Free Republic

As summer approaches, health agencies are warning of the risk of polio spreading across the Middle East from Syria - where now more than 100 children show symptoms of the disease - despite a massive campaign to vaccinate millions of children in surrounding countries. In the back of a car parked outside a Turkish hospital, the shy woman in a long pink velvet dress starts sobbing as she talks about her baby, being treated in an isolation ward inside. "He started to get really sick. I tried to make him stand and use his feet, but it was quite impossible,"...

Russia’s aggressiveness in Ukraine is proving a boon to North American energy producers looking for greater export opportunities. Whether for natural gas projects in the United States or for oil pipelines in Canada, the West’s confrontation with energy powerhouse Russia has refocused North American political debates – including the controversy over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline – on the need for global energy security. Russia’s aggressiveness in Ukraine is proving a boon to North American energy producers looking for greater export opportunities. Whether for natural gas projects in the United States or for oil pipelines in Canada, the West’s confrontation...

Sheriffs have been ordered to sell Iran’s properties, empty its bank accounts and divide the proceeds between several terror victims. This groundbreaking verdict brought to an end four lawsuits filed in Ontario, Nova Scotia and British Columbia by terror victims seeking damages from Iran for training, arming and financing Hamas and Hezbollah.

Some 150 Israeli Arabic-speaking Christians on Sunday demonstrated outside the European Union mission in Tel Aviv, demanding that the international community stop nitpicking against Israel and start combatting the severe persecution of Christians everywhere else in the Middle East. “Nations, organizations and international missions are quick to raise an accusing finger against Israel at every opportunity,” said Father Gabriel Nadaf, spiritual father of the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, which organized the rally. Those same nations and organizations “don’t life a finger against the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East,” the priest continued. Father Nadaf went on to explain...

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President Barack Obama is seeking to abolish two highly successful missile programs that experts say has helped the U.S. Navy maintain military superiority for the past several decades. The Tomahawk missile program—known as “the world’s most advanced cruise missile”—is set to be cut by $128 million under Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal and completely eliminated by fiscal year 2016, according to budget documents released by the Navy. In addition to the monetary cuts to the program, the number of actual Tomahawk missiles acquired by the United States would drop significantly—from 196 last year to just 100 in 2015. The...

William Hague has warned Russia that it faces long-term "isolation and stagnation" over the crisis in Ukraine. The foreign secretary said it was time to consider a "new state of relations" different to that of the past 20 years. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said the UK and its European allies would not "run scared".

<p>Those convicted are part of a group of 545 defendants on trial for the killing of a police officer, attempted killing of two others, attacking a police station and other acts of violence.</p> <p>More than 150 suspects stood trial, the others were tried in absentia. Sixteen were acquitted.</p>

Recent events in Turkey, and prior events in Egypt and Libya got me thinking about the amazing power of social media. On Thursday, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to eradicate twitter, adding “The international community can say this or that – I don’t care. They will see the power of the Turkish Republic.” The next day a "digital coup" occurred and Twitter Use in Turkey Jumped to New High. With the above in mind, I propose ... The Law of Social Media: Arrogant fools who think they can control social media quickly discover social media controls them. The...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- A Syrian military spokesman says Turkey's armed forces have shot down a Syrian warplane near the countries' border, and called the act a "blatant aggression."

Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces for control of a border crossing. "A Syrian plane violated our airspace," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey. "Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard."

Obama administration hasn't ruled out releasing Pollard in exchange for Israel’s agreement to free Israeli Arabs convicted of terrorist acts. With Israeli-Palestinian peace talks teetering on the brink of collapse, US officials are mulling a desperate bid to resuscitate the negotiations by making a significant move that would win the approval of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition, one that may perhaps include the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, Israel Radio reported on Sunday. Citing Western diplomatic sources, Israel Radio reported that Obama administration officials have not ruled out Netanyahu’s proposal that Pollard be released in exchange for Israel’s agreement...

While Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea are worthy of international censure, a more imminent threat to world peace is impasse over Iran. There has been a sense in recent days that this was no ordinary week in the life of the planet. Our already bloodstained 21st-century history — unfolding once again in uncertain and threatening ways — seemed to be opening a new chapter. Two events last Tuesday in world capitals more than 2,000 kilometres apart best symbolized this. But which of these events do you think poses the greatest potential danger to world peace? In Moscow, a preening, self-satisfied...

An anniversary passed this week that went almost completely unremarked — and for good reason. March 17th marked the three-year anniversary of the UN Security Council resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya to stop the Moammar Qaddafi regime from attacking rebel-held Benghazi and Ajdabiya, and the three-year anniversary on the 19th of the NATO war on Libya. French, British, and American planes began bombarding the Qaddafi regime, an air war that would continue for months — while Barack Obama refused to request Congressional approval for it. Later, Obama would claim that Libya represented the smart model of Western intervention....

MANAMA, Bahrain — Iran is building a replica of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier at a shipyard on the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. 5th Fleet officials said. The mock-up of the aircraft carrier was first noticed last summer, 5th Fleet officials said, but it wasn’t until February that they saw the number 68 painted on it — the same number of the USS Nimitz, which was deployed in the region last summer. “It’s interesting to us that they would be building something like this ... this is a head-scratcher more than anything,” said Cmdr Jason Salata, Navy...

Muslims in Syria have butchered 400 people in mass killing fields, and have also impregnated 3000 women through sex jihad. We have learned this information through our Middle East contact Sister Hatune Dogan, who we partnered with in order to rescue Christians in Syria and Iraq, Turkey and Jordan. “Abd Alluhud tells his story driving to his farm, taking the regular route near Idlib and what he sees was so horrific; hundreds of bodies on the side of the road, all decapitated”, so reports Sister Hatune Dogan to Shoebat.com after she came back from her mission to aid Christians in...

President Barack Obama had planned a week long trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia to highlight global progress in ridding the world of nuclear materials, soak up the positive publicity emanating from Pope Francis and reassure an anxious Gulf ally of the U.S. commitment to the region. Instead, the trip will be dominated by Russia’s military seizure of Crimea and Obama’s efforts to persuade European allies to step up sanctions on Russia, even as critics at home suggest Obama hasn’t been as tough on Russian President Vladimir Putin as he needs to be. Obama, who arrives in the Netherlands on...

March 19, 2014, 03:43 pm Kerry phones Netanyahu to complain about insults By Rebecca Shabad Secretary of State John Kerry called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday morning to protest insults the Israeli defense minister directed at the Obama administration this week, the State Department said. In a speech at Tel Aviv University on Monday, Moshe Ya’alon criticized President Obama for having a weak foreign policy, and said Israel could no longer rely on the U.S. to lead nuclear negotiations with Iran. “Secretary Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning. And he protested to him his concerns about these...

A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow may change its stance in the Iranian nuclear talks amid tensions with the West. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted Wednesday as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia didn’t want to use the Iranian nuclear talks to “raise stakes,” but may have to do so in response to the actions by the United States and the European Union. The statement is the most serious threat of retaliation by Moscow after the U.S. and the EU announced sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

A senior Russian diplomat signaled a possible shift Wednesday in Russia's position on the ongoing Iranian nuclear talks amid tensions with the United States and other Western countries, according to The Associated Press. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the Russian news organization Interfax as saying the recent sanctions announced by the European Union and U.S. may force Russia to retaliate by altering its stance on the Iran talks. Such a move would dramatically escalate tensions between Russia and the West, which are already high amid Russia's annexation of Crimea on Tuesday. "We wouldn't like to use...