Free Republic

The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today's climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer...

An attempted hijacking by a man wielding a knife from an in-flight meal has been thwarted by guards, EgyptAir officials said. The incident happened shortly after the plane, carrying almost 90 people, took off from Istanbul, Turkey, heading to Cairo. The Sudanese man threatened crew members and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, officials said. He was detained by air marshals, and the flight landed in Cairo.

A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.

Is Turkey Renaming Istanbul Constantinople? Chances of Turkey and the Kurds reaching a rapprochement are at their highest in 25 years. But what does that mean for Turkification -- and what concessions are the Turks willing to make? BY NICK DANFORTH | SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 Last month, Turkish President Abdullah Gul broke a long-standing national taboo: He called the remote village of Guroymak by its Kurdish name, Norshin. The president's opponents say renaming Istanbul Constantinople on highway signs will inevitably follow. Or worse. For many Turks, saying Norshin leads to saying Kurdistan, and saying Kurdistan leads to recognizing an independent...

Discovering the Greek side of Istanbul The Maiden Tower That Ä°stanbul is a real treasure chest for history, art and architecture freaks is no secret. Its colorful mosaic of historical city structures -- mosques, churches, synagogues, palaces, castles and towers -- reflects the many, many social and cultural influences of a number of foreign communities that have left their indelible footprints across the city throughout its long history. The oldest settlement on the land that is now Ä°stanbul was, however, Greek. Already, in 685 B.C., settlers from the ancient Greek town of Megara chose to colonize the town of Chalcedon,...

Review: How the Byzantines Saved Europe Posted by JOHN COURETAS on MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009 The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Edited by Elizabeth Jeffreys, John Haldon, Robin Cormack. Oxford University Press (2008)Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin. Princeton University Press (2008) Ask the average college student to identify the 1,100 year old empire that was, at various points in its history, the political, commercial, artistic and ecclesiastical center of Europe and, indeed, was responsible for the very survival and flourishing of what we know today as Europe and you’re not likely to get the...

Osprey Media. - Peterborough Examiner - Ontario, CA [Emperor] Constantine's Last WalkJunior Fiction winner Local News - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 @ 00:00 By Erik Blackthrone O'Barr Grade 9 Peterborough Collegiate The cannon fire grew closer with each thundering belch of rock and iron, as the walls of Constantinople, wonders of the world that had never been breached save for treachery, groaned under the strain. Buildings crackled with scorching heat, set ablaze by pitch- covered arrows. The shouts and screams of the dying echoed in the empty streets of the once great city. And Constantine XI Palaiologos, last Emperor of...

Aug 14, 2009 From church to mosque: Istanbul’s forgotten Byzantine heritage Is it a church? Is it a mosque? Is it a museum? Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia, the Church of Divine Wisdom) may be one of İstanbul's most famous buildings, but it's also one that suffers from an acute identity crisis, having started life as the great sixth century church of the Emperor Justinian, before becoming a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and then a museum in 1935 after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the Turkish Republic. Something similar happened to Chora, near Edirnekapı, which also kicked...

SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON - Last week, German authorities discovered that groups of terrorists may have been dispatched from training bases in Pakistan to launch crippling attacks.” SNIPPET: “They say as a minimum of 12 al-Qaida operatives who were trained in the tribal region of Pakistan have left the training camps and are headed back to their home countries. Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Egypt are just some of those countries. According to the source, the threat levels also were raised for many other Western European countries to include concerns for “Turkish Airlines flying passengers from Istanbul to the...

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists? Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers. The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. ...secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality...

Assailants have carried out arson attacks on four separate mosques in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Tuesday. According to a report on HaberTurk television, no one was wounded in the attacks, and damage to the mosques was minimal. Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti or chief cleric for Istanbul, confirmed Tuesday that fires had broken out in four mosques. He would not say if they had been caused by arson. Last year, police arrested a mentally unstable man for a series of arson attacks on mosques in Istanbul.

Baghdad, 5 May (AKI) - Radical Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, is reported to have assumed the title of Grand Ayatollah after concluding his studies in the holy city of Qom in Iran. Sources close to the cleric's faction released the news to the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat. Around 70 supporters of al-Sadr on Sunday concluded a conference in the Turkish city of Istanbul where they elected new leaders and mapped out their future. Al-Sadr, who leads the Mahdi Army militia, also met both Recep Tayyip Erodgan, the Turkish prime minister, and president Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Friday during...

US President Barack Obama visited a landmark mosque in Istanbul on Tuesday, following strong messages of US reconciliation with the Islamic world on his maiden trip to a mainly Muslim country. Taking off his shoes as tradition requires, Obama stepped into the 17th-century Sultanahmet Mosque in the ancient heart of Istanbul, accompanied by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid tight security in the area. Two Muslim preachers guided Obama inside the grandiose edifice -- better known as the Blue Mosque for its blue tileworks -- and the president smiled when they showed him a dome scripture mentioning the Prophet...

CLICK TO READ The Ä°stanbul leg of US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Turkey is expected to include a stop at the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, Turkish and US press reports said over the weekend. "In Ä°stanbul, his last stop, workers are polishing up the Hagia Sophia basilica-cum-mosque-cum-museum for the expected visit," The New York Times said Saturday in a report posted from Washington. The US president is also expected to participate in the second day of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Forum scheduled for April 6 and 7 in Ä°stanbul, after his talks in Ankara....

Turkish security services have arrested a Syrian man who was planning to assassinate US President Barack Obama during his current trip to Turkey, the Saudi daily Al Watan reported Monday. According to the report, the man, who was arrested on Friday, was carrying a press card identifying him as an employee of Al Jazeera. He reportedly confessed to his intention to stab Obama with a knife and said that he was aided by three accomplices. The report stated that Turkish authorities were still unsure as to whether the press card was a fake or whether it had actually been issued...

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

Istanbul Police said 222 kg of heroin, 184 kg of hashish, 2 kg of cocaine and thousands of synthetic pills were confiscated in 141 operations in several parts of the metropolis.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday condemned the attack on its consulate in Istanbul and a State Department spokesman said he could neither confirm nor rule out al Qaeda involvement. Three Turkish police officers and three gunmen were killed in the attack at the compound. "The United States condemns the terrorist attack that took place on our consulate general in Istanbul earlier today," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Reports in Turkey said al Qaeda involvement was suspected. "At this point one can't rule that out, but I also can't support at this point, those suspicions,"...

Three unidentified gunmen and three Turkish policemen were killed Wednesday in an attack on a police guard post at the main entrance of the well-fortified U.S. Consulate in Istanbul that officials labeled a "terrorist" act. One person has been taken into custody, Dogan News Agency reported. (UPDATED) The attack was "an obvious act of terrorism" aimed at the United States, the country's ambassador to Turkey said. "This was an attack on an American diplomatic establishment. The persons who lost their lives are Turkish citizens and we are very sad about that," Ross Wilson told reporters in Ankara. The three assailants...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Armed men have opened fire from a vehicle outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul killing four people, according to CNN-Turk. CNN-Turk initially reported that at least three of the attackers were killed and one police officer later died from his injuries in a hospital. Police returned fire on the gunmen who were traveling in a white car ..."

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three police officers were killed in a shooting outside the United States consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkish television said. Television images appeared to show four bodies on the ground in front of the high-walled complex. Media earlier said that two police had been shot dead. The U.S. embassy in Ankara said it was aware of an incident near the Istanbul consulate, but had no further details.

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Istanbul - Turkish police have arrested 45 suspected members of al-Qaeda in eight districts of Istanbul. The militants were reportedly planning attacks against foreign embassies. In January, police carried out raids at 18 locations in southeastern Turkey after receiving information that an al-Qaeda cell was planning car bomb attacks. One police officer and four militants were killed in a gunfight. Seventeen people were arrested.

Charlize Theron has referred to the Turkish city of Istanbul as Budapest three times in an interview about her "backpacking" adventures around the world. Theron, an Oscar winner known for taking on tough roles, described buying Turkish carpets in a bazaar and attending the Istanbul International Film Festival in "Budapest", the Daily Mail reports.

Nautical archaeology takes a leap forward For centuries the harbour of Ancient Constantinople, modern Istanbul, was the inlet of the Golden Horn, running north between the peninsula on which the city’s core stands and the commercial and foreign quarter of Galata and Pera to the east. A boom across the inlet protected the city from attack, although the Ottoman troops of Mehmet II stormed across the Golden Horn in 1453 to end the Byzantine Empire. A second, mainly commercial, harbour, in use from the 5th-10th centuries AD, has been found on the south shore of the peninsula, on the Sea...

Excerpt - ANKARA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A Turkish passenger plane heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus was hijacked on Saturday and forced to land for refuelling in southern Turkey, local media reported. It was not clear how many hijackers were on board, but they said they wanted to fly to Tehran, media said. ~ snip ~

Media fury rages over swimsuit photo ban By Thomas Grove in Istanbul May 18, 2007 01:10am A DECISION by Turkey's largest city to ban some pictures of swimsuit models has revived claims about the rising power of Islam, with newspapers saying the move was more befitting of theocratic Iran than a secular democracy. Istanbul municipality asked stores selling swimwear made by Turkish manufacturer Nelson to seek permission to place photographs of models in swimsuits and bikinis on store front windows located on main streets. It then denied them permission. The controversy follows several large secularist protests in Turkey, a secular...

Wellington - New Zealand's foreign ministry warned Tuesday of a 'strong likelihood' of terrorist attacks in Turkey as thousands of tourists head to Gallipoli to mark ANZAC Day on Wednesday. ANZAC Day commemorates the first major action of World War I for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps which launched an ill-fated assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915. The assault was intended to give the British navy command of the Turkish-held Dardanelles, but turned into a long-drawn out disaster, ending eight months later at a cost of 2,721 New Zealand dead and more than 4,750 wounded....

ANKARA - British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett cut short a visit to Turkey after a telephone conversation with her Iranian counterpart over 15 sailors detained by Iran, a Turkish diplomat said on Tuesday. "We were informed that she cancelled the Istanbul leg of her trip (on Wednesday) after she spoke over the telephone with the Iranian foreign minister," the diplomat told AFP. The diplomat said the call was related to the 15 naval personnel detained by Iran. Officials from the British embassy were not immediately available for comment.

Pope Benedict ended a sensitive, fence-mending visit to Turkey on Friday amid praise for visiting Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque and praying there facing toward Mecca "like Muslims." The Pope, who sparked protests across the Muslim world with a speech two months ago seen as criticizing Islam, looked relaxed and pleased as he entered the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for a mass at the end of the four-day trip. His first visit to a mostly Muslim country, held under tight security for fear of protests by nationalists and Islamists, was highlighted by a series of conciliatory gestures culminating in a...

An EU delegation on a fact-finding mission to Turkey has reported a "worrying" increase in allegations of torture and abuse in the country. The European Parliament's human rights committee members focused mainly on the Kurdish south-east of the country. They said they had heard reports of a resurgence of torture, abductions and beatings by security forces. Turkey has faced a barrage of criticism from Europe recently, with human rights a key issue in its bid to join the EU. 'Going backwards' The delegation of six MEPs met officials and human rights groups in the capital and in Istanbul. They also...

Thousands evacuating airport. Huge fire and flames. Explosions heard as the fire rages. No indication what caused the fire.

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 3/25/06 - Samarra, Op. Swarmer , Kerbala, Abu Ghraib, al-Dor, Baquba, USS Gonzalez, USS Cape St. George, Taji, Nowruz, Istanbul, Tashkent, Tehran BREAKING: Samarra, Op. Swarmer - 11 caches and 104 terrorists taken BREAKING: Kerbala - terrorist attack Abu Ghraib - Real story: cache taken al-Dor - US-Iraqi patrols root out terrorists Baquba - Cache taken USS Gonzalez, USS Cape St. George - Weapons confiscated from terrorist pirates Taji - Nowruz celebrations Istanbul, Turkey - Nowruz celebrations Uzbek capital Tashkent - Nowruz celebrations Tehran - Nowruz celebrations QFN ==== YE OLDE QUAGMIRE-FREE...

ROMA, March 22, 2006 – In the summer of 2004, when he was a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger on two occasions defined as “a great error� the addition of Turkey to the European Union. But now that Ratzinger is pope, his position is no longer one of prejudicial rejection. This can be gathered from an article published in the latest issue of “La Civiltà Cattolica,� the magazine of the Rome Jesuits that is examined and approved by the Holy See before being printed. The author of the article is Jesuit Fr. Giovanni Sale, a specialist in the political history of the...

Tens of thousands gather in Istanbul to protest prophet cartoons By: Associated Press Published: February 19, 2006 Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Istanbul Sunday to protest cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States. The protest was organized by the Islamic Felicity Party, whose leaders shouted over loudspeakers that the massive crowd symbolized the anger of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims and urged them to "resist oppression." Turkey is a 99 percent Muslim nation and protests of various sizes against the cartoons have been a nearly daily occurrence in the past week....

Newly released police testimony of al-Qaeda member Louai Sakka found in case records has come the fore. In Sakka’s statements it is written that he is the one who provided two terrorists with a passport before they organized the September 11 attacks. Sakka's testimony also gives us some clues that Murat Yuce, the Turkish driver kidnapped in Iraq, was killed by a terrorist of Sakka's choice. There were also some Turkish people who took part in the execution of Yuce. The following was the structure of al-Qaeda, according to Sakka: Leader Osama bin Laden, His assistants: Mohammed Atef (Abu Hafs...

ISTANBUL, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Six people were injured on Monday by an explosion at an Istanbul supermarket, the second blast in Turkey's largest city in four days, and Turkish television said it had been caused by a bomb. A hardline Kurdish group was quoted as saying it was responsible for the blast. The same group claimed responsibility for last week's explosion. Governor Muammer Guler said one of the six injured was in a serious condition. Police had said earlier the blast had killed at least one person but Guler, visiting the scene, made no mention of any deaths. "Our...

ANKARA, TURKEY: Prosecutors allege Osama bin Laden personally ordered a suspected al-Qaeda operative - charged with masterminding Istanbul suicide bombings and providing some USD 170,000 to Turkish militants - to carry out terrorist attacks in this pro-Western country. The prosecutor's office on Friday indicted Syrian national Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, accused of serving as a point man between the terrorist group and homegrown militants who killed 58 people in a series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in 2003. Al-Saqa, 32, had cosmetic surgery according to a medical report and flew beneath the radar for many years by using an...

A Syrian was charged Friday with masterminding suicide bombings that killed 58 people in Istanbul, and prosecutors claimed that Osama bin Laden personally ordered him to carry out terror attacks in this pro-Western country. Al-Saqa testified that he sent $50,000 to the bombers with a courier after discussing it with al-Zarqawi. Al-Saqa has already been sentenced in absentia by Jordan, along with al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for a failed plot to attack Americans and Israelis in Jordan with poison gas during millennium celebrations. He was captured in Turkey in August after an alleged failed plot to attack...

Alleged al-Qaida Operative Wanted for Bombings in Turkey Said to Elude Officials by Faking Death ISTANBUL, Turkey - An alleged al-Qaida operative accused of serving as a key link between the group's leaders and suicide bombers hid his tracks so well that even fellow militants thought he was dead. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004. The Syrian...

An alleged al-Qaeda operative accused of serving as a key link between the group's leaders and suicide bombers hid his tracks so well that even fellow militants thought he was dead. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaeda contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004. The Syrian radical didn't surface until last August, when an accidental explosion forced him to flee his safehouse in the...

A lawyer defending al Qaida-linked suspects standing trial for the 2003 suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that jihad, or holy war, was an obligation for Muslims and his clients should not be prosecuted. "If you punish them for this, tomorrow, will you punish them for fasting or for praying?" Osman Karahan -- a lawyer representing 14 of the 72 suspects -- asked during a nearly four-hour speech in which he read religious texts from an encyclopedia of Islam. The November 2003 blasts targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and the local headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank, killing...

At Cindy Sheehan's side since Aug. 6 when she began her anti-war protest outside President Bush's Texas ranch have been three groups that openly support the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops: Code Pink-Women For Peace, United for Peace & Justice, and Veterans For Peace. Those organizations were represented at a mock ''war crimes'' trial in Istanbul....

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish police detained a Syrian who is believed to have been a go-between for al-Qaida and a Turkish cell that carried out deadly 2003 bombings in Istanbul and said Wednesday they are pursuing other militants. Turkish media said the Syrian was one of 10 people detained who were plotting to attack Israeli cruise ships docking at vacation resorts on the Mediterranean coast, but police later denied the reports. Israel on Monday urged its citizens not to visit beach resorts on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey and five cruise liners carrying some 5,000 people were diverted from Turkey...

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- An explosion in a trashcan in an Istanbul suburb killed a woman and her daughter and injured five people as they left a wedding party early Thursday, television reports said. The mother and her daughter were killed as they tried to get into their car shortly after midnight, CNN-Turk television reported. Five other people who were also leaving the wedding party were injured in the blast in Pendik, on the outskirts of Istanbul, CNN-Turk television reported. There was no immediate word on what caused the explosion. Kurdish, leftist and militant Islamic groups have carried out bombings in...

Just Breaking announcement on FOX. No more info at this time.

The New York Times is not always the most collegial place to work, but this story sets a new standard -- if the allegations are true, which remains in dispute. The Times has fired Susan Sachs, its former Baghdad bureau chief. According to Times sources who insisted on anonymity because personnel matters are involved, the paper's management accused Sachs of writing to the wives of two other Times foreign correspondents, to say that their husbands were having affairs. Sachs denied to management that she had written the letters, but she was accused of not telling the truth based on electronic...

A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout The U.S. took too long to act, some experts say, letting a Pakistani scientist sell illicit technology well after it knew of his operation. By Douglas Frantz, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. Two Western nuclear weapons specialists who have examined the top-secret designs say the hundreds of pages of engineering drawings and handwritten notes...