Free Republic

Report: France, Britain to build unmanned fighter jet Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron are to unveil plans to develop an unmanned European fighter jet at a summit in Paris on Friday, Les Echos financial newspaper reported. The paper on Thursday quoted unnamed sources as saying the two governments aimed to build a 'prototype of an unmanned stealth aircraft by 2020.' 'This is clearly bilateral cooperation for the post-Rafale and post-Eurofighter (era),' the paper quoted a source as saying. The Rafale fighter jet is produced by France's Dassault Aviation. Eurofighter - a consortium of...

Britain had to plead with US to take part in Iran flotilla Britain was forced to plead with the US to take part in the flotilla challenging Iranian power in the Gulf after American commanders decided the Royal Navy had nothing to contribute to the mission. Defence sources have revealed that the Americans only relented and allowed a Royal Navy frigate to join the mission following an intervention from Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president. The revelation that US defence chiefs saw little military value in UK participation will raise new questions about Britain’s international clout after Coalition defence cuts. Amid...

EXCLUSIVE Fury at wreaths for £1million armed robber Sick 'cashpoint' tribute   Fake ... but Thomas Curtis's gang took real ATMs   SICK graveside tributes have been left by family and pals for an armed robber and ram-raider found hanged in jail. Victims of the £1million crimes carried out by Thomas Curtis, 29, and his gang last night voiced fury at the display in Elm, Cambs, which includes a replica ATM and a Post Office sign. Friends and relatives "honoured" the robber by leaving rose-edged tributes at the grave that recall his trail of violent crime. Dad-of-two Curtis was...

UKIP: 'UK must build naval Typhoon' 19 January 2012 The UK should cancel the purchase of the F-35C and invest in developing a naval variant of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has said. Lord Alexander Hesketh, UKIP's defence spokesman and former executive deputy chairman of Babcock International Group, said that adopting a naval Typhoon would allow the UK to restore carrier strike capability on its Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers before 2020 while saving money and protecting UK jobs. UKIP estimates suggest it would cost £1.4bn to develop a naval typhoon, with unit costs of around £80m....

EXCLUSIVE  Sex swap teenager to enter Miss England contest   BY JENNA SLOAN Published: 14 Jan 2012   A TEENAGE transsexual has become the first sex swap patient to enter the Miss England beauty pageant. Jackie Green became the UK's youngest transsexual after an op in Thailand on her 16th birthday. The 18-year-old — who was born Jack but lived as a girl since age ten — was asked to enter by modelling scouts who had no idea of her history. The aspiring model, from Leeds, hopes to use the opportunity to speak out about bullying and transgender issues....

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure. Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said. Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side. The fuel did ...

Quote: homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-jihadist-use-social-media-how-prevent-terrorism-and-preserve-innovation Subcommittee Hearing: Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence | 311 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Dec 6, 2011 2:00pm On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation." The Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building. Witnesses Mr. Evan F. Kohlmann Flashpoint Global Partners Mr. William McCants Analyst Analyst for the Center for Naval...

Britain must continue giving aid to India to secure £6.6bn fighter jet deal, says minister The Government's controversial decision to continue giving money to India, a nation that has more billionaires than the UK and an aid programme of its own, is directly linked to developing trade and investment opportunities, a senior minister admitted yesterday. With surprising bluntness, the International Development minister, Andrew Mitchell, said the decision to spend £1.2bn over the next five years was part of a broader partnership that included the hoped-for sale of fighter jets to India. "It's an important market, and for our children and...

Defence cuts: Carrier 'fully operational in 2030' Britain may be without a fully operational aircraft carrier until 2030, according to a report published by the Commons spending watchdog. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says two carriers being built will cost more, offer less military capability and be ready much later than planned. It says the Royal Navy will be without a carrier until 2020, which may not be fully operational until 2030. The PAC also says the cost of scaling back the carriers is not fully known. The committee said the adjustments made to the vessels meant just £600m cash...

EXCLUSIVE    Perv lags getting paid to do rehab Fury at paedo jail ‘bribes’   Courses ... inmates can even pick up the cash by not attending the sessions   JAILED paedophiles are being PAID to take courses inside to stop them offending. Under prison rules, sick inmates who attend "offender behaviour programmes" get wages the same as if they have a job in jail. They can even pick up the cash by NOT attending the sessions — if they show they were willing to go but there were no spaces available. Last night Lyn Costello, of campaigning group Mothers Against...

Apologies if this has already been postedAs you sit down with your family on Thanksgiving and consider offering a prayer of gratitude, be aware the turkey at the center of the table may have already been "blessed" – in the name of Allah. Customer service representatives from Butterball, one of America's most popular Turkey brands, confirmed to WND that the company's whole turkeys are – without being labeled as such – slaughtered according to Islamic "halal" standards. "Halal slaughter involves cutting the trachea, the esophagus and the jugular vein and letting the blood drain out while saying, 'Bismillah allahu akbar'...

Taxpayers will underwrite mortgages totalling hundreds of millions of pounds under plans to “unblock” the housing market and revive the flagging economy. The Prime Minister and his deputy, Nick Clegg, will unveil proposals to help first-time buyers of new homes by carrying part of the risk of their mortgages. They also propose subsidising the construction of 16,000 homes by giving £400 million of taxpayers’ money to property developers. In a further move, ministers are working on a scheme under which billions of pounds of money in pension funds will be used to finance the construction of power stations, wind turbines...

EXCLUSIVE Courts free 76% of teen muggers   SOFT courts are letting 76 per cent of teenage muggers go free, The Sun can reveal. Shock figures also show that fewer than 20 per cent of young burglars are locked up for raiding people's homes. Just one in ten young arsonists ends up behind bars, and a shocking 96 per cent of juvenile sex offenders go free. The bombshell statistics — obtained through The Sun's Freedom of Information requests — reveal just how lenient Britain's youth courts have become. Of the 72,841 crimes prosecuted in youth courts over the past...

Jinxed submarine HMS Astute finally fires its first missile... and it went without a hitch Chris Slack The jinxed submarine HMS Astute has successfully fired its first missile during a test mission in the Gulf of Mexico, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed The submarine fired a series of Tomahawk missiles at up to 550 miles per hour, a spokeswoman confirmed. Each missile is 5.5-metres in length, weighs 1,300kg and has a range of 1,000 miles. The successful firing comes seven months after a crew member was killed during a shooting incident when the submarine was in dock at Southampton....

No Royal Navy warships left to guard Britain DEFENCE HMS Portland was the last ship to be guarding British waters By Michael Powell Published on Tuesday 1 November 2011 15:30 DEFENCE cuts and the war in Libya have left the Royal Navy without a ship on emergency stand-by in British waters for the past four weeks, The News can reveal. A frigate or destroyer is usually tasked to be in the UK at high readiness to respond to an emergency at home or abroad at a moment’s notice. But the slashed navy has become so stretched that admirals have been...

MP's wife guilty of stealing love rival's cat   Christine Hemming, the wife of MP John Hemming, has been found guilty of stealing a kitten from the home of her husband's lover after she was caught on CCTV. Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court took just over five hours to convict Mrs Hemming, 53, who snatched the cat three days after separating from Liberal Democrat John Hemming. CCTV footage of the offence, on September 29, shows Mrs Hemming crawling on her hands and knees underneath a window before sneaking into the home of Emily Cox. Birmingham Yardley MP John Hemming,...

Carrying hopes of so many BAE's mighty Eurofighter Typhoon - built and developed on the Fylde Coast Published on Thursday 29 September 2011 14:10 IN April 1994, workers watched with pride as the Typhoon -– then still called Eurofighter – took off from the Warton airfield for its maiden flight in the UK. All those present knew the significance of the occasion. For riding on the plane’s success were the jobs of thousands of people. Since then, 108 of the aircraft have rolled off the Warton production line, and they have seen active service, including most recently in Libya. The...

Prince William and wife Catherine opened the new specialist children's cancer treatment ward, the Oak Centre for children and young people, at the Royal Mardsen hospital London. (Sept. 29/AP)

Homeowner's wife and son fled the house in terror. Second suspected intruder being hunted by police. A father has been arrested on suspicion of murder after allegedly stabbing to death an intruder during an attempted burglary at his home last night. Police were called to Midland Road in Bramhall, Stockport, at around 7.50 pm last night after reports that two men had forced their way into a house. Officers responding to the call discovered a man, thought to be in his 30s, with serious knife injuries. ... Police believe that the two men had entered the property and threatened him....

LONDON (BNO NEWS) -- The lifetime ban on blood donations by homosexual and bisexual men will soon be lifted in England, Scotland and Wales, the British government announced on Thursday. The decision to lift the lifetime ban, which was put in place in the 1980s to prevent the risk of HIV contamination, follows a review by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) of the Department of Health. The SaBTO's recommendations have been accepted by health ministers in England, Scotland and Wales and will be implemented on November 7. However, men who have had anal...

When most people think of simulating a volcano, they think of baking soda, vinegar, and third grade science fair projects. A team of British researchers are thinking more along the lines of a giant balloon the size of a soccer stadium and a 12-mile garden hose that can pipe chemicals into the stratosphere to slow global warming. And they’re planning to test their hypothesis soon, sending a scaled down version of their sky-hose-balloon-thing skyward in the next few months. The idea is to mimic the effect that volcanoes have when they erupt, pumping all kinds of particulate matter into the...

EXCLUSIVE The drag queen, 12 Schoolboy is ‘Naughty Nora’ By JOHN COLES  A SCHOOLBOY aged 12 has been crowned the DRAG QUEEN of his village - and his parents are delighted. Redvers Stokes slips on his mum's bra, a tight pink dress, blonde wig and towering heels to become "Naughty Nora". He clinched the title against tough competition from local men by belting out camp versions of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Dolly Parton hits. The tiny Cornish village of Sticker, near St Austell, started its drag queen contest two years ago - because not enough girls among the population...

So now the chickens have well and truly come home terrifyingly to roost. The violent anarchy that has taken hold of British cities is the all-too-predictable outcome of a three decade liberal experiment which tore up virtually every social value. The married two-parent family, educational meritocracy, punishment of criminals, national identity and many more fundamental conventions were all smashed by a liberal intelligentsia bent on a revolutionary transformation of society. Those of us who warned that they were playing with fire were sneered at as Right-wing nutters. What has been fueling all this is NOT poverty, as has so predictably...

Student Rhiannon Brooksbank-Jones dreams of living and working in South Korea once she finishes university, even though she has never visited the country. But while taking language lessons, the 19-year-old found that she couldn't pronounce certain crucial sounds in the Korean alphabet. Her dentist suggested it may be because she was born with a slightly shorter than average tongue, caused by having an unusually thick lingual frenulum - the flap of skin that joins the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth. Language barrier: Rhiannon Brooksbank-Jones, from Nottingham, had her tongue lengthened by 1cm to help her...

Warship to be commanded by a woman for the first time in Navy's 500-year history By Daily Mail Reporter Lieutenant Commander Sarah West is in charge of HMS Portland A woman is to command a frontline warship for the first time in the history of the Royal Navy, it has emerged. Lieutenant Commander Sarah West, 39, is taking charge of HMS Portland - a 5,000-ton Type 23-Frigate which is prepared for 'total warfare'. Women, who were first allowed to go to sea with the Navy in 1990, have until now only commanded small non-fighting ships. Lt Cdr West is said...

Gemma Westmoreland had her huge 34J breasts reduced - because she was fed up of being groped by strangers. She shed one and a half stone in the NHS operation and said it's transformed her life. The 26-year-old said she was jeered at in the street, regularly had both men and women grab her chest on nights out, and needed to wear two bras for support. With the breast reduction surgery she's dropped 14 cup sizes - from J to C - and halved her dress size, from 16 to 8. 'I was getting unwanted attention from both sexes,' said...

Foreigners take sacked RAF pilots' places Trainee RAF pilots sacked under defence cuts will be replaced on flying courses by officers from foreign air forces. The Ministry of Defence is "actively seeking" foreign personnel to pay for "surplus" training places left by British personnel dismissed earlier this year, a minister has admitted. The Daily Telegraph revealed in February that scores of RAF pilots in training are being sacked to save money. A defence minister has now admitted that because the trainees were dismissed at such short notice, the staff and equipment for their training are still in service and must...

Victims say that officers in the borough of Tower Hamlets have ignored or downplayed outbreaks of hate crime, and suppressed evidence implicating Muslims in them, because they fear being accused of racism. The claims come as four Tower Hamlets Muslims were jailed for at least 19 years for attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to Muslim girls. The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than a dozen other cases in Tower Hamlets where both Muslims and non-Muslims have been threatened or beaten for behaviour deemed to breach fundamentalist “Islamic norms.” One victim, Mohammed Monzur Rahman, said he...

Royal Navy pilots forced to learn French Royal Navy fighter pilots are being forced to learn French in order to operate on board France’s flagship aircraft carrier. By Martin Evans 12:18PM BST 12 Jun 2011 The Naval aviators are training with the French, whose jets they may have to use while they await the arrival of the new Joint Strike Fighters, which are unlikely to be delivered before 2020. The first five of 30 Royal Navy pilots have begun French language training at the defence college in Paris before they join the carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, where they will...

FULL TIILE: The ultimate NHS indignity: Body of hospital patient left to die in corridor is ignored for hours... before staff simply drag him away 'He went to them for help and they left him out in the corridor to die', says Peter Thompson's daughter Senior nurse claims it was 'the appropriate method of handling the situation' Two heartbroken parents have slammed 'inhumane' nurses who left their dead son lying in the middle of a hospital corridor and stepped over his corpse for more than ten hours thinking he was asleep. CCTV captured staff pulling the lifeless body of Peter...

UK says sees wide interest in new Navy frigate Mon, Jun 6 2011 * UK in talks with Brazil, Malaysia about project - Fox * UK to use market to keep defence projects on budget By Adrian Croft LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Britain has seen very wide interest in a planned collaborative project to build a new Navy frigate and talks are being held with partners including Brazil and Malaysia, Defence Secretary Liam Fox said on Monday. The planned new Type 26 frigate, also known as the "global combat ship", is being developed by British group BAE Systems (BAES.L:...

Exclusive Public ‘at risk’ as 70 terrorists released   High risk ... Saajit Badat, left, and Moinul Abedin  UP to 70 convicted terrorists due to be released this year will not be properly monitored, a probation chief warned yesterday. The "high risk" extremists, some of them bomb makers, could be walking the streets after being freed on licence. But Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said cuts to services meant adequate checks could not be kept on them. He added: "They have to be supervised by us and the police at a fairly intensive...

The National Health Service is facing a £20 billion-a-year funding black hole that will threaten its founding principles unless the Coalition’s controversial reforms are brought in to prevent it the core values of the NHS are under threat as never before from a “financial crisis” that will see annual health spending double to £230 billion a year without urgent reform. While insisting he would never privatise the NHS, Mr Lansley warns that its future as a universal service, available to all and free at the point of use will be at risk “within years” if radical change is blocked. Mr...

Third of rapists and killers 'are foreign' Shock toll for 5 forces... and £34m cop bill  By DAVID LOWE Published: Today   IMMIGRANTS make up a THIRD of murder suspects and alleged rapists in a string of areas, shock new figures reveal. And one in seven of all people accused of these crimes in the UK as a whole is a foreign national.Data from police forces shows 93 foreign-born suspects were accused of murder last year and 418 faced rape allegations.Four forces each had 33 per cent of non-UK murder suspects - Kent, Lincolnshire and Tayside and Fife in Scotland....

CHURCHVILLE, VA—My colleague Bennie Peiser, of Britain’s Global Warming Policy Foundation, offers some of his latest man-made global warming news: The Sunday Times noted on May 22 that the UK government has agreed to cut its greenhouse emissions 50 percent by 2027. As a result, “Tata Steel last week announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs at its Scunthorpe and Teeside plants. The company, which employs 21,000 in Britain, has held high-level talks with government in recent weeks over its energy plans. . . . Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe warned that he could be forced to shut the firm’s Runcorn chlorine...

But now a new reason has emerged why the royals might be a particularly interesting subject, with the revelation that they used to dine on human flesh. Kate and Wills will hopefully not follow the cannibal traditions of their ancestors (PA) According to a new book on medicinal cannibalism, written by University of Durham academic Dr Richard Sugg, well-off and well-educated Brits used to eat human flesh, blood and bones as medicine. This practice apparently took place in other parts of Europe as well up until the end of the 18th century. While referring to the barbarity of cannibals in...

Royal Navy welcomes new destroyer Monday, May 09, 2011 HMS Diamond – the third of the Royal Navy’s new formidable Type 45 air-defence destroyers – has today been formally commissioned into the fleet.. She is one of six multi-role vessels being built for the Royal Navy which will provide air defence using the Sea Viper missile system. She can embark 60 troops and their equipment, supported by a modern medical facility that can deliver a surgical capability. She could also carry up to 700 people to support a civilian evacuation. Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, said: "The Type 45 programme...

No smoking signs may be driving more people to light up, a psychological study suggests. Scientists say the messages have an 'ironic effect' on smokers that increases their craving for tobacco. Without being aware of it, they react to the signs by thinking of and wanting cigarettes. 'You get ironic effects when you couple information that people perceive with negation,' said researcher Brian Earp, from Oxford University. 'When I say "don't think of a pink elephant", I've just put the thought of a pink elephant in your head. 'A lot of public health messages are framed in a negative way...

A fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain before the 2005 London Tube and bus bombings, a former Labour minister with close links to the intelligence services has admitted.(edit)Britain ignored repeated warnings to stop granting asylum to Islamic extremists wanted in other countries for terrorism offences before the 7/7 bombings.(edit)After bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport system in 2005, the cable said Britain “should have expected such blasts”. An Algerian politician said Britain invited the attacks by “aligning itself with the devil”.According to the cable, also obtained by WikiLeaks, the politician asked: “Did the English consider the risks...

Wikileaks has revealed a US report on Guantanamo terrorist prisoners called the “Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants.” You will see this document written up in dozens of articles in the media and the blogosphere over the next few days. We wanted to call attention to one list that has come out of that report: a list of foreign mosques and Islamic centers that are used to recruit and train Jihadis.

A family of 12 asylum-seekers is being put up in a vast house costing taxpayers nearly £1,500 a week... The Ethiopian couple and their ten children are receiving a staggering £1,460 a week in housing benefit alone. The jobless couple will also be eligible for other handouts such as unemployment and child benefits, which could potentially add up to an additional £1,300 a week. Council officials, who refused to give further details of the case, found the family a mini mansion after they arrived in London from Africa in the past few weeks. It was not revealed whether the family...

A study by of 1,000 people with more than £250,000 in savings and investments found 35pc may move abroad because of high tax rates, while 44pc blamed the weather and 43pc want to avoid antisocial behaviour. Recent changes in tax rules have proved controversial for many Britons, including a combination of the 50pc income tax rate on those earning more than £150,000, increases in national insurance and a reduction in personal allowances. (edit)“Many high earners are concerned about what they perceive as the tax increases that followed the financial crisis. Despite good recent developments, there are still many countries around...

Thief spared jail to feed his cat By ANDY CRICK Published: Today A SOFT judge spared a thief from prison - so he could go home and feed his CAT. District judge David Cooper was set to jail Steven Thorne, 55, for repeatedly shoplifting booze. Let-off ... thief Steven Thorne But he changed his mind after hearing about Thorne's pet Laura.Julie Brice, defending, told Colchester Magistrates' Court that there was no one to feed the cat, which was trapped indoors as Thorne did not have a cat flap at his home in Clacton, Essex. The lawyer added: "She's been...

(edit) Private Stephens said that he "goose necked" the man, grabbing him around the neck and dragging him towards his vehicle."I jumped out off the wagon and I grabbed the geezer," Private Stephens said. "It was one left, two right fists. That was it. No weapons, just my hands."The captured man turned out to be a bomb maker and the highest ranking Taliban captured by regular British forces.Fellow soldier, Lieutenant Martyn Fulford, said, "It tied in to our intelligence reports that there were a number of suicide bombers preparing to attack us."When the motorcyclist came within 100 feet, a barrage of...

When a Royal Navy warship captured a crew of Somali pirates, it seemed like a rare chance to strike back at the ruthless sea gangsters. The 17 outlaws were armed with an arsenal of AK 47s and rocket-propelled grenades, and had forced hostages on a hijacked fishing vessel to work as slaves for three months. But instead of bringing them to justice, the British servicemen were ordered to provide the pirates halal meals, medical checks, cigarettes – and in one case even a nicotine patch – before releasing them in their own boats. The extraordinary treatment – revealed in a...

This is the terrifying arsenal found in the bedroom of a 15-year-old boy who hid the weapons for a pair of gangland killers. The stockpile includes loaded sub-machine guns, automatic pistols and a shotgun, plus ammunition. One of the machine guns was hidden under the bunk beds the teenager shared with his nine-year-old brother.

Drilling companies rapidly expanding their U.S. operations in places such as Pennsylvania’s vast Marcellus Shale formation repeatedly tout they are providing American jobs and securing the nation’s energy future. Yet, a Tribune-Review examination found foreign companies are buying significant shares of these drilling projects and making plans for facilities to liquify and ship more of that natural gas overseas. A leading player in the natural gas grab is China, whose thirst for energy to fuel its industrial explosion is growing rapidly. Others include the governments of South Korea and India, and companies in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan and...

Homosexual men are to be allowed to give blood for the first time, in a move which will increase fears of transfustion patients contracting HIV. The ban on gay men donating blood is being lifted because it was decided that the rule could be discriminatory and might breach equality legislation. There are estimated to be 86,500 people with HIV in Britain, with a quarter unaware that they have an infection. About 42% of people infected with HIV in 2009 were homosexual men, according to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the HIV charity. Homosexual men are also at risk of passing on...

David Cameron: Britain caused many of the world's problems Britain is responsible for many of the world’s historic problems, including the conflict in Kashmir between India and Pakistan, David Cameron has said. By James Kirkup, in Islamabad and Christopher Hope The Prime Minister appeared to distance himself from the imperial past when he suggested that Britain was to blame for decades of tension and several wars over the disputed territory, as well as other global conflicts. His remarks came on a visit to Pakistan, when he was asked how Britain could help to end the row over Kashmir. He insisted...

It’s a bit like a supermarket manager dying of starvation or a bottled-water distributor dying of thirst: In the U.K., a former National Health Service (NHS) director died while waiting for medical care — at her own hospital. The Daily Mail reports: