Free Republic

State responds to potential pandemic should bird flu wing our way Leslie Newell Peacock Updated: 8/31/2006 A visit to the World Health Organization’s pandemic alert website on Aug. 14 found this news: Avian influenza — situation in Indonesia — update 26 The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed the country’s 57th case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case is a 17-year-old male from a remote village in Garut district, West Java Province. He developed symptoms on 26 July and was referred to hospital on 9 August. At the hospital, medical staff suspected H5N1 infection...

FORT HUACHUCA — Perhaps the saddest moment Roger Rodriquez remembers from his year tour with an infantry unit in Afghanistan is leading a memorial service for two soldiers killed by an improvised explosive device. “It was hardest for the (soldiers’) platoon. You know soldiers form friendships and when one of their group dies it’s emotional,” the captain chaplain said. Doing a memorial service around incidents in which soldiers are killed in action “is the most difficult thing to do,” the Baptist minister said. During his year in Afghanistan serving with soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii, five...

Commodore Simon Williams presents the charts to Commodore Thamir Nasser. British MoD photo. In an Aug. 8 ceremony aboard the HMS Echo, British forces presented the Iraqi Navy with shipping charts of the Northern Arabian Gulf and approaches to the port of Umm Qasr, paving the way for increased trade through the port and enhanced security in surrounding waters.The charts are the outcome of two years work by the Royal Navy survey ships HMS Echo and HMS Enterprise. The region is a vital shipping area for Iraq and the surveys will give the port the opportunity to increase its...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 11, 2006 – Foreign observers of the U.S. military often say what puts it above other militaries is the quality of the noncommissioned officer corps. Many other nations want the same for themselves. The Afghan National Army is learning from Western military trainers who stress the central role of NCOs in a world-class military. Afghan army Chief of Staff Gen. Bismullah Khan stressed the role of NCOs in the new military by recently appointing the nation's first sergeant major of the army, Roshan Safi. Senior American NCOs say the appointment is crucial to developing an NCO corps...

Maybe America didn't want to see a deadbeat dad Superman who stopped fighting for "the American way" after all.A mere days after the much-hyped Bryan Singer film "Superman Returns" opened, reports are coming in that the film is struggling at the box office. In fact, Fox News reports that the box office take is dropping as word of mouth spreads about the film.The new film had upset some Superman purists before its opening, once news surfaced that the plot of the movie had the Man of Steel learning that girlfriend Lois Lane had given birth to his illegitimate son. Others...

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2006 – The Army's Criminal Investigation Command is looking into allegations that coalition soldiers killed an Iraqi family of four in their home near Mahmudiyah, Iraq, military officials here announced today. A written statement issued by Multinational Division Baghdad said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, the division's commanding general, requested a criminal probe into the allegations after the division's own preliminary investigation found sufficient information existed to recommend a criminal investigation. The incident that led to the allegations reportedly occurred in March, but the military's written statement did not provide a time frame. The statement...

Balad Airbase-Paving the Way to the Future By Polli Barnes Keller Gulf Region Division U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Before - parking of helicopters on edge of active taxiways. Photo 3: After - Tactical helicopter parking ramp. (USACE Photo by Ray Martin) Tikrit Iraq - Repairs and renovations to the Balad Airfield are paving the way to the future of Iraq.In four months, over 800 cubic meters of concrete have been placed and over 35 miles of conduit and conductors have been laid. By the time all the repairs and renovations to the Balad Airbase runway are complete, more than...

Afghanistan crisis paves way for return of the Taliban (Filed: 27/06/2006) Five years after the West promised to rebuild Afghanistan, the country is facing its worst crisis since the Taliban was overthrown. Hamid Karzai has criticised the West's refusal to help his government with more money and troops earlier on. President Hamid Karzai and his western backers are seriously disillusioned with each other, while the Islamic militia is resurgent and people are being killed at a rate not seen since the 2001 American-led invasion. At a recent reception for the Queen's 80th birthday at the new British Council in Kabul...

JUNE 7, 2006 | We recently got hired by a credit union to assess the security of its network. The client asked that we really push hard on the social engineering button. In the past, they'd had problems with employees sharing passwords and giving up information easily. Leveraging our effort in the report was a way to drive the message home to the employees. The client also indicated that USB drives were a concern, since they were an easy way for employees to steal information, as well as bring in potential vulnerabilities such as viruses and Trojans. Several other clients...

USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS) -- The “Maulers” of Sea Control Squadron (VS) 32, currently assigned aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65), are the first squadron to test the first-generation capabilities of the Low Altitude Navigation and targeting Infrared System for Night (LANTIRN) pod on their S-3 Viking aircraft. LANTIRN provides the aircraft with new capabilities, such as Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR), live video feedback to the ship for real-time use, and video recording for later intelligence debriefing. Future models of LANTIRN will include laser designation capabilities. This sophisticated sensor pod mounts on the aircraft's wing station and is operated by the...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German police have arrested a man on suspicion of murdering a woman with a Bockwurst sausage. Prosecutors and police said the 50-year-old was arrested after the discovery of a woman's body in an apartment in Zwickau, eastern Germany. They said she had choked on a Bockwurst, which is a popular large German sausage. The prosecutors said the man had given a patchy account of events, acknowledging that he may have "administered" a Bockwurst to the woman. They are now working to establish exactly what happened in the run up to her death.

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 8, 2006) -- Another day on the sand-bitten streets of a small town in Iraq lapsed for the passersby, who carelessly walked to and from their normal routine tasks. A few insurgents entered the town, choosing it as their safe haven while preparing their next strike against the U.S. service members. Cruising just below its ceiling at approximately 15,000 feet, a small unmanned aerial vehicle hovered over the dusty community just beyond earshot, as it tracked the insurgents to their current location with real-time video and relayed the information to the people who could do something...

Big Breakup: That's the way the comet crumbles Ron Cowen Scores of telescopes are watching a comet fall apart, and the main show may be only beginning. The comet has already fragmented into at least 59 pieces and may continue to break up as it reaches its position closest to the sun on June 6. In mid-May, the chunks will venture within 11.7 million kilometers of Earth—the closest any comet has come to our planet in 20 years—and the largest fragments should be visible with binoculars. Called Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, this body passes near the sun every 5.4 years and...

In the leak scandal that led to five indictments for a top-level White House official, reports this week cite that former US Central Intelligence Agency employee Valerie Plame was allegedly following Iran's nuclear activities before her identity was revealed. Democrat Party Senator Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to CIA Director Porter Goss, asked for an evaluation of the harm outing Plame has caused. In the letter, the Senator reminds Director Goss of recent news stories which report that before Plame was outed, she participated in intelligence works on the Iranian nuclear dossier, and her subsequent outing gravely jeopardized the US’...

When you're in orbit, which way is Mecca? 12:14 21 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kelly Young Dan Bursch, Yuri Onufrienko and Carl Walz pose with their Christmas tree aboard the International Space Station in 2001 (Image: NASA)Malaysia's National Space Agency is trying to determine how its astronaut candidates will practice Islam in space. Three of its four astronaut candidates are Muslim, and two will be selected for a future Russian space flight. Once in their orbiting spacecraft, they will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. Traditionally, Muslims pray five times per day, at times connected to the position...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, April 19, 2006 – A cooperative group of officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and coalition forces in Afghanistan held its 16th meeting here today. Delegates to the Tripartite Commission included Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hyat, vice chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan; Gen. Bismullah Khan, chief of staff of the Afghan National Army; and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. This was the third meeting in which the Afghanistan and Pakistan delegations were represented at the four-star-general level, U.S. officials said. Officials from NATO and the International Security Assistance Force again participated...

MARINE CORPS RECRUITING STATION DENVER, Colo. (March 13, 2006) -- It was a perfect day in Denver to build a house for Habitat for Humanity -- assuming your idea of perfect is 12 degrees below zero. The weather factor, however, did not deter the Marines and poolees of Recruiting Substation Metro South, Recruiting Station Denver, who teamed up to build a home in the Denver area as a part of their weekly pool function. “The weather, in fact, made the experience much more memorable and rewarding,” said Staff Sgt. James D. Regan, canvassing recruiter, RSS Metro South. “When one steps...

February 17, 2006 -- The Upper West Side street on which ABC News' headquarters is located is getting a second name — in honor of the late Peter Jennings. West 66th between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue will be Peter Jennings Way as of next Tuesday. Jennings, 67, died in August, just four months after disclosing that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He anchored "World News Tonight" for 22 years and, with Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, was considered one of the Big Three evening-news anchors. Brokaw retired from "NBC Nightly News" in 2004 and Rather from...

Get out of the way... he hasn't forgotten By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 16/02/2006) The reputation that elephants have for never forgetting has been given a chilling new twist by experts who believe that a generation of pachiderms may taking revenge on humans for the breakdown of elephant society. The New Scientist reports today that elephants appear to be attacking human settlements as vengeance for years of abuse by people. In Uganda, for example, elephant numbers have never been lower or food more plentiful, yet there are reports of the creatures blocking roads and trampling through villages, apparently without...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2006 – The Defense Department unveiled the Quadrennial Defense Review today, charting the way ahead for the next 20 years as it confronts current and future challenges and continues its transformation for the 21st century. The 92-page report, sent to Congress beginning today, represents "a common vision of where we need to go and what we need to do," Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary for policy, told Pentagon reporters today. The report was driven, managed and authored by senior leaders throughout the department, from Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint...