Free Republic

NO LINK ON THEIR WEBSITE YET,

Suicide. It remains a topic few health professionals want to discuss openly with their patients. It remains a topic avoided even by many mental health professionals. Policy makers see it as a black hole without an obvious solution. And now grim new statistics confirm a disturbing trend — more people are taking their own lives than ever before in the U.S. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released statistics yesterday showing that 33,687 people died in motor vehicle accidents, while nearly 5,000 more — 38,364 — died by suicide. Middle-aged Americans are making up the biggest leap in...

KABUL, Afghanistan — A civilian cargo plane owned by an American company crashed at Bagram Air Field, north of the Afghan capital, soon after takeoff on Monday, killing all seven people aboard, the US-led military coalition said.

WACO (April 17, 2013)--West EMS Director Dr. George Smith says as many as 60 or 70 people died and at least 100 were injured Wednesday night in a fertilizer plant explosion in West. A rescuer earlier said he knew of five deaths. West Mayor Tommy Muska said at a news conference however, that he doesn't yet know how many people were hurt or killed in the blast explosion. He said there was a fire at the West Fertilizer plant before the explosion.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A major earthquake flattened homes and offices on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border Tuesday, rattling buildings as far away as New Delhi and Dubai. Iranian state media said at least 46 people died, but later Iranian reports offered a far milder picture. The discrepancies and apparent backtracking in the Iranian reports could not be immediately reconciled, but Iran has faced two large quakes in less than week and authorities could seek to downplay casualties. Iran's state-run Press TV initially said at least 40 people were killed on the Iranian side, but later removed the figure...

We still don't have all the facts about yesterday's horrific Boston Marathon bombing. At the time this column is being written, it's being reported that 3 people died and more than 100 were injured in the attack. While bombings are not a common occurrence in America, there have been more of them than most people realize. 10) The World Trade Center Bombing (February 26, 1993): A van filled with explosives went off in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center. Almost unbelievably, although over a thousand people were wounded, only six were killed. It could have been much...

Police confirmed that at least three people lost their lives in today's deadly Boston Marathon bomb attack - leaving behind a scene of carnage that brought the specter of terrorism back to American soil. The FBI, which has taken over the investigation into the outrage which has also injured 141 people announced that they were searching for a man they described as having dark skin, wearing black clothes and a black back-pack who tried to gain entry into a restricted area during the marathon. It was also reported that he may have had a foreign accent. And with the victims...

BOSTON — Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers in the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. A federal law-enforcement source told The Post there are at least 12 dead and twice as many injured. Fox News reported that Massachusetts General Hospital was treating 10 people with amputated limbs and all operating rooms were on hold. Law-enforcement sources said at least the first explosion occurred in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel....

Thirteen people have been killed in Serbia after a man went on a gun rampage in a village near Belgrade, local media report. Six men, six women and a two-year-old boy died before the gunman tried to kill himself and his wife. The pair are now said to be in a serious condition. Police identified the gunman as Ljubisa Bogdanovic, a 60-year-old war veteran.

The victims died when a strike from an aircraft hit a house in the Shigal district of Kunar province during an operation which also killed at least eight militants. The Nato-led coalition confirmed it was investigating the allegation and that it had used aircraft in the area to support a force of Afghan and foreign troops. The incident had the potential to provoke another confrontation with Hamid Karzai's government. Mr Karzai has railed for years against the number of civilian casualties caused by Nato air strikes, though deaths from such air attacks have decreased significantly. The setback came as Gen...

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A deadly algae bloom that killed a record number of manatees has dissipated, though the death toll for the endangered sea mammals continues to rise, Florida wildlife officials said on Thursday. Red Tide has killed 241 manatees this year as of Wednesday, said Kevin Baxter, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. The figure already surpasses the highest number of Red Tide manatee deaths on record in Florida - 151 in 1996. This year's fatalities from Red Tide will likely continue into the spring because the algae bloom's deadly toxins...

When I heard Clinton was picked by the Obama administration to serve as the Secretary of State, I was curious if anyone in the Senate confirmation hearings would bring up her political ties with Ram Ranjan.And since her confirmation, Clinton has now put blame on Sri Lanka for the death of civilians. For those who don't know who Ram Ranjan is, he was involved with a political fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. Ram Ranjan is a supporter of the Tamil Tigers. The Tamil Tigers are considered a terrorist group. In the above hyper link you will find the following: Update II:...

Bangkok, Thailand - Over two months after the bloody finale of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, a lingering row over civilian casualties continues to roil a fractured society. Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their final military push against Tamil Tiger rebels didn't target hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind enemy lines. But aid workers, church officials, and government doctors reported that heavy shelling had caused mass casualties. A preliminary United Nations report estimated that 7,000 had died between January and May. On Wednesday, however, a group of doctors who had provided dramatic firsthand accounts of civilian suffering in...

REYNOSA — Fear and panic filled the streets of Reynosa on Sunday night as rival gunmen battled during a three-hour firefight that saw automatic weapons and grenades used. Surprisingly, Mexican authorities were absent for most of the melee. The opening clashes were reported just before 9 p.m. Sunday, when rival factions of the Gulf Cartel consummated what appeared to be a yet another rift within the criminal organization. During the protracted gunbattle, dozens of gunmen were killed, but authorities Monday would only confirm the deaths of two bystanders and the injury of a third. A Tamaulipas law enforcement official, who...

A US senator has said an estimated 4,700 people, including some civilians, have been killed in the contentious bombing raids of America's secretive drone war. It was the first time a politician or any government representative had referred to a total number of fatalities in the drone strikes, which have been condemned by rights groups as extrajudicial assassinations.

NEW DELHI — A crowd of Tibetans came here to India’s capital last week, bearing flags and political banners and a bittersweet mixture of hope and despair. A grim countdown was under way: The number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet had reached 99, one short of an anguished milestone. Yet as that milestone hung over the estimated 5,000 Tibetans who gathered in a small stadium, so did an uncertainty about whether the rest of the world was paying attention at all. In speeches, Tibetan leaders described the self-immolations as the desperate...

The 'final assault' by Algerian troops on a gas plant seized by militants has resulted in the deaths of seven hostages and 11 kidnappers. The militants reportedly summarily executed their captives as troops tried to free them. "It is over now, the assault is over, and the military are inside the plant clearing it of mines," Reuters quoted a local source as saying. Earlier, the militants reportedly made demands and threatened to kill the captives if their ultimatum was not met. The militant group behind the attack, ‘The Battalion of Blood,’ initially said that the hostages were nationals of Great...

Still developing

Matt Drudge is the proprieter of the world’s #1 news aggregator site, the Drudge Report, which receives tens of millions of visits every day. On his personal Twitter account he has over 160,000 followers. He is also pro-life. This is the amazing message that his followers were greeted with this morning: There will be over 3,500 killed in USA today from abortion. No flags lowered, no presidents crying. No media hyperventilating. Normal day. The post is a bold move for Drudge. His reference to “presidents crying” appears to be a pretty direct reference to President Obama’s reaction to the...

In the era whose secret he uncovered, a journalist's office would have looked just like the one where Yang Jisheng works now. The tiled floor, the grimy window panes, the desk piled two feet high with papers, envelopes and books. The Mao-era radiators. The cigarette ash and the dust. Under Mao Zedong, Yang's good fortune was to find a job as a reporter with China's state-run Xinhua news agency. His misfortune had been to see his father die of hunger in 1961, at the height of the famine that killed an estimated 36 million people: "When my dad died, I...