Free Republic

Saudi Arabia has sent dozens of tanks to Bahrain, where anti-government protests continue for about two weeks, Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses reported seeing "15 tank carriers carrying two tanks each heading towards Bahrain" along the 25-km King Fahd causeway, which links the small island nation of Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Protestors are mainly Shiites account for about 70% of the Bahraini population, but have long complained of discrimination and other abuses by the Sunni Khalifa dynasty that has ruled the tiny Gulf nation for more than two centuries. In the worst unrest in the kingdom since...

Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar. But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly. Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home with considerable care - their 400sq ft 'bungalow' boasts a double bed, a wardrobe and even a bookshelf. They have been there for five years, fashioning a shower out of a water cooler, hanging paintings on the walls and collating a...

During past recessions, the financial stability of hospitals seemed to be nearly indestructible. But researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and St. Joseph Mercy Health System say the current national economic crisis may be an exception. Hospitals are reporting declining profits, likely as a result of Americans losing health insurance as they lose jobs. As a result, hospital plans for renovation and new construction are being scrapped, and hospitals are being forced to reduce hospital staff, according to an analysis in the just-released May/June issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine. The researchers speculate hospital cutbacks may risk...

Check out creepy ad (at link) featuring models in the sack with Nixon and Reagan masks! (warning...partial nudity) Link to ad - http://cocoperez.com/category/ad-campaigns/ Link to Denimology - http://www.denimology.co.uk/

(08-24) 11:55 PDT Carson City, Nev. (AP) -- Monday marked the first day Nevada couples could begin registering as domestic partners in advance of a new law that takes effect in October. Same- and opposite-sex couples who apply soon could receive their certificates of domestic partnership as early as Oct. 1. That's the day a new state law goes into effect extending rights similar to those held by married couples to cohabitating couples, whether gay or straight, who register. Applications will be accepted at the secretary of state's office. There is a $50 fee, and the applications must be notarized....

WEDNESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, researchers have identified a single "master" stem cell in humans that is capable of differentiating into all three major cell types that make up the human heart. "This is a very simple but very important and fundamental finding, and that is understanding how the human heart is built, how it is made, what are the progenitor cells which give rise to the human heart," said Dr. Kenneth Chien, head of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute's cardiovascular disease program and senior author of a paper in the July 2 issue of...

7-Year-Old Had Been Missing From Home Where Jennifer Hudson's Mother, Brother Were Found Murdered CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago police confirmed Monday that the body of a young boy found inside a white sport-utility vehicle on the city's West Side is the nephew of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson. The child had been shot in the the head, authorities said. Hudson's nephew, Julian King, 7, had been missing from the South Side home where the bodies of Hudson's mother and brother were found murdered on Friday. An Amber Alert for Julian was canceled late Monday morning. The discovery is the latest in...

Aqaba, 13/7/2006, (Communication & Information Division - Royal Hashemite Court) -- His Majesty King Abdullah called on Israel to stop attacks on Lebanon and condemned the attacks which have targeted Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure. His call came during a meeting today Lebanese MP Saadedinne Hariri who arrived in Aqaba from Alexandria, Egypt. Hariri said in remarks to the press that he had come on a short visit to Jordan to "ask the king to use his good relations with world leaders to bring about an end to the attacks on the Lebanese people." The King assured Hariri that his...

<p>Anti-war activists said they will file a complaint over Reno police's handling of 300 pro-military demonstrators who crashed their peace rally at the federal courthouse.</p> <p>The Reno Anti-War Coalition said 16 police officers who stood idle across the street should have intervened when protesters from the"Rally For America"a few blocks away unexpectedly converged on the peace vigil Saturday.</p>

RALLY FOR AMERICA IN RENO MADE TO LOOK LIKE MAJOR CONFRONTATION WITH PEACENIKS - AS POLICE STAND ACROSS THE STREET CALMLY WATCHING

RATINGS REPORT: Barbra Not Like Butter for Fox An AFI tribute to Streisand generates record-low demographics for Fox. by Tom Bierbaum Friday, June 01 05:21 P.M. The unhappy association of Barbra Streisand and Fox produced more lamentable Nielsens last night, as an American Film Institute tribute to Streisand generated what's apparently the lowest Thursday 18-49 average in the history of that network. It's the third time in four months the unlikely Streisand/Fox combination has led to Nielsen grief. Fox fell to its lowest Wednesday 18-49 average of the just-completed season with the Feb. 14 broadcast premiere of Streisand's pay-per-view Timeless ...

COLLATERAL DAMAGE "Pearl Harbor" and the art of the deal By: Ray Pride War isn't hell, "Pearl Harbor" is. Incoherent, jingoistic, timid, naive and ultimately inconsequential, Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Eisner's Disneyfication of the "day that will live in infamy"—the Japanese Imperial Army's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into World War II—is as emotionally dishonest as a studio profit-and-loss statement. In a recent New York Times profile, in which the journalist describes Bay in uncomfortably worshipful and adoring terms, the "movie-star handsome" director of "The Rock" and "Armageddon" responds to critics and how they ...