Free Republic

33-year-old Roya Heshmati accused by Tehran’s judiciary of having ‘encouraged permissiveness’ after violating mandatory dress code in public... TEHRAN — Iranian authorities have whipped a woman 74 times for “violating public morals” and fined her for not covering her head, the judiciary said. “The convicted, Roya Heshmati, encouraged permissiveness [by appearing] disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said late on Saturday. “Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,” and “for violating public morals,” Mizan said. Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw identified Heshmati as...

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are going to be podcasters. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Spotify to host and produce their own podcasts, they announced Tuesday. They are again following in the footsteps of the Obamas by signing up with both Netflix and Spotify. They have set up Archewell Audio and signed an exclusive multi-year deal with the platform, and said in a statement released Tuesday they will produce programming “that uplifts and entertains audiences around the world.” Later this month, they say they’ll release a holiday special that will feature “stories of...

As the Prince of Wales accompanied Meghan towards the altar, where Harry was waiting, Handel’s Eternal Source Of Light Divine played. The spell-binding cantata was sung in Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel by Welsh soprano Elin Manahan and featured David Blackadder as the trumpet soloist. The Duke of Sussex has revealed he picked the poignant music his wife walked down the aisle to. Harry, speaking in the audio commentary notes for a new Windsor Castle exhibition about his wedding, said: “I was looking for something completely different and ended up stumbling across this piece of music. “Something that epitomises the...

James A. Wolfe, former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, lost everything when he was arrested by the FBI last night. A review of media reports on the background of the arrest suggests that the lure of romance with a nubile female journalism school student was his undoing. This is a story with at least two compelling themes: the apparent betrayal of national security by a veteran Senate staffer and the rise in a mere four years of a comely female reporter in a romantic relationship with Wolfe from unpaid undergraduate intern at McClatchy to the lofty post...

Democratic state Rep. Brandon Dillon represents the 75th House District, which includes part of the city of Grand Rapids. He is in his third and final term in the House. Growing up, I always considered myself "pro-life." As someone who was raised in Grand Rapids, went to Catholic school for 13 years, and has been blessed with beautiful (and active!) twin 12-year-old boys of my own, it was just part of who I was and the community I came from. That's why, as an elected official at both the county and state level, I previously sought the endorsement of Right...

... Obama said on an open microphone at the U.N. General Assembly Monday that he quit smoking six years ago "because I'm afraid of my wife." "I hope you quit smoking," he told a fellow attendee, according to audio played Monday by CNN. After the man said he smokes "sometimes," Obama said he chews Nicorette nicotine gum and that "I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years." He then jokes: "That' because I'm scared of my wife."

Somali Convert from Islam Whipped in Public Compass Woman left bleeding in front of hundreds of spectators for becoming Christian. NAIROBI, Kenya, January 10 (CDN) — A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said. Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somali’as Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release. She received 40 lashes on Dec. 22 while jeered by spectators. “Osman was...

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Footage has emerged of a woman being publicly whipped in Sudan for wearing pants. The video offers a rare glimpse of the type of punishment inflicted on women who break the country's strict morality code. The victim was punished under Sharia law for wearing pants under her Islamic clothing.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Men might still dominate most workplaces but a study has proven what many happy couples know -- the wife runs the roost at home and the husband is happy to let her. A team of researchers from Iowa State University studied 72 couples and found that the wife's view on how to solve problems within the marriage or the home took precedence over the husband's opinion and he was happy to accept that. "The women were communicating more powerful messages and men were responding to those messages by agreeing or giving in," Associate Professor of...

Three months after Elizabeth Edwards said that her cancer had returned in inoperable form, her role and influence in John Edwards’s presidential campaign is undiminished. She has made a flurry of charged public appearances, become a regular presence advising Mr. Edwards on the campaign trail, and wields behind-the-scenes influence in many internal campaign decisions, aides said. Mrs. Edwards has also become a free operator on behalf of her husband of 29 years, a development that her friends suggest reflects the clarity and perspective that come from her cancer diagnosis, and her increasingly confident political instincts as she advises Mr. Edwards,...

Taylor 'looked like whipped dog' as justice caught up By Hans Nichols in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Filed: 02/04/2006) Slumped and sombre, Charles Taylor uttered not a single word as he sat in the United Nations helicopter that spirited him from Liberia, where he once ruled, to neighbouring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of committing war crimes. "He looked like a whipped dog. A look of total defeat," said a UN official, one of 16 passengers on the flight that brought Taylor to the tribunal he has eluded for three years. Charles Taylor in Freetown "You look at someone that...

If you are single and live in SAN ANTONIO,TX---BEWARE of one greedy, self-centered @#$!$ !! Believe me I know...Back in August of 2002 I was married to "IT". I went to CA to work, sending her $1000.00 a week to pay bills. In December of 2002, she told me we were divorced. I got no notice of divorce papers or even a phone call. She claims she had no idea where i was...Yeah right!! She had some guy living in my house 2wks after I left (I found this out later on..)and he was wearing MY clothes. With my money,...

LONDON (Reuters) - A British couple who hold the world record for the longest marriage said Wednesday their success was down to a glass of whisky, a glass of sherry and the word "sorry." Percy and Florence Arrowsmith married on June 1, 1925 and will celebrate their 80th anniversary Wednesday. The Guinness World Records said Tuesday the couple held the title for the longest marriage and also for the oldest married couple's aggregate age. "I think we're very blessed," Florence, 100, told the BBC. "We still love one another, that's the most important part." Asked for their secret, Florence said...

Arnold's retreats threaten his agenda By Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau Saturday, April 30, 2005 - SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's retreat on his redistricting plan jeopardizes his entire reform agenda, as well as his plan for a special election, analysts say. Schwarzenegger had already decided to postpone pension reform until next year, then this week softened his stance on redistricting, saying it does not necessarily have to happen by 2006 as he first demanded. But political observers say another retreat could make Schwarzenegger look particularly weak even as his popularity numbers are sagging. "I don't know that he can afford...

PALMER: Christian school fires educator who says Jesus inspired him. WASILLA -- Matanuska Christian School's principal has been fired and a teacher has quit over a disciplinary incident in which the principal had himself whipped in front of two students. Principal Steve Unfreid, who said he was inspired in his choice of disciplinary tactics by the actions of Jesus, asked teacher Joe Brost to whip him in front of two male students in the school's basement last month after the boys were caught kissing girls in the locker room for the second time in a week. Unfreid, in an interview...

Kerry Campaign Concludes Presidential Hopeful Can't Tap Heinz Investment Fortune for RaceBy Sharon Theimer Associated Press WriterPublished: Jun 4, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) - John Kerry has concluded that federal law bars him from tapping any of his wife's vast Heinz investment fortune for his presidential campaign, removing an arsenal of cash that some Democrats hoped he could use to counter President Bush's fund-raising prowess. Teresa Heinz Kerry's holdings have been estimated at $550 million or more, putting her among the 400 richest Americans on Forbes magazine's list last year. Federal campaign law stipulates that assets solely under the control of...

The misery of being a French man By Charles Bremner FOUR decades of feminism have turned middle-class French men into miserable creatures who are intimidated by women and losing their way in an increasingly matriarchal society, a study says. Men aged 20 to 45 believe that they have paid a heavy price for the social, legal and professional empowerment of women since the onset of the Pill and women’s liberation in the 1960s, according to the analysis for Elle, an upmarket women’s magazine. “Men of all generations are suffering,” it said. “They feel diminished, devalued in a society where things...