Free Republic

Cyprus, Greece, Israel to sign pipeline deal on Jan. 2 By DEMETRIS NELLAS December 22, 2019 ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The leaders of Cyprus, Greece and Israel plan to sign an agreement early in the new year for the building of the eastern Mediterranean natural gas pipeline, the Greek prime minister’s office announced Sunday. The agreement will be signed in Athens on Jan. 2 by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As now planned, the pipeline will run across the Mediterranean from Israel’s Levantine Basin offshore gas reserves to the Greek...

In an explosive legal complaint filed last month in Delaware, attorneys for a major Ukrainian bank alleged that two oligarchs who founded the bank and controlled it from 2006 to 2016 laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent corporate loans to purchase assets in the United States and unjustly enrich themselves and their associates. Dubbed the "Optima Schemes" in the 104-page document, these "brazen fraudulent schemes" were successful, among other things, in making the oligarchs and their co-defendants the largest commercial real estate holders in Cleveland. With money siphoned from public bonds and 20 million private Ukrainian citizens who'd...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the Kuala Lumpur Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Muslim nations looking to fight back against future sanctions are exploring an age-old approach — using gold dinar and bartering. Leaders from Qatar, Iran, Malaysia and Turkey met during the Islamic summit in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the matter this week. “With the world witnessing nations making unilateral decisions to impose such punitive measures, Malaysia and other nations must always bear in mind that it can be imposed on any of us,” Malaysia’s 94-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told Reuters. “I have suggested that...

Several Palestinian clans have rejected The Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a move widely seen as a revolt against the PA. Critics of the treaty claim that it goes against Arab and Islamic norms and teachings. “This treaty is unacceptable to Arabs and Muslims,” remarked Palestinian activist Abu Ghassan Shaheen. “It goes against our religion and traditions.” On Saturday, leaders of large Palestinian clans in Hebron called on the PA to withdraw from the treaty. They also called for banning feminist groups from entering Palestinian schools. The clan leaders expressed opposition to the PA’s...

MUSLIM WOMAN tries to set airline seat on fire, threatens to blow up the plane DECEMBER 18, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM The reason? This Turkish Muslim passenger was forced her to extinguish her cigarette. She’s the one in the full-face covering body bag in blue. The SUN A Pegasus Airlines flight from Istanbul to Tymbou, Northern Cyprus airport was canceled after a Muslim woman threatened to blow up the aircraft this morning, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported. According to Hurriyet, the woman argued with other passengers and kept lighting cigarettes in the plane before security forces arrived. She held up a picture...

‘Panama Papers’ Implicate Client of Clinton-Linked Lobbying Firm Podesta Group registered to lobby for bank subsidiary weeks before tax haven leak BY: Lachlan Markay April 5, 2016 A firm with ties to senior members of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign registered to lobby on behalf of a major Russian bank just weeks before a massive leak exposed the bank’s role in a web of secret financial dealings that have enriched members of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. The “Panama Papers” are being called “the Wikileaks of the mega-rich.” Corporate documents leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca show how...

The American people and the world are witnessing a revolution of openness brought on by none other than the frank, brusk, always to the point methods of President Trump. This was on full display this week as Trump held public press conferences with world leaders during the NATO meeting in London, and repeatedly had shockingly open and honest discussions — the things that have always been kept behind closed doors in the past, and then reported via leaks through a partisan media. Trump’s method forces difficult issues out into the light without the bias filter. With French President Emmanuel Macron,...

Arutz Sheva spoke with Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), at a gathering of its Standing Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. How more challenging and scary has being a Jew in Europe become? "It's very challenging, as an individual and as a community." You're referring to fears of anti-Semitism? "Yes. We witnessed an attack on Yom Kippur in eastern Germany, not ISIS - Neo-Nazis. In the last years, no Jews were killed by neo-Nazis in Europe. It's a whole new phenomenon." "We have problems today from the left and the right and the center. This is...

"The Horowitz report is just the beginning of the unraveling of the plot to destroy Donald Trump" That's the view of former CIA employee Larry Johnson in response to recent mainstream media reporting.... The House Judiciary Committee chairman Democrat Congressman Jerry Nadler sending a letter to President Trump today..... A stabbing attack at London Bridge with two killed and the attacker shot dead..... Later Friday in the evening a stabbing attack reported in the Netherlands in The Hague.... The late word from Iraq is that Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi will be resigning..... Russian airstrikes reported in northwestern Syria Friday.......

No Excerpt due to USA Today. Link: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-administration-reduce-nato-aid-215515120.html

Orthodox Christianity and Islam are based on the same fundamental values, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to a religious conference in Kyrgyzstan. The conference, titled "Orthodoxy and Islam — Religions of Peace," aimed to promote interethnic and interreligious dialogue between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. "Islam and Orthodox Christianity, just like other world religions, are based on fundamental humanistic values that are of enduring importance — on mercy and love for one’s near, justice and respect for human beings," the state-run TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying Thursday. The address, which was read out to the conference by Russian...

Accompanied by the image of a blood-splattered cross and star of David Billboards belonging to the traditionalist Muslim Justice and Development Party (AKP) municipality are on public display in Konya, central Turkey, featuring the verbatim text of Koran 5:51 (in accurate Turkish translation). Accompanied by the image of a blood-splattered cross, and star of David, the text simply re-states Koran 5:51: O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliya' (friends, protectors, helpers, etc.), they are but Auliya' to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of...

Full title: Judicial Watch: AP Reporters Gave DOJ/FBI Ukraine Info and Code to Private Locker of Paul Manafort in Apparent Effort to Push Criminal Prosecution Andrew Weissmann organized off-the-record DOJ/FBI meeting with AP to exchange ‘clarification’ and ‘assistance’ in their investigation for details on former Trump Campaign Director Paul Manafort (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released two productions of heavily redacted FBI documents – 28 pages and 38 pages – about an April 11, 2017, “off-the-record” meeting set up by then-Chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Section Andrew Weissmann, between the DOJ, the FBI and the Associated Press...

As the Garbage Party and their media sycophants continue to pretend as though President Donald Trump committed some impeachable offense with Ukraine, the real scandal involving that country belongs to former VP Joe Biden. And his son, Hunter Biden. Anyone who is interested in the issue and has an Internet connection has already seen the video where Biden admits that he threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to the Ukrainian government if then-President Petro Poroshenko didn’t fire a prosecutor looking into a corrupt gas company where Hunter was a $50k-a-month board member. What’s more, presidential attorney Rudy Giuliani...

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said nuclear power should either be free for all states or banned completely. He warned that the “inequality” between states who have nuclear power and who do not undermines global balances. This comes amid global concern following news that Iran has exceeded limits to its uranium stockpile and was enriching the chemical to beyond limitations imposed by the Iran nuclear deal. Earlier this month, Tehran announced it would use advanced centrifuges prohibited under the deal. President Erdogan said: “The position of nuclear power should either be forbidden for all or permissible for everyone.” …

A 34-year-old British astrophysicist visiting the Greek island of Ikaria vanished during a morning run — and authorities believe a body found in a ravine Wednesday is hers, according to new reports. Dr. Natalie Christopher, who was from London but was living in Cyprus, was on vacation with her 38-year-old partner, who reported her missing when she didn’t answer her phone Monday, Metro UK reported. Authorities on the island, about 130 miles southeast of Athens, discovered a body in a ravine as they swept the region for any signs of Christopher, the outlet reported. The body has yet to be...

Between 1997 and 2016, researchers at an excavation near Ashkelon in Israel examined the remains of more than one hundred humans, remains that dated from the 12th to 6th centuries before Christ. The researchers hoped to find human DNA in order to answer an old question: Who were the Philistines? Where did they come from? As it turns out, the Philistines were exactly who the Bible says they were, and they came from where the Bible says they did. Amos 9 speaks of God bringing up the Philistines from Caphtor, just as he brought Israel out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 2...

A British teenager was remanded in custody in Cyprus on Tuesday after she was arrested last week on suspicion of falsely accusing 12 Israeli tourists of gang rape. The 19-year-old was indicted the Famagusta District Court in Paralimni in southeast Cyprus Tuesday, and now faces "public mischief". If found guilty, she could potentially face a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of around 1,700 euros ($1,900). The young woman, who was not named..... Her lawyer, Andreas Pittadjis, said she is expected to enter a plea when she appears again on August 7. He asked the court...

Homosexuality is usually a problem transferred to a foetus, when a pregnant woman has anal sex and enjoys it, the Bishop of Morphou Neophytos said during a recent speech, LGBTI rights group ACCEPT said on Thursday. During his speech in June to a group of people in Akaki, the bishop said Saint Porfyrios made mention of the issue in his writings. “It is a problem, which is usually transmitted by parents to the child,” the bishop said. He added that it occurs when the couple has sex while the woman is pregnant, and the sex is “unnatural,” as he characterised...

The United States imposing sanctions on four top generals from the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Those generals and their families banned from entering the USA because of the conflict in the predominately Buddhist country with the Rohingya Muslims. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blaming the generals for what are considered harsh policies against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country. The Myanmar government views the conflict a a fight with Islamic terrorism. A "partial preliminary injunction" from a federal judge against ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond in Oregon Tuesday.... The US House voting 240-187 to condemn President Trump for...