Free Republic

The IDF remains vigilant on the Gaza border six years following Operation Protective Edge. Reconnaissance operations take place at all hours of the day, including technologically advanced intelligence gathering and air force activity. Arutz Sheva toured IDF positions along the Gaza border to see those preparations.Soldiers at the IDF observation tower can see Hamas positions only a few hundred meters away, just across the security fence. Traveling along the border with Gaza reveals how advanced and significant the fence is. The barrier extends dozens of meters above and below ground to prevent the construction of cross-border attack tunnels. While the...

Army ultimatum to resolve political crisis expires at 14:30 GMT with leaks projecting draft constitution to be scrapped. Egypt is bracing for a showdown between the military and President Mohammed Morsi, who has rejected an army ultimatum to end a political crisis with his opponents, vowing to stay in office. The ultimatum expires at 4:30pm (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday but the army said on its Facebook page that it had set no times for issuing statements or speeches. The political wing of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood refused an invitation to meet the armed forces commander on Wednesday, hours before deadline....

HARRISBURG, Pa.- Tension is mounting in Harrisburg, Pa., concerning the city's potential fall into bankruptcy, observers said.Dauphin County, which is a guarantor of Harrisburg bonds, has given permission to a bond trustee, TD Bank, to sue the city over $35 million it owes on bond payments for an incinerator project, the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal reported Thursday.The city has balked at making payments, missing one deadline on Aug. 15, and County Commission Chairman Jeff Haste called city officials in a note to Councilman Brad Koplinski, "a bunch of cowards."

COPENHAGEN – The atmosphere at the U.N. climate conference grew more tense and divisive after talks were suspended for most of Monday's session — a sign of the developing nations' deep distrust of the promises by industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. ... The wrangle over emission reductions froze a timetable for government ministers to negotiate a host of complex issues. Though procedural in nature, the Africa-led suspension went to the core of suspicions by poor countries that wealthier ones were trying to soften their commitments and evade penalties for missing their targets. ... The negotiations were meant to...

On the day after, Chris Schlichting heard discouraging word of the presidential vote as soon as he woke up. "The clock radio went off, and I was broken-hearted," he said.

Future tense 25 July 2003 Is mankind doomed? Against the background of the war against terror, the march of technology and environmental calamity, this has become the defining question of our age. As politicians warn of the threat from weapons of mass destruction, Prince Charles frets about the world being turned into 'grey goo' by miniature robots. Meanwhile, food campaigners warn by turns that we're going to starve if we don't plant GM crops, and if we do, there's barely time to heed warnings that Sars was just a dress rehearsal for a pandemic that will make Ebola look like...