Free Republic

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco softened its rhetoric on Syria on Wednesday, with its foreign minister signaling support for calls among some Arab states for a return of Damascus to the Arab League. {snip} ...Arab states, including some that once backed rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, are seeking to reconcile with him after decisive gains by his forces in the war, aiming to expand their clout in Syria at the expense of non-Arab Turkey and Iran. The Moroccan position on Syria comes after Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called last Friday for reinstating Syria ...

In a resounding 509 to 138 result, the Bundestag has voted to classify the northern African states of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco — along with Georgia in the Caucasus — as safe countries of origin for the purposes of German immigration law. As a result of the vote, it will be easier for German authorities to deport migrants from these countries who have arrived without visas. The SPD’s Helge Lindh said the move was necessary to remove false hope that citizens of the listed countries may have of applying for asylum or refugee status in Germany. While the CDU/CSU and...

Servant of Hope” is the theme of the Pope's visit to Morocco on March 30-31. The Holy Father is making the Apostolic Visit in response to the invitation of King Mohammed VI and the Bishops of the country. The trip to the Muslim-majority nation includes the cities of Rabat and Casablanca, and will be the Pope’s 26th outside Italy. The official logo of the Pope’s visit was chosen from about 50 entries in a competition. An explanatory note accompanying the logo's release says that a cross and a crescent in the logo are symbols of Christianity and Islam which highlight...

Soldiers in Gabon have attempted a coup, announcing the establishment of a "restoration council" after taking over the national radio station. There were reports of shots being fired in the capital Libreville on Monday. Reading out a statement, the military officers condemned President Ali Bongo who addressed his compatriots last week from Morocco for the first time since reportedly suffering a stroke in Octo

Amber Michelle Parker, 37, has been charged with trafficking of persons. Her bond has been set at $25,000. Officials say she was conspiring to traffic her underage relative online to multiple men in Morocco. "She was online talking to multiple guys in Morocco trying to get it setup where she could take her with her over there to them," said Freestone County Sheriff J. Shipley. According to the affidavit obtained by KWTX, at her home Nov. 19, Parker initiated a 3-way message on Facebook with two men from Morocco and sent them a photograph of the victim in lingerie, telling...

The state broadcaster SVT’s coverage of the double murder of 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and 28-year-old Maren Ueland by Islamists in Morocco has sparked a fury of criticism. Besides running an article that the savage murder of the two Scandinavian girls “had nothing to do with Islam”, they also pushed the narrative that sharing the graphic video of the murder is illegal, warning Swedes not to share the video as that is punishable with up to four years imprisonment. Scores of viewers complained that SVT was more concerned by people sharing the video of the killing, than they were with...

No matter what Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg posts on Facebook these days, the comments are negative. People argue that the signing of the UN Migration Pact in Marrakesh was a stab in the back of the nation. They also rage against Erna’s media handling of the murder of Maren Ueland, which they believe was a pure jihad-slaughter. “A PM who ignores her own people, who is totally absent when a young Norwegian girl is murdered in the most bestial way. And who chose not to lift a finger to secure her people at a time when we actually needed...

Moroccan-French journalist Zineb El Rhazoui says she has received death and rape threats for saying “innoccous” things like: “Islam has to submit to French laws, humour, reason and any form of criticism just like any other ideology, sect or religion”. According to the former cartoonist of Charlie Hebdo “There is no valid reason for Islam to be an exception”.

A "terrorist plot" was foiled by the Friday arrests of nine more men connected to the ISIS-inspired beheadings of two Scandinavian backpackers in Morocco, investigators revealed Sunday. The suspects were between the ages of 25 and 33 and were headed to the area where the women were beheaded with the intent to commit a crime, Boubker Sabik, a spokesman for the Moroccan security and domestic intelligence services, told Reuters. Sabik said the suspects were found with a variety of items including electronic devices, knives, bomb-making materials and unauthorized rifles. He did not elaborate about the plot itself. The arrests bring...

The graphic images purportedly show the severed and partially severed head of the young backpackers, 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway and 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen of Denmark...Authorities in Morocco consider the killings a terrorist act. Police seized another video in which four of the murder suspects appear to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Its all played out like a WWE wrestling show produced by President Trump's close friend Vince McMahon, but the drama over border wall funding is moving towards its climax as we approach Christmas.... General Jim Mattis is leaving as Secretary of Defense.... On to Afghanistan where President Trump has decided to pull out half of the US troops in that country.... This week US Afghanistan representative Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban for two days of talks.... The Justice Department is charging two Chinese men with hacking into computer networks of private companies and government agencies..... Israel's "Haaretz" newspaper reported...

Two Scandinavian women tourists have been found dead in Morocco with cuts to their necks, the country's interior ministry said. Both bodies were found near the town of Imlil in the High Atlas mountain range, near the foot of North Africa's highest peak, Mount Toubkal.

More nations are joining the exodus from the United Nations’ (UN) controversial compact on mass migration, with legal experts now standing up to raise concerns about the drafting of the document and what legal implications signing it might have for countries party to the pact. President Donald Trump was the first to pull out of the UN pact on migration in December 2017, a move which prompted howls of disapproval from both the mainstream media and globalist leaders. Yet several nations from all over the world have outright withdrawn from the compact since initially ratifying it in July, or have...

Volume 7, No. 3 - September 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE COLD WAR'S LONGEST COVER-UP: HOW AND WHY THE USSR INSTIGATED THE 1967 WAR By Isabella Ginor The Soviet warning to Egypt about supposed Israeli troop concentrations on the Syrian border in May 1967 has long been considered a blunder that precipitated a war which the USSR neither desired nor expected. New evidence from Soviet and other Warsaw Pact documents, as well as memoirs of contemporary actors, contradicts this accepted theory. The author demonstrates that this warning was deliberate disinformation, part of a plan approved at the highest level of Soviet leadership...

A Moroccan woman is accused of killing, butchering and cooking her lover before serving his remains to Pakistani workers in a traditional rice and meat dish known as machboos, United Arab Emirates authorities said. Prosecutors in Al-Ain emirate said the woman, who is said to be in her 30s, was arrested on suspicion of killing her boyfriend of seven years after he told her of his plans to marry another person from Morocco, the National newspaper in Abu Dhabi reported. The woman and the man were not named. It was not immediately clear how the man died, but the newspaper...

Bringing it in just under the wire, negotiators representing Mexico, Canada, and the United States announced a new trade deal, to be named the USMCA, on Sunday, September 30, enabling the replacement for NAFTA for which many have long clamored. With the agreement to switch to this new program, the three nations are taking some steps – however small – back in the direction of the goals that Free Trade Agreements have always promised to support, but which have been largely forgotten in the quest for their side effects. Free Trade Agreements, in fact, are not designed to reduce taxes...

"We are close to a historic turning point at the continental level. I am astonished at the stupor of a political left that now exists only to challenge others and believes that Milan should not host the president of a European country, as if the left has the authority to decide who has the right to speak and who does not -- and then they wonder why no one votes for them anymore." — Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. "This is the first of a long series of meetings to change destinies, not only of Italy and of Hungary, but...

A MIGRANT facing hundreds of criminal investigations cannot be deported from Germany – because officials have no idea where he is from. The man, who came to Germany in 1998 without a passport, claims to be from various North African countries including Algeria and Morocco. He has allegedly been using legal loopholes to stay in Germany despite having a staggering 542 criminal investigations against him. The migrant has been accused of a string of crimes including assault, theft, robbery and buying drugs, local media said. He was recently arrested by police but authorities have clue what the man's name is...

An EU migrant facing 542 criminal investigations - including robbery and drugs offences - cannot be deported because authorities don't know where he came from. The man, who arrived in Germany in 1998 without a passport, has allegedly been using legal loopholes to remain in the country. After being was arrested by German police, he claimed to be from North African countries including Algeria and Morocco. ... High commissioner Ruedigar Buchta told German newspaper Bild: 'A third of the proceedings were for possession and purchase of narcotics. 'Some were for the fraudulent acquisition of services like fare dodging. Added to...

This is the astonishing moment migrants stormed a packed tourist beach and clambered up a cliff after jumping off their boat in southern Spain. Holidaymakers watched open-mouthed as the semi-inflatable Zodiac carrying around 50 Moroccans - including about ten children - beached near a luxury hotel area on Spain's Costa de la Luz.Footage shows refugees sprinting up the popular Barrosa Beach at about 3.30pm on Sunday before attempting to scale cliffs. The incident happened near a purpose-built residential and tourist resort called Sancti Petri which boasts shops, restaurants and several four and five-star hotels. A tourist filming the scene could...