Free Republic

(10-13) 17:42 PDT SAN MATEO -- An intoxicated teenage driver ran a red light in San Mateo this morning and broadsided a taxicab, killing the driver, then fled as flames engulfed his car where two other teenagers were trapped, police said. Police were able to pull the badly injured youths from the burning Volkswagen Jetta on El Camino Real near Hillsdale Shopping Center, but there was nothing they could do for the cabdriver, 48-year-old Michael Earl Prescott of Redwood City. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2008 – A U.S. Hellfire missile killed an insurgent near the site of a roadside-bomb attack in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district today, U.S. military officials said. A vehicle was destroyed while another insurgent fled the scene. “Our soldiers, along with the Iraqi security forces, continue to meet with the local populace to identify these criminal elements and eliminate the threat they pose,” said Army Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a Multinational Division Baghdad and 4th Infantry Division spokesman. “We will continue to use precision fire to defend the Iraqi people and ourselves against these criminal elements.” In yesterday’s operations:...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s Air Force launched an air strike Thursday morning killing a Hamas terrorist involved in the kidnapping of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. The air strike, which was based on information from the Shabak (General Security Service) was carried out in Rafiah, along Gaza’s southern border with Sinai, as the terrorist, Nafez Mantzour, was driving with two other Hamas terrorists. The first missile missed the vehicle, according to Hamas reports, and one of Matzour’s accomplices escaped before the second struck. Mantzour was killed and one of his accomplices was wounded. The kidnapping of Gilad Shalit happened in July, 2006 at...

Mounting Evidence Shows Red Wine Antioxidant Kills CancerA natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells. (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2008) — Rochester researchers showed for the first time that a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells by reaching to the cell's core energy source, or mitochondria, and crippling its function. The new study also showed that when the pancreatic cancer cells were doubly assaulted -- pre-treated with the antioxidant, resveratrol, and irradiated -- the combination induced a type of cell death called...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Israeli troops opened fire on a car in the West Bank on Wednesday, killing four Palestinian militants, Palestinian medical officials said. The violence threw doubt on prospects for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Associated Press Television News video showed medical officials loading the bodies of the men into an ambulance. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Palestinian security officials said one of the dead was the commander of Islamic Jihad in the Bethlehem area, Mohammed Shehadeh, and two others were also members of Islamic Jihad. The fourth belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,...

JERUSALEM, Israel – Jewish men and women from all walks of life confronted on Thursday the national pain resulting from an unprecedented terrorist attack on one of Judaism's most famous yeshivas. That night, an Israeli-Arab walked into the Mercaz Harav seminary in the Kiryat Moshe section of Jerusalem with a concealed automatic rifle. He opened fire on a group of teenage boys and young men immersed in their studies, firing an estimated 500-600 bullets in the span of 10 minutes and killing eight. An off-duty soldier later felled the gunman. Families laid the slain to rest on Friday. It was...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2008 – Coalition forces killed 13 terrorists and detained three suspects yesterday and today during operations targeting al Qaeda networks in central and northern Iraq, military officials reported. Southwest of Hawijah this morning, coalition forces targeted an alleged senior leader involved in the al Qaeda in Iraq network in Kirkuk. The suspect allegedly is responsible for facilitating finances for terrorist operations in the region and is involved in improvised-explosive-device attacks. Reports also indicate he was a close associate of Abu Harith, the senior leader of the Kirkuk terrorist network, before Harith was killed during a coalition operation...

(IsraelNN.com) IDF Special Forces killed the head of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Judea and Samaria Wednesday morning. The top terrorist, Walid Abeidi, was hiding out in the village of Kabatiya, south of Jenin. The IDF unit came to arrest Abeidi, but a shootout ensued as he and his men attempted to prevent the force from entering the hideout. The 44-year-old terror chief ran out of the building at a certain point, opening fire on the soldiers, who returned fire. He was hit and eliminated. Four accomplices were arrested as well. Two were wounded in gunfighting with the IDF...

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed a top Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the militant group said. An Israeli attack on a car in Gaza killed at least three Palestinian militants and wounded two bystanders, medical workers and witnesses said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said Israel had carried out an attack in Gaza but gave no other details.

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Dec. 3, 2007 – Several militants were killed during a coalition operation yesterday targeting Taliban command-and-control networks in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Coalition forces conducted a precision-guided munitions strike targeting a senior Taliban commander believed to be involved in the March kidnapping of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his interpreter and his driver. Reports indicate the individual also is responsible for a number of mortar attacks on coalition bases, as well as several improvised-explosive-device attacks. During the course of operations, coalition forces targeted a vehicle in the Musa Qaleh district containing five men, one of whom intelligence reports...

AUGUSTA, Ga. - A 22-year-old woman fatally stabbed her two young children in a convenience store bathroom Thursday, police said. A worker at Food Mart told police she saw Jeanette Michelle Hawes enter the restroom Thursday afternoon with the two children, a boy and girl, and then heard a scream, Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength said. The worker called 911, and when deputies arrived they forced the door open and found Hawes on the floor, holding a steak knife and covered in the children's blood, Strength said.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2007 – A coalition airstrike killed more than 20 militants, and Iraqi security forces accompanied by coalition advisors captured 34 suspected terrorists during operations across Iraq Sept. 29, officials reported. -- A coalition aircraft fired on and killed more than 20 al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents during a battle northwest of Baghdad. The aircraft’s crew defended themselves after insurgents launched rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the aircraft. Four enemy vehicles were destroyed during the firefight. -- Iraqi special operations troops detained a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq leader and two alleged cell members in Yusafiyah. -- Two...

9/28/2007 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon dropped precision munitions near Al Nussayyib, Iraq, Sept. 25 killing Abu Nasr al-Tunisi and two other al-Qaida Iraq operatives, according to Air Force officials. They were killed when the aircraft, assigned to U.S. Central Command Air Forces, dropped two laser-guided 500-lb joint direct attack munition guided bomb unit-12 bombs, destroying the terrorist safe house where the three were meeting. "Airpower is crucial to setting the conditions for stability in Iraq," said Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the Combined Air Forces component commander. "Airpower overhead provides capability to the...

CINCINNATI, Aug. 24 A 10-year-old boy who said he hated snakes killed a 10-foot python at petting zoo by stomping on the reptile's head. Scott Braunstein, a reptile handler who brought the snake to the St. Bernadette Festival in Amelia, Ohio, last weekend, said he was shocked by the boy's violence, The Cincinnati Enquirer said Thursday. The snake, named Popcorn, was a non-poisonous albino Burmese python. Braunstein, who operates House of Reptiles in Dry Ridge, Ky., said the boy approached him and told him that he hated snakes. The child then raised his leg and stomped down on the snake's...

ALGIERS (AFP) - A week-long offensive by Algerian special forces in a mountainous area east of Algiers has killed between eight and 11 Islamist militants, security sources said on Saturday. The soldiers, who include paratroopers, are tracking a group of around 100 militants in the Akfadou mountains, 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of Algiers in the Kabylie region, the sources said. The inhospitable area has also been bombarded heavily by artillery and by aircraft, residents told AFP. The operation follows a raid last week on an army barracks in the Yakouren forest in the same region and a suicide bomb...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi soldiers have killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader in a clash inside one of Baghdad's historic Sunni quarters, military spokesman Brigadier General Qassim Atta said Monday. "He was from Al-Qaeda, they called him the 'Governor of Adhamiyah'," Atta told AFP. "He was killed during clashes with the 11th Division's first brigade this morning, and 11 of his aides were arrested." Adhamiyah is a Sunni enclave in north Baghdad, a cluster of streets around an historic mosque surrounded by a US-built concrete security barriers and hostile Shiite districts roamed by militia fighters. Atta said the alleged Al-Qaeda chieftain...

Hamas gunmen killed five of their own combatants in an ambush on a Fatah vehicle that had been carrying Hamas detainees, Fatah officials said Wednesday. Also killed were two members of the Fatah-affiliated Preventive Security force that had been guarding the detained Hamas members, the officials said.

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2007 – Coalition forces killed and captured several extremists in Afghanistan over the past few days, U.S. military officials reported. Coalition forces detained an extremist and discovered makeshift bomb-making material in a compound in Afghanistan’s Paktika province today. The compound consisted of multiple safe houses that use natural terrain to facilitate the movement of fighters from Pakistan. The bomb-making materials were destroyed in place. No shots were fired and no one was injured during the operation, officials said. Meanwhile, Afghan National Army and coalition troops operating in Afghanistan’s Helmand province received rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire...

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man who threatened him with a softball-sized rock at the border, the agency said Tuesday. The agent fired an M-4 assault rifle at the man, who had escaped from a scuffle with another agent as he tried to run back into Mexico, said Border Patrol spokesman David Kim. The victim, whose name, nationality and immigration status were not released by U.S. authorities, was pronounced dead from one bullet wound at El Centro Regional Medical Center after the incident Monday. Kim said he did not know where the man was struck. Pablo Arnaud...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint Wednesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, killing at 13 people in the spiritual heartland of the militia factions led by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces, meanwhile, investigated the "hard landing" of a Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the airmen were picked up by rescuers, but gave no further details. At least seven U.S. helicopters have crashed or been forced down by hostile fire in the past month, killing 28 troops and civilians. Meanwhile, Britain outlined its plan to...