Free Republic

North Korea has accused Mexico of illegally holding one of its ships, after it ran aground last year. It said the Mu Du Bong was a legitimate commercial ship and its detention a "rampant violation" of sovereignty. But a UN expert says the ship belongs to North Korea's Ocean Maritime Management, which is on a UN blacklist. In July 2013 one of its ships was seized in Panama after Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets were found hidden under sugar sacks. United Nations sanctions ban most arms shipments to North Korea. Under resolutions adopted after Pyongyang's nuclear tests in 2006 and...

Less than 24 hours after the News 2 Investigative Unit aired a story about a fireman getting handcuffed during a 911 call, the State Fire Marshal's Office launched an investigation into the incident. It happened Monday night in the 100 block of Cherry Street. According to witnesses, a firefighter rendering aid during a medical call was asked to move his fire truck. The fire truck had flashing lights turned on and was parked on the side of the street. When he refused, a New Roads Police officer handcuffed and detained the fireman. (snip) Initially, New Roads Police Chief Kevin McDonald...

An Afghan girl believed to be 10-years-old says that her brother and his friend forced her to wear a suicide vest and carry out an attack on police. The BBC reported that the girl, named Spogmai, could be as young as eight and is the sister of a prominent Taliban commander known as Zahir. According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, her brother strapped her into the explosive harness and sent her across a river to her target, a border police checkpoint in Helmand province. In an interview after the ordeal, she said that she shouted “it’s cold and I can’t cross...

The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro. David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows...

The family of a former U.S. Marine detained in Iran on espionage charges is begging for his freedom a year after his death sentence was overturned, saying Tuesday they only recently learned he went on a month-long hunger strike and was found unconscious. Sarah Hekmati told The Associated Press that her family sent a letter to Iran's top leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for the release of her 29-year-old brother, Amir. Iran's Supreme Court ordered a retrial for him last March, but that hasn't happened, and he's now been detained for 555 days. Iran accuses Amir Hekmati of...

A former Marine who was forced into a psychiatric ward for anti-government Facebook postings has been freed from the hospital by a Virginia circuit court ruling handed down Thursday. Judge Allan Sharrett dismissed the case against Brandon Raub, 26, who had been detained by government officials in Richmond, Va., and transferred to a VA hospital in Salem, Va. The judge called the petition to continue Raub's forced detention “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” Read more: http://times247.com/articles/32virginia-veteran-raub-freed-from-psychiatric-ward7#ixzz24T8MZTLR

Suspicous package shuts down part of Terminal One at SFOSAN FRANCISCO — A suspicious package found during a security screening at the San Francisco International Airport shut down part of Terminal One early Friday afternoon. At around 11:30 a.m., federal security agents spotted a suspicious package going through an x-ray machine in the screening lines. KTVU link

Prominent American lobbyists are coming under fire for offering "talking points" smoothing over a recent raid by Egyptian security forces on the offices of 10 rights and democracy groups – including three American organizations. The late December raids were decried by the U.S. government as "harassment." Since then, the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that were hit have been locked in a battle with the Egyptian government. Workers have been dragged in for questioning. Despite repeated assurances, the Egyptian government has not returned the loads of equipment it confiscated in the raids. Most recently, several rights workers, including the son of U.S....

Security footage of Sen. Rand Paul after he refused a full body pat-down at the Nashville International Airport on Monday does not show the Kentucky Republican acting “irate,” as the police had described him, according to a report. n the videos, released by the Metro Airport Authority and posted on The Nashville Tennessean, Paul can be seen standing and sitting in a waiting area as he speaks on his cell phone. The Tennessean reported Thursday that the police incident report describes officers responding to a “passenger being irate,” but the footage offers no visible evidence of that behavior. Paul had...

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul warned that the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by Congress this month, will accelerate the country’s “slip into tyranny” and virtually assures “our descent into totalitarianism.” “The founders wanted to set a high bar for the government to overcome in order to deprive an individual of life or liberty,” Paul, the libertarian congressman, said Monday in a weekly phone message to supporters. “To lower that bar is to endanger everyone. When the bar is low enough to include political enemies, our descent into totalitarianism is virtually assured. The Patriot Act, as bad as...

The US Embassy in Cairo is refusing to assist a detained American journalist according to the journalist's website. The American Embassy in Cairo, in communication with detained American journalist and Bikya Masr Editor-in-Chief Joseph Mayton, reported that they cannot help in retrieving Mayton from Egyptian military detention, citing security and diplomatic concerns.

Fatah officials in Ramallah complained Wednesday their spokesman in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip was detained by Hamas security forces, the Palestinian Authority-run Maan News Agency reports. Fatah lambasted Hamas and said the detention of Fayez Abu A’itah violated the reconciliation agreement signed by the two factions in Cairo. "Fayez Abus A’itah's detention harms the basic rights of the Palestinians," a Fatah statement said. According to Fatah officials, Hamas security forces have "insisted on preventing the movement of A'itah, making it impossible for him to do his job." "In detaining A'itah," Fatah said, pointing fingers in its statement, "Hamas is harming...

JOHANNESBURG—Paris Hilton was detained in the South African city of Port Elizabeth on Friday for possession of marijuana, two South African police officers said. The officers spoke on condition of anonymity, since they were not authorized to release Hilton's name before she appeared in court. ... A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hilton was caught with an unspecified amount of marijuana. "She was found in possession of some amount of dagga," the officer said, using the local name for marijuana. "We don't know how much. It's a high profile person, only the top cops are dealing...

Honolulu peace activist Ann Wright was one of about 700 people taken into custody by Israeli defense forces after a raid on a flotilla of boats carrying aid to Gaza that left nine people dead, friends of Wright's confirmed. Kyle Kajihiro of the American Friends Service Committee, and Arnie Kotler, publisher of a book on Gaza by Wright, said they recognized her in a video of the detainees being led into detention in Ashdod. The video was posted on YouTube and several Israeli newspaper sites.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A CNN correspondent said Monday she was detained byChinese security guards in Shanghai for two hours for displaying a T-shirt on camera depicting US President Barack Obama as Mao Zedong. Emily Chang, a Beijing-based correspondent for the US television network, said in a blog post on CNN.com that she hunted down the shirt after hearing they had been banned amid fears they "may offend the American president." The shirt shows Obama, who is making his first visit to China as president, in a Red Army uniform staring into the distance in a pose made famous by the...

tt { font-family: courier; } td { font-family: helvetica, sans-serif; } caption { font-family: helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left; } Arrested 24 Iranian army officers detained Rank Name Surname Division Serving at Residence 1 Captain Mehdi Moqaddam Civil & Fortifications Fat’h Garrison Lavisan Army Residential Compound 2 2nd. Lt. Sohrab Lavassani Armoured Parandak Parandak Army Residential Compound 3 Major Seyed Morteza Amiri Telecommunications Fajr Logistics Base Lavisan 4 1st Sergeant Haadi Shafahi Civil & Fortifications Parandak Parandak Army Residential Compound 5 Captain Mohsen Eta’ati Siah-Kuh Health Ground Forces Staff Kuy Zaynabieh Army Residential Compound 6 2nd Warrant Officer Ali...

The blog Revolutionary Road, a useful source of information throughout the post-election crisis, has posted a list of names of more than 60 people killed or missing and more than 300 detained since 12 June: Killed by Government Forces:

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexican authorities arrested a woman guarding an arsenal that included the first anti-aircraft machine gun seized in Mexico, police said Tuesday, as the army announced the capture of an alleged top drug cartel lieutenant. The arsenal belonged to a group linked to the powerful Beltran-Leyva drug cartel, federal police coordinator Gen. Rodolfo Cruz said. It also included ammunition, five rifles, a grenade and part of a grenade launcher. ... Cruz said the confiscated .50-caliber, anti-aircraft machine gun can fire 800 rounds per minute and is capable of penetrating armor from more than 5,000 feet (1,500...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police have detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was stopped at a roadblock, an opposition party official said Wednesday. Tsvangirai and a group of about 14 party officials were being detained at a police station in Lupane, north of Bulawayo, spokesman George Sibotshiwe said. No charges have been put to them, he said. Comment from police was not immediately available. Tsvangirai had been campaigning in the area ahead of a presidential runoff on June 27 against President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai claims he won the first round outright, and that official results released May 2 showing...

CAIRO, Egypt - The Egyptian state prosecutor on Wednesday ordered 147 detained members of the Muslim Brotherhood to be investigated on rioting accusations, a judicial official said, in the latest crackdown on the country's largest opposition group. The detainees, who have not been formally charged, are also accused of holding unauthorized demonstrations after a flurry of protests in northern cities, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members demonstrated across the Nile Delta on Tuesday, accusing the government of preventing them from participating in...