Free Republic

Russell Bentley, the so-called "Donbass Cowboy" from Texas who fought for the 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR), is reported to have been tortured to death in an abandoned mine being used as a concentration camp for 'remotivating' Russian soldiers who refuse to fight. On 8 April 2024, Bentley was kidnapped by DPR soldiers outside the administration building of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. He was driven away in an unknown direction. On 19 April, his former unit, the Vostok Battalion, confirmed his death. His body has not been found. ASTRA reports that he was electrocuted during torture by men from the...

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine should negotiate an end to their conflict to avoid the war spilling over into Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, said in an interview with Russian state television. Lukashenko was speaking against the backdrop of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that began on Aug. 6 when thousands of Kyiv's troops smashed through Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Putin's top military brass. In a wide-ranging interview, Lukashenko said that only "high-ranking people of American origin" wanted the Ukraine-Russia war to continue. The West, he said, was encouraging Kyiv...

Having gained a foothold in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region in the past few days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are now fast approaching the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Kurchatov, the city’s mayor Igor Korpunkov warned on Friday. Reporting that fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops was taking place “a few dozen kilometres” from the city of Kurchatov, Korpunkov sought to assure residents that all services and business in the city were operating “normally” and urged them not to panic. “The enemy is not only employing military weapons against us, but also so-called ‘psychological special forces’....

Russia continues to pay a high cost in troops and equipment during its full-scale invasion, according to Kyiv, the recent figures of which outline losses of several dozen artillery systems—as well as two warplanes. Sunday's update by Ukraine's military noted how two aircraft had been among the equipment losses Russia had suffered over the previous day. This followed what Ukraine's General Staff said was a drone strike on the Morozovsk airfield, a Russian military base in the Rostov region near the Ukrainian border, which is home to Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-34 glide bombers. Kyiv said that the strikes hit warehouses...

The racist "Akaka Bill," which is certain to resurface in the 111th Congress that convened today, would inflict serious harm on the economy of Hawaii if enacted, according to a new report from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and the Beacon Hill Institute. The measure would grant special race-based privileges to "Native Hawaiians" (who have only one drop of Hawaiian blood flowing in their veins) by exempting members of that group from paying state income and excise taxes. It would also create a new "tribal" government in the state that could help lay the groundwork for Hawaii's secession from the...

Gay rebels marry in Philippines Mon Feb 7, 2005 5:27 AM GMT MANILA (Reuters) - Two communist rebels in the Philippines truly became brothers in arms when the men were married in a jungle camp, a newspaper has reported. Draped in a red flag with hammer and sickle in gold sequins, they exchanged vows, walked under an archway of assault rifles and were serenaded with revolutionary love songs by a choir of New People's Army comrades. Ka Andres and Ka Jose, who both use the word for "brother" before their names, each held a bullet during the ceremony on the...

There's a theory out there that says the more you talk about it, the more it keeps it front and center and it doesn't really persuade anybody. But sorry, I can't look at it that way, folks. This is an outrage. It's an attempt to impact the election, and at the root of it is the United Nations, and particularly Mohammed ElBaradei and it gives rise to the question of, is there any collaboration between the Kerry campaign and the UN on this? Also we have basically an endorsement of Senator Kerry from insurgent terrorists in Iraq. I'm not making...

Security agencies have warned of major terrorist offensives in Doda, Rajouri and Poonch areas of Jammu region and Shopian area of Kashmir valley as more than 90 per cent of terrorists hiding in Hil Kaka region are understood to have fled to these regions to escape Army's Operation "Sarp Vinash". According to sources in the Home Ministry, Intelligence agencies have submitted a report stating that several terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based outfits like Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Hizbul Mujahideen escaped from Hil Kaka following the Army attack and fled to nearby Darhal, Thana Mandi in Rajouri and areas of Doda...