Free Republic

Gym owner Allan said that Tamerlan had once introduced him to an American, Brendan Mess, whom Tamerlan described as his best friend. Two years ago, Mess and two other men were brutally killed in a Waltham apartment where they were found by police with their throats slit and their bodies covered with marijuana. The murders remain unsolved.

<p>MOSCOW -- The rapid disintegration of Saddam Hussein's Soviet-style army has offered some sobering lessons for the future of Russia's military, itself a crumbling ruin of the mighty force that once defended the USSR.</p> <p>Today, as millions of Russians celebrate Victory Day, their attention will be focused squarely on the past: The Red Army's defeat of Nazi Germany 58 years ago. The most popular Russian holiday, it commemorates the Soviets' finest hour. It's also a chance for Russia's military leaders to show their readiness to defend the country.</p>

<p>ATHUMIYA, Iraq -- Iraqi Kurds brutally evicted from their homes by Saddam Hussein are taking them back by force, setting in motion a bloody cycle of violence and vengeance that has made the northern plains the most dangerous place in postwar Iraq.</p>

<p>ASHIRA, Iraq -- The American warplanes screamed in before dawn yesterday, unleashing a ferocious attack on the Iraqi lines. It was still dark, but the flash of continuous explosions lit up the northern Iraq sky as if it were day. Iraqi soldiers ran everywhere, looking for any kind of shelter or relief -- but found none.</p>

BOSTON -- A Boston Globe reporter was expelled from Iraq after using a satellite phone from his hotel room to file a story, the newspaper said. David Filipov, 40, the newspaper's Moscow bureau chief, arrived in Jordan on Friday after being ordered out of Iraq the day before. Jim Smith, the Globe's foreign editor, said Filipov was expelled by Iraqi authorities after he used a satellite phone from his room to send a story that described an Iraqi drone as being held together by duct tape and bearing the words: "God is Great." "It was a story that should have...