Free Republic

American tax-payers learned recently that the US State Department is funding mosques all around the globe, including one in my native Bulgaria: To support the restoration of the Kurshum Mosque in Silistra. Although it is located in the center of town, damage has been caused by centuries of neglect and earthquakes. The mosque was built in the 17th century when Silistra was an important port city on the Danube River ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Research shows that it has nothing to do with Islam, but with ecotourism. According to a local report the restoration of the mosque and...

Deep in your heart you knew there are tax-payer’s money wasted somewhere in the whole Russian spy drama. Why did the Obama administration and the Russian government wanted to get rid of them so fast? We may never know. However we can prove that USAID funded the agro- and eco-tourism project in 2004 run by the company 4Vlast for which Anya Chapman and Vasily Kushchenko worked at the time. As you know from the previous research Chapman was the London contact person for the 4Vlast firm, Kushchenko was running their tourism firm and worked for the 4 Vlast Mrs. World...

Locations for the Garden of Eden have been offered many times before, but seldom in the somewhat inhospitable borderland where Angola and Namibia meet. A new genetic survey of people in Africa, the largest of its kind, suggests, however, that the region in southwest Africa seems, on the present evidence, to be the origin of modern humans. The authors have also identified some 14 ancestral populations. The new data goes far toward equalizing the genetic picture of the world, given that most genetic information has come from European and Asian populations. But because it comes from Africa, the continent on...

Scientists are calling for action to prevent foreign species from taking hold in Antarctica and wrecking the continent's unique ecosystems. Despite Antarctica's inhospitable environment, non-native species introduced by tourists, scientists and explorers are gaining a foothold. Species can hitch a ride on ships and planes carrying visitors and supplies. A paper on the matter tabled at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Edinburgh met with "good agreement". It costs thousands and sometimes millions of dollars to try and get rid of something... prevention is better than a cure Neil Gilbert, Antarctica NZ "Antarctica has long been considered as an...

If you want free advertising for your top-dollar vacation resort, find a way to “go green” and book a room for a reporter from Time magazine. On the heels of Vanity Fair’s “Green Issue,” the newsweekly just released a special Summer 2006 “Style & Design” edition that promotes “Green Living” as “the new luxury.” “The success of eco-entrepreneurs,” wrote editor-at-large Kate Betts, is “proof that green living is becoming an increasingly natural instinct.” Betts’s special edition profiled organic grocery chain Whole Foods and a “Who’s Who” guide of “14 forward-thinking individuals” who “are reinventing the rules of design with environmentally...