Free Republic

A fearsome Russian general has been linked to the deadly railway station strike that killed dozens of fleeing civilians that was branded a 'crime against humanity' within the international community. Western officials believe Captain General Aleksandr Dvornikov, a Russian commander who oversaw devastation in Syria, is likely to have ordered yesterday’s fatal air strike on the station in Kramatorsk. Graphic images on Friday from the eastern Ukrainian city showed bodies strewn across the floor, lying amongst luggage and children's prams outside the city's busy station. Some had already been put into green body bags, while other photos showed smoke rising...

Body of Caucasian woman with blonde hair found in Fallujah: marines FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - The body of a blonde-haired woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit was found lying on the street in Fallujah, a notorious enclave for hostage-takers, marines said. "It is definitely a Caucasian woman with long blonde hair," said a military official, who cut open a cover that had been over the corpse. The gruesome discovery was made as the marines moved through the south of Fallujah, hunting out the remaining die-hard rebels after a week of fierce fighting to regain control...

The bloody siege of a Russian school by Chechen rebels brought widespread condemnation and soul-searching in the Islamic world yesterday. Arab newspapers and television broadcasts were full of dramatic photographs of the children killed and injured in the siege by Islamic rebels demanding Chechen independence from Russia. Commentators and clerics put a harsh spotlight on those who kill and maim in Islam's name. "What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?" Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, asked during a sermon in Banha, 30 miles north of...

Leading doctors today called for a major overhaul to avoid babies being born alive after abortions. Pregnancy expert Professor Stuart Campbell has demanded rules should be tightened after it was revealed that at least nine babies are known to have survived terminations in recent years. He said injections that were supposed to end their lives in the womb failed to do so - and he called for stricter regulations to be enforced on the methods of abortion. Professor Campbell said that all abortions carried out after 18 weeks of pregnancy should include an injection, followed by drugs, to induce labour...

SAN DIEGO -- University of California, San Diego administrators made a last-minute decision today to cancel campus showings of the videotaped beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg in Iraq. Ariel Mor, a 20-year-old UCSD political science sophomore, planned the event as "pro-American," saying he hoped it would increase support for U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East nation, according to news reports. Mor intended to show the eight-minute video repeatedly between noon and 3:30 p.m. on two 25-inch television sets on the La Jolla campus's central Library Walk. University officials decided the video did not violate student policy, after considering...