Free Republic

THE DEAD BABY MEDIA If the text on that one is too small for you, it's a CNN piece headlined, "Why the Syrian regime is killing babies." There's not much to add to that. The Syrian regime may be killing babies, but CNN killed journalism. With some help from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the BBC. Anyone who has spent time in the Middle East knows quite well that parading around dead bodies is part of the Muslim ceremony of rallying for the next attack. These aren't funerals, these are corpse parades and the corpses are often...

Important speech by Cardinal Koch to Aid to the Church in Need conference

Tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians have joined a service outside Moscow’s main church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, in defense of their faith, sacred objects and the Church itself, following recent numerous attacks on Christian relics. The Sunday service has gathered around 65 thousand worshippers, according to official police data. It comes in response to what the church says is a series disrespectful acts against Orthodoxy and religious faith over the past few months. Sacred Orthodox objects attacked this spring were specially brought to the Cathedral for one day. Among the relics is a 3.5-metre-tall crucifix cut by...

Gallery: Familiar-yet-alien Soviet arcade games While playing Centipede (don't judge) at my local mall in the '80s, it never occurred to me that somewhere behind the soon-to-fall Iron Curtain there would be some punk playing the Soviet version of arcade games as well. Hell yeah they were! Now, thanks to two nostalgic Muscovites who remembered their days of playing "Sea Battle," there is an entire museum full of these Soviet-era games. The story of the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines is so cool we couldn't make this up if we tried. Let's talk about the games first. Soviet classics Sea...

Moscow police have detained a Canadian national named Michael Jackson on charges of attempting to steal a wallet from a woman in the capital’s underground, the police reported on its website. The 50-year-old was caught red-handed at an underground station in southeastern Moscow on Monday as he pulled the wallet from the woman’s pocket, the report said. An investigation is under way. If found guilty, Jackson faces a fine of up to 200,000 rubles ($6,500) and a prison term of up to five years.

Is WikiLeaks biased against the West and the US in particular? This news item would tend to indicate so. According to Christian Science monitor Moscow correspondent Fred Weir, Kremlin funded media outlet Russia Today, is to hire WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This despite the fact that Assange remains under house arrest in Britain, awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations

Quote: homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-jihadist-use-social-media-how-prevent-terrorism-and-preserve-innovation Subcommittee Hearing: Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence | 311 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Dec 6, 2011 2:00pm On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation." The Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building. Witnesses Mr. Evan F. Kohlmann Flashpoint Global Partners Mr. William McCants Analyst Analyst for the Center for Naval...

In happier times Russian university students could expect a bright future as part of the country’s elite. Instead the country is experiencing a serious brain drain as graduates head abroad, and many other young people dream of doing so: 40 percent, according to one survey. It is of serious concern to the authorities in the run-up to parliamentary elections on December 4. One first year maths student at Moscow State University said if she continued her studies she would probably go abroad, because she did not believe the government was putting enough money into science development. The loss of more...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Thursday, openly admitted the US had encouraged protests in Russia after Vladimir Putin's United Russia party held on to power in the most recent elections. Saying Putin's accusation that the US was meddling in domestic Russian affairs was "well-founded," Clinton said that still "doesn't justify Russian military counter-measures" taken once the protests erupted. The secretary added the United States was not alone in "expressing concerns" over voting irregularities.

Tens of thousands wait for hours in freezing temperatures to kiss belt that Christians believe was worn by Jesus' motherMOSCOW — Braving freezing cold temperatures and ice-covered sidewalks, tens of thousands of Russians stood in line Wednesday to see and kiss a newly arrived relic of the Virgin Mary in Russia's largest Orthodox cathedral. The Virgin Mary's Cincture, a belt that Christians believe was worn by Jesus' mother, was brought to Russia last month from Mount Athos, a monastic community in Greece. Kissing the relic, which is encased in an ornamental box, is believed to help barren women conceive and...

Massachusetts anti-military law professor attended University of Moscow 53 mins ago Michael Avery, a Suffolk University Law School professor who made headlines for an email to colleagues calling care packages for United States soldiers abroad “shameful,” attended the University of Moscow from 1968 through 1969, The Daily Caller has learned. Avery’s studies in the U.S.S.R. coincided with the height of the Cold War and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, punishing a period of liberalization known as “The Prague Spring.” That 1968 invasion marked the launch of the “Brezhnev Doctrine,” which declared: “When forces that are hostile to socialism try...

MOSCOW—Tens of thousands of Muslim men knelt shoulder-to-shoulder in prayer on the freezing streets of Moscow on Sunday to celebrate the religious holiday of Eid al-Adha. Estimates of the number of Muslims living or working in the Russian capital run from 2 million to as high as 5 million, but the city has few mosques. Police said 170,000 people celebrated the holiday in Moscow, including 80,000 who gathered on the street outside what was once the main mosque.

Thousands of far-right Nazi-saluting nationalists marched in Moscow today in a 'Take Back Russia' protest at Muslim migrants. Resentment is growing over the migrants from Russia's Caucasus and the money the Kremlin sends to those troubled regions. Chanting 'Russia for Russians' and 'Migrants today, occupiers tomorrow,' about 5,000 demonstrators

A Hizbullah delegation was welcomed by officials in Moscow on Wednesday for the terror group’s first official visit to the Kremlin. The three-man delegation, headed by Hizbollah MP Mohammad Raad, is scheduled to meet Russian officials for talks on developments in Lebanon and the region, a Hizbollah source told Lebanon's The Daily Star. The source said discussions will also touch on bilateral ties and issues of common interest. Russia has opposed Western intervention in Syria as the uprising there enters its seventh month, as has Hizbullah, which has close ties to the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus....

Vladimir Putin declared on Saturday that he planned to reclaim the Russian presidency in an election next March that could open the way for the former KGB spy to rule until 2024. The announcement, greeted by a standing ovation at a congress of the prime minister's ruling United Russia party, ended months of speculation over whether he or President Dmitry Medvedev would run. The two have ruled in a power 'tandem' since Putin was forced by the constitution to yield the presidency in 2008 after serving a maximum two consecutive terms, and Putin said they had agreed several years ago...

Moscow, September 15, Interfax - Depiction of Orthodox crosses appeared on a new 500 ruble banknote issued on September 6. Official website of the Bank of Russia represents a drawing of the new banknote, on its backside crosses crown churches of the Solovki Monastery. The previous banknote depicted the monastery in its "Soviet" variant without crosses. Depictions of cupolas and crosses appeared at the banknote after Patriarch Kirill's petition to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax-Religion on Thursday. He reminded that once when the Patriarch visited Solovki...

Destruction, 1931-1990The site of the Cathedral is a very important one for urban developers. After the revolution this, along with ideological principles, became the reason for the decision to destroy the Cathedral. The plan entailed constructing a grandiose Palace of Soviets on the site of the Cathedral. This palace was meant to be the largest building in the world - a monument to victorious socialism and Lenin - the leader of the world proletariat. A new Moscow, with no vestiges of the "cursed past and its' monuments" was to arise around this Palace. A massive wave of propaganda preceded the...

Krasnogorsk, August 25, Interfax - Optional classes on elementary Orthodoxy will be introduced in children's day care centers of the Moscow region, the Minister of Education Lidiya Antonova said at a Moscow regional teachers' forum. "In 2011-2012, we introduce a new course on Orthodox Culture in young children's care system. New resource and reference materials will be released by September 1," Lidiya Antonova said. The course is now introduced in 430 centers with 27,000 young children enrolled. The optional course called "Benign World of Orthodox Culture for Young Children" will be introduced in 650 daycare centers of the Moscow region....

According to RIA Novosti's source within the Russian special forces, information about a planned terrorist attack along the route of the "Sapsan" was obtained by the FSB from an informer embedded within the North Kavkaz terror network. According to the source, the conscripted agent informed the FSB that leaders of the Dagestan terror network sent Islam Hamuzhev, a resident of Kabardino-Balkariya, to Moscow for the execution of the planned act. Prior to his departure, Islam completed a bomb-making course in a terrorist camp in Dagestan. Hamuzhev's plan, when in Moscow, was to find like-minded persons to execute the act...

NATO plans campaign in Syria, tightens noose around Iran - Rogozin Topic: Protests in Syria 05:48 05/08/2011 MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran, Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said. The UN Security Council condemned on Wednesday ongoing violence in Syria and urged the country's authorities to stop using force against peaceful protesters, while saying the current situation in the country has not yet called for NATO interference. "[This statement] means...