Free Republic

AUSTRALIAN republicans hatched a plot to assassinate the Queen - in LITHGOW - when she visited the country almost 40 years ago. A retired police detective revealed to the Lithgow Mercury and London’s Daily Mail that details of the conspiracy were kept quiet so as not to embarrass the Australian government at the time. Former Detective Superintendent Cliff McHardy has sensationally claimed the Queen and Prince Philip were travelling across the Blue Mountains towards Orange on April 29 1970 when plotters attempted to derail their train. The now retired 81-year-old police officer claimed a wooden log was placed on the...

Iraq's former prime minister Iyad Allawi said gunmen tried to assassinate him in Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrine on Sunday, forcing him to cut short an election campaign visit pursued by an angry mob. "It appeared to be an assassination attempt," the secular Shi'ite said; 60-70 men in black, armed with guns and knives, set upon his small party as he prayed at the Imam Ali mosque. Police said Allawi's group was attacked by men with batons and fled the shrine under a hail of rocks, tomatoes and shoes -- the latter a mark of grave insult in Iraqi culture. Allawi,...

UKRAINIAN prosecutors will today begin an investigation into allegations that state officials tried to assassinate opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, following weekend confirmation that he was poisoned in the run-up to presidential elections. It is an inquiry that is expected to be hugely divisive because the prime suspect is the head of the Ukraine secret service, the SBU. The official dined with Mr Yushchenko the night he was poisoned, and medical experts say the dioxin is likely to have been administered through the food and drink. Mr Yushchenko, expected to be elected president in re-run elections on 26 December, yesterday promised...