Free Republic

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — An explosion believed to have been caused by a remote-controlled bomb ripped through a Russian military truck at a bath house in the capital of Dagestan (search), killing at least 10 troops in the deadliest attack in the southern province in months, officials said. Seven soldiers were wounded. Bloodstained bodies lay in the street on the outskirts of Makhachkala (search), and ambulances quickly whisked away the wounded. It was not immediately known whether there were any civilian victims of the blast. Rashid Isayev (search), the head of the province's criminal police, said the explosion occurred as three...

In a SPIEGEL interview, leading Russian politician and potential Putin successor Vladimir Yakunin discusses the president's plans, the Bush administration's "political arrogance" and the need for nations to consider the interests of other countries when defining their own.Vladimir Yakunin, 59, who worked as a diplomat at the Soviet mission to the United Nations in New York and later as the Russian deputy minister of transportation, became the president of the powerful Russian railroad corporation in 2005. He is considered a possible presidential candidate. SPIEGEL: You have known (Russian President) Vladimir Putin for a long time. In fact, you had neighboring...

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” — George SantayanaThere are many who have been advocating for and praising the so-called “ceasefire” agreement between Israel and the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. I know that the families of those held hostage want to have their loved ones released back to them, especially the elderly and little children. How utterly savage and barbaric, but that is to be expected from a terrorist organization whose existence is dedicated to the extermination and eradication of the Jewish people and their homeland . . . a continuation of Adolf Hitler’s final...

The government’s action in imposing CAFE standards, which was intended to curb oil consumption, helped prompt the creation of the SUV and subsequent “gas guzzling.” Oil exploration in Alaska’s Artic National Wildlife Refuge has once again become possible, if not probable, after the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a major energy bill. Environmentalists reacted by renewing their call for raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in order to lower American consumption of oil and decrease fuel emissions. But CAFE has proven itself a failure.The Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1975 established CAFE standards as a reaction to the...

U.S. President Joe Biden is caught in a quadfecta of corruption, cognitive decline, a failed agenda and eroding polls. Amid this apparent vacuum, an opportunistic Barack Obama, who used to be more discreet in managing his third term, is re-entering the arena. Last week, he came out as the overseer of the Biden administration’s AI agenda, even as his foundation’s “Democracy Forum” was warning Americans about the need for “inclusive capitalism” and the pathologies of “material consumption”—all this from a multi-mansioned multimillionaire. Now, Obama is weighing in on the Gaza war by undercutting his third-term presidential proxy. Yet just as...

Rockets rained down on cities and towns, bulldozers toppled border fences, and hundreds of armed militants from Gaza flooded the border and crossed into Israel. Some militants arrived by paragliders; others used boats to storm Israeli beaches.The ensuing death and carnage by armed members of Hamas claimed more Israeli lives than any attack since the Holocaust and caught Israel by surprise. But threats from the terrorist group are nothing new. A ¬rundown of Hamas’ history reveals an organization with a persistent commitment to wiping Israel off the map.Launched in 1987 as an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has never...

Former Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa has accused the United States and Taiwan of orchestrating the “well-organised” recent protests against the Hong Kong government. Tung, vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, also warned on Wednesday that there could be no compromise with those who challenge Beijing’s sovereignty and damage the city’s stability. He said he remained firmly behind the Hong Kong police and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. He called on Lam’s government to listen to public opinion and solve long-standing problems such as housing, health care, education and pensions. “Some young people have vented their anxiety...

Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, whose unpopular leadership spawned massive pro-democracy demonstrations, has resigned for personal reasons, local newspapers reported on Wednesday. The reports come just weeks after Tung was publicly reprimanded by Chinese President Hu Jintao for his poor performance over the past seven years. Asked to confirm if Tung had stepped down, a government spokesman said: "We don't comment on speculative reports". Citing unidentified sources, most reports said Tung's right hand man, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, would be made acting chief executive after Tung's departure. Tung, a businessman with little political experience,...

Page 1 EQUALITY NOW New York: 250 West 57 Street, #1527, New York, NY 10107, USA ▪ Tel:+1 212-586-0906 • Fax:+1 212-586-1611 • Email: info@equalitynow.org London: 6 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6BU, UK • Phone:+44 (0) 20-7839-5456 • Fax:+44 (0) 20-7839-4012 • Email: ukinfo@equalitynow.org Nairobi: PO Box 2018 KNH 00202, Nairobi, Kenya • Tel: +254 20-2719-832 • Fax: +254 20-2719-868 • Email: equalitynow@kenyaweb.com Sex Tourism: Addressing the Demand for Trafficking Testimony by Jessica Neuwirth, President of Equality Now Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you, and thank you for your interest in and support for efforts to...

Reuters - TWO VILLAGES DESTROYED BY QUAKE IN SOUTH IRAN - GOVERNOR'S OFFICE IN HORMUZGAN PROVINCE THIRD VILLAGE, KHALEDI, ALSO RAVAGED BY SOUTH IRAN QUAKE - STATE TV

Joran van der Sloot, a suspect in the 2005 Aruba disappearance of U.S. teen Natalie Holloway, will be extradited to the United States to face wire fraud and extortion charges connected to Holloway's disappearance. File Photo by Dinko Eichin/UPI | License Photo May 11 (UPI) -- Joran van der Sloot, the imprisoned Dutch man suspected in the Aruba disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway in 2005, will be temporarily extradited to the United States. The Peruvian government on Wednesday accepted a request to temporarily release van der Sloot, is serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for killing a 21-year-old Peruvian...

Newly released documents revealed Biden-appointed CIA Director William Burns met with deceased financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions after he was convicted of sex crimes in Florida, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports. The private calendar and emails show Epstein scheduled three meetings with Burns in 2014 when Burns was deputy secretary of state under President Obama, according to WSJ. Their first meeting was planned for August in the Washington, DC office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson and the next two were booked for Epstein’s Manhattan, New York townhouse, the documents show. Epstein planned on having...

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel condemned the Knesset's passage of an amendment repealing the Disengagement from northern Samaria and allowing Jews to return to the four communities which were destroyed there in 2005. "The United States is extremely troubled that the Israeli Knesset has passed legislation rescinding important parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law, including the prohibition on establishing settlements in the northern West Bank," Patel said. .....

<p>BOSTON — The revelation last week that a laboratory slip-up led three Boston University scientists to become infected with tularemia, a flulike disease sometimes referred to as "rabbit fever," has fueled criticism of a plan to build a state-of-the-art research lab to study some of the world's most lethal germs in Boston's South End.</p>

Tularemia Outbreak in Russia – Might Have Been Natural A recent outbreak –over 400 cases of Tularemia – occurred in Russia during July and August. The sheer number of cases – as compared to prior years – seemed alarming ; as did the proximity of the cases to Russian biowarfare research facilities. (There were even cases in Sverdlosk – site of an Anthrax accident many years ago. ) It is well to be suspicious of coincidence ; but equally important to make sure all facts are in hand before drawing conclusions. In researching Tularemia “episodes” a few days ago, I...

A power failure knocked out the security system at a federal germ lab in Fort Collins for 13 hours Monday and disabled freezers housing thousands of vials of plague and other potential bioweapons. A backup generator kicked on when the power failed. But an electrical short prevented the backup power from being routed through the building, said Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory was without power for 13 hours, beginning at 3:07 p.m. Monday, Bohlander said. CSU owns the building and leases it to the government.No germ collections were...

Let me take you back in time, ladies and gentlemen. It's 1987. I am at the time working at KFBK in Sacramento, California and I have created this term, invented this term "Gorbasm", to describe the reaction of various people, primarily in America, but around the world, to the prospect that nuclear holocaust is at hand because Ronald Reagan is in the White House, but only Mikhail Gorbachev can save the day, can save the world, can save the planet! He's reasonable. Reagan has an itchy trigger finger, right there poised above that button. Now all the time previous, from...

Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to federal investigators. But for lying after stealing highly classified documents from the National Archives — in an apparent attempt to alter the historical record on terrorism, no less — former Clinton national security adviser and Kerry campaign adviser Sandy Berger will get a small fine and slap on the wrist. He will pay $10,000 and get no jail time. His security clearance will be suspended until around the end of the Bush administration — meaningless for a career Democrat like Mr. Berger. It makes us wonder who at the Department of Justice...

.S. military officials said yesterday they will be watching closely as China and Russia prepare for unprecedented joint military exercises later this month to be staged on a Chinese province close to the Korean Peninsula. Dubbed "Peace Mission 2005," the Aug. 18 to 25 exercises between the two Cold War rivals will involve about 10,000 troops, as well as Russian fighter planes and paratroopers and China's growing nuclear submarine fleet. .... The exercises, seen as hard evidence of a warming alliance between the two powers against U.S. influence in Asia, have sparked concern across the region, particularly in Taiwan, which...

Comrades, I’m very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our party’s cause will be carried on. In answering the question, “Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more than 80 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations. Today I’d like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the...