Free Republic

The media is really covering itself in glory these days. Just yesterday the Washington Post well full on racist against Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and today The Hill ran with this nonsense from an obvious black racist who clearly hasn’t been able to comprehend what’s gone on the past few days. It’s the capture-the-flag you never saw coming.In a shrewdly mapped play, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s (R) call to remove the flapping Confederate rebel jack from state capitol grounds suddenly prompted an entire party to reverse course on the issue. And after years of happily whistling political Dixie as...

Sand isn't just for beaches. The tiny grains show up in many products of the industrialized world: in the glass and concrete that build cities, in detergents and cosmetics that people use daily, and in the silicon chips and solar panels of advanced technology. But sand comes from rocks that take thousands of years to erode into fine particles, and humans are using it faster than they should, reports Autumn Spanne for Mental Floss. The clamor for sand is so great in fact, that organized crime has sprung up around sand mining. On the fringes of Bannerghatta National Park in...

India has shown interest in buying the new Shtil-1 naval surface to air missile (SAM) systems, being installed on frigates 11356 project, Maxim Kuzyuk, Tekhnodinamika General Director, told RIA Novosti. "Now everyone is waiting for the state testing of the first ship of the ‘Admiral series’ (project 11356) to be complete. That is when the new SAM will be accepted into service with the Russian Navy, after which it will be possible to deliver it overseas. Today India has shown interest in acquiring the new Shtil. We are discussing deliveries as part of the upgrade of old vessels and the...

Because they have economies with flattening income inequality. And that's bad for business. ___ he world’s local bank is about to get a little less local. HSBC is going on a cost-cutting tear, trimming branches in major markets and selling off entire operations in emerging ones. The bank’s leadership says they’re narrowing its business to improve profitability, but there’s a much bigger message — and possibly an important twist — in its new approach. To understand HSBC’s decision, it helps to think about its business model. Retail banks that serve consumers and businesses make their money primarily through loans and...

Saudi Arabia and Russia have signed an agreement to cooperate on nuclear energy development, a Saudi government body in charge of such projects said. The government body, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, announced the cooperation deal on its website on Thursday but gave no further details. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV, citing unnamed sources, said the kingdom planned to build 16 nuclear reactors in which Russia would play a significant role in operating them. The Saudi atomic and renewable energy body has already signed nuclear cooperation deals with countries able to build reactors, including the United States, France,...

The Tibetan Plateau has gradually risen since the Indian plate collided with the Eurasian plate at about 55 Ma. Regardless of the debates over the rising process and elevation of the plateau, there is no doubt that the Himalayas have appeared as a mountain range since the Miocene, with the appearance of vegetation vertical zones following thereafter. Open grasslands per se have no direct relationship to elevation, because they can have different elevations in different regions of the world, having a distribution near the sea level to the extreme high plateaus. On the other hand, the southern margin of the...

An Indian man who sued the authorities over his own birth because his mother conceived after undergoing sterilisation in a state clinic, has lost his decades-long legal battle. Rajesh Laljibhai Patel's mother launched a lawsuit against the government of India's western Gujarat state two years after he was born in 1985. Vijuben Patel, who already had four children, had undergone a sterilisation procedure at a camp organised by authorities in the state six years earlier. She argued that government should pay for her son's maintenance, citing medical negligence, and named him as a plaintiff in the case even though he...

Last week, the Indian Army released a global request for information (RFI) inviting responses by 31 July to develop a multi-purpose Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) in order to replace older license-built Soviet-era main-battle tanks (MBTs). “The Indian Army is planning to design and develop a new generation, state-of-the-art combat vehicle platform for populating its armored fighting vehicle fleet in the coming decade. This vehicle, which will be called the future ready combat vehicle (FRCV), will form the base platform for the main battle tank which is planned to replace the existing T-72 tanks in the Armored Corps,” the RFI...

“The practice of yoga has no place in the lives of Christians,” was the announcement made by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in response to the International Day of Yoga, which was established by the United Nations in 2014. The Holy Synod argues that since yoga is a fundamental aspect of Hinduism, it cannot be practiced by Christians because it is contrary to the Christian faith. And because of that it cannot be considered as just a “form of exercise.” The official announcement further states that the Church of Greece respects the freedom of religious belief but...

'The numbers are staggering: up to three million Bengalis were killed by famine, more than half a million South Asian refugees fled Myanmar (formerly Burma), 2.3 million soldiers manned the Indian army and 89,000 of them died in military service. South Asia was transformed dramatically during the war years as India became a vast garrison and supply-ground for the war against the Japanese in South-East Asia. Yet, this part of the British Empire's history is only just emerging. By looking beyond the statistics to the stories of individual lives the Indian role in the war becomes truly meaningful. Has the...

Drought-stricken California is not the only place draining underground aquifers in the hunt for fresh water. It’s happening across the world, according to two new studies by U.S. researchers released Tuesday. Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers – in locations from India and China to the United States and France -- have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water is being removed than replaced from these vital underground reservoirs. Thirteen of 37 aquifers fell at rates that put them into the most troubled category. “The situation is quite critical,” said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet...

Relax in The Beam of My majesty and drink deep of My Forgiveness for there is great healing here and rebuke the Harlot that drinks the blood of the Saints and the Prophets for truly there is only condemnation there for you "ARE" Forgiven, cleansed in My blood alone and I AM "Your" Salvation. Enjoy My creation for I have set it as a table of remembrance of My Glory, before you were in the womb. You will see as you rest in Me you make yourself completely available to My Voice calling to you in the wilderness(DRY PLACES), all...

MI6 has pulled its spies out of 'hostile countries' and America's intelligence agencies are on high alert after Russia and China cracked encrypted files leaked by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden. The top-secret documents contain information that could lead to the identification of British and American spies, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services. A senior Home Office official accused Snowden - the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor responsible for the biggest confidential information leak in US history - of having 'blood on his hands' after they gained access to over one million...

The dawn would have illuminated the pools of blood, as the villagers emerged to count their dead. For all of the night of February 24, 2000, residents of the hamlet of Lanjote had bunkered down, hoping not to be hit by artillery fire arcing across the LoC. The 16 bodies on the streets, though, bore evidence of the precision savagery of the knife, not the shell: 90-year-old Mohammad Alam Wali, and a young couple, Mohammad Murtaza and Kali Begum, had been decapitated. Limbs were severed; heads hacked. The youngest victim, Ahmad Niaz, was just two. With deliberation, it seemed, the...

Britain has pulled out agents from live operations in "hostile countries" after Russia and China cracked top-secret information contained in files leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the Sunday Times reported. Security service MI6, which operates overseas and is tasked with defending British interests, has removed agents from certain countries, the newspaper said, citing unnamed officials at the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Home Office (interior ministry) and security services. SNIP Russia and China have both managed to crack encrypted documents which contain details of secret intelligence techniques that could allow British and...

Just weeks before he is expected to announce his presidential campaign, Bobby Jindal is at the nadir of his political career. The Republican governor is at open war with many of his erstwhile allies in the business community and the legislature. He spent weeks pushing a “religious freedom” bill that failed to pass, while having little contact with legislators trying to solve Louisiana’s worst budget crisis in 25 years. Jindal is now so unpopular in deep-red Louisiana that his approval rating plunged to 32 percent in a recent poll — compared with 42 percent for President Obama, who lost the...

The Indian Army on Tuesday conducted a cross-border revenge attack in Myanmar by killing nearly a dozen militants said to be involved in the massacre of 18 soldiers last week in Manipur's Chandel district Reports said the strike was done in coordination with the Myanmar regime after the clearance to conduct the surgical strikes were given at the highest level in the government. "Any threat to safety, security and national integrity will meet with a similar response," an Army spokesman said. However, a report in the Economic Times claimed India will not admit to carrying out the rare cross-border operation....

Brazilian substitute headmaster José Fernando Schlosser has forced all Jewish students and teachers to sign a document to identify all Jews among them. The names will be given to the Solidarity with Palestine Committee.

NEW DELHI: Immigration and visa issues, which have long plagued the information technology sector, could come back to hurt Indian IT services companies this year as the US heads towards Presidential elections in 2016. In the US, the biggest market for the Indian IT services sector, "this will be a bloody, contentious election and immigration reform is right up there for discussion," said Phil Fersht, founder and chief executive of HfS Research. "The displacement of US IT and back-office jobs will be a significant issue leading up to 2016." India's $146 billion IT outsourcing industry has been a beneficiary of...

Although data_opacity makes objective_analysis difficult, market observers reported in April that China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest oil_importer. This statistical inflection point needs context to understand global consumption trends. While oil bulls are anxious about China’s reduced crude growth appetite, fundamental shifts in Chinese currency and domestic consumption strategies point to long-term growth in Chinese hydrocarbon consumption generally. Keith Johnson wrote in Foreign Policy on May 11, 2015, “… China’s continued and, indeed, deepening reliance on volatile regions for the world for energy supplies, especially the Middle East, points to continued security vulnerabilities for Beijing for...