Free Republic

Elderly people unable to afford fuel bills advised to “heat only their living rooms during daytime this winter.” Research by the charity Age UK has found potentially fatal consequences from living in poorly heated housing. “Cold temperatures endanger the elderly by increasing the risk of flu, chest infections and other respiratory problems, and their severity. “Fewer than one in 10 Britons aged 65 and over are aware that strokes can be brought on by the cold in winter, with only 14 per cent recognising that the cold can impact on heart attacks. “Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director of Age UK, said...

The bereft family of executed soldier Lee Rigby today described how they saw the soldier's body on television and spent 12 hours trying to contact him before they were told he was dead. The machinegunner and Drummer, 25, who recently served in Afghanistan, was run over and then hacked to death at 3pm on Wednesday by Islamist fanatics as he walked back to his south-east London barracks. His step-father Ian Rigby sobbed today as he admitted his heart had 'skipped a beat' when he realised the murder was in Woolwich and feared it 'could be my son'. 'As soon as...

British society is scared of offending “vocal and aggressive” Muslims, claims a former adviser to Barack Obama. Professor Lawrence Krauss made his comments after threatening to walk out of a debate hosted by an Islamic group at the University College London where organizers would not allow men and women to sit together. The Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) told women to sit at the back, while men and couples were sent to the front. Three people who objected were ordered to leave. … “People are not only afraid to offend, but afraid to offend a vocal and aggressive group...

A sneering teenager, nicknamed 'Savage', was today found guilty in the shooting deaths of two British tourists after days of damning evidence. Shawn Tyson, 17, was charged with two counts of first degree murder for killing James Cooper and James Kouzaris in April 2011 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Two British tourists were kicked out of America after joking on Twitter that they were going to “destroy America” and “dig up Marilyn Monroe,’”according to the Daily Mail. DHS Expels Two Brits From America Over Joking Tweet: Report After landing in Los Angeles International Airport with his friend Emily Bunting, authorities detained and handcuff Leigh Van Bryan, 26, who was then moved into a guarded cell for 12 hours as a result of the offending tweet. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) flagged Bryan as a potential threat after he tweeted out to friends the following message about his Hollywood...

Hardline Iranian students stormed the British embassy in Tehran this morning, smashing windows and burning the British flag. The students, protesting the latest British sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic as a result of its nuclear defiance, demanded Tehran break relations with London. Rather than protect the embassy, Iranian security forces charged with its protecting simply stood aside suggesting official endorsement of the act. The attack on the embassy follows the Iranian parliament’s decision on Sunday to downgrade relations with Great Britain and expel the British ambassador. That vote was 179 in favor of downgrading relations, and four against with...

More than 230 years after their death, British soldiers who perished in Cheraw during the American Revolutionary War will be remembered in a special service this November at Old St. David’s Cemetery. What began as a conversation between Cheraw Mayor Scott Hunter and local physician Dr. Joe Newsom three years ago, evolved into extensive research for British natives and Cheraw residents Noel and Stephanie Briggs. “In our conversation, Dr. Newsom mentioned that while Cheraw gave attention to the Civil War, our Revolutionary War history was also rich,” Hunter said. “That reminded me what I had always heard about the graves...

When my mother arrived in England as a refugee from Nazi Germany, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, she found the people admirable, though not without the defects that corresponded to their virtues. By the time she died, two-thirds of a century later, she found them rude, dishonest, and charmless. They did not seem to her, moreover, to have any virtues to compensate for their unpleasant qualities. I occasionally asked her to think of some, but she couldnÂ’t; and neither, frankly, could I. It wasnÂ’t simply that she had been robbed twice during her last five years, having...

In the wake of recent reports of a joint Israeli-Jordanian plan to link the Red Sea on the Israeli side and the Dead Sea on the Jordanian Side, parliamentarians in Egypt are agitating for the nation's caretaker junta to demand Israel surrender the port-city of Eilat. Egypt has insisted it has a claim to the city of Eilat since it lost the city to the nascent state of Israel in the wake of the Egyptian army's defeat in Israel's 1948 War of Independence, but after the 1979 Camp David Accords the claim was officially dropped. Or so it seemed. The...

(Image: Everett Collection/Rex Features) A document has just gone on display at Mount Vernon, Virginia - the museum in the former home of George Washington, first US President. It is an order dated 1777 and signed by Washington himself to send troops that had not been vaccinated for smallpox - or survived it - to Philadelphia to be vaccinated. These troops were then to join up with the main army, where the disease was raging. It sounds like amazing foresight for its day. "Washington's careful handling of the smallpox epidemic at the beginning of the war was a significant...

Weird. You’d never see anything like this published in the state-run media here in the US. Don’t they understand who they’re messing with? This Daily Mail piece today mocks Michelle Obama – and the poorly placed plant behind her.

London, May 8 Not many may know it, but two British special forces' officers planned the May 2 US commando raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan in which the Al Qaeda chief was killed, a media report said Sunday. Two officers from the Special Boat Service (SBS) could be in line for American military honours for the parts they played in planning the audacious raid on the Al Qaeda leader's compound in Abbottabad, the Sunday Express reported. Neither the major not the captain had a "trigger job" in the fight that raged when US Navy Seals stormed Osama's...

RAF pilots who flew a daring rescue mission in to the Libyan Desert used a black and white Google Maps printout to land. The brave humanitarian crew had none of the usual high tech guidance and support as they swooped to rescue British oil workers amid last week's chaos and bloodshed. Flight Lieutenant Stuart Patton was in the cockpit for the nerve-racking mission, which Tripoli's air traffic control had not sanctioned. The 29-year-old from Colchester, Essex, said: "I'd been handed some information from the internet that had been hastily printed out, including a black and white satellite image from Google...

SAS troops last night staged a dramatic evacuation of 150 civilian workers from the Libyan desert. The Special Forces soldiers landed in two C130 Hercules military transport aircraft on a landing strip near remote oilfields south of the eastern port of Benghazi. The SAS men – known as ‘blades’ because of their role at the sharp end of the mission – had flown from Malta’s Valletta airport, where, in meticulous detail, they planned the rescue of the stranded workers, many of them British.

Almost a fifth of the people living in the UK today will live to see their 100th birthday, a government study reveals. According to the Department for Work and Pensions, an estimated 10 million of Britain's current residents, or 17% of the population, will live to be at least 100 years old. The report predicts that by 2066 there will be at least 507,000 UK residents aged 100 or over, including 7,700 people aged 110 or over. The figures represent a significant increase on the current 11,800 people in the UK who are at least 100 years old, while those...

32% of British Muslim students support killing for Islam; 40% want Sharia Law. If the way young Muslims in Britain are feeling is any indication for America’s own Muslim community, then America better beware. According to a new survey done at 30 universities in Britain, the young Muslim student body in that country is extremely radicalized. The poll asked 600 Muslim students and 800 of their non-Muslim peers about politically touchy subjects like killing in the name of Islam and Sharia Law—and the results were like night and day between the two demographics. While hardly anyone in the non-Muslim sample...

Revelation that the guest list for Prince William’s wedding next year won’t include the Obamas has sparked a diplomatic crisis. Sources inside the US State Department confirm that President Obama is considering severing diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom, a nation once held to be our closest ally. “This is a royal snub if you ask me,” said the President’s visibly angry Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “After all this country has done for the Brits—bailing them out in two World Wars, boosting the careers of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, adopting their language as our own—to be stabbed in the...

Nineteen Taliban commanders and 252 fighters were killed or captured as British troops launched a bloody assault.

SANGIN, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines who recently inherited this lush river valley in southern Helmand province from British forces have tossed aside their predecessor's playbook in favor of a more aggressive strategy to tame one of the most violent places in Afghanistan. U.S. commanders say success is critical in Sangin district — where British forces suffered nearly one-third of their deaths in the war — because it is the last remaining sanctuary in Helmand where the Taliban can freely process the opium and heroin that largely fund the insurgency. The district also serves as a key crossroads to funnel drugs,...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Europe October 3, 2010 The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation...