Free Republic

Jakarta. Indonesia’s parliamentary speaker and one of his deputies made a surprise appearance at a campaign event by US presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York on Thursday, in a stunt both the House and the Foreign Ministry said they were not aware of. Both Setya Novanto, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and Fadli Zon, a deputy speaker, were seen standing in a group of people behind Trump as he spoke at the Trump Tower. Business Insider reported that after he finished speaking, Trump walked away from the podium only to return with Setya, whom he introduced to...

Egyptian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris, who's reportedly worth $3 billion, says he wants to buy an island for the thousands of refugees facing terrible danger as they flee from war in Syria and other places. Twitter: "Greece or Italy sell me an island,ill call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country" — Naguib Sawiris (@NaguibSawiris) September 1, 2015

Rick Perry is not "getting out of the race" as Donald Trump suggested Thursday during a news conference. "You know a broken clock is right once a day," Perry said. "The bottom line is I'm still here, I'm still workin'.

If I were to approach a person on the street and list off traits like “doesn’t drive,” “needs food prepared,” “needs help with the remote control,” “needs people to bring her beverages,” “has trouble remembering things,” and “doesn’t pay her own bills” about someone anonymously, he wouldn’t think I was referring to a current presidential front-runner in the year 2015. He would think I was referring to his poor nana, whom he had to place in a home because she wouldn’t stop yelling at the lamp and was at risk of accidentally microwaving her dentures. But, as we now know...

With a long line of debunked lies, shredded excuses, and abandoned spin attempts behind her, Hillary Clinton finally decided it was time to “apologize” for her email scandal. Of course, her idea of an “apology” basically amounts to: I’m sorry you Little People are too stupid to understand what I was up against, as a historic female Secretary of State. For good measure, Clinton threw in a stiff dose of the amazing Incompetence Defense into her MSNBC appearance – that bizarre, and disturbingly effective, tactic pioneered by the Obama Administration where officials claim to be innocent of wrongdoing by insisting...

Megachurch Pastor Paula White Marries 3rd Husband Former Journey Rocker Jonathan Cain; She's His 4th Wife Popular televangelist and megachurch pastor Paula White tied the knot for the third time with rocker Jonathan Cain last month and this time could just be the charm. White's Chicago-born husband made a name for himself in the music industry playing with the bands Bad English and Journey. He wrote Journey's mega-hit song "Don't Stop Believin.'" White, who hosts the television show "Paula White Today," which has aired on BET and TBN, shared a message with her Facebook followers celebrating the April 26 wedding....

They are not being issued under the authority of the Rowan County clerk's office. They are not worth the paper that they are written on," said attorney Mat Staver after meeting with Davis in the Carter County jail in Grayson. Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins previously dismissed that argument, saying deputy clerks can issue valid marriage licenses without their boss's approval.

Street robber pleads for mercy after trying to mug jiu-jitsu champion who puts him in 'lion killer' headlock

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants destroyed three ancient tower tombs in the central city of Palmyra in the last few days, a Syrian government official said Friday. Tower tombs, built on high grounds, are a particular feature of the Roman-era ancient caravan city. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, said Friday the militants destroyed the tower tombs, including the Elahbel tower that dates back to the 103 AD, 10 days earlier. Abdulkarim said his information was based on witness accounts and satellite images provided by the Boston-based American Schools of Oriental...

While Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues its documented rampage on Christian girls turning them into sex slaves, new reporting has uncovered the fate of teenage boys. The radical Islamic jihadis force captured teenaged boys onto the battlefield to face death, or become a suicide bomber or face amputations before screaming crowds. The targeting of children dates back centuries, but the latest grisly storyline emerges from NBC’ Richard Engel reporting highlights just how brutal Middle East war is for non-Muslim teenage boys captured by the ISIS terror network. ISIS also follows the “take no prisoner” approach by terrorizing...

"Damn right I'm going to fight back!" Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush declared Thursday, telling a voter that he wouldn't be taking Donald Trump's periodic jabs at him anymore without punching back. At an evening town hall in Laconia, New Hampshire, a fired up Bush warned that, "I'm sure as hell, when he attacks me personally or disparages my family, damn right I'm going to fight back." Bush accused the billionaire of using racially coded language to prey on people's anger and said, "I'm going to push back when he says things that are ugly."

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is planning to visit the Kentucky clerk taken into custody for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples next week. Huckabee will visit Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk, in jail Tuesday before he is set to rally supporters outside the detention center where she is being held, Huckabee spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN on Friday.

At a time when other states in the US are backing away from the death penalty, Missouri has done the opposite. It is currently executing its death row inmates faster than any other state in the country, at a rate of about one per month. At 21:09 local time on Tuesday evening, Roderick Nunley became the sixth death row inmate executed by the state of Missouri in 2015. He was convicted of the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City. His was the latest in a string of executions by the state since 2013. In...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife plan to attend a mass led by Pope Francis during his visit to Washington, D.C., later this month, according to the Washington Post. Bush aides stressed that the GOP primary candidate intends to leave a “light footprint” on the event. The mass will take place Sept. 23 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. During the service, Pope Francis will canonize Junipero Serra, an 18th-century friar who founded missions in California. It will be the first beatification ceremony to take place in North America. Bush, who converted to...

More than 100,000 people in the United Kingdom have now signed a petition demanding the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes against Palestinians when he visits London later this month.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, who is on a historic visit to the US, met American President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington on Friday, with talks focusing on reining in Iran and tackling trouble spots in the Middle East. Obama made the rare move of greeting King Salman at the doors of the White House, as he hailed the longstanding friendship between the two countries. This is King Salman’s first visit to the United States after assuming the throne in January this year. In his welcome comments, Obama said: “It is a great pleasure...

In the 1960s, Vice President Hubert Humphrey declared that if he had to endure the conditions of the ghetto, he "could lead a pretty good riot" himself, while Nixon ridiculed the Kerner Commission report that blamed the riots on "white racism."Nixon and George Wallace got 57 percent of the vote in 1968. And a strong stand for law and order helped to give the GOP a near quarter-century lock on the presidency.The law-and-order issue is lying there again, waiting to be picked up.

Sure, Donald Trump’s “really rich.” But the Saudi royal family is really, really, really rich. Just look at their accommodations for Saudi King Salman’s visit to Washington. According to Politico, the king’s entourage bought out the entire Four Seasons in Georgetown, one of the capital’s ritziest and costliest hotels. And they’ve done some redecorating to the hotel’s sleek and modern design. Eyewitnesses told Politico that red carpets were laid down in the hallways and gilded furniture — “gold mirrors, gold end tables, gold lamps” — was delivered in advance of the Saudi monarch’s visit.

Long before Jim Messina became a trusted aide to President Barack Obama and one of the most powerful men in Washington, he was just a simple boy from Boise. Now, after working in politics for just over a decade, he lives in a lavish D.C. estate. How this happened is a classic Washington Cinderella story. Raised in Idaho by a single mother, Messina moved to Washington in 1995, in his mid-20s, to take a job as a legislative aide for Max Baucus, the conservative Democratic senator from Montana (now ambassador to China). Baucus supported George W. Bush-era personal and corporate...

Detroit -- A hapless carjacker failed to get away with the crime after his gun jammed, he forgot to release the parking brake and let a witness go, saying: "You good, I only rob white people," according to the FBI.