Free Republic

In late November of 2016, the leftist Guardian, in the UK, reported that 3D printers were used to make illegal submachine guns in Australia.  Reports of homemade submachine guns in Australia have become fairly common. From theguardian.com: A highly sophisticated weapons production facility using 3D printers and computers to make machine guns has been uncovered in a series of raids across the Gold Coast. Police say they found four homemade automatic submachine guns, silencers, ammunition, a replica handgun, a .45 calibre pistol and equipment used to make weapons at two Nerang businesses, as well as a pill press. The...

UK child abuse inquiry Child migrants shipped to Western Australia tell of abuse by Christian Brothers Men now aged 72 and 67 give evidence to London inquiry about abuse in Perth in the 1950s Two men who were shipped from Britain to Western Australia as children in the 1950s have told an inquiry in London of their abuse by Christian Brothers paedophiles. One witness, now 72 and living in Perth and referred to as A4 to protect his identity, told the UK's child sex abuse inquiry he had been in orphanages in Britain since he was a baby before being...

Islam means peace. Islam means peace. Islam means ... well, also this: DRAMATIC footage has emerged of a fight outside a Preston mosque. The Sunday Herald Sun understands the dispute was sparked over the banning of Sheik Abdou Eid. The footage showed a large crowd of men pushing and shoving outside the mosque on Friday. ... Vicious infighting threatens to tear apart the congregation of one of Melbourne's largest mosques, amid claims that millions of dollars of donations have disappeared and accusations that a sheikh had behaved inappropriately with women. The conflict came to a head last week when Sheikh...

Australian counterterrorism police arrested an unidentified man after a raid on a countryside property on Tuesday and accused him of seeking to help the Islamic State group by developing missile technology, the first arrest of its kind in Australia. Dozens of police, including a dog squad and some officers with metal detectors, raided a property in Young, about 270 km (170 miles) southwest of Sydney, earlier on Tuesday, pictures on Australian media showed. Ian McCartney, Assistant Commissioner of counter-terrorism for the Australian Federal Police, said police will allege the 42-year-old man had been advising the radical Islamist group on how...

A teenager armed with a baseball bat who tried to stop the Melbourne car rampage says he's not a hero because he couldn't save the five people who died. Tevita Mahina, 17, was filmed running into the middle of the road outside Flinders Street Station as Dimitrious Gargasoulas, 26, drove screeching doughnuts around the busy intersection. Moments later, the crazed driver sped down Bourke Street mall mowing down dozens of pedestrians, killing five people and injuring 37 others. 'I didn't save anyone so I don't feel like a hero,' he told Daily Mail Australia after the video of his actions...

A drone has captured footage of a great white shark swimming less than a metre away from a surfer as he dangled his feet in the water, waiting for the next wave. The large shark was spotted making a beeline for the man and another surfer at notorious shark attack spot Lighthouse Beach, on the NSW north coast near Ballina. It appears to chase the second surfer as he catches a wave, before turning its attention to the man who is paddling nearby.

SHE spent two years drafting false, baseless threats against her own life, and those of her children and fellow public servants, to score holidays, time off and compensation payments. On Tuesday, Tabitha Lean left the District Court through its front doors, permitted to serve her three-year minimum term at home caring for the very children whose lives she menaced. Her partner, Simon Craig Peisley, was not so fortunate. ...

AN aircraft has crashed into a building near Essendon Airport causing a major explosion. Police say the plane crashed into a building, believed to be DFO, near Bulla Road in Essendon Fields. Police say the plane crashed just before 9am. There are reports the plane was carrying up to five people. “At this stage we do not have information regarding possible casualties and police are currently evacuating the area,” a Victoria Police statement said. “The surrounding roads will be effected for some time.” Ambulance Victoria says paramedics are responding to the incident. “No details about injuries are known at this...

My River flows for you my children and not by any works of your hands but it is by my Grace , if nothing else was done by you " Behold I AM complete in my sacrifice for all " ,therefore die to self and just allow Me to be your first fruit in and through all for I AM your very breath and spirit ! Now just abide in Me " The Vine" and allow Me to love on you where you are right now by just releasing your yoke of works to Me for I AM your Glory...

Sandy Spanos is only 58, but now she could lose her house and be unable to pay for treatment for her cancer, which she was diagnosed with two years ago because the reform will leave her and her husband in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Mrs. Spanos invested in three taxi licenses so she could enter retirement comfortably with a good superannuation, but she said it has all been ripped from her. “What did I do wrong?” She asked news.com.au. The Victorian government wants to deregulate the taxi industry by abolishing taxi licenses and introducing a single registration...

It is nature’s David versus Goliath battle – a redback spider squaring off with a much larger brown snake. Extraordinary footage has surfaced of the moment the spider won a duel to the death with a reptile who slithered too close to its web. The vision of the two deadly creatures has made a splash on social media, where commenters voiced their astonishment at the underdog victory.

In what can only be described as a youngster doing the 'puff, puff, pass', West Australian dolphins may be using blowfish - or 'blowies' - to get high, scientists have found. Murdoch University researcher Krista Nicholson, who monitors dolphins occupying the Peel-Harvey coastal waters off Mandurah, said there were several records of them interacting with blowfish in estuaries and coastal waters around the world. The young dolphin Huubster tosses a blowfish in the air. Photo: Mandurah Dolphin Research Project ============================================================================================================================== She said that in Australia, scientists had seen juveniles mouthing blowies in the Leschenault estuary in WA's South West and...

A snake catcher called to remove a huge python from an Australian home's driveway live-streamed video of the serpent eating a possum. The video, posted to Facebook by Snake Catchers Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan & Gold Coast, shows the scene snake catcher Lana Field was greeted with when she arrived Thursday at the home in the Chapel Hill area of Brisbane, Queensland. Field arrived to find the python in the midst of eating a possum, which it had about halfway into its mouth. "As you can see it's already got the front shoulders down and we're already half-way down the body,...

Indonesia's military chief says Australia has apologised over "offensive" training materials used at an army base in Perth. General Gatot Nurmantyo accepted the apology from the chief of Australia's army, the Indonesian military said. Indonesia last month said it had put all defence co-operation on hold, before clarifying the suspension was for one language-training programme. The nation said the materials referenced several sensitive topics. They were "soldiers in the past, East Timor, Papuan independence and 'Pancasila'", a reference to Indonesia's founding philosophy, Gen Nurmantyo said last month.

Australia should consider itself lucky. President Donald Trump could have threatened to invade instead of just hanging up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the rest of those blokes down under. In what should have been a friendly call to one of our staunchest allies, the call ended up nasty, but not before Trump, as is his wont, bragged about his electoral victory over Hillary Clinton, something of which he cannot stop talking about.

President Donald Trump pointed the finger at Obama administration holdovers at the White House and National Security Council for leaking information about private phone conversations he had with leaders of Australia and Mexico. “It’s a disgrace that they leaked because it’s very much against our country,” Trump told Fox News Sunday, accusing “Obama people” in civil service positions for the leaks. “It’s a very dangerous thing for this country,” he added noting that these individuals were still being sought out and replaced. Trump described the media stories of what seemed to be contentious interactions between him and the two foreign...

Australian men were described by the US military during World War II as incoherent, beer-drinking tough guys who would gamble on raindrops falling on a window. In 1942, the US Army handed a 54-page booklet to its soldiers who were sent to Australia during the war to help them deal with culture shock. Titled 'Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia', the handbook's overriding theme was that the two countries shared a robust military and cultural alliance. But 75 years later, it gives a compelling insight into America's perception of Australians and reveals what the US Army told its men about...

Donald Trump's press secretary get Aussie Prime Minister's name wrong TWICE 2/03/2017 Watch Donald Trump's press secretary get Aussie Prime Minister's name wrong TWICE in hilarious fashion Sean Spicer couldn't quite get Malcolm Turnbull's name out properly during a briefing over his phone call row with Trump. Not to mention the mass protests in cities across America as his controversial policies continue to divide the nation. But Spicer found himself stumbling on the most basic of details during Thursday's press conference at the White House; the name of the Australian Prime Minister. In his eagerness to emphasise Trump's anger at...

President Donald Trump's "America first" approach to foreign policy is "alarming," Caroline Kennedy, who recently resigned her post as U.S. ambassador to Japan, said Friday morning. "To be taken for granted, or to be insulted as an ally who has fought alongside the United States for example, with Australia, or who contributes a huge amount to American security, in the case of Japan and Korea, is alarming," Kennedy told NBC's "Today" anchor Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview. "I think that, hopefully, the president will realize the benefits of working with our friends and allies around the region." Kennedy resigned...

In an early tweetstorm, President Trump fired off a volley of five (so far) tweets early on Friday morning, touching on all the key salient newsitems over the past 24 hours, including the ongoing feud with Schwarzenegger, the Australia PM phone call, the imminent round of Iranian sanctions, his upcoming meeting with business leaders and last but not least, the "professional anarchists" who foiled a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley. The good news for traders is that none of them appear to be particularly market moving or focusing on any specific company or part of the market.The...