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A Sanford judge today ruled that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi does not have to answer defense attorneys' questions under oath in a mammoth Internet casino gambling case pending in Seminole County. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. made that ruling this morning.The case involves more than 50 defendants, accused of violating the state's gambling, racketeering and money laundering laws by operating Internet cafes that prosecutors say served as storefront gambling parlors. Each had ties to the non-profit Allied Veterans of the World, a group that provided charity to military veterans but, according to authorities, donated just two percent of its...

There were 405 Coalition deaths in Afghanistan in 2012. 310 of the 405 deaths were Americans. Meanwhile in Chicago… There were 532 homicides in 2012. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel attributes the rise in homicides, in part, to the broader problem of illegal guns.

A unified Korea would be closely allied to the US. That's why China won't support it By Praveen Swami “Like lips and teeth,” Mao Zedong said, in response to a question about his country’s relationship with North Korea. Yesterday morning, the Guardian revealed that the Wikileaks cables said China was “ready to abandon North Korea.” In a separate report, the newspaper quoted Chinese diplomats as backing the revelation, saying they wanted an “independent and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.” It’s an odd claim, because the cable doesn’t say anything of the kind. The text of the cable – a...

A team of Marines and civilians work an assembly line to inspect recovered Iraqi weapons before redeploying them to Iraqi Army. Photo taken by Lance Cpl. Ben Eberle. CAMP TAQADDUM -- Since March 2003, coalition forces have seized thousands of unauthorized small arms through security patrols and urban search operations. Marines and civilians with Ammunition Platoon, Supply Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 15, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward), are redeploying these weapon systems into the Iraqi Army, turning insurgent resources into coalition assets. “We need to arm our allies,” said Warrant Officer Robert P. Smith, officer-in-charge of Camp Taqaddum’s Ammunition Supply...

/8/2006 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) -- Units from across the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Australia and the United Kingdom gathered here for the second part of the Red Flag 06-1 exercise, which started Feb. 6. More than 130 aircraft and 2,500 personnel will fight and support in a simulated air war over the Nellis Test and Training Range during day and night missions, through Feb. 18. “Red Flag exists mostly because of the Nellis Test and Training Range -- a lot of air space out there, a lot of ground space,” said Maj. Greg Weart, Red...

Sixty years ago, on April 15, 1945, Lieutenant John Randall, then a 24-year-old SAS officer, was on a reconnaissance mission in northern Germany. He and his driver were heading down the road to Lüneberg when he noticed a large, imposing iron gate in front of a track leading off into the woods to their left. Curious, Randall decided to investigate, and so discovered one of the most horrifying aspects of Hitler's Germany. "We were totally unprepared for what we had stumbled across,'' says Randall, now 85, sitting opposite me in the Special Forces Club in London. ''I just drove through...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

NEUSCHWABENLAND: The Lost Colony Seal of the German Antarctica Expedition     There have always been tales floating around that the Germans were involved in some kind of plot to claim Antarctica as a territory, or at least use it for some kind of research or base for military operations. Little is known of these strange expeditions, but they did in fact take place. Available information is scanty, so if you know anything about this or other subjects on this site, please see the Contributors Wanted page.     The very first German Antarctic expedition was carried out in 1873, under Sir...

The Guardian Unlimited reports that unique aerial photographs of some of the key events of the Second World War are to be made available for the first time over the internet. The photographs are being made available through a website created by The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA) at Keele University - an official place of deposit for the National Archives at Kew, West London. The entire archive of more than five million aerial reconnaissance photographs, shot by the RAF over Western Europe during the conflict, is going online starting Monday. They include American troops landing on the Normandy beaches on...

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the Little Rock native and former NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, has resigned as managing director of merchant banking for the Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock effective Friday, a company spokesman confirmed. "He told several of us that his first assignment would be to Kuwait City for CNN," Stephens spokesman Frank Thomas said. "It was a very amicable parting, very comfortable." Clark couldn't be reached for comment Friday morning. He joined Stephens in July 2000, the same month he retired from the Army. He serves on the boards of directors of Acxiom...

'To countries allied with the Americans. . .' (Filed: 14/11/2002) The following are extracts from a tape purported to contain the words of Osama bin Laden, broadcast by al-Jazeera television.From the worshipper of God, Osama bin Laden, to the people of the countries that are allied with the unjust American government: the road to safety starts with stopping aggression and it is only fair to establish equal treatment. The events since the New York and Washington raids until today - such as the killing of Germans in Tunisia and the French in Karachi, the blowing up of the French supertanker...

IRAQ today accused allied warplanes of attacking a civilian airport in the Gulf port of Basra.State TV did not mention casualties.The Pentagon said there were two strikes early today in response to Iraq firing anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles at allied aircraft patrolling the no fly zones.An announcer on state-owned satellite channel called the airport strike a "terrorist act" that breached "international civilian aviation regulations."Air raids as part of US and British enforcement of no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq are routine. But the latest comes at a time of high tension between the United States and Iraq.President George...

<p>BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) --  Braced for booby-traps and hidden tripwires, American soldiers searching elaborate cave complexes along the Pakistan border found jail cells and dossiers complete with photographs and fingerprint samples.</p> <p>After landing at Bagram air base Saturday aboard waves of Chinook helicopters, men from the 101st Airborne Division recounted the 5-day mission into the Zhawar Mountains that took them deep into enemy caves in a hunt for intelligence information before they destroyed the abandoned hide-outs.</p>