Free Republic

The church served as a school when there was no school in the area 30 years ago. Now villagers use it as a hayloft and expect officials to start restoration. DHA Photo A historical structure in the eastern province of Van, which once was an Armenian church, has been converted into a hayloft after serving as a school for some time. Villagers fill the former church in the Korlu village of the Çatak district, 30 kilometers from Van, with hay, grass, cowpat and wood, but they have personally appealed to authorities to renovate it. Considering the villagers’ request, Van Culture...

Five men accused of torturing and murdering three Christian missionaries in 2007 have been recently released on the condition of wearing electronic bracelets, a Turkish court has ruled, after the suspects’ time in detention while on trial exceeded the new legal limits. Five suspects: Emre Günaydın, Cuma Özdemir, Hamit Çeker, Salih Gürler and Abuzer Yıldırım, walked free from their high-security prison in Malatya on March 7. German missionary Tilman Ekkehart Geske and Turkish converts Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel had their throats slit at the Zirve Publishing House in April 2007 in the eastern province of Malatya after being tied...

BEIJING: India's submarine crisis comes just around the time China has begun arming two other neighbors, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with submarines. China has also introduced new nuclear submarines that have caused a flutter in Washington. Jane's weekly quoting a senior Pakistani official says China is set to sell up to six submarines to Pakistan by end of 2014. China has also signed an agreement with Pakistan to sell two Type 035G Ming-class diesel-electric submarines to Bangladesh, reports from Dhaka said recently. The New Age newspaper said the deal was valued $206 million. China has promised to deliver the submarines to...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hit back against unprecedented accusations of corruption after the leak of incriminating phone conversations, accusing both prosecutors and police of spying for another country. “The most confidential information of my country is being wiretapped by spies working for other countries and published while the prosecutors and judges of this country remain indifferent to that,” said Erdoğan during a rally in the southern province of Burdur yesterday ahead of next month’s local elections. “The police officer sent to me and promoted chief [while working] in my office, meanwhile, places bugs in the most private place...

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is hiding in Mount Athos, Ukrainian media reported on Wednesday. Kathimerini reporter Costas Onishenko, who is in Kiev, said that the rumor has not been confirmed but that local media outlets are reporting that Yanukovych has fled the country for the Greek semi-autonomous monastic community. Yanukovich was stripped of his powers by Ukrainian Parliament last Saturday. On Tuesday, Parliament voted to send the ex-president to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to answer charges in connection to the death of 82 protesters in Kiev last week.

Non-performing loans held by Greek banks rose to about 31 percent of their total loan book at the end of the third quarter last year from 29.3 percent at the end of the first half, a banker told Reuters on Wednesday. Non-performing loans are the focus of a health check the country's central bank has run to assess whether top lenders are adequately capitalised to absorb further credit deterioration. Greece's top four lenders are expected to need about 5 billion euros ($6.87 billion) in extra capital based on figures given by the Bank of Greece to each of the four...

OSLO: Norway's intelligence agency on Monday said that it fears an increased "terrorist threat" to its country due to dozens of Norwegian nationals fighting in the Syrian conflict. At least 40 or 50 people with links to Norway have fought, or are currently fighting, with forces opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime and run the risk of returning as seasoned radical fighters, the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) wrote in its annual threat assessment report. "We conclude that the threat has already increased and will continue to increase throughout 2014," the head of NIS General Kjell Grandhagen said, adding that these...

BEIRUT: Tarif Khalidi is a big, bearded bear of a man, the kind you would always choose to play Father Christmas, or perhaps a Cossack leader sweeping across the Russian steppe, reins in one hand, sword in the other. But Tarif — or Uncle Tarif as I invariably call him — is an Islamic scholar, the most recent translator of the Quran and author of a wonderful book of Muslim stories about Jesus. I am thus surprised — but after a few seconds not at all surprised — to hear how well this Palestinian from Jerusalem got on with the...

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she doesn't have security concerns about China staging navy exercises south of Indonesia because they took place in international waters. It's believed to be the first time Chinese ships have ventured into waters between Australia and Indonesia, but the foreign minister said she would not raise the issue with her counterpart in Beijing. "These exercises are taking place in international waters and Australia conducts similar exercises in international waters," she told the Australia Network's Newsline program on Thursday. "The Chinese navy is growing, commensurate with the increase in size and strength of the Chinese economy...

At first we thought Reuters had been punked when we read about the latest proposal by the European Commission, but after several hours without a retraction, we realized that the story is sadly true. Sadly, because everything that we warned about in "There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis" back in September of 2011, and everything that the depositors and citizens of Cyprus had to live through, seems on the verge of going continental. In a nutshell, and in Reuters' own words, "the savings of the European Union's 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term...

Greek Cyprus said on Feb. 3 it would not accept Turkey's "provocations" after claims a Norwegian ship was 'harassed' while surveying for offshore oil and gas reserves. Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said the vessel was undertaking seismic research for French oil giant Total near Blocks 10 and 11 off the south coast when a radio communication ordered it to "abandon position." He said the incident came at a time when the United Nations was trying to find a formula for long-stalled Cyprus peace talks to begin. Officials said that Turkish frigate "Giresun" had ordered Norwegian seismic vessel "Princess"...

Armed gunmen opened fire late Jan. 27 on the municipal building of Şişli, one of the most vibrant and central districts on Istanbul’s European side. The attack caused no casualties, police said, although the assault seemed to target Mustafa Sarıgül, the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) candidate for Istanbul mayor and the current mayor of Şişli, ahead of the March 30 local elections. The attack also came in the wake of an attack against a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) election office in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district that killed party adviser Cengiz Akyıldız on Jan. 26. “Such an armed [attack] against our Şişli...

Aragon's Education Ministry has been slammed for promoting an anti-abortion short film competition aimed at teenagers. The contest, directed at students aged 14 to 18, will reward the makers of the film that best "defends the life of the unborn" with €500 ($680) in prize money. Two private pro-life associations are behind the controversial scheme, but it's Aragon's regional ministry that has received most criticism for advertising the scheme on its website. The competition's judges will be looking for films that "offer a beautiful, suggestive and encouraging view on why women who have an unexpected pregnancy should opt for life"....

Amber washes up from time to time on German beaches. Photo: DPA A pensioner suffered third-degree burns after picking up what he thought was amber on a beach in north Germany, only to find it was a chunk of white phosphorus when it ignited in his pocket and set him on fire. The 67-year-old was walking along the Baltic coastline on Monday afternoon when he spotted a pale yellow stone he recognized as being amber – which often washes up on north-eastern German beaches. But so do chunks of white phosphorous since they were used in World War II...

Japan’s main private ship insurer has resumed normal coverage for tankers carrying Iranian oil, said an official with the Japan P&I Club (JPI), the same day the European Union suspended some economic sanctions against Tehran. The return to private shipping insurance came after Iran halted its most sensitive nuclear operations under a deal with world powers, winning some relief from economic sanctions that had slashed its oil revenues and crippled its economy. As part of the six-month deal, the EU suspended its prohibitions on the provision of insurance and transport in relation to Iranian crude oil, while the United States...

Japan’s whaling mothership has been awarded a halal certificate to prove the whales it takes from the Antarctic Ocean are slaughtered in accordance with Muslim law, a company spokesman said Wednesday. The Nisshin Maru was certified last year before it headed off to the southern ocean for this season’s controversial hunt, a spokesman for ship owner Kyodo Senpaku, said. “Special inspectors examined the ship when it was docked in Hiroshima last year,” he told AFP. “It was certified officially on November 24.” The inspectors advised workers on the factory ship to change the disinfectant liquid used for cleaning hands to...

<p>Over the past year, Israel and Egypt have used a little-known, legally permissible understanding -- the Agreed Activities Mechanism -- to bypass restrictions on the number and type of Egyptian forces permitted in much of the Sinai. In doing so, they have made de facto modifications to their 1979 peace treaty without resorting to the diplomatically risky procedure of "reviewing" the treaty itself. As a result, considerable Egyptian army forces are now constantly deployed in central and eastern Sinai (Areas B and C of the peninsula, respectively), in a manner and scope never envisaged by the teams that negotiated the treaty more than three decades ago. Going forward, this new reality on the ground is unlikely to be reversed and is bound to have profound consequences for Egyptian-Israeli security cooperation, Cairo's ongoing counterterrorism campaign, and the fate of Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip.</p>

MUMBAI: It is a rite of passage for many young journalists and filmmakers in Mumbai. You enter the Irani cafe, take in the atmosphere of peeling walls, old calendars and dusty cabinets, the bentwood chairs and glass-topped tables, the screened-off sections that no one seems to have entered in years and the few people sipping tea or bun-maska. Then you pluck up courage, approach the aging owner at the counter and ask if you can speak to him for a story on vanishing Irani cafes. It is some measure of the kindness usually lurking under the owners' gruff exteriors that,...

Four suspects were arrested Jan. 17 following a court decision after being detained in a major operation against al-Qaeda in six provinces. The court released four other suspects pending trial, while five suspects were discharged after being interrogated by the police. Twelve remaining suspects detained during the raids carried out on Jan. 14 were also sent to court Jan. 17. The detained suspects face accusations including sending people to fight in Syria, helping to transfer al-Qaeda members from Afghanistan and Pakistan, collecting money to help al-Qaeda, providing and distributing aid and weapons to be used in attacks in Syria, Pakistan...

Iraq will take legal and other measures to punish Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as foreign companies, for any involvement in Kurdish exports of “smuggled” oil without Baghdad’s consent, the oil minister said on Jan. 17. Abdul Kareem Luaibi told reporters the government was preparing legal action against Ankara and would blacklist any companies dealing with oil piped to Turkey from Iraq’s autonomous northern region without permission from Baghdad. The Kurdistan Regional Government said last week that crude had begun to flow through the pipeline, and exports were on track to start at the end of January, inviting bidders...