Free Republic

Despite reservations in Washington regarding a possible Israeli strike on Iran, the American administration will supply Israel with sophisticated weapons for heavily fortified targets, the U.S. administration announced. The U.S. Department of Defense announced it would sell the Israel Air Force 1,000 new smart bombs, rumored to significantly enhance the IAF's military capabilities. The deal was approved amid public and secret messages from Washington, with the Americans expressing their reservations about a possible Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic's suspected nuclear sites. The Pentagon's announcement, which came on Friday, said the U.S. will provide Israel with 1,000 units of Guided...

Chickens run rings around Turkish bird flu busters Colin Freeman in Kusadasi (Filed: 15/01/2006) For the boiler-suited bird flu team from Kusadasi town council, the question of why the chicken crossed the road was no laughing matter. Having pecked his way out of a wriggling sackful of condemned birds, the white cockerel sprinted from the council depot and across a dual carriageway, forcing several staff to dodge the rush-hour traffic in pursuit. A Turkish boy and a municipality worker try to catch chickens The chicken's escape was thwarted only by Ayhan Bekmez, one of 90 council staff pressed into service...

Soon after the 9/11 attack on America, the Bush administration and the nation's defense establishment began to mull how the nation could be defended against terrorists who might seek to attack armed not with hijacked airplanes but with a nuclear or other weapon-of-mass destruction acquired from a rogue nation such as Iraq, Iran, Libya or North Korea. In the years since, the rogue regime in Iraq has been removed and its efforts to develop WMD interrupted, while Libya's leader voluntarily gave up his nuclear and other WMD programs and weaponry. Libya's former nuke program sits in crates under heavy guard...