Free Republic

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organization and invite China and others to form a new one.Two U.N. human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs. About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9. Duterte on Friday denied that the...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — An imam and another man are dead following a double shooting in Queens on Saturday afternoon. CBS2’s Valerie Castro reported Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and a 64-year-old associate from his congregation were each shot in the head while on their way home from a local mosque by a man who came up behind them. The shooting took place near Liberty Avenue and 79th Street in Ozone Park around 2 p.m. Witnesses said the imam from the Al-Furqan Masjid mosque had just delivered an afternoon service and was walking home with another member of the mosque when...

So who’s ready for an American trial of Mexican drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman? You may be getting understandably excited about the prospect. After all, the gang lord was already moved from the Altiplano lockup further south in Mexico (and the scene of his now famous tunnel escape) to a cell in Ciudad Juarez, just over the border from us earlier this month. And the Mexican Government has approved his extradition. He’s certainly in high demand on this side of the Rio Grande. We’re looking at bringing him to Brooklyn to stand trial, but he’s also wanted for...

The professional athlete who completed the entire Appalachian Trail in record-setting time paid a $500 fine Wednesday for drinking alcohol atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin in July, an incident that prompted a broader debate about hikers’ behavior in Baxter State Park. An attorney for Scott Jurek said his client agreed to pay the fine because he did pop open a bottle of champagne atop Maine’s highest peak in violation of Baxter State Park’s no-alcohol policy after his 46-day run ended July 12. But as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges of littering and hiking with an oversized group, two...

Some news accounts report that Dylan Roof had been arrested for felony drug possession a bit over a month before he bought a gun. Others disagree, saying the arrest was for a misdemeanor. Here’s what FBI Director James Comey said: On April 11, Roof attempted to purchase a handgun from a store in West Columbia, South Carolina, a near suburb of Columbia. That day was a Saturday. On the next business day, April 13, an examiner in our West Virginia facility was assigned the case and began to process it. Her initial check of Roof’s criminal history showed that he...

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has agreed to change two of the most scrutinized aspects of its civil forfeiture program - a $6-million-a-year juggernaut aimed at taking cash and property out of the hands of drug dealers. In federal court filings this week, city lawyers agreed to limit their practice of barring homeowners from properties tied up in forfeiture proceedings until the case has made its way before a judge. Prosecutors also said they would no longer enforce several controversial requirements routinely included in deals struck with property owners to settle forfeiture cases. Those include restrictions blocking relatives accused of...

Toys Я Us is pulling its four collectible dolls based on characters from AMC’s hit series “Breaking Bad” after taking heat from a Florida mom who launched a petition campaign last week. The dolls are based on the series about Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who turns into a crystal meth dealer, and his sidekick Jesse Pinkman. The figures have a detachable bag of cash and a bag of methamphetamines.Toys Я Us, which is based in Wayne, New Jersey, told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the dolls are being removed immediately from its website and shelves. …

A Georgia woman was mistakenly jailed for one month after cops confused her SpaghettiOs for meth. Ashley Gabrielle Huff was first detained on July 2 after officers in Gainesville found a spoon with a dried substance baked onto it inside her car during a routine traffic stop. The 23-year-old, from Commerce, claimed it was residue from the canned pasta that she liked to eat in the vehicle. Police, however, believed it to be methamphetamine. Huff, who had no criminal history, was sent to Hall County Jail for two days so cops could conduct crime lab tests on the mysterious texture.

The Canadian government has had to warn its citizens not to carry cash to the USA because the USA does not presume innocence but guilt when it comes to money. Over $2.5 billion has been confiscated from Canadians traveling to the USA, funding the police who grab it. If you are bringing cash to the land of the free, you will find that that saying really means they are FREE to seize all your money under the pretense you are engaged in drugs with no evidence or other charges. It costs more money in legal fees to try to get...

A Grade 12 student in Lethbridge, Alta., was suspended last week for dealing Pepsi to fellow students out of his locker. Keenan Shaw was suspended for two days by Winston Churchill high school for selling the soft drink to students, violating a school policy that only permits diet pop on the premises. Shaw says he was told the sales violated the nutrition and marketing policies, and that he was operating a business without a licence. But compared with what some other students sell at the southern Alberta school, Shaw says, his transgressions were minor. "I'm not going to name any...

ENLARGE Mexican journalist Anabel Hernandez says "Narcoland" reaches the highest level of government. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images) MEXICO CITY — It is not easy for any reporter to cover drug trafficking in Mexico, a country where more than 80 journalists have been shot, stabbed, bludgeoned to death or decapitated since 2006. But despite the risks, journalist and author Anabel Hernandez not only covers the issue, but also levels accusations of narco corruption in the country’s most powerful institution: the presidency. In articles and books, she has alleged links between kingpins such as Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman and a series of Mexican presidents,...

WICHITA, Kan. — The Sedgwick County District Attorney is alleging that a foster father was high while a baby was left in a hot car last week. She later died. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett read the allegations during a bond reduction hearing for Seth Jackson on Friday afternoon. Bennett said that Jackson had run out of marijuana on the morning of July 24. That afternoon, he reportedly took two children to meet with his drug dealer where he bought more. When he got home, Bennett said he left the 10-month-old girl in the car, went inside and smoked...

Over the past several weeks we have seen a significant increase in illegal immigration, as thousands of unaccompanied minors pour across what seems an invisible southern border into the United States. The mass immigration has, as to be expected, put an enormous strain on local resources, and it has heated up the immigration debate in the US. Most liberals and conservatives miss the point, however, making the same old arguments we have all heard before. Liberals argue that we need to provide more welfare and assistance to these young immigrants, while conservatives would bus them to the other side of...

The 7th Air Force called last weekend’s ban on drinking a “success,” with no alcohol-related incidents recorded during the 66-hour period. The ban on alcohol purchase and consumption was in place for all airmen in South Korea from noon Friday through 6 a.m. Monday. Violators could have faced punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Command spokeswoman Maj. Richelle Dowdell said the alcohol stand-down was successful because it gave airmen a chance to reflect on their mission, gave them “time to consider what we must do to change — not only as individuals but to promote a culture of...

"Three out of four people in prison are black or brown for nonviolent drug use. However, when you do surveys, white kids are doing drugs at an equal rate, and they are a much bigger part of the population. So, why are the prisons full of black and brown kids? It is easier to arrest them. It is easier to convict them. They don't get as good of attorneys. And, frankly, they live in the city in a much more collected fashion than in the suburbs, and so the police are patrolling the city more. But it is unfair. The...

"That situation didn't define who I was," Clarence Aaron, 45, told a group gathered for a weekend celebration at the Mobile high school he attended about two decades ago. When, at age 24, he found himself in federal prison in 1993 -- after he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole for a first-time nonviolent drug offense -- he felt what he called the "stigma." But the former LeFlore High varsity football star refused to give in to the bitterness of receiving a life sentence while career drug dealers received decades less time. He had a plan: Follow the...

The federal government wants to extend its oversight of tobacco to include cigars, hookah, nicotine gels, pipe tobacco and dissolvable tobacco products. The Food and Drug Administration proposal being issued Thursday would ban sales to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels. …

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico – Hundreds of armed men belonging to community self-defense groups occupied eight small towns near Chilpancingo, capital of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, and detained a dozen suspected extortionists, a spokesperson for the vigilantes said. The action was taken due to the “federal government’s poor response” in ensuring the security of the state’s inhabitants, Gonzalo Torres, a coordinator of the Citizen Safety and Justice System, or SSyJC, organization, said Friday. The vigilantes said they seized control of the towns, all part of the municipality of Chilpancingo, because their residents are the victims of criminal gangs that extort...

Within days after each season premiere and season finale of the Discovery Channel's reality show "Moonshiners," they come — a small but perceptible wave of people — to purchase suspiciously large amounts of corn, sugar and hardy strains of fermenting yeast at Austin Homebrew Supply. "We know what they're up to," says Chris Ellison, the manager of the Texas store.That is, it's obvious they're planning to ferment the sugars from grain or fruit juice into alcohol, then distill the resulting mid-strength beverage into high-alcohol hooch.Making spirits at home with plans to drink it is against federal law. Only with the...

...Sizzurp is traditionally a blend of codeine syrup, a fizzy drink (in this case, Pineapple Fanta) and maybe some crushed up sweets or something for flavour, all served in a Styrofoam cup for added class – and police allegedly found a mountain of empty soda cans, personalised-with-a-biro Styrofoam cups and empty codeine bottles in Bieber’s mansion. However, as TMZ reports, police had to pass up a number of not-very-well-hidden-at-all items of drug paraphernalia while raiding Justin’s Calasbasas home – apparently including two cookie jars stuffed with ‘whacky tobacky’, as well as the aforementioned sizzurp ingredients – as the search warrant...