Free Republic

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) reported that the electricity cut that occurred in several cities in the country, mainly in Mexico City and the State of Mexico, affected 10.3 million users due to a low frequency throughout the national territory, caused by outlets of power plants.The national power company CFE added that at 2:52 p.m. the restoration of affected users began and is subject to the instructions of the National Energy Control Commission (Cenace), which must guarantee the security of the National Electric System.More at Link

The number of Pakistani girls being forced to convert to Islam has increased during the pandemic, human rights advocates say according to an Associated Press report. Nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities in Pakistan are are forced to convert to Islam each year, but since underage girls have been out of school due to the pandemic, predators looking to kidnap and force them to convert to Islam have taken advantage of the circumstances, according to the AP. Usually, male acquaintances and relatives looking for brides kidnap the girls, who are often from impoverished Hindu families or are Christians. Sometimes the...

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people including two security personnel were injured in a hand grenade attack at a security forces' vehicle in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Tuesday, local media reported. The vehicle of paramilitary troops Frontier Corps was passing by a busy market area in Surab city when it was attacked, the reports said, adding that the injured also included passersby who were doing shopping in the market. The wounded were shifted to a nearby hospital, but their condition is not known. The area was cordoned off by police and security forces for investigations. No group or...

Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttgieg, who Joe Biden has picked to be his Transportation secretary, sent out a tweet on December 26, wishing people a “joyful and meaningful Kwanzaa.” “Wishing a joyful and meaningful Kwanzaa to all who are beginning their celebration tonight,” Buttigieg said in his tweet.

Police in North Macedonia said Monday that eight men have been arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in the country and officers have seized a large quantity of weapons. Police said the men were arrested late Sunday and are between 21- and 31-years-old. One of the suspects had a previous conviction of participation in the Islamic State group. The eight have been charged with creating a terrorist organization. If convicted of that charge, they face prison sentences of up to 10 years. The eight were arrested on suspicion of "creating a terrorist organization, based on the ideological matrix of...

Three French soldiers were killed in Mali on Monday after their armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) during a counterterrorism operation in the West African country, the French government said. The soldiers were killed while conducting operations in central Mali as part of the French military’s Operation Barkhane campaign to combat Islamist militants throughout the African Sahel region, French government authorities said. The incident occurred near the small town of Hombori, located in the central Mali province of Mopti, according to the Wall Street Journal. France’s government identified the slain soldiers as Quentin Pauchet, Tanerii Mauri, and Dorian...

Luke Letlow, who was elected to represent Louisiana’s 5th District in Congress earlier this month, died Tuesday evening from complications with COVID-19. Letlow, 41, died at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport from “complications from COVID-19,” his spokesman, Andrew Bautsch, said in a statement. Letlow was admitted to a Monroe hospital with COVID-19 symptoms on Dec. 19th before being transferred to the Shreveport hospital and being admitted to the ICU. Letlow is survived by his wife, Julie Barnhill Letlow, and two young children, Bautsch said.

An array of Palestinian terror organizations launched rockets into the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza Strip on Tuesday at the start of what they called their first-ever joint exercise, which Israeli media described as a show of force organized by Iran. ... Eight rockets streaked through a cloudless sky in Gaza towards the Mediterranean after Abu Hamza, spokesman for Islamic Jihad, delivered a speech launching the drill. It will include land and coastal exercises described by the groups as a test of their preparedness for any future confrontation with Israel. Israeli media said the drill was organized by the groups’...

Egypt's military court on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment 168 terrorists for involvement with the Wilayat Sinai terrorist group, which has carried out 63 terror attacks in the Sinai Peninsula and is affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, outlawed in Russia), Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2020) Egypt's military court on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment 168 terrorists for involvement with the Wilayat Sinai terrorist group, which has carried out 63 terror attacks in the Sinai Peninsula and is affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, outlawed in Russia), Al-Masry...

Authorities are looking into evidence that Nashville RV bomber Anthony Quinn Warner spent time hunting for aliens and was interested in “lizard people,” ABC News reported. Law enforcement sources told the outlet that investigators found some of Warner’s writings containing ramblings about various conspiracy theories. Some of the notes were reportedly about the lizard or reptilian conspiracy — the idea that shape-shifting lizard creatures take on human form in an attempt at world domination. Authorities believe the 63-year-old loner also spent time hunting for alien life forms in a nearby state park, the outlet reported. It’s unclear if any of...

For many years, planetary scientists have been tracking a Martian ghost: methane gas. It was first seen by ground-based observations of Mars back in the 2000s, then subsequently by spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. But these observations barely detected it, and have been called into question time and again. There's been much debate, and some of the claims have been contradictory So the European Space Agency sent a probe to Mars called the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, equipped with a device on it called the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery, or NOMAD*. It can look for many different gases,...

Walking around without a mask is enough to attract stares nowadays. But Bedok residents got more than an eyeful to look at after a woman took a stroll around the neighbourhood in nothing but her birthday suit and an orange handbag. The 42-year-old woman was arrested on Monday morning (Dec 29) after walking from Bedok North Avenue 2 to Heartbeat@Bedok in the nude, police confirmed. Officers arrested the woman under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act after receiving a call for assistance at 7.52am that day. The woman, who remains unidentified, was also not wearing a face mask. In...

... A police officer was killed and three officers were wounded in an attack by the Taliban on Monday morning on the police headquarters in the western Farah province, ... Police shot a suicide bomber whose vehicle exploded followed by insurgents opening fire on police, Mohib said, the AP reported. At least four insurgents were killed and eight were wounded. In a separate incident, two provincial revenue agency employees were fatally shot in the eastern Ghazni province, ... In another incident, a roadside bomb killed a security forces member and wounded two others including a council member, provincial council leader...

A 75-year-old man was lucky enough to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Israel, only to die a few hours later from a heart attack that officials believe is unrelated to the shot. The unidentified man got the Pfizer shot at 8:30 a.m. Monday, and within hours had lost consciousness and died at home in Beit She’an, the Jerusalem Post said. Health Ministry director-general Chezy Levy has launched an investigation, but early findings suggest the vaccine was not connected to the death, the report stressed.

Kabul , December 29 : A suicide bomber blew himself up before reaching his target in the town of Torghundi in Afghanistan's Herat Province, local police said. According to Herat police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada, the man blew himself up after being identified by police. No one was injured by the blast, the police spokesman said. Meanwhile, the Herat branch of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the suicide bomber had wanted to plant a mine in Torghundi, but ended up detonating the explosives and killing himself before reaching the intended target.

Nashville police were warned in 2019 that Anthony Warner was making a bomb inside his RV — but nothing was done to stop him. Warner’s girlfriend told Nashville cops on Aug. 21, 2019, that he “was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence,” according to a report Tuesday in The Tennessean. City cops passed the tip off to the FBI and ATF. But when authorities showed up at Warren’s door no one answered, and a subsequent request to search the property was denied, The Tennessean reported. Warner’s bomb-making then continued unhindered until Christmas morning, when he detonated explosives...

VIENNAAfter being subjected to police violence in a raid targeting his home under the pretext of a “terror operation”, 12-year-old Mustafa A. has started therapy for sleep disorder. Vienna police on Nov. 9 raided 60 addresses and detained 30 Muslim activists and academics in an operation called “Operation Luxor” on charges of "establishing a terrorist organization, financial support for terrorism, organized crime formation, and money laundering." The police using disproportionate force against people well-known to the public and treating them as terrorists led to reactions from various segments of the society. Many NGOs, journalists, and writers called for the issue...

Austrian police arrested 30 people suspected of being radical Islamists yesterday as part of the government's "war on Islamism", the Times reported. The individuals were apprehended during a series of pre-dawn raids, collectively termed 'Operation Luxor', conducted by almost 1,000 police officers, including special forces, counterterrorism personnel and dog handlers. The raids, which were conducted simultaneously around the country at 5am yesterday, focused on the Austrian branches of Hamas, the Palestinian group, and the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist organisation. More than 70 individuals are currently being investigated, according to the Times, though only 30 were arrested during yesterday's raids....

President Trump’s Senior Legal Advisor Jenna Ellis joined Grant Stinchfield Tuesday night on Newsmax. Jenna was asked about the latest legal moves to bring justice to the Trump campaign in the stolen 2020 election. Ellis told Stinchfield that the Trump legal team is going to continue to fight because they care about election integrity and they’re going to push these cases through every legal and viable avenue. Jenna then added that President Trump’s Wisconsin case is very similar to George Bush’s 2000 case in Florida. Jenna Ellis: If this election and all of the fraud is not corrected by January...

While watching the various choirs celebrating Christmas, I noticed that many of them seemed to be using a rather, uh, odd, application of "social distancing."Take this example (there's lots of examples, though) from youtube, a performance on November 22 by the choir of Westminster Cathedral (the Catholic cathedral in London, not the more-famous Westminster Abbey)The cathedral was empty of any general public, only the choir and its conductor inside; the presentation was via television and live-streaming.About half the choir appears to be absent, the older adolescent males and some of the old guys.What is odd is how the choirboys are...