Free Republic

He is expected to have an acute understanding of terrorist groups and their threats to American interests. But the incoming chairman of a congressional intelligence committee was yesterday struggling to explain his ignorance of al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.Silvestre Reyes, the Democrat chosen to head the House of Representatives committee, was asked whether members of al-Qaeda came from the Sunni or the Shia branch of Islam. “Al-Qaeda, they have both,” he answered, adding: “Predominantly probably Shi’ite.” In fact, al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organisation and views Shia Muslims as heretics. The centuries-old now fuels the militias and...

The French have never liked Disneyland Paris, blaming it for a host of cultural ills. But, as they relish its current financial woes, Philip Delves Broughton, who spent a day there with his family, says it's worth every euro Europe's "cultural Chernobyl", as one French critic called Disneyland Paris, is in meltdown again. Falling attendance, overspending on a new movie-themed park and those cursed terrorists are to blame. This month, it announced it would have trouble repaying its banks and the doomsayers are predicting bankruptcy. Small world: Disneyland Paris aims to bring the famous formula to Europe For those who...

A MACABRE trade in human body parts was the motive behind the gruesome killing of an elderly woman in the Kavango Region last month, two murder suspects said on Friday. Murder victim Thihawa Thihaka was killed with the intention of culling her heart, liver and hands and selling them, Magistrate FM Mukasa was told when three young residents of the village of Popa appeared before him in the Rundu Magistrate's Court. They are accused of murder and violating a dead human body. In the end, claimed one of the suspects, only her heart, liver, ears, eyes and part of her...