Free Republic

Germany's domestic intelligence chief warned Sunday of a radicalization of right-wing groups amid a record influx of refugees, as xenophobic rallies and clashes shook several towns on the weekend. "What we're seeing in connection with the refugee crisis is a mobilization on the street of right-wing extremists, but also of some left-wing extremists" who oppose them, said Hans-Georg Maassen on Deutschlandfunk public radio. He added that for the past few years his service had witnessed a "radicalization" and "a greater willingness to use violence" by all extremist groups, including the far right and the anti-fascist far left. Maassen spoke as...

Catalonia is voting in regional elections that nationalist parties hope will set them on the road to independence from Spain. Two separatist parties have joined forces, and are aiming to secure a majority of seats in parliament - 68 out of 135. They say this would allow them to unilaterally declare independence within 18 months. The central government in Madrid has pledged to block such moves in court. Polls suggest a majority of Catalans favour a referendum on independence but are evenly divided over whether they want to secede.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday branded U.S. support for rebel forces in Syria as illegal and ineffective, saying U.S.-trained rebels were leaving to join Islamic State with weapons supplied by Washington. In an interview with U.S. networks recorded ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Putin said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deserved international support as he was fighting terrorist organizations. Obama and Putin are scheduled to talk on Monday after Putin addresses the United Nations, although White House and Kremlin officials have disagreed on what the two leaders will discuss and even who initiated the meeting. "In...

...In an interview with American media ahead of Putin's meeting with US president Obama tomorrow, the Russian leader said: "In my opinion, provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern international law and the United Nations Charter." US-Russian relations have slumped to a post-Cold War low over the Ukraine crisis, though the two sides share concerns about the threat posed by Islamic State, while disagreeing on the approach. Putin says Damascus should be included in international efforts to fight ISIS - a demand the America rejects, and he heavily criticised US plans to train...

The number of cases of a terrifying superbug in NHS hospitals has surged after the Government ignored warnings—and relaxed the rules on fighting infections. Hundreds more patients fell ill with deadly Clostridium difficile—known as C.diff—between April 2014 and March 2015 than in the previous year. The increase, from 13,361 to 14,165, came immediately after the system for fining hospitals with too many cases was dramatically weakened. …

A large fire has has broken out at a south London mosque. There are 70 firefighters tackling the blaze at the Baitul Futuh mosque in Morden. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) sent investigating officers and the incident has been referred to the police. …

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Russian ambassador to Poland has sparked outrage for putting some of the blame for World War II on Poland, creating a new spat amid deepening tensions between the Slavic nations. Russian Ambassador Sergey Andreev on Friday described the Soviet's 1939 invasion of Poland as an act of self-defense, not aggression.

Another prime example of gun control at its finest is the story of these two unarmed officers being gunned down by… a thug with a gun. Wait, didn’t gun control stop it? Of course not, and here is the story submitted by a reader. These two officers responded to a robbery in progress when they were ambushed by an armed man that had a warrant out for his role in a shooting and grenade attack. The two unarmed officers responded to the call to the Hattersley Estate in Mottram.

An RAF sergeant who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan was moved out of a hospital waiting room because staff feared his uniform would upset people from different cultures, it was reported. Aircraft engineer Mark Prendeville’s treatment was condemned as ‘horrifying’ by military figures and Air Force veterans – but follows a string of incidents in recent years where service personnel were snubbed because of their uniform. Sergeant Prendeville, 38, was taken to the A&E department at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent, after chemicals from a fire extinguisher got in to his eyes during a training...

Labour’s vegan farming spokesman believes meat should be treated like tobacco with a public health campaign to stop it being eaten. Kerry McCarthy MP was recently named the Labour Party’s Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Jeremy Corbyn’s appointment of a vegan farming spokesman was always going to be controversial. Not only is McCarthy’s 20 year-long vegan lifestyle choice in potential conflict with a large section of Britain’s agricultural economy, she is a Vice President of the League Against Cruel Sports which seeks to ban countryside pursuits favoured by many farming communities.

In 2003, Senator Rick Santorum was widely criticized for making a slippery slope argument about what can happen to a society and country once we turn away from Biblical morality. A mere 12 years later the former-Senator’s prediction has come tragically true. It is only Tuesday and yet already this week Salon has published a lengthy article written by a pedophile asking for our understanding. Although he claims to have never acted on his impulses (but spent years in a chat room with those who have), the entire piece condemns society — you and I — as bigots for ostracizing...

I was on a guys weekend with some old college buddies and ran into a woman while were at the pool. She was very nice (seemed normal , 32 years old, married with a 2-year old daughter) and after a few minutes told us that she worked for the UK Government as an immigration official/attorney. She was literally oblivious to the issues of Islam and thinks more Brits should marry Asians. She doesn't like the US because we are "right wing" and "are backward and own too many guns. She said the UK is not religious, and I corrected her,...

LONDON — The U.S. Marine Corps will deploy its Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II strike fighters on combat sorties from Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, a senior U.K. Royal Navy officer has confirmed. Rear Adm. Keith Blount, who is responsible for delivering the two 65,000 ton ships, said that using Marine aircraft and pilots to bolster the U.K.’s nascent carrier strike capability would be a natural extension of coalition doctrine. “We are forever operating with allies and within coalitions. It’s the way wars are fought”, the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Aviation, Amphibious Capability and Carriers) and Rear Adm....

<p>Jordan’s Queen Rania has used a speech in Berlin today to call upon Europe to help more Syrian refugees – and not to ‘bolt the door for fear of the unknown’.”</p> <p>The threat – always the threat. It’s the Islamic way. Oppose the invasion or face the consequences. There it is. I submit that the consequences of the Muslim invasion of Europe are far greater than “the consequences of extremism.” What’s the difference?</p>

SWANSEA, Wales, September 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- A former cast member of BBC3’s hit reality TV show The Call Centre is being investigated by police after she posted on Facebook earlier this week that babies born with Downs Syndrome should be executed. Ursula Presgrave, 24 years-old, posted on her Facebook page Sunday night: “Anyone born with down syndrome should be put down, it’s just cruel to let them lead a pointless life of a vegetable.” Pre-born children with Downs syndrome are highly discriminated against because of a genetic anomaly of having an extra 21st chromosome. A in utero diagnosis...

On Tuesday’s edition of “Fox and Friends” the News crew showcased actress Emily Blunts comments on her new American citizenship that have gone viral. “I became an American citizen recently, and that night, we watched the Republican debate, and I thought, ‘This was a terrible mistake. What have I done?’” she recently told the Hollywood Reporter. Needless to say this has virtually every Republican in our country pissed off. “You know what Emily Blunt just did? She just Dixie Chicked herself,” host Steve Doocy said. “She has alienated half the country that now will think twice about going to one...

LONDON — British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has a message for U.K. defense firms: If you want to boost profits, make sure you can sell your products overseas. n return, Fallon vowed that the Defence Ministry would champion U.K. companies to allies and will “lead on key, strategic export campaigns” around the world. “As a government, boosting our export successes in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace has to now be the priority,” Fallon said Tuesday at the Defence Security International Exposition, or DSEI, a massive arms show here. The defense secretary named the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet and “complex...

A 15-year-old girl has been jailed after murdering her mother after becoming obsessed with ISIS and its abhorrent hostage beheading videos.Lisa Borch was just 15 when she took a kitchen knife and killed her mum in October last year.Minutes earlier she had been watching the beheadings of British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning on YouTube, carried out by twisted terrorist Jihadi John.Lisa, alongside her radical boyfriend Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdulla, stabbed her mum Tina Römer Holtegaard at least 20 times at their home in Kvissel, rural Denmark.A court heard how the teenager fell in love with a radical Muslim, but...

Lockheed Martin is proposing to adapt part of the Royal Air Force’s in-service fleet of C-130J tactical transports to meet a potential UK requirement for a maritime patrol or multi-mission aircraft capability. Outlined at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in London on 15 September, the company’s SC-130J proposal would take the RAF’s 10 short-fuselage C-130Js and incorporate a mission system derived from that already integrated by Lockheed onto the Royal Navy’s AgustaWestland Merlin HM2 helicopters. This would include fitting an active, electronically-scanned array radar beneath the fuselage and weapons sponsons in front of the main landing gear...

Hungary's right-wing government shut the main land route for migrants into the EU on Tuesday, taking matters into its own hands to halt Europe's influx of refugees. An emergency effort led by Germany to force European Union member states to accept mandatory quotas of refugees collapsed in discord. Berlin called for EU financial penalties against countries that refused to accommodate their share of migrants. A Czech official said such threats were empty but nonetheless "damaging". Slovakia said they would bring the "end of the EU". Under new rules that took effect from midnight, Hungary said anyone seeking asylum at its...