Free Republic

So affirms Carlos Aguiar Retes, Secretary-General of the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate, which at this moment cannot demand anything of López Obrador, who appears in second place in the vote count, and asks that he accept his defeat. The Catholic Church called on presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the leadership of the PRD for prudence, to not ignite the country and to respect the final loss that the Electoral Tribunal renders on Sunday's presidential election. In a press conference, the Secretary General of the Conference of Mexican Episcopate (CEM), Carlos Aguiar Retes, indicated that at the moment...

THE Republican majority in the US Senate has failed by just one vote to amend the constitution to ban desecration of the national flag. The motion was backed by 66 votes, one short of the two thirds majority need to get a constitutional amendment passed. Thirty-four senators voted against. The measure, backed by President George W. Bush, had been promoted by the Republican majority as it tries to rally its conservative base ahead of key congressional elections in November.

Mexican flag burned after week of protests Associated Press Mar. 31, 2006 07:10 AM Tensions over immigration got a little heated Thursday in Apache Junction. A Mexican flag was brought to school by a Hispanic student in response to what he said was a racist remark directed at him the day before. After he and other students raised the flag on the school's flagpole, the newspaper said another group of students took it down and burned it. The burning and ensuing shoving match between the two groups of students happened before most students arrived at the school. The school's principal...

MIDI - (They) CALL THE WIND MARIAH Get ready for what is in store from our peaceful religion Cartoonists, we are watching you...we'll respond as is tradition If you're Norwegian or a Dane, your actions drive us wild Compared to riots in L.A., you'll find out they were mild Moe Hammid...Moe Hammid...we'll torch you for Moe Hammid Your embassies are firewood...if that is what we're choosing In Europe the great war is on...Europeans will be losing You do not get a second chance...you're subject to beheading If you should draw the prophet, then that is what you'll be getting...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - This cat used up his nine lives. Fire officials are blaming a 20-pound cat for starting a town of Washington house fire that caused about $25,000 damage. The gray and white cat apparently jumped on an electric range in the basement of a two-story home at about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday and turned on the push-button control, said Darrell Christy, the fire department's chief of operations. Plastic containers on top of the range smoldered. "We eliminated everything except for the cat," Christy said. A smoke detector alerted at least three people in the home, who were not...

ehran, Iran, Jan. 09 – A dozen senior commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) died in a plane crash in northwest Iran on Monday, a government spokesman announced. A Falcon jet belonging to the IRGC crashed 13 kilometres southeast of Lake Orumieh, killing all 15 passengers on board. They included seven members of the General Command of the IRGC Ground Forces. The commanders who died in the crash included Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces and a rising star in Iran’s radical Islamist military, Brigadier General Saeed Mohtadi, commander of the IRGC’s 27...

French police turn on Chirac as officer jailed By Kim Willsher in Paris and Henry Samuel in Bobigny (Filed: 13/11/2005) After 16 nights battling urban violence by rioters, Jacques Chirac's government is confronting angry new protests - from the police themselves. Firefighters extinguish a burning car in Strasbourg Officers at the forefront of attempts to control the wave of riots and arson attacks across France are furious at moves to prosecute policemen accused of assaulting a youth. As officers were deployed in force in Paris yesterday following a call on weblogs for a mass demonstration, the police union described the...

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France (Reuters) - With every night that France's rundown suburbs burn, officials grow increasingly convinced that drug traffickers and Islamist militants are using frustrated youths to challenge law and order here. ADVERTISEMENT Many people who watch their cars, shops and schools go up in flames, however, are not buying it. They blame unemployment, racial prejudice and widespread youth boredom for the outbursts. Finding "hidden hands" behind the unrest seems like trying to catch the rioters as they rampage through the night. Some may get caught, but far more slip away in the darkness. "Everybody is fed up seeing our...

The desecration of Taliban dead prompts outrage in Afghanistan There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters. The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave — the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding. Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson,...

Set fire to In Paris: 17 died, 21 wounded PARIS - a fire in a residential building made 17 died and 21 wounded in Paris in the night of Thursday to Friday, according to a provisional assessment of the firemen. A first of the same assessment source made state of 16 dead and 22 wounded. Among deaths, there would be at least four children, one indicated to the ministry Interior. The stair-well burned 2e on the 7th floor of the building located in the 13e district at the south east of the capital. According to habitanst of the district,...

John McWhorter is right to say that we ought to pause and remember the Watts riots of 40 years ago and ponder their implication for America's present and future ["Burned, Baby, Burned..." FR post here]. I take strong issue, however, with the conclusions he draws from his review of the events in Watts and South Central Los Angeles in 1965. I think the difference between McWhorter and me arises in large measure from our profoundly different perspectives on the event. He writes that he was born two months after the riots occurred and that his conclusions are based on his...

Baltimore Mayor Martin O"Malley has again showed what an idiot he is by having the fire department ride around the city looking for crime, isn't that what the police department is for? Gee, I hope the police department is out looking for fires. MOM get your head out of your ass!

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Former Black Panthers are hoping the phrase "Burn Baby Burn" will help their nonprofit organization market a new product - hot sauce. The Huey P. Newton Foundation, named for the co-founder of the 1960s militant group, is seeking to trademark the phrase that for many brings to mind the racially charged 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles that left more than 30 people dead, at least 1,000 wounded and hundreds of buildings in ashes. The new line of hot sauce, called "Burn Baby Burn: A Taste of the Sixties Revolutionary Hot Sauce," is aimed at "anyone...

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your...

HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books nominated. A title received a score of 10 points for being listed No. 1 by one of our panelists, 9 points for being listed No. 2, etc. Appropriately, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing.

What do you when 3000 persons respond to a sermon and want to be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins? What do you do when this number of 3000 is added to daily?...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A group of armed masked men threatened Tuesday to kill Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, saying that he was murdering innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion. In a videotape sent to al-Arabiya television, the previously unknown group, which called itself the "Salvation Movement," ordered al-Zarqawi to leave the country immediately and questioned how he could justify the killing of innocent civilians and his threats to assassinate interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. The threat came a day after U.S.-led coalition forces, who have been targeting Zarqawi, launched an air strike in the restive city of Fallujah...

<p>Fires destroyed dozens of SUVs and a warehouse at an auto dealership Friday, and vehicles there and at three other dealerships were spray-painted with slogans such as "Fat, Lazy Americans."</p> <p>"With all the evidence ... it's highly likely it's an arson fire," said Rick Genovese, fire marshal for West Covina, a Los Angeles suburb.</p>

Heartbroken by Divorce, Man Burns Family Assets Thu Jan 23,10:05 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo! STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish man, desolate after his wife filed for divorce, converted the family's shares and mutual funds into cash and burned the money -- $81,300, a newspaper reported Thursday. "Bitterness is not uncommon in connection with divorces but it is almost unique that one of the spouses puts fire to all their wealth," Bengt Svensson, public prosecutor in the town of Jonkoping in southern Sweden, told the daily Aftonbladet.    

MIDI - HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD (brief intro) He'll burn down Inglewood…the Reverend Al will burn down Inglewood For TV he just got himself a facial…now he'll play racial He's pimping for the big bucks He's gonna try it…to start a riot Along with Mad Max Waters who really sucks He'll burn down Inglewood…he doesn't give a damn for Inglewood He cannot wait until the camera's rolling…he's done some polling Burn baby burn serves him well The guy's a real phony…he's full of baloney Hey, Al, you really do smell He'll burn down Inglewood…the agitator's come to Inglewood Two thousand...