Free Republic

Imran Ghafur Masih Released After More Than a Decade Behind Bars 12/15/2020 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Lahore High Court has acquitted Imran Ghafur Masih, a Christian sentenced to life in prison under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. According to Imran’s family, they have moved into hiding following the acquittal due to potential threats from extremists. On December 15, the Lahore High Court acquitted Imran after he spent more than 10 years in prison for allegedly committing blasphemy. The development came as a shock to Imran’s family. “It is a day of resurrection...

Alexandria’s Coptic Christians Suffer from Violent Hate Crime 12/15/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on December 10, 2020, three extremists attacked Coptic Christians living in Alexandria (al-Wardyan district), Egypt. This resulted in the murder of one Christian man, the injuries of two, and significant damage to three Christian shops. A relative of the victim explained about the attack’s instigator, “The extremist was in jail because of so many cases. Usually he was bothering Copts and bullying them so much. His mother was sick and she died on the night of December 10....

Turkey’s Genocide Comments Underscore Broken Ceasefire Agreement 12/13/2020 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on December 11, 2020, Azerbaijan broke its ceasefire agreement by launching an attack in Nagorno-Karabakh’s (Armenian: Artsakh’s) Hadrut district. Azerbaijani President Aliyev blamed Armenia for the attacks, threatening to “break its head with an iron fist” and saying, “This time, we will destroy them completely.” This incident was reported by the Russian forces deployed as peacekeepers to monitor the ceasefire. It occurred just one day after Azerbaijan and Turkey hosted a joint military parade to celebrate their victory over...

Dodin is a volunteer for Biden's transition team and currently serves as Deputy Chief of Staff for Sen. Dick Durbin President-elect Joe Biden's pick for Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs referred to Palestinian suicide bombings as "the last resort of a desperate people" in 2002. "The suicide bombers were the last resort of a desperate people," Reema Dodin said while speaking at a church in Lodi, Calif., according to the Lodi News-Sentinel. She was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, at the time. "The American public has a history of being a fair-minded...

I haven't met a kid yet that doesn't want to be a superhero. My own daughters love to pretend they are Jedi (I have trained them well) or princesses with magic powers. Superheroes are meant for kids. Yes, there are large numbers of nostalgic adults – my own particular penchant for Star Wars included – that love the adventure and lore of fantastical worlds, but the target market is and always has been children. You might one of a few adults who will buy that $300 Captain America shield replica, but there are 50 million kids who will beg their...

Newsmax TV anchor John Bachman finally declared that President-elect Joe Biden is, in fact, the president-elect, marking a massive step for the ardently pro-Trump network on their path to facing the reality that President Donald Trump lost his 2020 re-election bid.

He also gave the driver a pocket-sized copy of the Koran Suicide bomber Salman Abedi asked a taxi driver to 'pray for me' as he drove him towards Manchester Arena to commit mass murder. Exchanges between Abedi and Tariq Nadeem on the night of the bombing were revealed on day 48 of the public inquiry into the atrocity on Monday. Abedi, said Mr Nadeem, also gave him a pocket copy of the Koran as a 'present' as they travelled. Mr Nadeem, a taxi driver for 10 years, agreed to take Abedi to Shudehill via Granby Row in Manchester at around...

The FDA on Tuesday approved the first over-the-counter COVID-19 test involving a nasal swab — and near-instant results. “By authorizing a test for over-the-counter use, the FDA allows it to be sold in places like drug stores, where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes,’’ said Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, in a statement on the agency’s website.

DC Police Founder and Board Chair Don Blake discusses the project and its importance with WMAL's Barbara Britt.

In the latest episode of corporate wokeness fixing a problem that doesn’t actually exist, the Major League Baseball team the Cleveland Indians is changing its name after having used the moniker for 105 years. This follows the decision by the Washington Redskins of the National Football League to change their name this season. Whatever you think of that decision by what is now the Washington Football Team, it is plainly obvious that these two cases are nothing alike. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the term “Indian” to indicate a Native American is not even remotely...

A bombing and a shooting attack in Kabul have killed at least three people, including a deputy provincial governor, while a deputy provincial council chief was killed in western Afghanistan. The attacks on Tuesday are the latest in relentless violence in Afghanistan even as the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators hold talks in Qatar, trying to hammer out a peace deal that could put an end to decades of war. According to Tariq Arian, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman, a sticky bomb attached to the armoured vehicle belonging to Kabul's deputy provincial governor killed two people, and wounded two others....

IOWA CITY, Iowa — In a room 12 stories above the emergency department where he has been caring for COVID-19 patients over the last nine months, David Conway, 39, Monday morning became the first person in Iowa to receive a vaccine for the novel coronavirus since its emergency authorization Friday. Conway, a University of Iowa Health Care emergency department nurse for four years, said he didn’t hesitate when asked if he’d be willing to get the vaccine on day one on the UI’s medical campus. “Of course I am,” Conway said, seconds before choosing his left arm and holding still...

Gascón was sworn in earlier this month, and immediately vowed to stop the use of cash bail, to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, and to end sentencing “enhancements,” such as additional penalties for using a gun in committing a crime, or belonging to a criminal gang.

Two elderly men who were beheaded by Azerbaijani forces in videos widely shared on messaging apps have been identified, confirming two of the bloodiest atrocities of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective villages said. Both were beheaded by men in the uniforms of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The short, gruesome videos of the killings are among the worst of a torrent of footage portraying abuse, torture and murder that has continued to emerge more than a month after a Russian-brokered ceasefire came into force. The villagers’ testimony in interviews with the...

With President-elect Joe Biden being voted the winner of the 2020 election by the Electoral College and President Donald Trump seemingly on the way out of the White House in January, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) predicted Tuesday that the president’s “substantial influence” will remain in the GOP. Romney told “CNN Newsroom” that looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election, he did not think “Trumpism is going away” because the people rumored to run then are also “trying to appeal to kind of a populist approach.”

A Michigan judge ordered the release Monday of an independent forensic audit report of the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Antrim County, which flipped from a win for Democrat Joe Biden to President Donald Trump after a glitch was discovered and corrected. The audit, which was led by Russell Ramsland of the Dallas-based Allied Security Operations Group, revealed over a 68 percent ballot error rate — at least 85,000 times higher than the Federal Election Commission guidelines allow. Additionally, Ramsland’s team reported the “extremely suspicious” absence of logs regarding the abnormally high number of digitally adjudicated ballots. Antrim County...

The NRA just one-upped Santa — lock, stock and barrel. The gun rights group delivered Nerf guns to a 4-year-old Illinois boy who burst into tears when a politically correct mall Santa told him he couldn’t have one earlier this month. “Mean Santa didn’t want to give me a Nerf gun for Christmas,‘’ said little Michael DeCarlo, dressed in Army camouflage, in a video posted on the National Rifle Association’s website over the weekend.

A Minnesota Department of Corrections employee told Alpha News this week that staff wellness areas were shut down in early November and remain closed, yet indoor exercise areas for inmates were reopened earlier this month. Meanwhile, public gyms across the state were ordered to close by Gov. Tim Walz. “The decision regarding staff wellness rooms was made in consultation with the Minnesota Department of Health through a process of questions and answers, and evaluating the potential risk for infection spread. The people who are incarcerated do not have the same options as our staff who can move around and exercise...

Kano, Nigeria — Boko Haram on Tuesday claimed it was behind the abduction of hundreds of students in northwestern Nigeria, in what appears to be a major expansion of the jihadist group's activities into new areas. At least 333 students are still missing since the attack late Friday on the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in Katsina state — hundreds of miles from Boko Haram's stronghold in northeast Nigeria. "I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina," the leader of Boko Haram said in a voice message. More than 100 gunmen on motorcycles stormed the...

Peter Nygard has been under investigation for allegations of sexual assault in Winnipeg, the U.S. and the Bahamas. (Annie I. Bang/The Associated Press) ===================================================================== Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard is in custody in Winnipeg and is facing a nine-count indictment in the United States on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and related crimes. The 79-year-old was taken into custody Monday in Winnipeg by RCMP and city police after the United States asked Canada to issue a warrant under the two countries' extradition treaty. The charges relate to "a decades-long pattern of criminal conduct involving at least dozens of victims in...