Free Republic

A “completely innocent” Brooklyn teen was gunned down by a drive-by shooter in what cops believe was a tragic case of mistaken identity this week – with his grief-stricken sister saying he’d only gone out that night to drive his friend home from work. Christian Montrose, 19, had just parked his car in front of his house on East 104th Street near Avenue K in Canarsie around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday when someone rolled up in a black Acura and ambushed him, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters. “As he gets out of the car, he’s engaged in conversation...

Former first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday said she hopes “enough becomes enough” amid recent gun violence incidents and mistaken-address shootings in New York and Missouri. “I hope and pray that, at some point, enough becomes enough,” Obama told Gayle King on “CBS Mornings,” adding that she and her husband, the former President Barack Obama, wondered when that point would be throughout their time in the White House. A 20-year-old woman was fatally shot last week by a homeowner in New York after the car in which she was a passenger mistakenly pulled into the man’s driveway, according to police....

Environmental officials warned 30 years ago the Maldives could be completely covered by water due to global warming-induced sea level rise. That didn’t happen. The Indian Ocean did not swallow the Maldives island chain as predicted by government officials in the 1980s. In September 1988, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported a “gradual rise in average sea level is threatening to completely cover this Indian Ocean nation of 1196 small islands within the next 30 years,” based on predictions made by government officials. Then-Environmental Affairs Director Hussein Shihab told AFP “an estimated rise of 20 to 30 centimetres in the next...

AMMAN, Jordan - Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, mistakenly said Tuesday that Iran was allowing al-Qaida fighters into the country to be trained and returned to Iraq. McCain, expressing concern about Iran's rising sway in the Mideast, said, "Al-Qaida is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran." He made the comments Tuesday at a news conference in Jordan; he made similar comments earlier to radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt. Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country and has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaida fighters...

DUBAI (AFP) - Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said Friday that Saudi's King Abdullah was "mistaken" when he questioned the legality of the US military presence in Iraq and should "correct" his controversial remarks on the matter. "With all due respect to the King, it's a mistake to characterise the US presence in Iraq as illegal," Bolton said in an interview with the US-based Arabic language Al-Hurra television station. King Abdullah, a key ally of Washington in the Middle East, described the US occupation of Iraq as "illegitimate" at a meeting of Arab leaders last week...

Bog Mummy Mistaken for Murder Victim By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News June 27, 2005— The body of a teenage girl thought to be the victim of foul play has turned out to be one of Germany's oldest and best-preserved mummies, German archaeologists announced at a press conference last week.Bog Mummy's Hand Found in September 2000 in a peat bog in the town of Uchte, in Lower Saxony, the corpse was first examined by the police homicide unit. Though it had been fragmented by the peat machine, the body appeared to belong to a teenage girl. Investigators thought it could be...

Since George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign, journalists have been trying to verify reports that the president was once arrested on a cocaine posession charge. Now, for the first time, court records obtained by Radar may be able to shed some light on the mystery. Filed in 1986, the same year that the president claims to have given up drinking, the documents clearly show that a George W. Bush Jr. was convicted in a Midland, Texas court on a vague “unlawful practice of medicine” charge. Only thing is, it appears to be the wrong George W. Bush. Although they were...

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....

LODI -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apparently doesn't know they turn the lights off each night at Lodi's R.E. Services. Rumsfeld recently told disgruntled National Guard troops in Kuwait the reason there isn't more armor on military vehicles in Iraq is because it can't be made fast enough. "There's no capacity is what Rumsfeld said," said Mark Frater, chief executive officer at R.E. Services, which began making lightweight armor for military vehicles earlier this year. "I'm just running one shift. I've got capacity. I could run around the clock if they gave me the orders." Frater's company makes laminated plates...

Putin: Ally or Terrorist? by William F. Jasper Counting Vladimir Putin as an ally against terrorism ignores his career in the murderous KGB/FSB and his ongoing support for terrorist regimes and organizations. ‘‘Lena Goncharuk, aged 38, said that she was the only one to survive out of a group of six who were ordered out of the cellar where they had been hiding and shot at point blank range. Resting in her hospital bed, her voice barely rising above a whisper, she said she had survived only by pretending to be dead." So reported Paul Wood from the Chechen border...

By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even small asteroids that never hit Earth could have deadly consequences, because they might be mistaken for nuclear blasts by nations that lack the equipment to tell the difference, scientists said on Thursday. One such asteroid event occurred June 6, when U.S. early warning satellites detected a flash over the Mediterranean that indicated an energy release comparable to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, U.S. Brig. Gen. Simon Worden told a congressional hearing. The flash occurred when an asteroid perhaps 10 yards in diameter slammed into Earth's atmosphere, producing a shock wave that would...

Suicide bombing suspect was victim of mistaken identity It's emerged a Jewish Israeli woman cited for possible involvement in a Palestinian suicide bombing was a victim of mistaken identity. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office says Marina Pinsky has no links to the May 22 attack that killed two Israelis. She "is not connected to the incident," said the statement from Sharon's office. The woman arrested the day after the bombing, Irena Plitzik, is a Ukrainian Christian who was carrying a forged identity card in the name of Marina Pinsky. The prime minister's office acknowledged the mistake 10 days after bombing...