Free Republic

The United Nations Postal Administration on Thursday released six new postage stamps promoting equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The colorfully designed stamps by artist and UNPA art director Sergio Baradat are also meant to celebrate the diversity of the gay community and marks the first time the global body's post office has issued stamps with an LGBT theme. The stamps were unveiled in a ceremony at the U.N. General Assembly building that included a performance by the New York Gay Men's Chorus. ...

A very unusual case of smuggling took place on Thursday, as huge quantities of gold, steroids and smart phones were found in the car of a European Union (EU) representative in Israel, as he drove into the country from Jordan. Dozens of kilograms of gold, hundreds of smartphones and a full package of steroid drugs were discovered by customs inspectors in the car as it tried to pass through the Allenby Border Crossing from Jordan, reports Channel 2. The EU diplomat was detained and later released, and his driver - an Arab resident of the northern Atarot neighborhood of Jerusalem...

Congressional Republicans vowed Thursday to kill President Barack Obama's plan to add a $10-per-barrel tax on oil production to pay for "green" transportation projects, with House Speaker Paul Ryan calling it "dead on arrival" and "an election-year distraction." "The president expects hard-working consumers to pay for his out-of-touch climate agenda," the Wisconsin Republican said. "A $10 tax for every barrel of oil produced would raise energy prices -- hurting poor Americans the most." [...] President Obama will include the plan in his budget proposal that he will present to Congress on Tuesday. The fee will be phased in over five...

After giving a speech focusing in part on the erosion of trust between citizens and the police, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch thanked the prosecutor in the Michael Brown case for saying police officers in Missouri are "substandard," "lazy" and "incompetent." “You talked earlier about the support of varied and various departments," said Robert McCulloch, prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri. "What I'd like to suggest, though, is that in my jurisdiction we have a number of departments that are substandard... and they tend to get substandard officers and they're paying them minimum wage in some cases - or...

At her weekly press briefing on Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that she does not support Congress taking any action to restrict the use of women in combat by the U.S. military. [...] "No, no, no, no. I think that women can--while it's an individual thing for men and for women as to the task--but I support removing any barriers to women serving in the military, including becoming commander in chief." ...

At his weekly press briefing on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan would not say if he supports congressional action to roll back or restrict the military's use of women in combat roles. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has ordered the armed services to open all combat roles in the U.S. military to women. "There will be no exceptions," Carter said at a Dec. 3 press conference. ...

A leading American Jewish group promoting therapy it said could turn gays to heterosexuals was ordered shut in December by a New Jersey court, amid growing efforts in the U.S. to curb the generally discredited practice. But therapists with ties to the shuttered group say they have found a haven for their work in Israel. Israel's Health Ministry advises against so-called "gay conversion" or "reparative" therapy, calling it scientifically dubious and potentially dangerous, but no law limits it. In Israel, practitioners say their services are in demand, mostly by Orthodox Jewish men trying to reduce their same-sex attractions so they...

The use of Body Mass Index to assess a person's health has led to millions of people incorrectly being labeled overweight or obese, researchers claim. The measurement has been used by doctors for more than 150 years, but has come under increasing criticism for being a flawed marker of health. [...] Now, however, Californian researchers claim their research will be will be 'the final nail in the coffin for BMI'. [...] This revealed almost half of Americans who are labeled 'overweight' by virtue of their BMIs (47.4 percent, or 34.4 million people) are healthy, as are 19.8 million who are...

New intelligence assessments show that the number of Islamic State fighters has dropped in Iraq and Syria but is rising in Libya, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday. According to the official, reports suggest there are 19,000-25,000 IS fighters in Iraq and Syria, compared to an earlier range of 20,000 to more than 30,000. The newly declassified numbers back up recent comments from military commanders and other defense officials who have argued that the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are having an impact on Islamic State militants and causing them to lose ground in both countries. ...

Former District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray, whose sole term in office was dogged by a federal investigation that ended with no charges filed against him, began his political comeback on Thursday, announcing that he will run for the D.C. Council. Gray, a 73-year-old Democrat, lost his re-election bid in the 2014 Democratic primary to current Mayor Muriel Bowser. Three weeks before the primary, a federal prosecutor said in court that Gray knew about an illegal, $660,000 slush fund that helped him get elected in 2010. Last December, prosecutors said they decided not to charge him. Gray has maintained he...

A Virginia legislative committee has defeated a measure that sought to prohibit officials from using execution drugs they received from another state if they don't reveal the source of the drugs. Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell's bill was voted down by the Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday. ...

Prosecutors have said that Islamists arrested in Berlin and western Germany on Thursday may have been planning an attack on the capital. [...] There are conflicting reports in the media about what the exact target of the attack was, with tabloid Bild citing investigators who say it was Alexanderplatz, the iconic center of the former east of the capital. Berlin daily Tagesspiegel meanwhile, says popular tourist spot Checkpoint Charlie - once the most famous crossing in the Berlin Wall - was to be hit, citing security sources. [...] Security sources told DPA the group's ringleader was a 35-year-old Algerian arrested...

An attorney for an anti-abortion activist said Thursday that his client does not plan to accept a proposed plea deal for charges related to making undercover Planned Parenthood videos. Terry Yates, the attorney for David Daleiden, who faces a felony and a misdemeanor charge, said he is prepared to head to trial if he can't quash the indictment and isn't interested in a probation offer that would keep Daleiden out of prison. Daleiden surrendered to authorities Thursday, posted $3,000 bond and made two court appearances. "I'm very grateful for all the support from the public," he said afterward. Sandra Merritt,...

Can an authoritarian regime convert to democracy by itself? The historical record isn't encouraging. In the absence of a popular uprising, it is rare for tyrants to voluntarily retire. The military junta of Burma has promised to relinquish some power to an elected government, but it has not yet delivered. China's party-state shows no inclination to try. Russia's strongman is reversing what incipient democracy existed. This goes to the core of why President Obama's opening to Cuba seems to be failing to live up to its declared goals. When the end to a half-century of hostility was announced in December...

Taxpayers will have to shell out an estimated $18 billion more to subsidize Obamacare in 2016 despite lower than expected enrollment in the health care exchanges, according to a forecast by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In its latest 10-year economic forecast, CBO predicted that 13 million Americans would purchase health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges in 2016, with 11 million of them receiving government subsidies to help pay for their premiums. But that figure is 40 percent lower than the 21 million enrollees CBO predicted last year would sign up. ...

The Phoenix City Council voted Wednesday to replace a longstanding tradition of prayer before meetings with a moment of silence prayer, preventing an address by a group with "Satan" in its name and averting a lawsuit over constitutional rights. The moment of silence prayer was offered as an alternate motion to a measure that would have allowed the mayor and councilors to take turns in selecting who gives the invocation. That measure would not have blocked The Satanic Temple's prayer scheduled for Feb. 17, city attorney Brad Holm said. More than 50 people, including religious leaders, gave emotional testimony, invoking...

The only known wild jaguar in the United States is seen roaming around a creek and other parts of a mountain range in southern Arizona in the first publicly released video of the giant cat. "El Jefe" -- Spanish for "the boss" -- has been living in the Santa Rita Mountains about 25 miles south of downtown Tucson for over three years, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. El Jefe is about 7 years old and is one of only four or five jaguars that have been spotted in the U.S. in the last 20 years. He's the only...

Secretary of State John Kerry will announce "significant new contributions to support relief efforts" for Syrian refugees later this week, the White House said on Tuesday, according to the Reuters news agency. According to the statement, Kerry's announce will come on Thursday at an international donor conference in London. In addition to the aid, the United States is planning to resettle Syrian refugees in the country, a plan which caused controversy following the Paris attacks in November, in which one of the terrorists snuck into Europe with a group of Syrian refugees. ...

On Monday the U.S. national debt hit a new record: $19,012,827,698,418. This is the first time the national debt has ever exceeded $19 trillion. That's more than $58,000 for each person who lives in the U.S. today (including children). The main culprit behind the rising deficits and debt is growing federal spending--especially among Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare. Traditionally, Congress has set a limit for how much debt the U.S. may take on, known simply as the debt limit. But rather than put a higher limit on the debt, lawmakers and the president have repeatedly suspended the debt limit,...

President Obama and members of his administration frequently state that there is nothing Islamic about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday went further, labeling the Sunni terrorist group "apostates." Even the world's pre-eminent Sunni institution, Cairo's Al-Azhar, has refused to declare ISIS apostate -- on the grounds that its fighters are "believers" in Islam, however misguided or "false" their interpretation of the faith may be. ...