Free Republic

The U.S. military is now treating 64 troops for traumatic brain injury symptoms following Iran's ballistic missile attack on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq earlier this month, defense officials said Thursday. "The Department of Defense remains committed to providing the American people timely and accurate information about the care and treatment of our service members," said Army Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a Pentagon spokesperson. CNN was first to report the increase. The latest news marks the fourth time the Defense Department has amended its statement regarding the injuries. Of the 64, 39 service members have returned to duty, officials...

SARAJEVO: Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war claimed some 97,000 lives, or less than a half of a widely used figure, independent research revealed on Thursday. “At least 97,207 soldiers and civilians were killed during the war,” Mirsad Tokaca of the non-governmental Research and Documentation Centre said, presenting the results of the four-year study. Among the victims, 3,300 were under the age of 18, including babies. Using hundreds of different sources, the organisation created a huge database containing names and other information on each victim, including photographs of more than 55,000 of them. Although there are no official numbers, Bosnian and international officials...

At least 30 people have been killed in inter-communal fighting in south-eastern Nigeria, officials say… …Nigeria's 130m people are divided into many different ethnic and religious groups, which often clash for control of economic resources such as land. More than 10,000 people have been killed in such clashes since 1999….

An explosion at a recreational lodge in western Colorado injured more than a dozen people, some severely, Saturday afternoon, the Delta County Sheriff's Department said. Sheriff Fred McKee said a county investigator believes the blast at the Electric Mountain Lodge near Paonia was caused by a propane problem. There were no reports of deaths, but 12 to 15 people, whose injuries range from minor to "very severe," will be taken by flight-for-life helicopter from the scene, McKee said. The helicopters flew in from Durango and Grand Junction. McKee said deaths were possible, but he couldn't confirm any. "We're starting to...

<p>The Iraq war pushed the number of journalists killed on the job last year to 36, up sharply from the 19 killed in 2002, according to a report by an organization that monitors international press freedom.</p> <p>"It was quite a discouraging year," said Ann Cooper, the director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. But 2003 was considerably better than 1994, the worst in the past decade, when 66 newsmen and women were killed.</p>