Free Republic

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will only respond to a British demand it provide answers about the nerve agent that poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal if London lets Moscow analyze the substance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning in England of Skripal and his daughter using a military-grade nerve agent that was part of the Novichok group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military. Lavrov said the British government was obliged to provide Moscow access to the substance because Britain...

The Washington Post is wailing about the environmental ruination of that great ecological wonder, the Canadian tar sands. Canada's Athabasca Basin holds more hydrocarbons (oil) than anyplace else in the world. It has a huge patch of tarry goo, the remains of a once-vast inland lake, spotted amongst 40,000 square miles of jack pine and black spruce growing amid mosquito-rich swamps. The same evergreen-and-swamp vista extends in a broad band for more than 2000 miles, from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the shores of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast. The Athabasca's population density is less...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A naturalized citizen from Iran who has a history of mental illness pleaded innocent to possessing enough cyanide to harm hundreds of people, authorities said. Hessam S. Ghane, 53, was undergoing a court-ordered mental evaluation and remained in custody pending the results.Ghane has no ties to any terrorist organization, an FBI agent testified Tuesday before a federal magistrate. Psychiatrist Howard Houghton testified that Ghane suffered suicidal depression and paranoia.Houghton said he called police in February after Ghane threatened government groups and unnamed individuals. After making the threats, Houghton said, Ghane said: "You know I...

Russia will complete the construction of chemical weapon destruction plants in 2011 and will destroy all chemical weapons stockpiles by 2012, a government official said on Wednesday. Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention banning the development, production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical arms in 1993, and ratified it in 1997. The country has destroyed 18,000 metric tons, or 45% of its chemical weapons stockpiles as of December 2009. Gen. Nikolai Abroskin, head of the Federal Agency for Special Construction, said during a collegiate meeting at the agency that despite the recent financial crunch Russia would meet its obligations and...

California Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2002by: John StewartEditors Note: The below text was received and represented as the discussion draft of the proposed wilderness bill being drafted by Senator Boxer. This bill is reported to be a "citizens initiative" and was developed by the California Wilderness Coalition. Maps of the proposed wilderness areas are available on the California Wilderness Coalition web site at: http://www.calwild.org DISCUSSION DRAFT 4/26/02A BILL To designate certain public lands as wilderness and certain rivers as wild and scenic rivers in the State of California, to designate Salmon Restoration Areas, to establish the Sacramento River...