Free Republic

Repeats to fix transmission error) By Elaine Lies TOKYO, June 19 (Reuters) - The United States and Japan warned North Korea against a missile launch as officials said the secretive communist state appeared to have completed fuelling for a test flight that could possibly reach as far as Alaska. South Korean broadcaster YTN cited officials in Seoul as saying a launch could come on Monday. Speculation that Pyongyang would fire its Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile at the weekend came to nothing, and forecasts of overcast skies over North Korea and possible showers on Tuesday and Wednesday could delay it. Japan's...

Warnings that North Korea appears close to test-firing an intercontinental missile are escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea appears to have completed injecting liquid fuel into a long-range ballistic missile, the final stage before the launch, intelligence authorities in the U.S. and Korea said Sunday. That signals a turning point this week since the missile should either be fired or the fuel removed within 24 hours of fuel injection. All that remains is “the click of a button,” a Foreign Ministry official said. But bad weather near Musudanri, North Hamgyong Province where the launch pad is deployed is...

TOKYO: North Korea has directed its people to hoist the national flag and watch a state message on television on Sunday afternoon, a move possibly linked to Pyongyang's missile test, a Japanese newspaper said. The Sankei Shimbun, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said that the country's national flag should be raised at 1030 IST (2:00 pm local time) and that people should watch the message Sunday evening. Immediate confirmation of the report was not available. The report follows a series of other reports on Pyongyang's preparations for a long-range missile test this weekend. On Sunday Japan warned North Korea it...

Reckless Blackmail Should Be Stopped North Korea has been continuing its reckless saber rattling with a threat to test-fire its Taepodong missile over the last several weeks. Some intelligence analysts say that the launching preparation is nearing a stage that makes it possible to launch sometime next week. We would like to ask the North Koreans if they are in their right minds to prepare such a dangerous maneuvering at this crucial time. The multi-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 15,000 km is capable of reaching the United States. We hate to guess what sort of dreadful result...

Asia-Pacific passes bird flu pandemic test, Australia says Fri Jun 9, 4:02 PM ET SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian officials praised as creative the responses of Asian and Pacific countries to a hypothetical bird flu pandemic which included discouraging kissing and building a factory to make protective masks. The scenario tested involved a new strain of bird flu, dubbed the 'Malacca Straits Flu', reaching pandemic proportions within the region after several infected fishermen were rescued by a passing cruise ship. "The scenario successfully achieved the goal of testing communication responses during the exercise, which lasted 26 hours across eight time zones,"...

FRIEDBERG, Germany (Army News Service, June 7, 2006) – A group of oddly dressed U.S. Soldiers patrols a village on the lookout for insurgents. Suddenly ambushers open fire from windows, an assumed casualty springs to life firing at the patrol and the Soldiers quickly head for cover. As members of the 1st Armored Division’s 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, coached the squadron of Army spouses through the combat course on Friedberg’s Ray Barracks, the competitors discussed their options and took action. It was all part of the 1st Brigade Combat Team’s Combat Spouse Badge Challenge June 3 – an event...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The tiny state of Rhode Island still ranks rock bottom in terms of driving knowledge, according to a national test conducted by GMAC Insurance. Oregon drivers answered the most questions correctly. The test revealed that about one in 11 licensed drivers in the United States would fail a state drivers test, according to GMAC Insurance. Rhode Island ranked last year, also, with an average score of 77. Last year, Oregon's average score was 89, which still placed at the top of the rankings that year. Based on average scores, northwestern states generally ranked highest while the...

I got a minus 51 on my last test. I couldn't be more delighted. "It seems you take many sensible precautions,'' was the automated evaluation from my online tester. The exam tested my risk of being burglarized. I hate to be the guy or gal who scored more than 120. "You are going to be burglarized as soon as a burglar or setup man discovers your home,'' the exam giver dryly notes. The test I took is called "Rate Your Risk,'' found online at www.rateyourrisk.org. The site also offers two other fun but informative and insightful surveys that measure your...

The state tennis tournament began and ended in exactly the same way for Dan Hoschouer and Andy Edwards -- Andrew Kahley and Isaac Chambers from Smokey Valley celebrated at the De Soto pair's expense. It was what happened in between that made the experience special, however. Hoschouer and Edwards (29-8) finished sixth in last weekend's 2006 state tennis tournament in Pratt. Losing only their first match on the first day and their final match on the second day, the pair used three consecutive wins through the middle of the tournament to earn their first state medals and propel the De...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2006 – A U.S. Navy ship shot down a long-range ballistic missile in its final seconds of flight during a test yesterday. It was the first successful ship-launched intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase, U.S. military officials said. During the Navy and Missile Defense Agency test, Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie, equipped with technology to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles, launched a Standard Missile 2 to intercept a missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range facility on Kauai, Hawaii. "The test yesterday was an opportunity to see if a modified configuration of the...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2006 – A bogus suicide attempt yesterday lured guards into a 10-man detainee bay where an attack awaited them, the admiral in charge of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told reporters today. Two other detainees had attempted suicide earlier in the day. One barrack room in Camp 4, the medium-security facility within Camp Delta at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Camp 4, highly compliant detainees live in a communal setting and have extensive access to recreation. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The large skirmish in...

<p>I searched but did not see a thread already open for tonights speech. I think this is the most important speech the President will probably make for the remainder of his term.</p>

4/27/2006 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- Airmen from several Air Force bases spent two months preparing, disassembling, rebuilding and testing an Iraqi Air Force Comp Air 7SLX, which had its first test flight here April 25. The aircraft is considered experimental, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It is designed to be an unarmed aircraft used to patrol oil pipelines and other infrastructure targeted by insurgents. "This six-seater aircraft, which is a kit-built plane, was developed by a company in Merritt Island, Fla., called AeroComp which sold the aircraft to the United Arab Emirates," said Lt. Col....

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait, April 25, 2006 – Civilian opinion leaders visiting here today got to take a whirl -- literally -- in a new training device that's teaching troops how to survive a rollover in top-heavy up-armored vehicles. JCOC participants look on as the Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer - or HEAT - simulates a Humvee rollover at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, April 25. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Larry Chambers, USCG  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference, traveling through the U.S. Central Command operating area to observe military operations and meet troops,...

How do you figure out whether a foam firefighting system in an air force hangar is set up correctly and works? Well you turn it on for a few seconds, to make sure it's got pressure and everything. First you set up a scaffolding so you can record the event and show the flow coming out of all nozzles. And then you let 'er rip. After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut 'er off. Uh, guys? Shut 'er off? Aw crap. Whatever was meant to shut off...

A question given to students during a practice test for a math final at Bellevue Community College has students — and others — shaking their heads because of what they say is a lack of racial sensitivity. It refers to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice although it doesn’t mention her by name, a civil rights activist said. The question read: "Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second." The Condoleezza question went on to ask when the watermelon will hit...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2006 – The nature of the United States' enemies has changed, and Americans must maintain patience and will as the country fights the Long War against extremists, a top DoD policy official said here today. Unlike past wars, the enemy today is not a nation state challenging America with military force, but rather a dispersed global network of extremist groups who use terror, propaganda and indiscriminate violence as they seek to advance their political gains, Eric S. Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, said at a presentation entitled "Threats, Resources and the Long War," sponsored by "Congressional...

Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ... Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

From the academic sidelines, where calls to Leave No Child Untested are routinely sounded by quick-fix school reformers, Jay Mathews joins in with his Feb. 20 op-ed column, "Let's Teach to the Test." In well-crafted prose, he reports that "in 23 years of visiting classrooms I have yet to see any teacher preparing kids for exams in ways that were not careful, sensible and likely to produce more learning." --snip-- Tests represent fear-based learning, the opposite of learning based on desire. Frightened and fretting with pre-test jitters, students stuff their minds with information they disgorge on exam sheets and sweat...

Drug test subject 'looks like elephant man' says girlfriend (Filed: 15/03/2006) The girlfriend of a man fighting for life after taking part in a pharmaceuticals trial has said the drugs he was given have left him looking "like the Elephant Man". Myfanwy Marshall Myfanwy Marshall, 35, said her boyfriend, a 28-year-old British man who had taken part in drug trials before without adverse side effects, felt ill 80 or 90 minutes after being given the drug on Monday. He is now in the intensive care unit at at Northwick Park hospital in north-west London. Five other men were also admitted...