn and sacred day of the Jewish year.”

Israel conducted a rare airstrike inside Syria near the border with Lebanon, hitting a convoy of trucks, foreign officials said Wednesday, amid fears President Bashar Assad's regime is providing weapons to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.