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The Taoiseach has said that what is happening in Gaza is not just self-defense on the part of Israel, but it “resembles something more approaching revenge”. Leo Varadkar’s comments come as Israeli ground troops are encircling Gaza City this morning. He said that it is very important that people “never forget where this started”, adding that this phase of the conflict started with a Hamas attack on Israel where 1,400 civilians were killed, including one person who was a dual Israeli-Irish citizen. “I strongly believe, like any state, Israel has a right to defend itself, has the right to go...

A Washington state senator was arrested at Hong Kong Airport and faces up to 14 years in jail after discovering mid-flight he had brought his gun with him on the plane. Longview Republican Jeff Wilson was flying with his wife Trisha to the Chinese city at the start of a five-week vacation in South-East Asia when he realized his mistake. Reaching into his hand luggage for a 'piece of gum' he discovered the firearm in there as well which had also escaped the attention of security staff when he set off from Portland in Oregon. 'It was an honest mistake,...

The scales have fallen from the eyes of Henry Kissinger. He was a signatory in 2015 to a letter that urged Congress to pass legislation allowing more Muslims from Syria and Iraq — claiming to be refugees — to be admitted to the United States. Now he looks at Europe, where millions of Muslims have been allowed to settle, where they batten on the benefits provided by those generous welfare states, and sees how they have spread the virus of antisemitism that they brought with them when they arrived. Kissinger was shaken by the murderous antisemitism that was on display...

Iran threatens rape of Obama daughter Warns of mass abductions, brutal killings of American citizens if U.S. hits Syria (Daily Caller) As Congress debates whether to support President Obama’s call for a limited strike against Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons, Iran is vowing to back Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the hilt and threatening to unleash terrorism should the U.S. strike. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Forces, Wednesday told the Assembly of Experts — the body that chooses the supreme leader — that “[w]e will support Syria to the end.” And in an unprecedented statement, a...

"Gunman who took hostages at Louisiana bank posted chilling Facebook messages" SNIPPET: "The gunman who took three hostages at a Louisiana bank Tuesday -- killing one of them before being shot and killed by police -- recently posted chilling messages on Facebook, including a cartoon strip about hostages.   In a post on Sunday, 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed displays a cartoon strip that focuses on an apparent hostage situation." SNIPPET: "Ahmed's final post, made Tuesday just hours before the hostage standoff began, is of a photo of a man with a sword attacking a tank.Under the photo is a quote...

McALLEN, Texas — Two illegal aliens from Mexico joined forces with human smugglers to kidnap and torture unsuspecting illegal immigrants being held at a stash house. Instead of charging the group with hostage taking or kidnapping charges, prosecutors charged them with human smuggling. Federal authorities this week raided a house in the border city of Mission, where they arrested a group of illegal immigrants as well as Arthur Flores, a U.S citizen, and two illegal aliens from Mexico described as his henchmen. The two henchmen had been tasked with holding the immigrants under threats of violence, court records obtained by...

Negotiation is like any skill, it takes practice. But at the simplest level there are a few rules that must be followed. The first rule is that you must negotiate as if you expect to win. When the conservatives in the house passed the bill to defund Obamacare Boehner should not have wavered. He should have embraced Cruz and thanked him for carrying the water.

The White House has launched a new offensive in its fight with congressional Republicans over taxes, arguing 114 million middle-class families will see their taxes rise without action by Congress. A report from President ObamaÂ’s National Economic Council released Monday contends the families would see their taxes rise by an average of $1,600 if the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire as scheduled at the end of the year. The report is the latest effort by President Obama to corner Republicans on taxes. The GOP has argued that all of the Bush-era rates should be extended for a year, and...

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Note: The following text is a quote: March 26, 2010 Remaining 4 defendants plead guilty to hostage taking in Houston HOUSTON - The remaining four defendants in a six-defendant case pleaded guilty on Friday to hostage taking. U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas, announced the guilty pleas. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with substantial assistance provided by the Houston Police Department (HPD). Israel Perez-Pinon, 26, Alejandro Pantoja-Rosales, 28, Edgar Ivan Guerrero, 20, and Juan Romero-Trejo, 36, all pleaded guilty March 26 before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore. They admitted to having...

MORELIA, Mexico — A public defender died of his injuries today after being shot by inmates who took a group of lawyers hostage near the central Mexican city of Morelia, bringing the death toll in the incident to five, authorities said. Ulises Montanez, 28, was shot in Saturday's standoff. Three other lawyers and an inmate also died in the hostage-taking and subsequent police raid. Prison Director Rogelio Garcia said officials were investigating Sunday how the inmates obtained .357-caliber Magnum handguns at the Mil Cumbres prison, which holds 2,000 prisoners. On Friday, four inmates took a total of 14 public defenders...

NATO says it will keep the son of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in custody until he reveals information that may lead to the capture of his father. NATO spokesman in Sarajevo Derek Chappell told the dpa news agency that Aleksandar Karadzic will be kept in detention as long as it takes to get information NATO believes he has. NATO military units picked Karadzic up Thursday at his home in Pale, near Sarajevo. The UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague has indicted the elder Karadzic on charges of genocide and war crimes. There is no information on what...

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt's (search) first ambassador to post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has been kidnapped in Baghdad just a month after arriving in the country, Egyptian diplomats said Sunday. Two diplomats, speaking in Cairo and Baghdad on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Ihab al-Sherif was kidnapped late Saturday in the Iraqi capital. Al-Sherif had arrived in Baghdad on June 1.

Gianfranco Fini, the Italian Foreign Minister, increased a diplomatic row with the United States today by demanding that Washington identify and punish those responsible for the shooting of Rome’s top intelligence agent in Iraq. Signor Fini dismissed the American version that a lack of communication was responsible for the death of Nicola Calipari, who died in a hail of gunfire from US troops as he escorted a freed Italian hostage to Baghdad airport on Friday. Signor Calipari had made "all the necessary contacts" with US authorities in Baghdad, the minister said. In his account to parliament of the shooting, which...

Albanian terrorists take Greek bus hostages My Sat news is reporting 2 Albanians took an unknown number of hostages on the bus. Bus driver escaped. A wave of such terror attacks hit Greece in the 90s. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Bus+hostages+Greece&lr=&sa=N&tab=nw

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

What analysts and academics describe as "hostage-barricade" situations – as in the case of the southern Russian school where 17 terrorists have kidnapped several hundred children, parents, and teachers – appears to be making a comeback after more than two decades of being relatively dormant. Only now, in the era of modern terrorism, the stakes in terms of innocent lives are far higher, according to Dr. Boaz Ganor, executive director of the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. The deadly effects of hostage taking have been only too evident in Iraq of late in a...

NYC police on watch for Port courthouse bomber By Andy Smith and Stephanie Akin Staff writers New York City police are targeting a man who bombed Newburyport Superior Court 28 years ago, saying he poses a threat to next week's Republican National Convention. But an anti-war activist group has accused police of trying to "smear" their reputation by linking the group with the convicted radical who terrorized New England with a series of bombings in the 1970s. New York City police say Richard J. Picariello, 55, is among 50 activists whose criminal histories will earn them extra attention next week....

"Respect for bodily integrity: Kidnapping and hostage taking bring on a reign of terror; by means of threats they subject their victims to intolerable pressures. They are morally wrong. Terrorism threatens, wounds, and kills indiscriminately, is gravely against justice and charity. Torture which uses physical or moral violence ... to satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.... Amputations, mutilations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law(612, paperback)."

Hostages taken in San Antonio holdup 05/21/2002 From Staff Reports SAN ANTONIO - An unknown number of employees were taken hostage Tuesday morning during a credit union holdup. Police SWAT team and hostage negotiators converged at the San Antonio Federal Credit Union branch at 8889 Bandera Road on the city's northwest side. No other information was immediately available. Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/052102dntexsahostages.89e21b9.html