Free Republic

Ahmet Cengiz was found dead only a few hours this picture was taken. DHA Photo A man who briefly invaded the pitch during a football match between two western Anatolian clubs has been found dead in a trash bin, shortly after being released from police custody. Ahmet Cengiz, 28, jumped onto the pitch from the stands on the 45th minute of the TFF League 1 match between Denizlispor and Tavşanlı Linyitspor in Denizli on April 6. Police escorted Cengiz and briefly detained him in the stadium, releasing him after he later gave his testimony. A scrap dealer then found the...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Apr. 2 expressed concern about the U.S. presence in the Black Sea, saying Moscow contacted both Ankara and Washington over the issue amid ongoing tension between Russia and the West. “We have noticed that recently U.S. military vessels on a number of occasions have extended their presence [in the Black Sea] beyond the established limits and these extensions at times failed to meet the rules of the Montreux Convention,” Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Kazakh counterpart, Erlan Idrisov, in Moscow. Lavrov was responding to a question over a U.S. guided-missile destroyer,...

Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Akhmetov, who had managed Central Asia's largest economy since September 2012, said on April 2, 2014 that he had resigned. REUTERS Photo Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov and his entire government resigned Wednesday, the authorities in the Central Asian country said. Akhmetov told a cabinet meeting that his resignation had been granted by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the government of the oil-exporting country said. No reason was given for Akhmetov's abrupt dismissal, but President Nazarbayev has broad powers to change prime ministers at his choosing. His press-service said on Twitter that the Kazakh leader has already proposed...

A blundering bomber was being hunted last night after a powerful device he attached to a car exploded in his face. The injured criminal fled the scene in Dublin “dripping in blood” on Sunday night after the device went off early. It had been attached to a Volvo SUV belonging to a local businessman. One of the theories is the suspect forgot about the clocks changing. A source said: “It would appear that the bomber got his timings wrong. It could be a case where he didn’t put his watch forward on Sunday [at 1am] and the timer went off...

PARIS: The United States on Sunday pledged $10 million to bolster border security in Moldova at a time when concerns are rising about divisions within the country over a trade deal with Europe and Russia's intervention in neighbouring Ukraine. The pro-western Moldavan government is pushing ahead with an EU trade deal by the summer despite the increasing debate on whether to integrate with Europe or stick with former Soviet master Russia. It was the rejection of the same EU deal in November by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich that triggered street protests against his rule after he balked under the...

Indian officers of Skinner's Horse with their British officer in 1900. NEW DELHI: Popular culture in India has glorified the martial traditions of the Rajputs. One of which was saka, in which fighting men of a defeated state rode out for a final, suicidal battle dressed in yellow. That antiquated Rajput code has survived in the yellow ceremonial uniform of one of Indian Army's oldest cavalry regiments, the 1st Horse or Skinner's Horse. Over two centuries after it was raised by a "white Mughal" — James Skinner — who was denied a commission in the Honourable East India Company's...

George Tsunis speaking to the US senate in January - Source: Screen Grab Senior members of a professional body representing US diplomats have called on the country's Senate to reject George Tsunis, the nominee ambassador for Norway. Tsunis committed a serious of embarrassing blunders in his January pre-appointment hearing, which led one Norwegian politician to call for a public apology from Barack Obama, the US President. On March 7, fifteen former presidents of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) wrote a letter to key US Senators including former Presidential candidate John McCain, urging them to reject President Obama's nominee...

France's ruling Socialist Party suffered humiliating losses on a day dubbed "Black Sunday" in a local vote marked by breakthrough successes for the far-right National Front and the historic election of a first female mayor of Paris. On a day dubbed "Black Sunday" by one Socialist lawmaker, the National Front (FN) won control of at least fourteen towns, according to the interior ministry and was on track to claim 1,200 municipal council seats nationwide, its best ever showing at the grassroots level of French politics. It was also a night to savour for France's main opposition, the centre-right Union for...

Here's a morning summary of what we know about the National Union of Teachers strike so far today: • Pupils across England and Wales will miss a day of school as teachers joined rallies, marches and picket lines to protest against changes to their pay, pensions and working conditions • Manchester, Leeds, Brighton and parts of London are among the cities with high proportion of schools closed, while the Wirral, County Durham and Wales have also seen widespread closures Yorkshire: 644 schools affected in west, south and north of the county Cambridgeshire - 74 closures or partial closures (21 closed,...

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region pledged Thursday to export 100,000 barrels of oil per day through central government-controlled pipelines in a bid to resolve an impasse with Baghdad ahead of elections. The Kurds and the government are locked in a row over energy exports, in which Baghdad has choked off funds to the northern region, draining its reserves, as the two sides spar over a national budget that would penalise the Kurds for failing to meet export targets as well as other issues tied to energy sector regulation. As a "goodwill gesture," the Kurdistan regional government said on its website it...

France’s far-right National Front party (FN) hailed an “exceptional” showing in the first round of the country’s local elections Sunday, after winning historic levels of support in a number of towns and cities. Early estimates showed FN candidates leading in the eastern town of Forbach and the southern towns of Fréjus, Avignon, Perpignan, Villeneuve-sur-Lot and Beziers, putting the party in pole position for the second round of voting on March 30th. The news was even better for the FN in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, where the party’s candidate Steeve Briois took a majority of the vote at 50.26 percent,...

A 21-year-old from southern Spain died on Saturday after being electrocuted when he climbed on to a train to take a photo of himself with friends. The young man from the Andalusian town of Andújar suffered the fatal blow when he touched a high-voltage wire on a train he and his friends had assumed was not electrified. They'd clambered on top of the parked wagon at Andújar train station to take a picture of themselves when they suffered the severe electric shock. Spanish online daily Ideal reported that a 3,5000-volt discharge killed the young man as he went to take...

Cat lovers will be able to enjoy a cup of coffee among their feline friends when Italy’s first ‘cat café’ opens in the northern Italian city of Turin on Saturday. MiaGola Café, or ‘Café Miaow’, is the latest in a concept that started in Japan and has spread to Europe. Patrons to the café on Via Amendola will also be able to enjoy specialities from the Piedmont region and a “sense of wellbeing” as their furry friends weave in between chairs, La Stampa reported. Experts say that hearing the purr of the cat and caressing its soft fur can relieve...

An overwhelming majority of Lufthansa pilots voted on Friday to go on strike over pay and conditions. No date has yet been set for the action. Of the airline's 5,400 pilots, 99.1 percent voted to take industrial action on Friday. The as-yet unscheduled strike could hit Europe's biggest airline any time in the coming weeks. Flights operated by Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings will be affected. Pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said it would give 48 hours' notice before any strike, in order to minimise inconvenience to passengers. Pilots would also avoid the busy period over the Easter break from...

A bible next to a pool of blood inside the Joy Jesus church in Likoni near Mombasa. Photograph: Str/EPA At least four people were killed when two gunmen burst into a crowded church and opened fired on worshippers near the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The attack, which left about 17 wounded, came despite increased security in Kenyan cities amid heightened warnings of extremist violence. Robert Mureithi, a local police chief, said: "They were shot by gunmen who shot indiscriminately at worshippers and then fled.". There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kenya has been hit by a series of...

The official blog of U.S. Department of State has published a vitriolic post, slamming Turkey's blocking of Twitter as '21st century book burning.' "Every day, governments around the world devote precious resources to Internet censorship. It is 21st Century book-burning -- and it doesn’t make anyone stronger. This brand of suppression affects all of us: In an era in which the Internet serves as the world’s community forum, censorship anywhere is a threat to freedom of speech everywhere," Douglas Frantz, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, has written on the the State Department's official blog, Dipnote, March 21. "Sometimes even our...

Egypt has not invited Qatar and Turkey for a major Islamic conference due in Cairo later this week, according to a report published on March 22. “We are not having a crisis with the Qatari or Turkish people … The issue lies in the policy of the Turkish and Qatari governments,” Egyptian Minister of Waqfs (religious endowments) Mohammad Jumaa told at a press conference, gulfnews.com has reported. Cairo will host a conference on March 25 on religious extremism, as Egypt continues a crackdown on Islamists in what the military-backed government portrays as a “war on terrorism”. Around 80 scholars from...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Turkey will release an official statement later March 17 to declare that Ankara will not recognize a March 16 referendum in Crimea in which 97 percent of voters reportedly opted to join Russia. After an election campaign rally in İzmir last night, Erdoğan held a surprising meeting with Mustafa Cemil Kırımlıoğlu, a Ukrainian member of Parliament and former speaker of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly. Stressing that Turkey would not unilaterally intervene in the crisis in Ukraine, Erdoğan told Kırımlıoğlu that he spoke about the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Ankara...

A jury convicted former Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner of federal bribery and extortion charges Tuesday, saying her acceptance of $36,000 from a bond trader who did business with the state was a felony rather than just a lapse in ethical judgment. Shoffner wept quietly at the defense table before the jurors, who deliberated for about three hours, returned to the courtroom. But the former Democratic official regained her composure and showed no reaction as U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes read the 14 consecutive guilty verdicts. Shoffner was arrested in May when FBI agents raided her home in Newport,...

A decade after Al-Qaeda-inspired bombers blew apart four Madrid commuter trains, killing 191 people, Spain's government warned the country remains a target. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of Spain's worst terrorist attack, Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz said Islamist extremists were still a threat. Al-Qaeda's leaders and its affiliates, including north African group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and armed fighters battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, referred frequently in their statements to "Al Andalus", or Spain, the minister told Onda Cero radio. "Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad. We are...