Free Republic

(IsraelNN.com) During the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, IDF tank fire near a United Nations school in Gaza was blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians who had taken refuge in the building. The incident became one of the most highly publicized attacks in the war, and led to heavy international criticism. However, recent reports suggest that the incident was not accurately portrayed by senior U.N. Officials. John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, spoke to the Toronto Globe and Mail last week and agreed that no shell had actually struck the...

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2006 – Assessments from Helmand Province, Afghanistan, do not conclude that non-combatants were killed as a result of operations against extremists on July 12, according to coalition officials. Extremists likely fabricated reports of civilian deaths as a propaganda ploy to discredit coalition forces and the government of Afghanistan, officials said today. "We take great care to prevent and minimize any damage to property or injury to law-abiding citizens," said Col. Tom Collins, a coalition spokesman for Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. "We will continue in our operations to defeat those who attempt to impose their will upon the...

UNITED NATIONS - The executive who wrote an e-mail memo suggesting that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known about a U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son denies that he, personally, ever discussed the firm's bid with the U.N. chief, his lawyers said Wednesday. The memo written by Michael Wilson describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection S.A. discussed the company's bid for the contract with the secretary-general "and his entourage" during a summit of French-speaking nations in Paris in late 1998. The London law firm Schillings issued a brief...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 31) - Robby Gordon was not being critical of Danica Patrick when he said she had an unfair weight advantage in the Indianapolis 500. Rather, he said he was simply discussing a flaw in the Indy Racing League's rules. "The only thing I was saying was that I have a problem with the rule, not any particular driver," Gordon said Tuesday. "I've been impressed with Danica from the first time she got in an IRL car earlier this year, and I certainly did not mean to disrespect her or any other driver." Patrick wowed the racing world...

Noses didn't need cold to evolve Bruce Bower From Milwaukee, at a joint meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society and American Association of Physical Anthropologists Fossil evidence that Neandertals possessed exceptionally large, broad noses has often been explained as an evolutionary response to life in cold, dry locales. An expansive schnoz might have warmed incoming cold air or expelled body heat during hunting and other strenuous activities. However, new data indicate that climate played no role in shaping the Neandertal nose. Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his coworkers found similarly sized nasal passages in a...

Former US president Bill Clinton wins another Grammy nod 2 hours, 9 minutes ago LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton, movie star Steve Martin, actor John Lithgow and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres won places alongside the world's top musicians as Grammy Award nominees. An unlikely nominee, Clinton won his second consecutive nod for music's top awards in the best spoken word album category for the recording of his best-selling autobiography "My Life." Earlier this year, the former leader of the free world won a golden gramophone statuette for lending his voice to the spoken word recording of Russian...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The NBC correspondent who filmed the fatal shooting by a Marine of an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi by a U.S. Marine inside a Fallujah (search) mosque has written on his Web site that the wounded man made no sudden movements before the Marine opened fire on him.Before the opening of the Nov. 8 assault on the rebel-held city, Marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed for use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the Marines first.In a posting on his Web blog...

Presidential model A model wearing a bra in which the cups are decorated with caricatures of the former US president Bill Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The undergarment was part of the Wearable Art display during the prize giving ceremony for the Louis Vuitton Cup at Puketutu Island in Auckland on Monday. -- AP

UK Princess Diana butler case collapses By Nikki Tait, Law Courts correspondent Published: November 1 2002 13:21 | Last Updated: November 1 2002 13:21 Paul Burrell, former royal butler and aide to Diana, Princess of Wales, was on Friday found not guilty, on all three counts, of stealing from the estate of the princess, the Prince of Wales and Prince William. The dramatic collapse of the Burrell trial at the Old Bailey followed revelations that the former butler had told the Queen in a private conversation following Diana's death that he had kept some of the princess's possessions for safe-keeping....

What was the spark that set off the rumors about a massacre in Jenin's refugee camp? It's been weeks since the controversy broke out during the hard battle the IDF conducted there during Operation Defensive Shield, and now two stories have come up that might be able to shed some light on how the rumors spread. At one point in the fighting, the army used loudspeakers calling on all the men between the ages of 16 and 50 to turn themselves in. Many came out and were sent to Kafr Salem for questioning. Some of those questioned were sent for...