Free Republic

WASHINGTON — A prize-winning Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the U.S. State Department and broadcasts to Iran. An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad,

The San Francisco Arts Commission is seeking proposals from artists to create a sculpture at City Hall of Harvey Milk, the city's first openly gay elected official. Artists should submit their proposals by Aug. 1. Three finalists will be selected and paid $2,500 each to produce a model for a bronze statue. The models will be put on public display to let city residents offer their opinions on the designs.

Successor to the late Yusef Bey killed in an assassination-style shooting, police sayOAKLAND — A son of controversial Black Muslim leader Yusef Bey was shot and killed Tuesday night while pumping gas at a North Oakland station. Antar Bey, 24, was at the gas station at 55th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way just after 7:30 p.m. when he was shot as he waited to fill up his black BMW 745, police said. Police said Antar Bey, the appointed successor to the late Yusef Bey, had stepped away from the car and was talking on his cell phone when...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The judge overseeing the trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (search) has been assassinated, FOX News has learned. U.S. officials confirmed Judge Raid Juhi al-Saadi (search) has been killed, and Iraqi officials are expected to provide details on his assassination.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) warned the United States Saturday against plotting to kill his most important ally, Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez. "I say to world public opinion: if they assassinate Chavez, the responsibility will fall squarely on the president of the United States, George W. Bush," Castro said. The Cuban leader, who was the target of CIA (news - web sites) assassination plots after his 1959 revolution steered Cuba toward Soviet Communism, gave no evidence that Chavez's life was in danger. But he said the United States would be responsible for killing...

Insurgents assassinated the highest-ranking Iraqi official in eight months Tuesday, gunning down the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards, and a suicide truck bomber killed 10 people at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters, the latest in a string of violence ahead of Jan. 30 elections. Five American troops were slain in three separate attacks, officials said, in the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Iraq since a suicide bombing at a mess tent in Mosul on Dec. 21 killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers and three American contractors. The militant group of Jordanian terrorist Abu...

Arafat must not be assassinated, US tells Sharon By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 03/04/2004) The United States yesterday publicly reminded Israel that it opposes any bid to kill or exile the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, spoke out after the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, appeared to threaten Mr Arafat and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Hizbollah group, calling them "marked men". Mr Armitage said: "Our position on such questions - the exile or assassination of Yasser Arafat - is very well known. We are opposed, and we have made that...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Chechnya's exiled former president, wanted by Russia for terrorism and ties to al-Qaida, was assassinated Friday when a bomb blew apart his car as he left a mosque with his teenage son. Russia's security services denied any involvement in the death of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, 51. But a Chechen rebel group called the slaying "the latest bloody Kremlin crime." Yandarbiyev's 13-year-old son was critically wounded in the 12:45 p.m. blast after prayers in the capital, Doha, according to an Interior Ministry statement and Hamad General Hospital. The white SUV was demolished by the blast. A body lay...

Iraqi police chief assassinated The police chief of the British-controlled southern Iraqi city of Amarah has been shot dead as he left a mosque after prayers. Brigadier Hamid Hadi Hassan al-Abe was leaving the al-Hussein mosque after Friday prayers when he was gunned down by assailants firing from several locations. The assailants escaped.Several hundred men, many of them armed with rifles and pistols, have turned out for Brigadier al-Abe's funeral. He will be buried in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Brigadier al-Abe had a good relationship with British occupation authorities, who are responsible for the city, about 75 miles...

A senior Fatah activist was assassinated by Israel on Sunday evening when a public telephone exploded in his hand in the West Bank town of Beit Jala, Palestinian witnesses said. They identified him as Mohammed Abayat, 25, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated with Fatah movement. Kamal Ahmed, secretary-general of Fatah's Bethlehem branch, accused Israel of assassinating Abayat. The witnesses said Abayat was killed by an explosion as he made a call in a public telephone booth near a hospital in Beit Jala, a town outside Bethlehem. Medical officials said the blast occurred shortly after Abayat...

Afghan vice president assassinated Unknown assailants involved in shooting of Haji Abdul Qadir KABUL, Afghanistan, July 6 — Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir was assassinated outside his office in the center of Kabul on Saturday, Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak said.