Free Republic

A Monterey Park man faces charges Wednesday of smuggling three live king cobras hidden in potato chip canisters into the country from Hong Kong. Rodrigo Franco, 34, was arrested Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He was named in a criminal complaint filed on July 21 on one count of illegally importing merchandise into the United States. Federal authorities say a package sent from Hong Kong was inspected by the customs and border agents who discovered three two-foot king cobras – a protected and highly venomous reptile. The parcel sent through the postal service also contained three albino...

Academics at The University of Manchester have dismissed the long-held argument that the ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra was killed by a snake bite. Andrew Gray, curator of herpetology at Manchester Museum, says venomous snakes in Egypt -- cobras or vipers -- would have been too large to get unseen into the queen's palace. He was speaking to Egyptologist Dr Joyce Tyldesley in a new video which is part of a new online course introducing ancient Egyptian history, using six items from the Museum's collection. According to Dr Tyldesley, the ancient accounts say a snake hid in a basket of figs...

At the end of March, two weeks before he declared his candidacy for President, Marco Rubio visited New York City’s Upper West Side to meet the moneyed class and hand out his new book American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone. In a gorgeous apartment overlooking the Park and the Museum of Natural History, Mr. Rubio delivered a spellbinding speech, skewering the president and articulating a cohesive worldview, especially in the arena of foreign policy. The smart and funny senator from Florida also took questions on all topics, impressing the room of well-heeled elites, plus journalists like Bret Stephens and...

The king cobra is so poisonous that it can kill an elephant in a single bite. It is so long that it will use its 18-foot length to ‘stand up’ and look a human in the eye if confronted. And in this astonishing viral footage, a helpless baby is being protected by not one of them – but four. Deadly: King cobras can kill an elephant in a single bite (Picture: Mike J/YouTube) The reptiles each stand guard in the corners of the bed where the baby is lying with their necks extended above the ground – the stance it...

A maintenance Marine with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773 makes a last-minute adjustments on a AH-1W “Super Cobra” before it lifts off, Sept. 29.(personal note he is not using the hellfire missile as a step, there is actually one on the side of the aircraft click the pic for a closer look )AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 12, 2007) -- There is a new sheriff patrolling the Iraqi skies, but service members on the ground will still see the same level of professional support from the air. The “Red Dogs” of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773 arrived in Iraq...

GENTING HIGHLANDS: The first few kisses seemed easy enough.  Then the King Cobra looked agitated. This was when Shahimi Abdul Hamid showed deft agility by moving swiftly to avoid being bitten. On the 39th count, Shahimi performed a long kiss. After the 51st kiss, he received a thunderous applause from the audience at First World Hotel at Genting Highlands yesterday. Shahimi's feat in kissing the 4.6m long and 10kg cobra 51 times in three minutes and one second was a world record waiting to be verified.  DARING ACT: Shahimi trying to kiss the King Cobra during the record-making attempt at the...

Snake charmers have given the all clear for US President George W. Bush to go ahead with plans to deliver a speech from a medieval fort here during his three day India visit. City police roped in the snake charmers after curators of Purana Qila expressed concern that reptiles would gatecrash Bush's scheduled address Friday from the 16th century ramshackle fort. "It was part of our drill to sanitise the fort as it is flanked by a porous zoo on one side and a large lake on the other and the president will be delivering his address from a lawn...

An AH-1W Super Cobra with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (Reinforced) stays close to his wingman, a UH-1N Huey also from HMM-261 (Rein.) during a recent mission near Hit, Iraq. The squadron is the aviation combat element for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit SOC (Special Operations Capable) which is conducting counterinsurgency operations with the 2nd Marine Division in Iraq’s Al Anbar province. Photo by: Sgt. Richard D. StephensAL ASAD AIR FIELD, Iraq (Feb. 15, 2006) -- In the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Marine AH-1W Super Cobra attack and UH-1N Huey utility helicopters prowled the skies of the Iraq...

AL QAIM, Iraq (Nov. 24, 2005) -- Marines flying AH-1W Super Cobras, soaring through the skies of Iraq, are growing accustomed to using precision guided ordnance, maximizing the damage to their targets while minimizing collateral damage. Since arriving in western Iraq during September, the Gunfighters of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369 have continuously dropped precision guided ordnance on the enemy in support of ongoing operations. The Gunfighters, from Al Qaim, Iraq, dropped their 100th precision-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missile, Nov. 17. “We are destroying target after target in support of ground combat brethren,” said Maj. John Barranco, the officer-in-charge of...

PEQUANNOCK - A king cobra on the loose in Pompton Plains? Just kidding. Police received a phone call from a resident Tuesday about a poster for a missing snake. It said a cobra, answering to "Fang" or "King Fangson," had been missing since July 6. When police investigated, they discovered more than a dozen posters tacked to utility poles around Colfax Drive. The posters promised a cash reward for the return of the snake and warned that "Fang" was dangerous when provoked. But police say that once they called the number listed on the poster they realized it was just...

Snakes are often shown coming to the aid of Lord Shiva’s worshippers in Hindi films, but in real life a black cobra helped a thief escape from the police station in Nagaur. A four feet-long black cobra emerged from a crack inside the wall of the Khinvsar police station’s lock-up in Nagaur. A thief, Badri Ram — said to be a gang leader — was in that lock-up. On seeing the cobra he started crying for help. Alarmed policemen rushed to the lock-up to find the snake with its hood up hissing inside. The policemen took Badri out and tied...

BANGKOK, Thailand - Call it the Case of the Missing Cobras — all 82 of them. The deadly snakes were apparently stolen from a Red Cross facility, and police fear they were destined for the stew pot. The King Cobras had been kept with other poisonous snakes at the Red Cross' compound in downtown Bangkok, where they are milked for their poison to be used as serum for snakebite medicine. Workers discovered that 62 snakes went missing in January. After 20 more were gone on Feb. 2, Red Cross veterinarian Montri Chiewbamrungkiet filed a complaint with police. Authorities said they...

Mon 20 Sep 2004 12:39pm (UK) Police Shoot Man Who Threatened Them with Cobras "PA" Police shot a man after he wrapped himself with two deadly cobras and threatened to commit suicide, then swung the snakes at officers who had rushed to his home in southern Austria. One of the cobras bit the 40-year-old man in the hand during the stand-off in Leoben, in the province of Styria. He underwent emergency surgery for the snake bite and the gunshot wound and remained was in critical condition today. Two policemen arrived at the man’s apartment after he sent a mobile phone...

Panic hit the Riyadh airport when 300 live poisonous cobras escaped from a passenger's luggage, a newspaper reported yesterday. Al-Jazirah quoted eyewitnesses and officials at King Khaled International Airport as saying the cobras escaped after a customs officer insisted that the man, who had flown in from Cairo, open his suitcases for a search. Mohammad al-Dakheel, head of the airport's customs, said the snakes were killed in cooperation with the ministry of agriculture. He declined to say how many the snakes had slithered free, but eyewitnesses estimated it at around 300. It was not immediately known why the passenger, whose...

DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladeshi snake charmer called in to find two serpents in a suburban home near the capital unearthed over 3,000 deadly cobras and hundreds of eggs. Police and local newspapers said snake charmer Dudu Miah captured over 3,500 young cobras at two houses in Narayanganj near Dhaka. The find, however, triggered panic among neighbors who fled their homes, police said. Newspapers said Miah was called in by Mantu Kasai after his wife found two large cobras on their property on Sunday. Helped by his assistants, Miah dug beneath the floors of two houses and unearthed the slithering...