Free Republic

Dallas attorney Clint Broden alleges in a motion in the case of his client, Twin Peaks biker Matthew Clendennen, that McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna is under federal investigation for selective prosecution for political gain. Broden, who represents former member of the Scimitars group member Matthew Clendennen, filed motions Friday morning questioning Reyna's credibility as a prosecutor in the Twin Peaks shootout cases, saying the district attorney made decisions on which defendants to prosecute based on his political interests. "On Oct. 18, 2017, the defense received what appears to be very credible information indicating that Reyna has been, and...

PATTANI - Thirty-seven people were confirmed injured when two bombs went off at Big C Supercenter in Muang district on Tuesday afternoon. The first explosion occurred about 2.10pm and the second shortly after. Another suspicious object was found at Diana department store in Muang district, Pol Col Preecha Prachumchai, a deputy superintendent at Muang police station said. The first bomb went off near the food centre inside the Big C building and the second followed shortly after outside the building, after shoppers and staff had left the building in panic, security authorities said. The second bomb was inside a bag...

Everyone has had the infuriating moment of seeing a car parked so badly across the white lines in a parking lot that it occupies two spots. Sometimes, a note is left. Other times, the offended driver just grumbles and walks away. Well, for one Jeep driver, a poorly parked BMW was one step too far. A YouTube video captured the Jeep's driver pulling up behind a black BMW in an unspecified parking lot. The passenger gets out of the Jeep to film what happens next. (You can see the video here.)

New wave of censorship @ Paul Joseph Watson goes into some of the details (10:14 runtime).

You may have heard of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, the new film from blow-'em-up-real-good director Michael Bay of Armageddon and Transformers fame. ... ... ... It's going to make its debut at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington as part of a promotional push, Paramount Studios confirmed Wednesday. 13 Hours... revolves around the six-man security team that defended the American diplomatic compound at Benghazi, Libya, during an attack by terrorists in 2012 that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. ... ... ... Tickets are free through ticketmaster.com and thirteenhoursmovie.com as long as supplies last....

Taliban gunmen stormed a Pakistani Air Force base early on Friday, killing at least 17 people, a military spokesman said, the deadliest attack on a military installation this year. Sixteen of the dead were killed in a mosque as they offered morning prayers, and a captain died leading the counter-attack against the raiders, Major General Asim Bajwa said on Twitter. The Major added that 13 of the terrorists were killed. It was unclear if the 16 killed in the mosque at the Badaber air base in the northwestern city of Peshawar were civilians or military, he added.

The United States says Russia has decided to close a decades-old American cultural center operating in Moscow under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy, a move it said was damaging to the two countries' already frayed ties. U.S. Ambassador John Tefft said in a September 16 statement that the embassy "deeply regrets the Russian government's unilateral decision" to close the embassy's American Center, which opened at the All-Russia State Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow in 1993. "The library recently terminated the formal agreement for embassy support of the center, informed us of its intention to replace the American director...

Every several years or so a legislator is called upon to cast a momentous vote in which the stakes are high and both sides of the issue are vociferous in their views. Over the years, I have learned that the best way to treat such decisions is to study the issue carefully, hear the full, unfiltered explanation of those for and against, and then, without regard to pressure, politics or party, make a decision solely based on the merits. I have spent the last three weeks doing just that: carefully studying the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reading and re-reading...

Masked gunmen in northern Libya have kidnapped 13 Coptic Christian workers from Egypt, just a week after seven others were abducted. Eyewitnesses in the city of Sirte said suspected Islamist militants went to a residential compound late at night and asked to see identification papers. Christians were then separated from the Muslims before reportedly being handcuffed and kidnapped. It is the latest in a series of attacks on Egyptian Christians in Libya. One witness said 15 masked gunmen went from room to room in the residential complex at about 02:30 local time (04:30 GMT) on Saturday morning. "They had a...

Former Dallas Cowboys fullback Robert Newhouse, who will be remembered most for throwing a touchdown pass to Golden Richards while running to his left in Super Bowl XII on one of Tom Landry’s famous trick plays, died Tuesday night. He was 64. Newhouse battled health issues since suffering a stroke in 2010. He spent much of the past year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., hoping to get a heart transplant. Newhouse never got strong enough for the transplant before succumbing to heart disease at the Mayo Clinic, his son Rodd Newhouse confirmed Tuesday night. Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/07/22/5988448/former-cowboys-running-back-robert.html#storylink=cpy

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space station astronauts got a special Easter treat: a cargo ship full of supplies. The shipment arrived Sunday morning via a Dragon, versus a bunny. "Gentlemen, the Easter Dragon is knocking at the door," NASA's Mission Control said as the capsule was bolted into place. The SpaceX company's cargo ship, Dragon, spent two days chasing the International Space Station following its launch from Cape Canaveral. Astronauts used a robot arm to capture the capsule 260 miles above Egypt. More than 2 tons of food, spacewalking gear and experiments fill the Dragon, including mating fruit flies, a...

Some of the 11 Jewish ossuaries from Second Temple period still held bones, featured Hebrew script listing names of those interred. The Antiquities Authority and police cooperated last Friday to arrest suspects who allegedly stole ornate stone ossuary burial chests, which were used by Jews in Israel during the Second Temple period roughly 2,000 years ago. The suspects were caught while in possession of eleven ossuaries, some of them still containing skeletal remains. The suspected grave robbers, who were arrested and brought in for questioning, came from the Arab village of Abadiyah in Judea, located near Bethlehem, as well as...

The crisis in Crimea has been many years in the making, and made it ripe for the taking. To paint Russian leadership as reactionary, ham-fisted hardliners is to ignore a decade of methodical deployment of soft power techniques, patient construction of fifth columns, and the massive incentives Russia has not to blow the place up. Focus on Russia’s military is misdirection; it is absolutely important, but the real benefit to brinkmanship is to make other outcomes seem downright reasonable. In light of recent setbacks, two potential outcomes are both reasonable (when compared to the extremes of military conflict and secession)...

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, the head of a pro-democracy group in his native Russia, was granted Croatian citizenship. Kasparov reportedly became a Croatian citizen last week after applying for citizenship in early February. He owns a home in Croatia and speaks the language, according to reports. The founder and chairman of United Civil Front is a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kasparov was arrested and beaten by police in 2012, and spent several days in jail, according to The Guardian newspaper. Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/ex-russian-chess-champ-kasparov-granted-croatian-citizenship/2014/03/02/

My Times are in Your Hands A study of God's Faithfulness in Affliction Sometimes pain is the result of bad decisions, but there are times we suffer through no fault of our own. Alistair Begg looks to the story of Joseph to find instructions on how to handle unfair circumstances. Hear the message, Good News, Bad News, on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. [no transcript at web site -- my apologies]

The conviction and jailing of Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny has led to widespread criticism. Navalny was imprisoned for five years for embezzlement from a timber firm. He had denied the charges, saying the trial was politically motivated. The EU said the verdict posed "serious questions" about Russian law, while the US said it was "deeply disappointed". Later, police detained dozens of protesters following scuffles in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities. Thousands took to the streets for protests which continued late into the evening. In Kirov, where the trial was held, at least two Navalny supporters were arrested after...

The president of St. John’s University, Father Donald Harrington, will announce his retirement this afternoon. The news comes in the midst of an investigation into the conduct of both Harrington and his chief of staff, Rob Wile, after allegations of corruption and misuse of university finances. Wile will resign effective June 30, according to sources. "The difficulties for everyone during the past year have convinced me, after much prayer and reflection, that the time to leave the presidency has now come," Harrington wrote in an internal communication to the St. John’s community. The dual departures follow a series of New...

Kampala - A popular Ugandan priest has been ostracized from the Catholic Church after exposing what he calls an 'open secret'-- the rampant sexual abuse of children by clergy members. Earlier this year, Ghanian cardinal and papal candidate Peter Turkson raised eyebrows when he told CNN that the international clergy sex abuse scandal couldn't happen in Africa because "African traditional systems kind of protect... its population against this tendency" and "in Africa homosexuality... [is] not countenanced in our society." But one African priest strongly disagrees. Anthony Musaala, a gospel music star known as the "Dancing Priest," has been publicizing sex...

In the era whose secret he uncovered, a journalist's office would have looked just like the one where Yang Jisheng works now. The tiled floor, the grimy window panes, the desk piled two feet high with papers, envelopes and books. The Mao-era radiators. The cigarette ash and the dust. Under Mao Zedong, Yang's good fortune was to find a job as a reporter with China's state-run Xinhua news agency. His misfortune had been to see his father die of hunger in 1961, at the height of the famine that killed an estimated 36 million people: "When my dad died, I...

A Norwegian driver who tried to avoid crashing into a moose hit a bear instead, a wildlife official said. [snip] The driver spotted the moose around midnight near Hanestad village and tried to steer around the animal, when a bear suddenly ran in front of his car.