Free Republic

Hi everyone. A while back I posted a prayer request for my 2nd cousin Glenda who had cancer. I just wanted to thank you all for those prayers and to let you know she passed away at noon yesterday. She is with Jesus now, and most importantly is not suffering anymore. We learned last week her cancer had spread into her brain, after she was admitted for pneumonia. The spirit moved me to go and visit her on Mother's Day, and she took a turn for the worse and ended up on life support, unexpectedly, that night. The sad thing...

TOPEKA, Kan. - Witnesses trying to persuade Kansas officials to encourage more criticism of evolution in public school classrooms are making statements some scientists say betrayed creationist views. Witnesses in a State Board of Education hearing on how the theory should be taught also have acknowledged they hadn't fully read evolution-friendly science standards proposed by educators. Nor had two of three presiding board members. snip Board member Kathy Martin, of Clay Center, elicited groans of disbelief from a few audience members when she acknowledged she had only scanned the proposal, which is more than 100 pages. Later, board member Connie...

CHICAGO - A federal judge who was once the target of a failed murder plot by a white supremacist found two bodies in a pool of blood in her basement, and a source said the victims were her husband and her mother. U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, 61, found the bodies about 6 p.m. Monday when she returned home from work, police spokesman Pat Camden said. The source close to the investigation told The Associated Press the victims were Lefkow's husband, attorney Michael F. Lefkow, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, who was visiting from Denver. Michael Lefkow, 65,...

PARIS - Saturn's largest moon apparently is lashed regularly by rain made of liquid methane, forming pools, cutting river beds and eroding rocks in much the same way that forces have shaped the Earth, scientists said. The European Space Agency's probe that landed on Titan's frozen surface a week ago put Europe's stamp on the distant reaches of the solar system with its discoveries of a mysterious, methane-rich globe. snip On Earth, methane is a flammable gas. On Titan, it is a liquid because of the intense pressure and cold - 274 degrees below zero. snip The river beds are...

Hello friends. Last night my dear friend Elsie told me that she has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She is 73 years old, and a devout evangelical. She more than anyone is responsible for turning me to Jesus Christ, and helping me grow in the knowledge of Him. This wonderful lady has a spirit that emanates so bright that all why meet her love her. She is a member of a non-denominational church and has been the driving force of it, especially since her Pastor fell ill with cancer. She not only organizes all of the events this tiny...

A former rebel commander who has been questioned by United Nations war crimes investigators has been elected prime minister by Kosovo's parliament. Ramush Haradinaj, an ethnic Albanian who led Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) units, won by a vote of 72 to three. The decision is expected to anger the Serbian government, which wants him to be indicted for war crimes. Mr Haradinaj has twice been questioned over his role in the 1998-1999 rebel insurgency against Serb rule. It is alleged that KLA units under Mr Haradinaj's command murdered moderate Albanians and Serbs living in Kosovo, which is now under international...

Hundreds of police and federal agents raided a Mexico City suburb on Wednesday night after two officers were killed by an angry crowd. More than 30 people were reportedly held after police with pictures taken in the attack went from house to house. They are also investigating why the two men were not rescued - despite live TV coverage of Tuesday's events. The two plain-clothes officers were burned alive after locals apparently mistook them for child kidnappers.

Those in Arizona business and politics who support the creation of a federal guest worker program for Mexicans and other immigrants wishing to work the United States are welcoming a renewed push on that issue planned for next year by the Bush administration. Blah blah blah...... Bush had proposed a temporary worker program last year, including a path for legal status for undocumented workers already working in the United States. However, progress on that stalled with election year politics delaying and complicating the matter. The Flake/Kolbe/McCain plan also provides a path for undocumented workers already in the United States to...

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Oct. 23 -- Members of Kosovo's Serb minority boycotted parliamentary elections in high numbers Saturday, striking a blow to international efforts to promote multiethnic cooperation in advance of talks designed to determine the status of the province. About 107,000 Serbs were eligible to vote in this province of 1.4 million, which is still technically part of Serbia and Montenegro, the successor to Yugoslavia. But early figures indicated that the Serb vote was minuscule, and polling stations in Serb areas were mostly empty. Although a complete breakdown of the vote was unavailable, 88 of the 14,000 Serb...

I received a strange call from my neice's Filipino Aunt today. My brother and his family are stationed currently in Okinawa, and my brother has custody of my neice due to the mental illness of her mother. It was a hard, painful transition. My former sister-in-law exhibited very strange behavior due to schitzophrenia and my family pretty much tried to avoid her because of this. That was 8 years ago. My niece hadn't seen her since, but kept in phone contact. Four months ago, my former sister in law called me and wanted my address, to send me a bunch...

Excerpt from FR thread on the Global Exchange (see comment): In what is believed to be the first mission of its kind, Global Exchange- an international human-rights organization in San Francisco that sponsors independent election monitoring overseas - has invited 20 of these "skilled election observers" to America to investigate "red-flag issues" in our electoral processes.

Madonna, the Jewish mystic? The pop star arrived in the Holy Land on Wednesday on a spiritual quest, including visits to the graves of revered rabbinical sages, and Israel was abuzz with excitement over the presence of a major star. However, some were perplexed by the raunchy diva's interest in a particularly esoteric side of Judaism, and rabbis said she had no business studying holy texts.

LONDON -- A commission seeking to resolve the Anglican Communion's crisis over a homosexual U.S. bishop and other gay issues wrapped up its work Friday and said it would publish its report on Oct. 18.

ARIS, Aug. 29 - A day after a militant Islamic group holding two French journalists in Iraq demanded that France revoke a law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools, the French government vowed on Sunday not to compromise its national ideals as it pleaded for their release. "I ask solemnly for the liberation" of the hostages, President Jacques Chirac said in a brief and hastily scheduled televised address. He added, "Everything is being done and everything will be done in the coming hours and days to achieve this."