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WASHINGTON — A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, the US space agency NASA said Friday, boosting hopes of eventually setting up a permanent lunar base. Preliminary data from a moon probe "indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater," NASA said. "The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," it added in a statement.

Courtesy of NME.com - Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has said that singer Steven Tyler has quit the band "as far as I can tell." Perry's comments follow those of rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford, who last week (November 6) said that Aerosmith are to hold crisis talks about their future after relations with Tyler became strained. Now Perry has confirmed that Tyler is unlikely to perform with the band again.

I was just wondering, what are some of the favorite Freeper movies out there which honor American veterans? Here's a quick list of a few of my favorites. I don't think you can go wrong watching any of these today. - Saving Private Ryan - Glory - Midway - We Were Soldiers - Black Hawk Down So what are your favorites?

Just a banner now.

A day after warring neighbors Israel and Syria announced a renewal of peace talks after eight years, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Thursday that both sides know what they need to do for peace. "The Syrians know what we want and we know what they want," Olmert told Kouchner. -snip- Syrian Information Minister Muhsin Bilal told Al Jazeera television on Thursday that Damascus had received guarantees from Israel via Turkey for a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights and rejected conditions put forth for concluding a peace deal. We received commitments and messages from...

I just watched "Fitna," a 17-minute film by Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Freedom Party, which takes a hard-line stance against Muslim immigration. Released on the Internet on Thursday, "Fitna" juxtaposes verses from the Koran with images and speeches from the world of jihad. Heads cut off, bodies blown apart, gays executed, toddlers taught to denounce Jews as "apes and pigs," imams calling for global domination, protesters holding up signs reading "God Bless Hitler" and "Freedom go to Hell" -- these are just some of the powerful images from "Fitna," an Arabic word that means "ordeal." Predictably, various Muslim...

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro is taking over leadership of a country whose government believes its citizens are not working hard enough. The state-run newspaper recently ran an article headlined "Work: Option or necessity?" The writer pointed out that, judging by the number of people in the streets during the day, many Cubans don't seem to be on the job. They have few motivations to buckle down: Salaries average about $15 per month on the island, and Cubans get monthly food rations even if they don't work. Watch a report on the realities in Cuba » "There...

LONDON - Female genital mutilation, commonly associated with parts of Africa and the Middle East, is becoming a growing problem in Britain despite efforts to stamp it out. London's Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force, hopes a campaign beginning on Wednesday will highlight that the practice is a crime here. To make their point, police are offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to Britain's first prosecution for female genital mutilation, Detective Chief Superintendent Alastair Jeffrey said. In Britain, the problem mostly involves first-generation immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.

MORE than 150 police have been injured in violent clashes with protesters at a demonstration in northern Germany against next week's G8 summit, a police spokesman says. Some of the injuries were serious, the spokesman said, after updating an earlier injured figure of 100. Masked demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles at police as tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rostock, a port city near Heiligendamm where the Group of Eight leaders will gather for three days of talks from Wednesday. Protesters overturned and set fire to several cars, an AFP reporter said. Demonstrators from...

A powerful explosion rocked a busy commercial neighborhood in the Turkish capital Tuesday, and at least 20 people, including foreigners, were injured, CNN-Turk television reported. Television video showed medics tending to the injured and carrying people into ambulances on stretchers. The cause of the blast, outside one of the oldest shopping malls of Ankara and near bus stops, was not immediately known.

BEIRUT, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki on Monday pledged "cooperation" with the Lebanese state and its army to wipe out the militants fighting with the army in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. After talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora at the Grand Serail (the premier's office) Monday, Zaki stressed the need to enhance "full cooperation" with the Lebanese state and its army to resolve what he termed Fatah al-Islam's "phenomenon." Some 30,000 displaced Palestinians live at the camp. Under a 38-year-old deal, Lebanese police and soldiers can not enter...

Mr Chavez addressed crowds in his trademark red shirt

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Demolition crews on Monday started tearing down a disputed youth center that was at the heart of recent street riots in Copenhagen. Workers wore face masks under their helmets to conceal their identities as an excavator tore into the so-called Youth House, a graffiti-sprayed brick building in the Noerrebro district of the Danish capital. A police anti-terror squad on Thursday evicted squatters from the building, triggering three nights of clashes with leftist youth that turned parts of the city into a battle zone. More than 600 people were arrested and more than 20 injured as protesters hurled...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize an African Union force to help stabilize Somalia over the next six months, setting the stage for U.N. peacekeepers to take over the long-term job of bringing peace to the Horn of Africa nation. The resolution adopted by the council urges the 53 African nations to contribute troops to the 8,000-strong force and urges other U.N. member states to provide financial support and any needed personnel, equipment and services. Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then...

(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Police have said at least four people, including a gunman are dead following a shooting on the grounds of the old Naval Yard. The shooting happened shortly after 8:30 p.m. inside building 79 on South 11th Street in South Philadelphia. According to police, the gunman opened fire striking several victims. Police said the gunman apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. One victim survived the shooting and was rushed to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition. The motive of the shooting is unknown. Stay with CBS 3 and cbs3.com for more information on this breaking story.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric who has challenged Iran's system of clerical rule was arrested on Sunday after his supporters clashed with police outside his house in the Iranian capital, Iranian news agencies reported. Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi was detained with several supporters, Iran's student news agency ISNA quoted the deputy governor of Tehran, Abdollah Rowshan, as saying. The Iranian authorities are wary of any challenge, particularly from top clerics, to the system of clerical rule that was established after the 1979 Islamic revolution by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

*snip* PRESIDENT CLINTON: Now, you just listen to me. You ask the questions, and I'm going to answer. You have asked questions in a hostile, combative, and even disrespectful tone, but I ... and you have never been able to combat the facts I have given you. Now, you listen to this. The other thing Ralph Nader says is that, you know, he's pure as Caesar's wife on the environment. *snip*

(9/05/06 - MEXICO CITY, Mexico) - The president of Mexico's top electoral court recommended Tuesday that the full tribunal uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. The recommendation must still be approved, but Leonel Castillo suggested that the seven magistrates certify a final vote count showing Calderon with a 233,831-vote lead out of 41.6 million cast. That would trim Calderon's earlier lead of 240,000. Such a decision has been widely expected, and the leftist rival candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador already has vowed to ignore the ruling, which comes after weeks of legal challenges and protests and...

With the United Nations deadline for Iran to comply with its demand to halt the nuclear fuel cycle or face punitive measures due to expire on Thursday, Iran's nuclear row has reached a critical threshold, given Tehran's comprehensive and conciliatory response to the package of incentives by the UN's five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany. Calling Iran's right to produce nuclear fuel one of the country's "strategic objectives", chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has at the same time gone out of his way to reassure the international community that his country's willingness to negotiate is serious and...

SANTA CLARITA -- A brush fire erupted Monday in semi-rural northern Los Angeles County as hot and windy weather made conditions dangerous. The blaze was reported at 10:41 a.m. in Placerita Canyon and the initial estimate of five acres was quickly outdated. "It's bigger than that," said county fire Inspector Ed Lozano. The fire was moving from light grasses into medium brush, and five fire engines were requested for structure protection in the area, an eastern area of the city of Santa Clarita adjacent to the Angeles National Forest.

HAVANA, Aug 3 (Reuters) - For hundreds of thousands of poor people from the Andes to the Himalayas, the legacy of Cuba's ailing communist leader Fidel Castro will be not revolutionary war but eyesight. For decades, the now ailing Castro, who temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul on Monday, prescribed armed revolution to cure the Third World's ills. But more recently he has preferred to export doctors to treat poor people in the undeveloped world. The programs have expanded rapidly thanks to financial support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, leader of the world's eighth-largest oil producer and Castro's...

Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit central Haifa; Katyusha rockets hit Nahariya, Safed and Carmiel By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service Two rockets slammed into the northern port city of Haifa on Thursday evening. The rockets hit the Stella Maris area near French Carmel. There were no reported casualties. Hezbollah denied firing the rockets at Haifa Thursday evening, after a day in which a woman in Nahariya was killed and another 120 people were wounded when scores of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas rained down across northern Israel. Following the attack on Haifa, the IDF Home Front...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - One of Mogadishu's last warlords holding out against powerful Islamists surrendered after losing most of his territory in two days of fighting that killed more than 140 people, militia sources said on Tuesday. "It has become necessary to surrender and give peace a chance," a militiaman loyal to warlord Abdi Awale Qaybdiid told Reuters. Qaybdiid is the last of an alliance of U.S.-backed warlords who called themselves an anti-terrorism group. He kept fighting after the Islamists routed the other warlords and seized the Somali capital last month. Displaying weapons seized from Qaybdiid, the Islamists said their victory...

An increasingly powerful Islamic militia rolled through its newly captured territory and installed a religious court in one town Wednesday as the remnants of a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords desperately tried to regroup. The Islamic Courts Union, which has alleged links to al-Qaida, controls the Somali capital and surrounding areas after defeating the secular warlord alliance in weeks of battles that killed at least 330 people - many of them civilians caught in the crossfire. Militiamen toting heavy machine guns installed an Islamic court in Balad, about 20 miles from the capital. Chanting residents said that an Islamic state would...

LIMA, PERU – Peruvian voters elected leftist leader Alan García to a five-year term on Sunday, returning the former president to office 16 years after his first stint. It is a tough defeat for Ollanta Humala, the populist candidate who won the first round less than two months ago. But it is also a blow to Venezuelan leader and US nemesis Hugo Chávez, who openly backed Mr. Humala. In his election-night address, Mr. García said the result is "a defeat for the expansionist efforts of [Mr. Chávez]. Peru's democracy said 'no' to him." García's "rhetorical challenges to Hugo Chávez are...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military probe has exonerated U.S. troops in the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the town of Ishaqi in March, finding American forces followed standard procedures and committed no misconduct, defense officials said on Friday. Police in the town, 60 miles north of Baghdad, have said six adults and five children were shot dead in a U.S. military raid on a home on March 15. But the U.S. military maintained that there were four dead in the incident, including a guerrilla, two women and a child, and they died after troops were fired upon from the...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela is buying helicopters, boats and military transport planes in defense deals worth about $2.7 billion, modernizing its military as tensions grow between leftist President Hugo Chavez and the United States. Flush with oil profits but blocked from buying U.S. arms, Chavez is increasingly looking to countries like Russia and Spain as suppliers. A cargo ship carrying 30,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles is headed to Venezuela with the first shipment of an order totaling 100,000 guns to arrive by year's end. The military is looking to buy more submarines, and Chavez is planning an even bigger deal...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya wants to work with the United States to spread democracy around the world after Washington restored full diplomatic ties with Tripoli, the head of Libya's de facto single ruling party said on Monday. "We encourage America on the path of cooperation and we hope we will cooperate together through cultural debate to spread democracy around the world together," Mustapha Zaidi, the top official of Libya's Revolutionary Committees, said. Libya and the United States have not had full ties for more than 25 years, but relations swiftly improved after Libya decided in December 2003 to give up...

So Mexicans, and not just those in the US, are going to boycott the US on May 1. This is supported by several governments inside Mexico, although not at the federal level. It looks to me like they want a trade war. Bad move, considering they're possibly the most dependent people on Earth outside of the Palestinians. However, if they're choosing to bite the hand that feeds we can teach them that the hand bites back. BOYCOTT MEXICO! If you have been considering travel in Mexico, I urge you to reconsider. Tourism is Mexicos third largest source of income after...

NEW YORK - Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of "South Park" skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon's most recent episode. The comedy — in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians — instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag. In an elaborately constructed two-part episode of their Peabody Award-winning cartoon, "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker intended to comment on the controversy created by a Danish newspaper's publishing of caricatures of Muhammad. Muslims consider any physical...

Slightly more than 100 people marched for immigration reform through Downtown Pittsburgh this morning.

Supporters of President Hugo Chavez threw eggs, fruit and vegetables at the U.S. ambassador's car Friday, and a group of motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the vehicles, a U.S. Embassy official said. No one was hurt. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said Venezuelan police escorts did not intervene as the car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield was pounded and pelted. "We're being attacked by groups of motorcyclists while we're traveling in an embassy car," Penn told The Associated Press by cell phone shortly before the motorcycles stopped chasing the four-car convoy. "It's a very violent demonstration by...

By The Associated Press Most people in the United States think illegal immigration is a serious problem. A solid majority oppose making it easier for illegal immigrants to become legal workers or citizens. Some findings in recent polling: _ Some 59 percent say they oppose allowing illegal immigrants to apply for legal, temporary-worker status, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found. _ More than six in 10, 62 percent, say they oppose making it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. Nine in 10 in that poll say they consider immigration to be a...

TORONTO, Canada (The Catholic Register) – Quaker and Christian Peacemaker Teams leader Tom Fox was remembered by Christians and Muslims together at a Mass in a Baghdad Roman Catholic parish March 12, the Sunday after his body was found. *snip* "We observed the human-rights abuses of the American armed forces and the chaos that the people were living through. And this time, with the kidnapping and the ultimate death of Tom Fox, I started to realize that we had shifted from being observers to being actual participants, victims, whatever you like."

LONDON (Reuters) - A former goat herder and male stripper has sold twice as many records as Madonna in recent weeks to become the first Arab to top the British pop singles chart since records began 44 years ago. "Mashallah (Thank God) - it's beyond dreams. To know that I'm the first Arab to do that, it's a very proud moment," Chico told Reuters in an interview. His debut single, "It's Chico Time", is enjoying its second week in the top spot. Born in Wales of Moroccan parentage, 34-year-old Chico came to prominence on prime-time British television talent show, "X-Factor",...

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and over 15 wounded in three explosions on Tuesday in the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi in northern India, police said. Television reports said up to 12 may have died. "So far four people have died, 17 are hospitalised with injuries," V.N. Rai, inspector-general of police in Uttar Pradesh state, where Varanasi is located, told Reuters. "All entry points to the area have been sealed."

While the ultimate fall-out from the Askariyah bombing is still in doubt, the situation is by no means grave. With the death toll standing 379 and 1,300 over the last several days, it is entirely clear for supporters and critics of the US presence in Iraq alike to ask where the country is heading. To begin with, it should be understood that the nation is probably not yet on the verge of civil war, as can be seen from the fact that despite all of the valid concerns that have been raised as to the involvement of the militias in...

Just thought I would bring some good news to my fellow Freepers. From the web site http://icasualties.org/oif/ (which is anti-war BTW) coalition deaths in Iraq are at a five month low for Feburary and have decreased every month for the last five months. What's more, coalition wounded only numbered 31 in Feb., the lowest level since the war began! That means more of our guys getting home safe! With all the media prematurely e***ulating over the almost non-existing possibility of a civil war breaking out in the next week, we are making progress, and our military is doing their job...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police opened fire at hundreds demonstrating against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Friday, wounding at least one person, as protests across the Muslim world showed no sign of abating. Police in Bangladesh beat back about 10,000 angry protesters marching on the Danish embassy in the capital Dhaka and demonstrators also took to the streets in Afghanistan, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Turkey. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has carried out several suicide bombings in Israel, threatened more violence and a leading Saudi Muslim cleric called for no mercy in punishing anyone mocking...

DUBAI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Muslims have decried as hypocrites Western dailies which have cited free speech as the reason for printing disrespectful cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, saying the same newspapers take pains to avoid lampooning Jews. The caricatures, first published in a Danish daily in September and then reprinted across Europe, have unleashed fury among Muslims who view any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist. What is really insulting, some Muslim clerics and politicians say, is that Europeans do not think twice about denigrating Islam but view ridicule of Judaism...

Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper whose cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage. France Soir, Germany's Die Welt, La Stampa in Italy and El Periodico in Spain all carried some of the drawings. Their publication in Denmark has led to protests in Arab nations, diplomatic sanctions and death threats. Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet, but media watchdogs defend press freedom to publish the images. Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy."

There has been a MASSIVE police response to something going on at the Kaiser-Permanente at Venice and La Cienega, right off the 10 freeway. I counted about 50 units including motor and one helicopter.

MOSUL/NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 8 (Reuters) - At first glance, progress appears to be everywhere in Mosul and Najaf -- there are new street lights, medical clinics have sprung up and one of them even has a refurbished soccer stadium. But scratch the surface and the two cities held up by U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday as beacons of hope amid Iraq's chaos have only so much to boast about, residents say. Their most notable advantage is perhaps the absence in recent months of spectacular bombings that have crippled daily life in others parts of the country. In Mosul,...

Attainment of Nirvana Still Goal, But Not So Important That You Should Miss Cousin Vijay's Bar Mitzvah New Delhi, India (SatireWire.com) — Hinjew leaders today conceded the merger of Hinduism and Judaism has not worked out as planned, as instead of forming a super-religion to fight off the common Islamic enemy, they have instead created a race of 900 million people who, no matter how many times they are reincarnated, can never please their mothers. "On paper, this was a textbook alliance — two smaller competitors join forces to take on a larger adversary," said New Delhi resident Chandra Gopan....

CRAWFORD, Tex., Nov. 26 -- Dancing to reggae music and hugging her supporters, Cindy Sheehan led an anti-Iraq war rally Saturday at a one-acre campsite adjoining the ranch where President Bush is spending his holiday weekend. As in August, when she galvanized attention and made headlines for days with similar protests, there were songs and speeches and demonstrators holding signs reading "Bring the Troops Home" near the main entrance of the 1,600-acre ranch where Bush has been vacationing since Tuesday. Unlike then, when hundreds came from all over the country for major events at the two campsites named after...

Campus Greek Life Could Get Islamic Touch Young Muslim women are intrigued by the prospect of a sorority where they wouldn't have to compromise their religious beliefs. By Jenny Jarvie, Times Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tottering on stilettos, Amira Shalash, a freshman at the University of Kentucky, tossed back her long, tousled hair and tugged at the neckline of her sweater, which had slipped off her shoulder. Giggling, her friends — who wear hijabs, traditional Muslim head scarves — teased her that she was not dressed modestly enough.

VIENNA, Austria - British historian David Irving was arrested last week in southern Austria on a warrant accusing him of denying the Holocaust, the Interior Ministry said Thursday. Irving was arrested Nov. 11 in Styria province, said police Maj. Rudolf Golia, an Interior Ministry spokesman. He was transferred to a prison in Graz. Irving was detained on a warrant issued in 1989 under Austrian laws that make Holocaust denial a crime, Golia said. The accusation stemmed from speeches Irving delivered that year in Vienna and in the southern town of Leoben.

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France -- A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state. Facing mounting criticism, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed to restore order as the violence that erupted Oct. 27 spread to at least 20 towns, highlighting the frustration simmering in housing projects that are home to many North African immigrants. Police deployed for a feared eighth night of clashes, after bands of youths lobbing stones and petrol bombs ignored President Jacques Chirac's appeal for calm a day...

(AP) -- President George W. Bush on Friday called on the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a U.N. investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement," Bush said after helping dedicate a new pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Southern California.