Free Republic

Hulk Hogan returned to a WWE ring Friday as he made his first appearance since 2015 at the controversial pay-per-view Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, kicked off the event by coming out to a packed crowd in his full red and yellow “Hulkamania” gear along with a red and yellow boa around his neck. “You know something maniacs, it feels so good to be out here in front of the whole WWE Universe and to be out here with my stark raven Hulkamaniacs,” Hogan said in front of the crowd. WWE announced in...

CAIRO – Islamic militants on Friday ambushed two buses carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing seven and wounding up to 16, according to the Interior Ministry and security officials. Coptic Orthodox Church spokesman Boulos Halim said the death toll was likely to rise. Local church officials in Minya province where the attack took place put the death toll at 10, but the higher figure could not be confirmed. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants who have for years...

In Minya, Egypt, Coptic Christians were terrorized in another attack targeting the minority group on Friday. Islamic militants opened gunfire on two buses carrying Coptic Christians en route to an ancient monastery in Upper Egypt, killing seven and injuring more than eleven. Friday’s attack is one in a series of attacks on Egypt’s ancient Christian community, which currently makes up between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt’s population. Minya has the largest population of Christians in the country — 35 percent of residents are Christians — and experiences a lion’s share of the sectarian attacks. According to Open Doors USA’s...

MINYA, Egypt (AP) -- Hundreds of Egyptian Christians attended a funeral service Saturday after seven people were killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants of buses carrying pilgrims to a remote desert monastery. 【Related】IS attack on Christian pilgrims in Egypt kills 7 【Related】Japan, Egypt to work to bring stability to Middle East 【Related】Egypt governor: Remove Disney figures from kindergartens The service at Prince Tadros church in the central city of Minya was held amid tight security. Minya's top cleric, Anba Makarios, led prayers over a row of six white coffins, all victims from the same family. A separate funeral...

At least seven people were killed and at least 19 others were injured in an attack on several buses carrying Coptic Christians near a monastery in Egypt on Friday, according to a spokesperson for Egypt's Coptic Church. Gunmen attacked two buses and a microbus on a road near the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor, in Minya, south of Cairo, the spokesperson said. One of the buses was carrying 28 members of a family that had traveled to the monastery for the baptism of one of its children, six of whom were injured, according to the spokesman. At least seven...

The International Coalition spokesman said contacts are aimed at reducing tension.   International Coalition Against ISIS Spokesman, Sean Ryan, said in a statement posted on Twitter: "We are in contact with Turkey and Syria Democratic forces in an effort to reduce tension". On Wednesday, the US State Department had announced that they were in contact with the YPG and the Turkish state in an effort to ease tension. The US also stated that they were worried after receiving news of the attacks carried out by the Turkish state. Turkish state attacks against Kobanê and Girê Spî were launched after a...

Coverage of the 2018 Election is ahead but first. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played his cards on the world stage pointing the finger of blame for Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's October 2nd murder in Istanbul on the highest levels of the Saudi Arabian government..... Now Netanyahu has come out publicly Friday saying that the stability of Saudi Arabia must be maintained because it is important for the stability of the region and world..... New York City police says two Saudi Arabian sisters found duct taped together in the Hudson River were not involved in any act of foul...

Tala and Rotana Farea, the sisters from Saudi Arabia whose bodies were found taped together in New York City's Hudson River last week, were said to have preferred suicide over returning to their home country According to police. Dermot Shea, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department, said "sources" in Virginia, where the Farea sisters had previously been living, informed investigators ...(snip).. would "rather inflict harm on themselves and commit suicide than return to Saudi Arabia."

You've heard the "stuff" dished out about foreign influence on our elections....Russia, Russia, Russia. But Vice-President Mike Pence had a much broader list than that when he spoke recently citing Russia, China and Iran, along with "other nations". And he's dead on right. There's been a lot of griping from people who do business and make bucks dealing with China over the tariffs President Trump imposed to force fairer trade. I heard this kind of *itching from a trade association of adult beverage manufacturers in Kentucky when I listened to the radio down there during my summer vacation. But there...

One hope for Yemenis is that the international fallout from the death of the Saudi dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, which has damaged Prince Mohammed’s international standing, might force him to relent in his unyielding prosecution of the war. Peter Salisbury, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, said that was unlikely. “I think the Saudis have learned what they can get away with in Yemen — that western tolerance for pretty bad behavior is quite high,” he said. “If the Khashoggi murder tells us anything, it’s just how reluctant people are to rein the Saudis in.”

<p>President Trump was in Columbia, Missouri last night on his pre mid-term election tour speaking at an airport rally.....</p> <p>Among the other US Senate races an unusual one in Mississippi where there's an "open primary special election" being held next Tuesday. Two Democrats and two Republicans are running with the top two finishers set for a runoff three weeks later.....</p>

A group of prominent U.S. evangelical figures, including several of President Donald Trump's evangelical advisers, met Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose role in the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi remains unclear. In a statement that included smiling photos, the group said "it is our desire to lift up the name of Jesus whenever we are asked and wherever we go." The meeting at the royal palace in Riyadh comes amid widespread questions about the role the prince played in the operation that left Khashoggi dead after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul...

"In accordance with plans made in advance, the victim. Jamal Khashoggi, was choked to death immediately after entering the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia." Official Turkish Statement On Jamal Khahoggi Murder 10/31/2018 After saying that meetings with a Saudi prosecutor produced "no concrete results", a Turkish prosecutor has gone public with his version of what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd. The version of events released by Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Irfan Fidan is that Khashoggi was murdered by strangulation right after he went into the consulate with his...

A heavyweight right-wing financier has thrown in with a left-right coalition to end the U.S. military’s involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian catastrophes, The Daily Beast has learned. The Charles Koch Institute, bearing the brand of one of the most influential sources of conservative political money, is backing an effort spearheaded by progressive California Democrat Ro Khanna to demand either an end to non-counterterrorism aid to the Yemen war or a direct congressional vote authorizing it. Multiple congressional and allied sources told The Daily Beast they plan to bring their resolution to...

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is intent on blocking a $110 billion arms sale with Saudi Arabia, which he labeled as a sponsor of terrorism during a Montana rally with Donald Trump Jr. on Saturday. Paul, R-Ky., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a crowd in Missoula that the U.S. can no longer look away from Saudi Arabia’s bad behavior. His comments came during an event for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, the Hill reported. “We have to think through this idea that everything is going to be blindly for Saudi Arabia. They’re involved in a war...

THE King of Saudi Arabia’s brother has returned to Riyadh to mount a challenge against the “toxic” de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz, the youngest and only living brother of King Salman, has reportedly returned to the kingdom from London this week. The 76-year-old is plotting to oust his nephew and the son of King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, on his return, according to sources. His intervention comes after Saudi Arabia was thrown under the spotlight following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,...

President Trump visited Pittsburgh Tuesday to offer condolences following Saturday's massacre at a synagogue... If the polling data is any indicator and if one assumes its a bit biased towards the Democrats, the Republicans will certainly improve their majority in the US Senate in the mid-term elections with some losses in the House likely. Convicted Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger was found dead in a federal prison in West Virginia beaten "nearly beyond recognition"..... Word today that the United States is pressuring Saudi Arabia to agree to a cease fire in Yemen's civil war... The "Sunday Express" in the...

BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS and Taiwan are the best countries in the world to be an atheist, according to a new report. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) launched its seventh annual Freedom of Thought Report this morning. For the first time, it contains a full ranking of every country in the world, according to its level of discrimination against atheists, humanists and the non-religious. Belgium, the Netherlands and Taiwan came in joint first place as the best countries in the world to be an atheist. Nauru, France, Japan and Sao Tomé and Príncipe came in joint fourth place. Meanwhile,...

In a telegram earlier Monday, Putin had "stressed that the results of the vote fully speak of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's great political authority..." © Provided by AFP In a telegram earlier Monday, Putin had "stressed that the results of the vote fully speak of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's great political authority..." Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his re-election triumph in a phone call, after saying the result showed the Turkish leader's "great political authority" and mass support. On the call Putin and Erdogan confirmed their interest in "deepening partnership ties between the two...

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished - after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” policy in breach of the Taylor Force Act. Jordan has now signalled its preparedness to replace the PLO by publically supporting Trump in an article written in the Jordan Times by Walid Sadi – a retired Jordanian diplomat with over 35 years’ experience and himself a former editor of the...