Free Republic

Last week, President Obama was asked whether the $400 million cash payment to Iran that occurred just as they released four detained Americans was a ransom. He was also asked if he could assure us that the money was not going to be used for terrorism. Spoiler alert: we got no assurances. Instead, we got a lecture. The president noted how this payment was not secret, as it was earmarked in previous appropriations bills; it was not some nefarious deal since White House lawyers advised the Obama White House to settle the decades-old grievance regarding these frozen assets; and that...

WASHINGTON, March 15 — A former EgyptAir pilot told American investigators two years ago that the co-pilot of EgyptAir 990 crashed the plane into the Atlantic Ocean to take revenge on a company executive who had just demoted him and was riding as a passenger, a person involved in the investigation said today. American aviation investigators say they do not know whether the explanation given by the pilot, which was first reported today in The Los Angeles Times, is true. Since the crash of the Boeing 767, Egyptian officials have argued that there was no evidence that the co-pilot, Gamil...

A man has been decapitated in a horrific accident at a chicken processing factory in Melbourne, Australia. Mr Sarel Singh, 34, was killed instantly when he was sucked into a machine and decapitated in an incident that has now placed the entire poultry processing industry under review. The factory was already under investigation over claims of unlawful and unethical treatment of its majority migrant workforce, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Lateline programme reported. Mr Singh's brother, Harry, said that Sarel had migrated from India four years ago 'in the hope of finding a better life in Australia'. But Sarel had told...