Free Republic

NEW YORK. Senator Edward Kennedy, the elder statesman of the US political clan scarred so often by tragedy, is to publish his memoirs in a deal reportedly worth eight million dollars, AFP reports. The reported advance would vault the younger brother of president John F. Kennedy to the top ranks of high-earning US political diarists, including former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. "I've been fortunate in my life to grow up in an extraordinary family and to have a front-row seat at many key events in our nation's history," the 75-year-old Kennedy said in a statement. "I hope...

Judge: Sudan Owes USS Cole Families $8MJul 25, 12:38 PM (ET) By KRISTEN GELINEAU RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Sudan to pay nearly $8 million to the families of 17 sailors killed in the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole. The families had sought $105 million, but U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar in Norfolk ordered Sudan to pay $7.96 million. Doumar applied the Death on the High Seas Act, which permits compensation for economic losses but not for pain and suffering. "It is depressing to realize that a country organized on a religious...

He's the last man standing on refugee island and costs Australia £8m a year By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 06/10/2006) He is possibly the loneliest refugee in the world and he is being maintained at a cost of £8 million a year. Mohammed Sagar has spent the past five years living in a detention camp on Nauru, a sun-baked rock in the middle of the south Pacific. He was one of 1,500 refugees from the Middle East and Afghanistan sent to the near-bankrupt republic under Australia's so-called Pacific Solution to boatloads of people fleeing their homelands. They were intercepted...