Free Republic

Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and most say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey shows. The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights. Egyptian women and female visitors...

What Did the Early Church  Believe and Preach After Jesus' Death? Suppose you could invite one of the original twelve apostles to your church this weekend. Can you imagine what it would be like to entertain Peter in your worship services? How do you think he would react to what he saw?Would this apostle approve of your denomination's practices?Or is it just possible that he would tell you that some of your most cherished beliefs were in error? How would you feel if he stood up and loudly proclaimed that your church was a promoter of heresy? What if he...

Fawza Falih was condemned to death by a court in the town of Quraiyat after confessing under interrogation to having used sorcery to bewitch people. ...Saudi Arabia’s religious police, the Muttawa, arrested Falih in 2006, and after 35 days’ detention and interrogation, she signed a statement confessing to having been a witch. However, at trial Falih repudiated her confession, saying it had been extracted under torture. Human Rights Watch also charged the Saudi woman’s trial was flawed, alleging misconduct on the part of the judge and prosecutor. An appeals court threw out the death penalty in September 2006, but the...

After the news conference with Ed Rollins in Concord, NH, Huckabee and Rollins, his new national campaign manager, took some questions. The last question was about a Powerline blog, a conservative blog, story that he did not, in fact, have a theology degree, as he has claimed. Here is Huckabee's response: "I have a bachelor of arts in religion and a minor in communications in my undergraduate work. And then I have 46 hours on a master's degree at Southwestern Theology Seminary. (snip) Here's what Huckabee said in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview: "I'm as strong on terror as anybody....

Tehran, 7 May (AKI) - Nureddin Zarrinkelk, a celebrated Iranian animated cartoonist, has been expelled from the fine arts department of the university of Tehran where he taught, reports said Monday. He is accused of having made fun of a female student who was wearing the full Islamic chador covering calling her a "primitive" according to pro-government news agency Rajanews. Zarrinkelk, 70, an icon of Iranian animated cinema, will not be allowed to teach anymore as part of new punitive measures in a moralization campaign which kicked off late last month and provides for the arrest of women who do...

Attention Fred Flintstone and the Geico cave guys: "Stone Age" is no longer acceptable, joining the list of other words and terms deemed offensive in polite society.

A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is 600 metres (2,000 ft) or more under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week. The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth. Marine park staff caught the 1.6 metre (5 ft) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species...

Here is yet another case of savage butchery committed against a woman for offending the honor of a man. From the New Brisbane's News: MULTAN, Pakistan - A Pakistani man cut off the nose and lips of his 19-year-old sister-in-law after she went to court for a divorce in a tribal area of the central province of Punjab, police said on Thursday. Abbas then attacked the girl, hacking off her nose and slicing off her lips. A doctor treating the girl said her nose had been cut off from the bridge and her lips partially severed. Numerous cases have also...

Protests have been held in cities across Canada aimed at stopping Ontario province from adopting sharia-based law to settle Muslim family disputes. Ontario is considering a report which recommends that it allow sharia religious arbitration for issues such as divorce and child custody. Opponents say the proposed arbitration process will violate women's' rights. Approval would make Ontario the only western jurisdiction to adopt a form of sharia arbitration. The demonstration outside the Ontario legislature was the focal point for several protests across Canada. Sharia-based laws would be similar to faith-based tribunals already permitted by the Canadian province for Catholics and...

It's touching, in a way. When a terrorist does something unspeakable, people in the English-speaking world wonder aloud what we did to offend him. In the aftermath of the bombings in London, the realization is dawning that we must get beyond sentimental ideas about terrorists. [snip] Globalization opens up new realms for envy. Terrorism beckons, glorious and fulfilling, when the envious encounter good things they don't know how to create, profit from, or compete with. It seems odd to imagine Saudi citizens as crude vandals and terror financiers—after all, they love to shop in Paris. But without oil, the Middle...

Otherwise eco-activists will keep the world’s poor impoverished, hungry, and disease-ridden. The litany of alleged offenses follows a script: fragile ecosystems, environmental devastation, irresponsible investment, huge profits, human rights violations, indigenous people imperiled. So do the demands: transparency, accountability, ethics, social responsibility. The tactics are equally familiar. Launch website, issue denunciations. Enlist grade school teachers whose students can write letters to the CEO. Harass the CEO at home. Stage protests at corporate offices. Claim to be stakeholders who must be given a role in all decisions, so that company policies henceforth reflect activist demands. Confrontational? Disingenuous? Of course. Effective? Absolutely....

PORT BLAIR, India - Waving a flag made of his clothes, a tsunami victim dressed only in his underwear was rescued after surviving alone for 25 days on a flattened island in India's Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, authorities said Saturday. The tale of survival reached Port Blair, the archipelago's capital, on Saturday as authorities slowly restored communication links with faraway islands. A total of 1,899 people were declared dead across the Andaman and Nicobar islands following the Dec. 26 tsunami, and at least 5,553 remain missing. Hope has run out for most of the missing. But on Saturday, officials on...

During Tsunami Remote Viewing primitive tribes in Andaman Nicobar Islands of India Staff Reporter January 02, 2005 Indian Military personnel is finally reaching the remote islands of Andaman and Car Nicobar. There is massive devastation especially in Nicobar Islands. The inhabitants in these islands consists of tribal and non-tribal mainstream population. Thousands of people are dead and the coastal areas just evaporated. The total population before Tsunami of these tribes was approximately 28,000, which accounts for about 9% of the total population of these Islands. The other 91% population consists of mainstream settlers and the military personnel. The rescue teams...

Putin: Ally or Terrorist? by William F. Jasper Counting Vladimir Putin as an ally against terrorism ignores his career in the murderous KGB/FSB and his ongoing support for terrorist regimes and organizations. ‘‘Lena Goncharuk, aged 38, said that she was the only one to survive out of a group of six who were ordered out of the cellar where they had been hiding and shot at point blank range. Resting in her hospital bed, her voice barely rising above a whisper, she said she had survived only by pretending to be dead." So reported Paul Wood from the Chechen border...

Obviously, if you view the page source you can probably figure out where this is pretty quickly. The challenge is to figure out where it is based on the keywords, and why this region is so important to scientists.