Free Republic

The North Koreans appear to have successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb in January 2016 and promise more excitement to come. Immediately after the bang the government news agency bragged that the nation was now "capable of wiping out the whole territory of the U.S. all at once."This only slightly distracted mainstream politicos in other nations. North Korea might have gotten a bigger, badder reaction had it elected instead to drive steamrollers over groups of homosexuals or Muslims or women. At least Bernie Sanders, though closer in kinship to the North Korean brand of monarchical socialism than to, say, Ronald Reagan, noticed the bomb. World leaders only pause long...

Pierre Louis Opont, president of Haiti's electoral council, said the runoff vote was being pushed back for security reasons. But he did not say when the election, already postponed twice before, would be rescheduled. The announcement led to jubilation from demonstrators marching to oppose the election. They danced on the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince, but the mood quickly darkened. Gunshots were fired as protesters clashed with police. The postponement is nevertheless expected to ease unrest after days of protests in the deeply impoverished country of about 10 million people, at pains to rebuild from a devastating earthquake six years...

The seat of government in the capital, Pristina, briefly caught fire after it came under a hail of petrol bombs. Firefighters quickly doused the flames and police used tear gas to drive back several thousand opposition demonstrators. They were protesting against a European Union-brokered deal to give Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority greater local government powers and the possibility of financing from Belgrade. Opposition leaders say the government should resign over the accord and call an early election. ... Kosovo's government has accused opposition party leaders of organizing the violence and attempting to drag the country into "crime and anarchy." "The...

Online dating behemoth OkCupid is adding a feature tailor-made for polyamorous people. The new setting, which became available for some beta users in December, allows users who are listed as “seeing someone,” “married,” or “in an open relationship” on the platform to link their profiles and search for other people to join their relationship. It will be rolled out to all users on Friday. A screenshot of the new feature obtained by The Atlantic shows a stock photo of a sample user listed as “in an open relationship” with another, whose profile is linked below his.

Dame Sally Davies has written to all GPs and pharmacies to ensure they are prescribing the correct drugs after the rise of "super-gonorrhoea" in Leeds. Her warning comes after concerns were raised that some patients were not getting both of the antibiotics needed to clear the infection. Sexual health doctors said gonorrhoea was "rapidly" developing resistance. A highly drug-resistant strain of gonorrhoea was detected in the north of England in March.

A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor on Wednesday indicted a wartime Muslim army commander on charges of failing to prevent crimes committed by foreign Islamic fighters against captive Bosnian Serb soldiers during a 1992-1995 war. The 63-year-old retiree Sakib Mahmuljin was arrested on Dec. 8 on charges of acting in contravention of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions while serving as a commander of the 3rd Corps of the Army of BiH. [L8N13X1OX]

The massive parade through the heart of Beijing commemorated Japan's World War defeat seven decades ago. But the event also underlined President Xi Jinping's determination to make China the pre-eminent Asian power. Although Xi said the 2.3-million-member People's Liberation Army would be cut back to about 2 million, it will still remain the world's largest standing military and the reduction comes at a time when growing technological capabilities reduce the need for large numbers of troops. ... Of special interest was the appearance of the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, potentially capable of sinking a US Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in a...

David Brock is a longtime Clinton ally, self-described liar and the paranoid founder of Media Matters. Some background on him:David Brock was smoking a cigarette on the roof of his Washington, D.C. office one day in the late fall of 2010 when his assistant and two bodyguards suddenly appeared and whisked him and his colleague Eric Burns down the stairs. Brock, the head of the liberal nonprofit Media Matters for America, had told friends and co-workers that he feared he was in imminent danger from right-wing assassins and needed a security team to keep him safe. The threat he faced...

Gareth Williams's body was found in a bag at his London flat five years ago Spy illegally hacked into secret data on former U.S. president Bill Clinton Personal voicemail messages left by the spy were deleted after he died The British spy whose body was found padlocked inside a bag in his flat had illegally hacked into secret data on former U.S. president Bill Clinton, it has been revealed. Gareth Williams, 31, was discovered in a holdall in the bath at his London home five years ago this month, but the mystery surrounding his death has never been solved. Today,...

Pornography and the Decline of a Culture John Stonestreet | BreakPoint | Friday, August 07, 2015 In June, I told you about the dangers of unfettered Internet use for kids over the summer. The damage to young minds from pornography is long-lasting and measurable. But a recent gathering of experts pointed out that the harms from pornography are far worse than they’ve ever been, and the damage is not just impacting children, but spilling into all of society. Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in mid-July, Dr. Gail Dines dispelled the myth that pornography today...

A slew of leaked data reveals the names and addresses of users of the adultery dating website, including people in top jobs. Thousands of government and military officials are among those who appear to have been exposed by the huge Ashley Madison data dump. Hackers dropped a gigantic 10Gb file of information about users of the adultery dating website, sparking a scramble on the web to create a searchable database of all those named. Sky News has seen the raw data, which features the names and addresses of users - mostly in the US but many in the UK. The...

Hundreds of email addresses from the Obama White House and key federal agencies have been uncovered in a leaked list of clients who use Ashley Madison, the website that encourages people to sign up for a chance to cheat on their spouse. Hackers broke into the cheating website, and late Tuesday, Wired.com reported that information on 32 million users was posted on a "dark" website used by well-known hackers. The data includes much of the personal information of the alleged users, and one link made available breaks the data down into how many clients come from various government websites. According...

Aug 11 2015, 9:42 am ET North Korea Appears to Build 2nd Uranium Centrifuge Hall at Yongbyon Site by Alexander Smith North Korea appears to have made a major upgrade to its main nuclear facility that could double the country's capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium, a defense analytics firm said Tuesday. The secretive state appears to have put into operation a second centrifuge hall at its Yongbyon site, around 50 miles north of Pyongyang, according to analysis of new satellite images by IHS Jane's. Centrifuges are an essential part of enriching uranium used for nuclear energy plants and atomic bombs....

The legislative elections had been postponed for nearly four years due to a political showdown between Haiti’s executive and opposition, and they have been billed as a crucial test of the country’s electoral system ahead of a presidential vote in October. Sunday’s first round seeks to fill two thirds of the 30-member Senate and the entire 99-member Chamber of Deputies. But a number of polling stations across the country of 10 million people had to wait for ballots hours after voting was supposed to start at 6:00 a.m. (In sections of Port-au-Prince, voters who began trickling in around dawn grew...

Adrian Jerry Gonzalez lured 8-year-old Madyson Middleton into his Santa Cruz apartment, raped and killed her, and put her body in a box, investigators said. Rosell announced Wednesday morning that he charged the 15-year-old as an adult, and identified the boy for the first time. "He is charged with one count of murder, (with) special circumstances involving sexual offenses, lying in wait, and kidnapping," Rosell said. According to Police Chief Kevin Vogel, Gonzalez lured Madyson into his apartment. The young girl trusted the boy enough to follow him into the apartment because he was her neighbor at the Tannery Arts...

According to court documents, an undercover police officer communicated with Gigot on a website that is frequented by people who have a sexual interest in children and incest. The undercover police officer texted with Gigot through a phone app called Kik. Court documents show that Gigot texted the police officer that he wanted to have sexual relations with a 12-year-old boy. The cover story was that the boy's father was organizing it. He asked: "[h]ow young would you go…I'd do 5[,] [b]ut 0-12 is hot." During the planning, Gigot allegedly texted the officer a video of a naked pre-pubescent boy,...

Speaking to the some of the most creative advertising people in the world, Monica Lewinsky received a standing ovation after she recounted how she was treated after her infamous scandal with former President Bill Clinton and saying, “public shaming as a blood sport must stop.” Ms. Lewinsky gave the Ogilvy & Inspire keynote speech Thursday at the Cannes Lions festival in France, which bills itself as the world's biggest annual awards show and festival for professionals in the creative communications industry. According to the NY Post Page Six website, the former White House intern gave a speech similar to the...

Since a lot of people talk about various personal health issues here for a number of reasons, I wanted to pass along two documentaries I watched recently and thought have good information for people to review. First, is one called "Fat Head". It is done by a science writer that basically refutes the "Supersize Me" documentary. It discusses how a high carb, low fat and protein diet is the cause of obesity in America, and it's exactly what the government and health groups are demanding people follow to "get healthy". It gives an excellent easy understanding of why this does...

A University of Pennsylvania English course taught by a poet who performed for President Obama at the White House ended up exactly as the professor envisioned it: college kids watching porn. “Wasting Time on the Internet,” a once-a-week creative writing course taught by Kenneth Goldsmith that required students to stare at a computer screen for three hours completed its first class this spring. Goldsmith wrote last fall that students could use the three hours to watch porn, and then “use it as the basis for compelling erotica.” “I’ve never taught this class before, but I have a hunch that it’s...

This was pure evil, no doubt. It’s probably no coincidence nine black church-goers were tragically gunned down in cold blood in a Charleston, South Carolina church sanctuary this week, since it comes on the heels of a prayer rally held in that in city that drew thousands of believers from diverse backgrounds just the week before. Many whites and blacks worshipped together at that event, called “The Response,” in the hopes of spurring healing, restoration, and revival for their community and culture. How good and pleasant it is when we dwell together in unity to praise the Lord, which is...