Free Republic

Saudi Arabia has executed 12 people in 10 days despite the Crown Prince's promise to cut down on such form of punishment, according to a human rights organisation. Reprieve said the defendants, all males, were sentenced to death after being imprisoned for non-violent drug offences. According to the non-profit organisation, which gathered data on this week's executions, most of the defendants were beheaded with a sword. Three of the men executed were Pakistani, four Syrian, two Jordanian and three Saudi, Reprieve said. Another man from Jordan was reportedly transferred to a prison wing and is due to be executed on...

The politically correct multicultural forces are attempting to hold back an angry tide that will ultimately sweep them away: The murder of soldier Lee Rigby has provoked a backlash of anger across the UK, including the attacking of mosques, racial abuse and comments made on social media. Eleven people have been arrested around Britain for making 'racist or anti-religious' comments on Twitter following the brutal killing in Woolwich on Wednesday. The incident has also prompted a huge increase in anti-Muslim incidents, according to the organisation Faith Matters, which works to reduce extremism. Before the attack about four to eight cases...

Our national debt stands at $15.2 trillion, and is growing by roughly $6 billion per day. We have tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Unfortunately, we have learned that Republicans lack the gumption to fight for transformational spending cuts and reforms of major entitlements. However, at the very least, one would expect them to oppose silly pork projects like Buffalo Soldiers! Yesterday, the Republican-controlled House passed HR 1022, a bill that would require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study of the history of Buffalo Soldiers in the establishment of national parks....

Video: Saudi Arabia to probe 'dancing nurses' U-Tube (sic) video shows Asian nurses dancing during birthday party at hospital Saudi health authorities have opened an investigation into three films published on U-Tube showing Asian nurses dancing at a mixed-gender birthday party inside a government hospital. The three separate films showed several male and female nurses were involved in the concert that included music and dances, which are strictly banned at Saudi hospitals and other public facilities. The films showed the party was held at King Fahd Hospital in the eastern town of Hofouf and the participants were apparently from the...

"Islam has always been part of our American family."

"The called-for reform does not come via protests and (the clerics) have forbidden protests since they violate the Koran and the way of the Prophet," Faisal said. Protests by a disgruntled Shi'ite majority in neighboring Bahrain are being closely watched in Saudi Arabia, where Shi'ites make up about 15 percent of the population. Faisal warned foreigners to stay out of Saudi's internal affairs: "Change will come through the citizens of this kingdom and not through foreign fingers, we don't need them," he said, adding: "We will cut any finger that crosses into the kingdom."

Citing the rising cost of utilities, the British Royal Family has sought funds from a program designed to help poor households with their heating bills. “The global recession hasn’t exempted the Queen and her kin from hardship,” said Reginald Smythe, spokesman for the Crown. “The million pounds a year it costs to heat and cool the Palace has put a real bite on the family’s budget. There’s even a fear that Prince Charles may have to sell his string of polo ponies just so his mother can make ends meet. Her Majesty felt such a turn of events would risk...

Is it just me, or is there a guy dressed up like Jack Sparrow in here?

November 22, 2007 Snarls, smears and innuendo as attack dogs get ready for the fray Hillary Clinton and her aide, Huma Abedin Tim Reid in Columbia, South Carolina The anonymous e-mails and letters began dropping into inboxes and through front doors this summer. One claimed that Hillary Clinton was having a lesbian affair with Huma Abedin, her beautiful aide. Another online mass-mailing cautioned of the “dark secrets” of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. A blogger claiming to support John McCain said that Rudy Giuliani's wife supported the killing of “innocent puppies”. Flyers appeared on cars accusing Barack Obama of being a Muslim...

A new report submitted to the Dutch government has sparked controversy by arguing that Islam does not conflict with either human rights or Dutch values. Islam has been a hot topic in the Netherlands since the killing of a controversial film-maker, Theo van Gogh, by a young Muslim in 2004.In a country traditionally seen as one of the most liberal and tolerant in Europe, Islam and Muslims are now viewed with suspicion. The report is the fruit of three years' work by the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), a think-tank in The Hague which advises the government. It examines...

The nation's most prominent pro-choice spokeswoman blasted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for giving $10,000 to right-to-life Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey and accused the former first lady of "putting politics over principle." "When push comes to shove, at certain times, [Clinton] will support the party even if that choice does not reflect all their standards and principles," Kate Michelman, former longtime head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told The Post. Clinton, a darling of the pro-choice community, is taking heat from the activist for giving the maximum donation allowable under law to pro-life Senate hopeful Casey through her political committee, HillPAC.

What About the State of Our Health Care? Dear Friend, George Bush may have had an election year conversion about the importance of health care, but as I listened to his State of the Union Speech tonight, it's clear he still wants to take us in the wrong direction. I can tell you from the people I have spoken to, and the thousands of stories you have sent me concerning your health care struggles, that few Americans, if any, would find relief from the Bush assortment of flimsy band-aids and "private account" gimmicks. George Bush and his Republican allies want...

Stop the $22 billion special interest giveaway! Dear Friend, Republicans are nothing if not consistent in putting their special-interest friends first. Today, the Washington Post revealed a back-room deal by Republicans to preserve a loophole in Medicare payment policies that allows insurance companies to receive excess payments from Medicare – to the tune of $22 billion. You read that correctly. The Senate tried to act to save Medicare $26 billion in payments to insurance companies. But, in the Republican-controlled conference committee – where both Democrats and the public were shut out – lobbyists for the insurance companies successfully eliminated all...

Speak Up for Health Care Dear Friend, They are at it again. What the Bush Administration tried and failed to do with Social Security, they now intend to do with health care. They want to shift the health care system into private health care savings accounts. We're not going to let them. Once again, we must stop their ill-advised, unfair plan in its tracks. What would private health care savings accounts (HSA's) mean for Americans? It would mean that the well to do, those who are already the best able to pay for health care, would perhaps be fine. But...

BRITISH police are considering the possibility that the four key suspects in last week's London attacks may have been tricked into setting off their bombs, a newspaper has reported. "We do not have hard evidence that the men were suicide bombers," a Scotland Yard spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph. "It is possible that they did not intend to die." According to the paper, one police hypothesis is that the bombers were tricked by a "master" who told them they would have time to escape - when in fact the devices were set to go off immediately. "The bombers' masters might...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of a militant group involved in beheading hostages and other attacks has been arrested and the group was broken up, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday. Allawi identified the group as Jaish Muhammad, Arabic for Muhammad's Army. The group "has been arrested ... We arrested their leader," Allawi said, identifying him as Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed. Muhammad's Army was known to have cooperated with Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida and Saddam loyalists and was responsible for killing and beheading a number of Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in...

The ever-colorful Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose ``shove it'' comment to a journalist made headlines earlier this year, says some of the words she chooses may be inappropriate because English is her second language.      ``My intent and my expression is real, but the actual use of the words may be out of place,'' she said on the daytime talk show ``The View.''      Heinz Kerry is a native of Mozambique, where Portuguese is the official language.      But the potential first lady said she does not regret anything she's said this campaign season. ``I have not said very much at all except people...

Wise Irishman      "I am having fun listening to Teresa Heinz Kerry. The Democrats muzzled Hillary Rodham Clinton in '92 after the 'baking cookies' remark, but I don't think John Kerry will be able to do so with his meal ticket. When I was growing up, I had friends who wanted to marry girls with some wealth, but my dad, a wise old Irishman, told me: 'No one works harder for his money than the man who marries it.' "     — Irish-American Republicans founder and co-chairman Frank Duggan.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Relatives of two Jordanian drivers abducted in Iraq threatened Tuesday to behead the director of the company the hostages work for and to kill all the firm's employees if the director fails to immediately comply with the kidnappers' demands to cease operations in Iraq. Fayez Saad al-Udwan and Ahmed Salama Hassan — who work as drivers for the private Jordanian company Daoud and Partners (search) — were kidnapped Monday by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen Corps (search) in Iraq. The group warned the captives would be killed within 72 hours unless their employer withdrew from Iraq...

A former Hillary Clinton fundraiser who has just been extradited from Brazil is promising blockbuster revelations against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- revelations that could throw a monkeywrench into Hillary's presidential ambitions. Peter Franklin Paul, who has accused Hillary Clinton of failing to declare $2 million in campaign contributions to the Federal Election Commission, is just back in the U.S. after being extradited from Brazil and is promising to reveal fresh details of how he financed Clinton. Paul made some blistering criticisms of the Clintons to Brazil's Epoca magazine just before he was extradited. Paul was returned to the U.S....