Free Republic

The great majority of Kosovar Albanians take pride in their reputation as the most pro-American Muslims in the world. Their Sunni Islam is conventional and moderate, and spiritual Sufism is a powerful force among the believers. Since 2009, however, a serious effort has been visible in the Balkan republic to turn Kosovar Islam in the direction of Wahhabism, the ultrafundamentalist sect that inspires al Qaeda. The meddling is coming mainly from neighboring Macedonia, where Albanians and Muslims are recognized officially as minorities, and the Islamic clerical apparatus has come under Arab control. Kosovo defines itself constitutionally as a secular state,...

Muslim Bosnian Neo-Nazi Group: Most Of the World's Problems Result From a Plot Aimed at "Letting the 'Chosen People' Control... the World" By: A. Ceresnjes and Y. Carmon* Introduction The Bosanski Pokret Nacionalnog Ponosa (Bosnian National Pride Movement), founded about two years ago, describes itself as a National Socialist (Nazi) movement championing white supremacy and Bosnian national revival. What differentiates the BPNP from other European neo-Nazi groups is that it was founded by, and is intended for, Muslim Bosnians – as evident from its spheres of operation, which are listed on its website. [1] Indeed, the site states that 95%...

New pictures of the China's J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter have surfaced and are making their way across military blogs. This newest round of photos show the J-20 in the skies somewhere over mainland China. The prototype is said to be using the Saturn AL-31 turbofan engine developed by the Russian's for their Su-27 air superiority fighter. Reuben Johnson at The Washington Times reports the Chinese may be as much as 10 years away from producing an original stealth engine to slip into the J-20. In the meantime, they'll have to take comfort in the fact that while the F-22...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is for the first time citing Vatican City as a potential hub for money laundering. The State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released Wednesday identifies the Holy See as one of 68 countries or jurisdictions "of concern" for money laundering or other financial crimes.

Last year, Jordan Powers was just another student from Mr. Hooker's class. Now she's his live-in girlfriend. James Hooker -- the 41-year-old married father who left his wife and kids for his 18-year-old-student -- might be the worst teacher ever. Last week, he resigned from his job at Enochs High School in Modesto, California over the scandal that's shaken up a community and pit one mom on a crusade to save her daughter from a man she calls a "master manipulator."

Chinese hackers gained control over NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in November, which could have allowed them delete sensitive files, add user accounts to mission-critical systems, upload hacking tools, and more -- all at a central repository of U.S. space technology, according to a report released Wednesday afternoon by the Office of the Inspector General. That report revealed scant details of an ongoing investigation into the incident against the Pasadena, Calif., lab, noting only that cyberattacks against the JPL involved Chinese-based Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Paul K. Martin, NASA’s inspector general, put his conclusions bluntly. “The attackers had full functional...

A U.S. teenager who admitted stabbing, strangling and slitting the throat of a young neighbor girl wrote in her journal on the night of the killing that it was an "ahmazing" and "pretty enjoyable" experience -- then headed off to church with a laugh. The words written by Alyssa Bustamante were read aloud in court Monday as part of a sentencing hearing to determine whether she should get life in prison or something less for the October 2009 murder of her neighbor, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, in Missouri. Bustamante, 18, sat silently as law enforcement officers, attorneys and forensics experts read...

Welfare reform has been touted by Bill Clinton as one of the great achievements of his administration. But hold on a minute. GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says it’s one of his major successes as speaker of the House. Rick Santorum, whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination has been resuscitated by the Iowa Caucuses, even claims to have been an author of the landmark welfare-to-work legislation. With all those claiming paternity, I’m reminded of the proverb: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Unfortunately, the name of former U.S. Rep. E. Clay Shaw, who represented South Florida...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a 25-year-old described as an Islamic extremist was arrested in a plot to attack sites around Tampa, Fla., after taking possession of disabled guns and bombs The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of Sami Osmakac on Monday. Authorities say Osmakac is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the former Yugoslavia. He has been charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. His first appearance in federal court is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

People have speculated for well over a century about setting foot on Mars, but is it likely to happen? We know that in prehistoric times, numerous groups of hominids ventured out of Africa into unknown lands at least once. All eventually died out, except for one: our ancestors, homo sapiens. Countless lives would later be lost by descendants of these ancient migrants as they trekked through uncharted wilderness or set sail on vast oceans in flimsy wooden craft. Today, people die every year while driving racecars or climbing mountains. We seem to be hardwired for activities that involve risks beyond...

A drama teacher has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student after a school play. Alexandra McLean,28, who had recently joined Englewood High School in Denver faces two charges of sexually assaulting a child from a position of authority. A police report says the alleged consensual sexual encounter happened when the boy stayed late at school and McLean, who is reported to be engaged, offered to drop him home. When questioned, the student told police McLean would drive him home after play rehearsals for 'Lend me a Tenor' and that, eventually on November 18, he had sex...

A shocking one in four students at a Bronx high school slated for closure is a teen parent or pregnant, The Post has learned. That startling statistic is buried in thousands of pages of documents the city Department of Education submitted to the state earlier this year when it initially sought funds to fix the long-struggling Grace Dodge HS in Belmont. It has since proposed shuttering the school — with, critics charge, no regard to the parenting teens.

A young man strides purposefully into the woods as a cameraman asks what he's about to do. "About to go beat up this bum," the man in the video says. And that's exactly what he does, punching and kicking a homeless man in the face, bloodying his nose, before wishing him a Merry Christmas. The videotaped assault has led to criminal charges against a 20-year-old New Jersey man and a 17-year-old boy accused of filming the assault while egging the attacker on. "Just dive on him! Dive on him!" the cameraman says on the video as the assailant approaches a...

Washington, DC, December 1, 2011 -- Only 21 percent of surveyed medical students could identify five true and two false indications of when and when not to wash their hands in the clinical setting, according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Three researchers from the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology at Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany collected surveys from 85 medical students in their third year of study during a lecture class that...

Tensions run high on Serbia's border with northern Kosovo, as neither of the conflicting sides is prepared to rule out a further escalation of violence. ­Local Serbs say NATO forces are to blame, for breaking an agreement by trying to remove a barricade blocking the way to one of a number of disputed checkpoints. The move prompted violent clashes that left dozens injured on both sides. Last night in Northern Kosovo passed without violence though this does not mean that the source of tensions has disappeared. On November 23 the NATO’s KFOR forces attempted to remove a barricade put up...

A former China-desk Army intelligence analyst and co-author of a new book about Chinese-American relations, told HUMAN EVENTS November 15 that the strange giant white lines drawn in western China's Gobi Desert were most likely practice targets for Chinese space weapons. “Usually when we think of space weaponry, we are talking about horizontal targeting by satellites firing on other satellites—to take your eyes out,” said William C. Triplett II, who with Brett M. Decker, wrote Bowing to Beijing: How Barack Obama is Hastening America's Decline and Ushering A Century of Chinese Domination. The former analyst said at first he was...

Vast, unidentified, structures have been spotted by satellites in the barren Gobi desert, raising questions about what China might be building in a region it uses for its military, space and nuclear programmes. In two images, available on Google Earth, reflective rectangles up to a mile long can be seen, a tangle of bright white intersecting lines that are clearly visible from space. Other pictures show enormous concentric circles radiating on the ground, with three jets parked at their centre. In one picture from 2007, a mass of orange blocks have been carefully arranged in a circle. In a more...

Newfound Google Maps images have revealed an array of mysterious structures and patterns etched into the surface of China's Gobi Desert. The media — from mainstream to fringe — has wildly speculated that they might be Chinese weapons-testing sites, satellite calibration targets, street maps of Washington, D.C., and New York City, or even messages to (or from) aliens. It turns out that they are almost definitely used to calibrate China's spy satellites. So says Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used during...

How does a survivor of sexual abuse respond to students rioting at Penn State? "You're not getting it. You just don't get it," said Dave Lorenz who was abused by a priest as a teen. "It's just stupid youthfulness." Earlier this week, legendary head football coach Joe Paterno was removed in the midst of a scandal involving sexual abuse allegations against a former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky. -snip- Watching footage of Penn State students rioting in the streets Wednesday night, Lorenzo shuddered, then hung his head. What bothered Lorenz is that students "rallied around (Paterno's) house, cheering him up." "The...

A trio of cruel Halloween hooligans are behind bars Tuesday after police say they targeted trick-or-treating children with paintball guns in North Miami. Marc Dolcine, 18, Rodson Travine, 19, and Darrel Labranche, 21, are all facing aggravated battery charges, according to North Miami Police. Police say the three drove up in a car and opened fire on a group of children in the area of Northeast 7th Avenue and 132nd Street. A Holiday Safety Enforcement Detail was in the area and witnessed the shooting, police said. The suspects tried to flee the area but were stopped by police and taken...