Free Republic

A new overpass bridge collapsed in the southern city of Karachi on Saturday, killing at least four people and crushing vehicles under mounds of debris, officials said. Mayor Mustafa Kamal said officials were using heavy machinery and bulldozers to try to rescue injured people trapped in vehicles when the 330-foot-long curved section of the overpass crashed onto a road below. Azhar Faruqi, the city police chief, said authorities had taken two bodies to a hospital, while another two bodies could be seen inside a crushed car. At least five people were injured. The cause of the accident was not immediately...

Nuclear watchdog chief warns of 'last chance' for Iran International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei gives a press conference in July 2007. If Iran fails to resolve its nuclear dispute by the end of the year, it may be passing by its last chance to do so, the UN atomic energy agency head said in an interview due out Monday. BERLIN (AFP) — If Iran fails to resolve its nuclear dispute by the end of the year, it may be passing by its last chance to do so, the UN atomic energy agency head said in an interview due...

One of the biggest U.S. trade unions made an unusual dual endorsement in the 2008 White House race on Thursday, backing Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mike Huckabee for their parties' presidential nominations. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which has about 720,000 active and retired members, backed a candidate from each party for the first time after a recent survey found about one-third of union members voted Republican and two-thirds Democratic.

By Robert Knight CNSNews.com Commentary August 31, 2007 As Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was figuratively dragged out of the restroom and into the spotlight this week, the media have been ignoring another compelling story about sex in public toilets. Fort Lauderdale's Democratic mayor, Jim Naugle, has incurred the wrath of homosexual activists for publicly addressing the problem of men having sex in public places. It all came to a head, so to speak, in July, when the mayor backed an idea that would frustrate the thrill seekers: switching to automated stalls. Automated stalls make it difficult for trolling swingers to...

The Arab 'belly' is pregnant with conflicts, dilemmas, and controversies. It is a belly that keeps swelling month after month, and while years pass by, it fails to deliver or abort, and if it ever gives birth, the baby has defects or is retarded. The Arab belly suffers so many illnesses and infections, plagued with all kinds of crises, political discrepancies, and conflicting decisions until it is no longer fit for human development. High hopes were vested in student delegations and Arabs in foreign countries who have lived civility firsthand within 'civilized' societies, in their ability to elate the intellectual...

Even though he didn't get a majority for re-election last year, Gov. Rick Perry's 39 percent was ahead of everybody else. And so he's now in a term that lasts into 2011. In the eyes of some of his detractors in the blogosphere, that's too long. Political activist Linda Curtis has started a website calling on legislators in 2009 to impeach the governor (www.impeachperry.indytexans.org/). That's a pretty rash idea. But since Texas doesn't allow for recall elections, like the one that nailed California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, Texans' only way to toss Perry out before the 2010 election...

Boston, MA – Today, Romney for President announced the "Team Mitt: Create Your Own Ad!" contest, an unprecedented initiative to create the campaign's new television advertisement by empowering grassroots supporters of Governor Mitt Romney. The winner of the contest will become the first amateur ever to have his or her work used as an official television advertisement for a presidential campaign. By partnering with Yahoo! and Jumpcut.com, supporters from across the country will be able to utilize an innovative video editing platform to create their own ad by remixing or "mashing up" a large variety of the campaign's photos, videos...

A terrible crash occured at the Radom air show in Poland. Two aircraft from the air group "Zelazny" collided while performing a dangerous maneuver, where three aircraft separate, then turn around to fly at each other, and pass each other with hardly any space between them. Two pilots died in this terrible crash: Lech Marchelewski and Piotr Banachowicz. May God give them peace. Here is a video of the terrible incident: http://kubus172007.wrzuta.pl/film/5eqSwZnPZX/air_show_radom_2007_-_ku_pamieci_pilotow_ktorzy_zgineli

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - California congressman Duncan Hunter has won Texas' first Republican Party Straw Poll. Hunter got 534 votes. Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson came in second with 266 votes, and Texas congressman Ron Paul came in third with 217 votes. The low-turnout event in Fort Wroth lacked the top-tier presidential candidates. Other candidates attending were Chicago businessman John Cox, counterterrorism expert Hugh Cort of Birmingham, Ala., and tool & die maker Ray McKinney of Savannah, Ga. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Senator John McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Governor...

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people,"-Brian De Palma there's no doubt Redacted packs an extraordinary emotional punch. It ends with shocking still photos of Iraqis, dead, disfigured or in extreme distress because of the war. This montage left the audience at a Venice press screening stunned, silent and in a few cases tearful. The combination of De Palma's visceral style and the horrifying subject matter left me reeling.- David Gritten, writing for the Daily Telegraph Chief Petty Officer Jose B. Rivera, 41, from San Diego, holds up...

After being caught trying to smuggle drugs into Australia the Pong Su was sunk by two 2000-pound (900 kg) laser-guided bombs dropped from an RAAF F-111 aircraft. The deliberate destruction of the freighter was said to deliver a strong message to international drug smuggling rings that the Australian Federal Government would take all measures necessary to stop illegal drug importation.

AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that state higher education officials have no authority over seminaries in Texas, ending several years of litigation over state efforts to restrict the operations of three seminaries in Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio. The high court said the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board violated the constitutional rights of the institutions by preventing them from issuing degrees in theology and calling themselves seminaries. Writing for the court, Justice Nathan Hecht said state education requirements affecting the institutions "impermissibly intrude" upon religious freedom protected by the U.S. and Texas constitutions.

A 6-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pit bull Friday evening in a Pleasant Grove neighborhood. Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda said that Scott Warren was inside his home when the family's 1-year-old dog attacked at about 6 p.m. The pit bull responsible for Friday's attack was taken away from the house by Dallas animal control officers. Neighbors said that Scott's family had moved in only about four months ago, but that their dogs had already become a nuisance. One neighbor, Rudy Lopez, said he saw a woman beating one of the dogs a few weeks ago with...

Yesterday, Brian De Palma's "Redacted" screened at the Venice Film Festival. ... ........ ..........Where are the Hollywood conservatives at a time when no less than 8 anti-war movies are coming out at this critical juncture? David Gritten writes, there's no doubt Redacted packs an extraordinary emotional punch. It ends with shocking still photos of Iraqis, dead, disfigured or in extreme distress because of the war. This montage left the audience at a Venice press screening stunned, silent and in a few cases tearful. The combination of De Palma's visceral style and the horrifying subject matter left me reeling. What about...

If the track does not change, it looks like TS Felix will be a Cat 3 (or better) storm when it hits the Yucatan peninsula probably sometime late Wednesday. I'm just glad they are staying away from the Gulf Coast.

WASHINGTON - The Republican presidential race is extraordinarily volatile heading into the autumn stretch before voting begins. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads the field in national popularity polls but Mitt Romney, the ex-governor of Massachusetts, has maintained an edge where it counts — in some of the first states to vote. The upcoming official candidacy of Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" actor, reconfigures the eight-man contest — and brings a dose of Hollywood glamour to the race. Arizona Sen. John McCain remains a factor but is weakened financially and politically; he's seeking traction...

Contrary to what President Bush claims, family values do stop at the Rio Grande for many illegal aliens. In fact since 1999, there have been more than 1,000,000 sex crimes committed in the United States by illegal aliens. In addition to suppressing wages, driving drunk, bankrupting our hospitals, and over-crowding our jails and public schools, illegal aliens are preying upon our children. Using U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration, as well as state and local law enforcement data, the Violent Crimes Institute has determined that there are no less than 240,000 illegal alien sex offenders currently inside the U.S. In Operation...

I have the greatest respect and admiration for Peggy Noonan. In my opinion she is one of the greatest political writers of the 20th Century. However, her latest piece in the Wall Street Journal is not an idea, but a plea. It’s not a call for grace, but a call for further acquiescence and submission to the desires for political power sought on the left at the nation’s expense.   It's nice to believe that if President Bush bowed to his opponents and showed them grace or made it clear that it's not unpatriotic to oppose, but contrary to Ms...

Aug 31, 2007 2:26 PM PULLMAN, Wash. (Map, News) - Advances in veterinary medicine and affluent pet owners willing to pay for lifesaving treatments have created an ongoing shortage of animal blood for use in surgeries and transfusions. But 14 regular canine contributors are helping to fill the demand at the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital here. Jacob and his brother, Quinn, both 4-year-old greyhounds, were the latest donors in a WSU program that has spent two decades trying to solve a problem that few people know exists. "All the major banks are back-ordered," said Jane Wardrop, 55, a...

Senate Democrats are revising their major war legislation to attract votes to pass and potentially launch a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by year’s end. First, the author of the main Senate Democratic measure that would withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq is considering removing from the proposal a deadline for completing the redeployment, in an effort to attract enough Republican votes to pass the measure. Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview the Senate could vote this month on a measure he wrote with Jack Reed, D-R.I., that would begin in...