Free Republic

Suspected hitman Michele Morelli from the Sacra Corona Unita or Puglian Mafia ran out of bullets before finishing off his intended victim Michele Di Bari all of which was captured on CCTV video as reported by Metro: "Morelli aimed the gun at Di Bari's head and pulled the trigger several times before realising he had no rounds left, causing him to flee from the scene" although "Morelli was arrested several days later."

Pope Francis, referring to atheists who refuse to believe in God, His Commandments and His Church, recently said, "God forgives those who obey their conscience." See here. Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, explains that: "Conscience, as the judgment of an act, is not exempt from the possibility of error. As the Council [Vatican II] puts it, 'not infrequently conscience can be mistaken as a result of invincible ignorance, although it does not on that account forfeit its dignity; but this cannot be said when a man shows little concern for seeking what is true and...

The FDA wants to exercise its nanny power by banning menthol cigarettes in another futile bid to protect people from themselves but law enforcement warns that "prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime" as reported by Dan Mangan for CNBC. Paul Carey III, chief of enforcement for the Northern Virginia Cigarette Tax Board, says "the contraband market would thrive under a ban, and would increase criminal activity, including activities by organized crime and terrorist groups." The profit margin for organized crime from contraband tobacco has surpassed the drug trade according to a recent report by the Virginia...

The English Lose Their Capital City I wrote the following to my English Member of Parliament. On Sunday evening I walked along the South Bank of the Thames, almost opposite the House of Commons. The area was populated almost entirely by non ethnically English people. Perhaps you and your fellow Members of Parliament would care to take the time to see for yourself that example of an area of London that has been occupied by foreign people? According to the 2011 Census the English population of London is now a minority 40%. I thought it had been British policy to...

URUMQI - A court in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday sentenced three men to death and one man to 25 years in jail for a violent terrorist attack which left 24 people dead in the region's Shanshan County on June 26. The Intermediate People's Court of the Turpan Prefecture, which administers Shanshan County, handed the death penalty to Ahmatniyaz Sidiq for his guilt in organizing, leading and participating in a terrorist organization, homicide and arson. He was also deprived of political rights for life. The court sentenced Urayim Eli and Abdulla Esrapil to death for their participation...

Teerat Ratanasevi posted the message on Twitter that the invitation was offered by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during her audience with the Roman Catholic leader on Thursday at the Vatican. The date for the visit has not been set. Thailand set up diplomatic relations with the Holy See for 390 years. Pope John Paul II visited Thailand in 1984. Ms Yingluck praised Pope Francis for his efforts to promote human rights, help the poor and encourage global peace, a Government House statement said. The visit to the Vatican is part of Ms Yingluck's European trip which includes Switzerland, Italy and...

Editor’s note: Abraham M. Denmark is vice president for Political and Security Affairs at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), and previously served as Country Director for China Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Tiffany Ma is a project manager at NBR. The views expressed are their own. According to Chinese media, Defense Minister General Chang Wanquan arrived in Washington last month to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel with a grand bargain in mind: that Beijing would adjust its military deployments along the Taiwan Strait if the United States ended arms sales to Taiwan. Although a...

The president said that fewer Taiwanese students were being educated in the US, and this was an area that could be improved upon President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that non-governmental exchanges between Taiwan and the US are a key effort in strengthening bilateral ties. Speaking at the launch of the US-Taiwan Policy Forum, Ma said that relations between the two countries are at their best since diplomatic ties were severed in 1979, noting that Washington has described Taiwan as an important economic and security partner on many occasions in recent years. Pushing those ties further will require continued cooperation...

India and Japan on Thursday called for an early inking of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement, even as Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshimitsu Motegi admitted that Tokyo has “several outstanding issues” to be resolved in its negotiations on the proposed deal with New Delhi. “There are several outstanding issues that we have... We will have these issues discussed in the working groups so that we can accelerate the efforts (for the nuke deal),” said Motegi, about a week after Tokyo and New Delhi resumed negotiation on the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement. He was talking to mediapersons...

Japan is to lodge a formal complaint with French weekly Le Canard Enchaîné after it published a cartoon showing sumo wrestlers with extra arms in reference to Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, despite the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis. Japan reacted angrily Thursday to cartoons published in a French newspaper that mocked the decision to award the 2020 Olympic Games to Tokyo despite the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis. Published by the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné in its Wednesday, September 11 edition, one of the cartoons depicts two emaciated sumo wrestlers sporting extra limbs with the stricken Fukushima nuclear power...

in Egypt, U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson was urging Christian Copts not to protest Muslim Brotherhood rule, even though they would suffer under it most. Al Azhar, the world's oldest Islamic university, called on the new Catholic Pope, Francis I, to declare that Islam is a religion of peace. The degradation of Christian women living in the Islamic world continued in the month of June. In Syria, after the al-Qaeda linked rebel group conquered Qusair, a city of the governate of Homs, 15-year-old Mariam was kidnapped, repeatedly gang raped according to a fatwa legitimizing the rape of non-Sunni women by any...

Jim McGregor, Greater China chairman of communications consultancy APCO Worldwide, has given a critical assessment of the way China's government is treating foreign companies as part of its anti-corruption drive. In a BBC interview with Juliana Liu at the World Economic Forum's conference in Dalian, China, Mr McGregor, a former journalist who has lived in the country for more than 25 years, said China's behaviour was "very worrisome" for foreign companies. "They don't know what's hitting them right now", he said. The government is resorting to its traditional "toolbox" of coercive methods, he argues, including "shaming and ordering people to...

Journalists say CCTV-owned outlets censor reports across the continent When one of South Africa's biggest newspaper chains was sold last month, an odd name was buried in the list of new owners: China International Television Corp. A major stake in a South African newspaper group might seem an unusual acquisition for Chinese state television, but it was no mystery to anyone who has watched the rapid expansion of China's media empire across Africa. From newspapers and magazines to satellite television and radio stations, China is investing heavily in African media. It's part of a long-term campaign to bolster Beijing's "soft...

 Photo by Oleg Volk In spite of YouTube video and audio showing numerous rights violations as well as conspiracy to violate those rights, the Appleton PD doubles down.    There will be no investigation of the incident where second amendment activists were detained at gunpoint and handcuffed without reasonable suspicion or probable cause last Saturday.  From the Appleton City Website: Due to the nature of the call, combined with the officers’ observations of the subjects walking toward the farm market armed with rifles, they were briefly detained at the scene. The firearms were identified as AR-15 rifles. Both subjects told...

It shouldn’t take any degree of courage whatsoever to to oppose the funding of Obamacare. With leaders like these, who needs Democrats? Whose side are Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy on?...

Young lady with revolver in Arizona Today, 12 September, 2013,  the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the second amendment of the Bill of Rights applies to the carrying of arms outside of the home.  They did this by declaring the Illinois statute which makes carry of loaded firearms outside of a persons property illegal, to be unconstitutional.  From the decision http://www.state.il.us/court/Opinions/SupremeCourt/2013/112116.pdf:    We begin with section 24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A), which states: “(a) A person commits the offense of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon when he or she knowingly: (1) Carries on or about his or her person or in...

Fully sixteen years after the State of Texas began honoring its military heroes with the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor, the most decorated combat soldier of World War II was finally recognized by Governor Rick Perry and the Texas legislature. Born in the Lone Star State in 1924, the 5’6″, 130lb Audie Leon Murphy was told he was too small to make it in the Navy or as a United States Marine. So the baby-faced, underage Texan enlisted in the Army and in early 1942 was shipped to North Africa as part of the Third Infantry Division. And in 3...

For five years Rush has been saying he wishes Barack Obama fails in his plans to “fundamentally remake America.” Few on our side would disagree. We recognize that success for Obama means destruction for America. We well understand that America has willingly put her neck in a noose and begged Obama to yank it a little tighter. Going about his diabolical schemes in a workmanlike manner Obama first destroyed private investment in corporations with his takeover of the auto industry; then destroyed the student loan industry, the institution of marriage, freedom to practice religion, the United States Military, our national...

Well done to Australia's new Prime-Minister-Elect, the conservative Tony Abbott. He pledged, as his two top priorities, to stop the tide of asylum seekers to the country and to scrap the highly unpopular tax on carbon emissions. Both very admirable intentions. Cutting CO2 does nothing for the environment but a lot for the economy: it destroys it. The environmentalist movement is fundamentally socio-communist. It has proclaimed itself the only saviour of the earth, but the reality is that one does not need to agree with its pseudo-scientific, highly ideological theories or belong to it to care about the environment. Being...

Today at work I was standing once again in front of the same machine I was running on 9/11/01. Went to work that morning late, like everybody else an hour behind the East coast after having witnessed the second plane fly into the towers on live TV and confirming the horrible truth that it wasn’t an accident. That same fall feeling is in the air, just a little warmer than then. The same smells, sounds, the same radio playing, but this time not the news, but the names of the dead being read. I began thinking about how much has...