Free Republic

Two Norwegian teenage girls missing for four days in the Mediterranean province of Antalya have been found in neighboring Mersin province - with their hair dyed black. Mia Emilie Haugen, 15, arrived in Turkey to visit her mother who lives in Antalya’s Alanya district. Mia and her friend Ida Marie Norland, 15, who was also vacationing in Alanya, went missing after arranging to meet on Aug. 8. Four days after the girls went missing, police received a call around 5 a.m. from a coffee shop employee who thought the behavior of two teenage customers was suspicious. Policemen arrived at the...

TEHRAN, July 20 (Reuters) - Germany and Iran moved tentatively on Monday towards reviving a once close trade relationship, anticipating the lifting of western economic sanctions against Tehran following a landmark nuclear deal. Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, making the first top level German government visit to Tehran in 13 years, indicated that a ministerial-level meeting of a long dormant German-Iran economic commission would take place early next year in Tehran. Gabriel signalled the move at a meeting with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh during the visit, which is also the first to the country by a senior member of...

Two Chechens who were accused of beheading three priests in Syria avoided sentencing on murder charges, though they were sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for being a member of a terror organization by an Istanbul court. Magomet Abdurakmanov and Ahmad Ramzanov, two Chechens who were captured in Istanbul’s Bağcılar district on July 4, 2013, along with three Turkish nationals, were accused of murdering three priests in Syria two years ago. However, the court did not hand down a murder sentence on the ground that “the crime was not committed against Turkey and the lack of an agreement on extraditions.”...

The European Parliament's environment committee on Wednesday (15 July) refused to exclude the agricultural sector from efforts to reduce air pollution, saying farmers should also contribute to lowering the number of premature deaths due to dirty air. A majority in the committee voted to include limits on methane and ammonia in a revision of a directive on air quality. The move came despite an attempt by centre-right MEPs to remove the two farming-related pollutants from the legislation. The new rules are an update of current rules limiting the level of pollutants that EU member states are allowed to have in...

A patient at a hospital in Genoa, north-west Italy, died after hospital staff allegedly pumped air into her veins instead of blood, Italian media has reported. Laura Marangoni, 50, died two years ago when a machine used to replace the functions of the heart and lungs during surgery pumped air into her veins instead of blood at the San Martino hospital. As a result, Marangoni suffered tearing of the right ventricle and died, Tgcom24 reported. According to reports, the problems started as soon as the heart-lung machine was switched on. Investigators say the death was caused by the failure of...

(ANSA) Terni, May 15 - A schoolboy of African origin attacked a 12-year-old-girl at a school in central Italy because she was wearing a crucifix on a neck chain, police said Friday. The boy punched the girl violently in the back at the entrance to a middle school in the town of Terni on Thursday and the girl's mother caught the boy, who subsequently told Carabinieri paramilitary police he attacked the girl because she was wearing a crucifix, police sources said. The boy, who first attended the school some three weeks ago, had bullied the girl over the past four...

Yemen's Shia Huthi rebels said Monday that they shot down a warplane of the Saudi-led coalition, shortly after Morocco said one of its fighter jets had gone missing on a sortie. "The air defence of the tribes shot down a warplane over Wadi Nushur, in Saada," the rebels' northern stronghold, Huthi news channel Al-Masirah said, broadcasting images of tribesmen celebrating around the wreckage of a plane.

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini will call on the UN Security Council Monday to approve military action against people smugglers as the bloc splits over a new migrant quota plan. "I am ashamed that Europe only wakes up when it is confronted by the dead," Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister, said recently. EU leaders tasked Mogherini with drawing up a list of military options, including action "to capture and destroy the smugglers' vessels," on the key condition it should be in accordance with international law. Normally that would require an agreement with the government concerned, but Libya is...

The Agios Konstantinos Greek Church in the western province of İzmir has reopened following renovations and held a mass for first time in 93 years, with the participation of the Fener Greek Patriarchate. The historic church, dating back to the 19th century, located on Mermerli Street in the Menemen district in İzmir, was renovated by the Menemen municipality. Fener Greek Patriarchate Bartholomew and Menemen Mayor Tahir Şahin reopened the church with a ceremony where they threw white doves and planted an olive tree in the garden as symbols of peace. ‘Right to worship indispensable for religion’ Bartholomew, who performed the...

A Dutch appeals court ruled April 29 that three former UN commanders will not be prosecuted for the deaths of three Muslim men who were murdered after leaving a UN compound in Srebrenica in 1995. Relatives of the three victims took UN Dutch Battalion commanders to court five years ago, saying the three were expelled into the hands of Bosnian Serb forces during the darkest episode of the country's 1991-95 civil war. Almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and buried in mass graves in mid-July 1995 at Srebrenica by Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic in the worst...

The mayor of Turkey’s capital has challenged a U.S. State Department spokesperson by referring to a pro-government media report that slammed her as “stupid blonde.” “Come on blonde, answer now,” Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek said in a tweet early April 29. The tweet also included an image from the recent riots in Baltimore, as well as the photo of Marie Harf and a caption that reads: “Where are you stupid blonde, who accused Turkish police of using disproportionate force?” Gökçek was referring to a report on Ensonhaber.com, a staunchly pro-government online news website. “U.S. police displayed a harsh attitude against...

The Vatican is hosting a climate change summit that will focus on the need for decisive action to combat global warming as a moral imperative and Christian duty, especially given its impact on poor people. The Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity meeting in Rome on Tuesday is a precursor to the release of Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, which is due out in June or July and is expected to centre on the duty of the faithful to address climate change, whatever its causes. Pope Francis is not scheduled to speak at the summit but was due to have...

SARAJEVO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- One policeman was killed and two others were wounded in a terrorist attack on a local police station Monday evening in the city of Zvornik, 120 km away from Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Muslim Nerdin Ibric, 24, who committed the attack in the eastern Bosnian city in entity Republic of Srpska (RS), was also killed by police in the exchange of fire. Both of the wounded policemen were hospitalized and their condition was stable. Chief Prosecutor of Bosnia and Herzegovina formed a special team which will cooperate with State Investigation and Protection...

With the 200th anniversary of the famous Battle of Waterloo just two months away a survey in Britain has revealed that most ofthe public know little about it and some even think it's just an Abba song, while many thought the French actually won. A survey of Britons published in the build-up to the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo found three-quarters knew little or nothing about it -- while many thought France won. The poll of 2,070 people for the National Army Museum found 73 percent either knew nothing or next to nothing about the battle, one of...

What started as a row over lemonade could end up with international airlines being forced to employ French speakers on all flights that serve Canada, a country where French and English are classed as official languages. An MP in Canada, Stephane Dion, has lodged a bill with parliament that if passed would oblige all flights to and from Canada to have a French speaker on board and for all passenger announcements to be made in both English and French. The inspiration for his bill lies in an argument over a lemonade on an AirCanada flight between Toronto and North Carolina...

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was scheduled to speak Thursday night at a dinner in downtown Little Rock honoring former U.S. Sen. David Pryor and his wife, Barbara, for their service to the state Democratic Party. The dinner marks Wasserman-Schultz's first trip to the state as DNC chairwoman. http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/104603/dnc-chairwoman-speaking-at-arkansas-dinner

The presidents of Turkey and the U.S. will open the Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center in Maryland, Turkey’s foreign minister said April 19. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was on a three-day visit to Washington, visited the center that also has a medium-sized mosque, and lunched with representatives from the American Muslim community. “During a phone call, President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan asked President [Barack] Obama to accompany him in opening the center together and President Obama accepted his offer in principle,’” Çavuşoğlu told the representatives. If Obama’s schedule allows at the time of the opening, he will accompany Erdoğan. The...

<p>JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The fear among some foreigners and South Africans that anti-immigrant attacks will escalate reached such a peak Thursday that foreigners sought refuge in camps and a police station, a peace march was planned and the president was to address the nation.</p>

Pope Francis’ labeling of the mass killings of the Ottoman Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century” will only accelerate the reopening of Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship, the top Islamic official in Ankara has suggested. “Frankly, I believe that the pope’s remarks will only accelerate the process for Hagia Sophia to be re-opened for [Muslim] worship,” Professor Mefail Hızlı, the mufti of Ankara, said in a written statement released late April 15. According to Hızlı, the pope’s statement “has reflected a modern color of the crusader wars launched in these lands for centuries.” These lands have long...

The foreign ministers of Germany and France appear to publicly back Hillary Clinton’s bid for the US presidency. Laurent Fabius of France and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany offered unusual praise for Clinton, who on Sunday revealed she was joining the race to replace Barack Obama at the helm of US government. They were joined by Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president. Fabius described Clinton as “an exceptional woman for a job that requires exceptional qualities”, a comment Reuters called a “rare show of support from a French official to a candidate for a crucial foreign election”. It came after Steinmeier...