Free Republic

A WAR hero's medals have revealed the untold story of a Scottish soldier who survived three years of suffering building the notorious Burma Railway. Kenneth McLeod, who has died aged 92, was captured by the Japanese in the Second World War and was one of the last surviving veterans who worked on the bridge over the River Kwai. Now his daughter and son are donating his war medals, Glengarry bonnet and sporran to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum at Stirling Castle, where he was based more than 70 years ago. Mr McLeod, of Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, was...

A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said. Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret. "He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was...

A teenage mugger took the witness stand yesterday and laid out for a jury the rules of the street that dictated why an actress and playwright on the verge of making it in New York was shot dead, while other mugging victims that night were allowed to live. It wasn’t the color of her skin, or the amount of money in her purse, the mugger said, but the victim’s attitude — her insouciance, defiance and disdain that made the mugger’s accomplice shoot the actress, 28-year-old Nicole duFresne, once in the chest, killing her. “What are you going to do, you...

A Waterloo man and his dog made a harrowing escape from the clutches of a vicious black bear Thursday while portaging near Wawa, Ont. Tom Tilley, 55, killed the nearly 200-pound bear by jumping on its back and stabbing the aggressive animal with a six-inch hunting knife after his dog alerted him and distracted the bear. "Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was, 'You're not going to kill my dog,' " Tilley said yesterday. "I really consider my dog a hero. Without that first warning I would have had the bear clamping down on my...

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=45339 Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life Statement on Terri Schiavo's Death4/5/2005 8:35:00 AM To: National Desk, Legal Reporter Contact: Jerry Horn of Priests for Life, 540-785-4733; Web: http://www.priestsforlife.org NEW YORK, April 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In response to the criticism some have voiced to his statements that Terri Schiavo's death was a murder, Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, issued the following statement this morning: "Yes, Murder. "Terri Schiavo was in fact murdered by being deprived of food and water for 13 days. The reason Michael Schiavo's attorney George Felos was so upset that I...