Free Republic

A bitter clash is looming over who will foot the bill for paying pensions owed to thousands of British Eurocrats when the UK leaves the EU. Brussels has estimated its pensions liability at €60 billion (£50.7 billion) for all retired and current officials, with annual payments currently at about €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion). Some 1,730 Britons currently make up almost 8 per cent of the 22,000 retired EU officials. The UK insists it cannot be held responsible for Eurocrat pensions which, it says, are the responsibility of EU institutions.

Solicitor claims mother who sexually abused girl, nine, should not be jailed because her shame as a Muslim was punishment enough Raheelah Dar, 43, jailed for seven years for sex offences against young girl Was convicted of grooming, isolating and manipulating the schoolgirl Dar began to abuse the girl after the failure of her first arranged marriage Her lawyer urged judge not to jail her as she had already been shunned by her community But judge gave her seven years saying: 'She was an innocent. You were crafty' A middle-aged Muslim woman has been jailed for seven years for carrying...

Will Amazon's noisy drones upset wildlife? Campaigners say animals will be severely affected by the machines being tested over Cambridgeshire Amazon sparked fury with controversial plans to use drones for deliveries Retailer thought to have permission to test them over Cambridge farms Buzzards, hawks and red kites all fly in the same skies to be used by drones Long-eared owls and turtle doves, both facing extinction, nest in the area Controversial plans by Amazon to deliver parcels using drones have already sparked protest before the online shopping giant has even got the idea off the ground. The retailer is believed...

The expert shooter took out the bomber moments after he put on a suicide vest packed with hundreds of steel ball-bearings ready for a deadly attack. In one precise shot from 800m away, the sniper fired through a window to put a bullet through the terrorist's vest causing an explosion. The bomber, his accomplice and two bomb makers were killed in the blast which sprayed the inside of a bomb making factory in Iraq with shrapnel. . . . "The sniper fired and less than a second later the vest detonated. The blast blew the roof off the house and...

An Imam has told his congregation in Wales that war is approaching and Islam allows them to take women as slaves and rape them. Ali Hammuda is an Imam at Cardiff’s Al-Manar Mosque, where three Islamic State (IS) fighters worshipped before travelling to Syria. They were known as the “Cardiff jihadis” before one was killed in an RAF drone strike as he was thought to be plotting attacks in the UK. Before the strike, Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana, then both 20, appeared in an IS recruiting video in 2014 where they bragged about executing prisoners. Muthana’s younger brother Aseel,...

MEMBERS of the public caught up in a terror attack in the UK should run as far away as possible rather than immediately take cover and hide, a top police officer has said. Britons were warned yesterday that it was a matter of "when, not if" a terror attack will happen on British soil. And Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said those caught up in an attack should only hide once they had escaped as far away from the attackers as they could. He said: "Let's be really clear - run as far away as possible and when you...

A Viscountess has blamed badgers for the slaughter of 200 lambs on her family’s estate, as she called for a widespread cull of the animals. Helene, Viscountess Scarsdale, a formidable aristocrat, said the lambs had been killed in three years, while also accusing the National Trust, which now owns historic Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, of allowing the badgers to “wreak havoc”. She said 500 acres of “beautiful” parkland at Kedleston, which has been in the family for almost 1,000 years, had been allowed to turn into “thistles and nettles” by the trust, which in turn had let badgers thrive. The...

AN EXPLOSION has rocked the Olympic stadium in Rio just days before it’s set to host the opening ceremony after police found a suspicious toolbox.Authorities sent in a robot to investigate the toolbox on Sunday at the Maracana Stadium as rehearsals for the ceremony were underway. The toolbox is believed to have exploded when the robot touched it. No injuries have been reported.The controlled explosion raises serious concerns about the safety of athletes and spectators alike at the Rio Olympics, with the opening ceremony starting in just five days. The Games have been blighted by controversies amid fears for the...

A local council in Melbourne has demanded a mural of Hillary Clinton in a swimsuit be removed, saying they had received complaints about the provocative artwork. The mural of the US Presidential nominee wearing a skimpy stars and stripes-patterned monokini was painted on a wall in Footscray last weekend by street artist Lushsux. Maribyrnong Council has requested the artwork be removed from the wall, reported the Herald Sun. A friend looking after Lushsux's small business told the Herald Sun it was 'over the top' and 'political correctness gone 'haywire'. 'I can’t see any problem with someone expressing themselves with art,'...

When they decided to print special collectors’ covers for the magazine’s September issue, all about “icons of change”, the publishers of Elle knew immediately who the stars should be: the actors Kristen Stewart and Amandla Stenberg, both of whom have made headlines for their refusal to conform to traditional notions of sexuality; the singer Zayn Malik, who walked away from One Direction, the biggest pop band in the world, at the height of its fame; and the transgender model Hari Nef. Nef’s cover is arguably the most radical of the four. It marks the first time a transgender woman has...

A MUSLIM cleric from a Cardiff mosque where three British jihadis are believed to have been radicalised has told young worshippers it is “permissible” to keep sex slaves Ali Hammuda is an Imam at the Al-Manar mosque in the Welsh city, and has been at this post since Nasser Muthana and Reyyad Khan, then 20, and teenager Aseel Muthana left for Syria in 2014. Now the preacher has been secretly filmed telling a group of young Muslims it is acceptable to keep sex slaves and that the "end of days" is near.

By my estimate, only three politicians have made a genuine, enduring difference to Britain in the past 50 years. Perhaps it’s not surprising that they have very contrasting characteristics. First, there was Roy Jenkins, Labour’s Home Secretary in the Sixties. He was regarded as the father of the Permissive Society — legalising homosexuality, abolishing hanging, ending censorship, reforming abortion and divorce laws. Then there was Edward Heath, the Tory prime minister in the Seventies who negotiated Britain’s entry into the nascent European Union (then misleadingly known as the Common Market). Heath was a disagreeable man and failed in countless areas,...

Schools have been told they may be breaking the law if they do not allow extra breaks in sports lessons for transgender pupils. Advice from councils warns that the practice of chest-binding – which is common among youngsters changing from female to male – can lead to ‘breathing difficulties and fainting’. And if pupils are put at risk or treated less favourably as a result of being transgender, schools could be in breach of discrimination legislation. Guidance on how to deal fairly with transgender pupils has been produced by a number of local authorities including Lancashire, Cornwall, Brighton and Hove,...

"UNPRECEDENTED": HMS Duncan is one of the six powerful warships currently docked at Portsmouth Six £1billion Type 45 Destroyers - described as the backbone of Britain's marine defences - are not on operations, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. One senior Navy insider told how out was "almost unprecedented" that all the vessels should be docked. And the fact all six were in port at once could suggest "a gross lack of planning" or indicate "something more serious", the source warned Sky News. An insider revealed the ships had "just got back from operations, are about to go on operations...

A bloody outrage: The decorated Para facing prosecution 44 years after shooting dead an IRA killer - while the blood-soaked men of terror know they'll never face justice (thanks to Blair's squalid 'peace' deal) Soldier C faces prosecution for shooting the IRA commander Joe McCann The 65-year-old had been cleared of any wrong-doing over killing in 1972 Thought case is politically motivated and designed to appease IRA families Meanwhile, suspected IRA terrorists avoid prosecution due to Blair's deal Soldier C is a man who rarely shows emotion. Having served his country for 23 years in both the Parachute Regiment and...

President Barack Obama has been slated by his own brother - and revealed he will back Republican Donald Trump in the Presidential race. Speaking live from Kenya on British TV, Malik Obama also spoke about his relationship with Barack and claimed he has to make appointments to see him. And he told Good Morning Britain hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid that the US leader has issues with attitude. He said: "[Barack] has this attitude like 'I'm the president, I've made it, I'm the star here'. I do understand that but I'm just expressing my opinion and how I feel."

"There is no stipulation anywhere that requires a security clearance for a presidential candidate. The fact that they're a candidate qualifies them," says James R. Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence. Donald Trump will begin to get intelligence briefings now that he is the official GOP candidate for president. Both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will get briefings as soon as next week, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence, said Thursday during the Aspen Security Forum. Although Trump is a notorious tweeter and Clinton has been on the hot seat for her email server, Clapper...

In an interview at the Aspen Security Forum, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti said it's something he regularly discusses with other countries. "What I tell them typically is that look, we have a people and a Congress with a tough budget as well," Scaparrotti said Thursday night. "So as a leader of another country you have to put your share into this, you have to do that because when I go back to testify to Congress I get asked these questions." . . Scaparrotti, NATO's supreme commander, says as of now only five of the 28 NATO nations are meeting their...

Ex-security minister Admiral Lord West says it would be 'even easier' to use the toys as weapons here than the Middle East. Foreign Office minister Baroness Anelay said there was growing proof that Daesh militants are converting the popular toys into weapons in their Middle East heartlands. A NATO chemical weapons expert also claimed the killer drones could be fitted with World War I mustard gas.

The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom has struck down Scotland's plan to assign a government employee to every child to ensure – even if the family objects – each one meets the government's goal of being "safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included." The argument against Scotland’s Children and Young People Act, the "Named Persons” plan, was that the government does not have the right to give to its employees private information.