Free Republic

 Holy frak. Holy frak. HOLYROLLERBLADINGFRAK! Movie producers paid two Sukhoi Su-35 pilots to fly without a canopy at Mach 2.0, and have one of them eject in what probably is one of the most dangerous stunts ever filmed. While on this speed I even managed to pull out my fingers in glove for an inch or two outside - it became heated very fast because of immense friction force plane undergoes with the air. That's what the pilot who remained in the cabin said he did after his crazy comrade ejected, landing safely on the ground. I don't know...

MUMBAI: For 15 years, Rakesh Singh (name changed) went about his high-pressure job as a senior engineer in a central government firm with a transplanted kidney. Daily, he would pop immuno-suppressant pills to prevent his body from rejecting the donated organ. Then, about 18 months ago, he was struck by an "explosive" form of cancer called multiple myeloma — big cysts erupted across and within his body, impairing his ability to sign and speak. Singh's disease put doctors in the city's Jaslok Hospital in a bind about what line of treatment to follow: reducing the immuno-suppressants to let his body...

NEW DELHI: Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was captured in a chilling photograph and now he has confessed his role in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but he remains a 'gunman', rather than a 'terrorist', for the New York Times and other leading American newspapers. And with a reason. After his surprising and dramatic confession before a special court in Mumbai on Monday, Kasab is hogging headlines in the American media that is revisiting the semantic-ethical issue of which attacker qualifies as terrorist. For the New York Times and the Washington Post, Kasab is strictly a gunman. "Mumbai Gunman Enters Plea Of...

A split between rich and poor nations in the run-up to climate-change talks widened on Thursday. India rejected key scientific findings on global warming, while the European Union called for more action by developing states on greenhouse gas emissions Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, accused the developed world of needlessly raising alarm over melting Himalayan glaciers. He dismissed scientists’ predictions that Himalayan glaciers might disappear within 40 years as a result of global warming. “We have to get out of the preconceived notion, which is based on western media, and invest our scientific research and other capacities to study...

A report issued Wednesday by Boise Community Ombudsman Pierce Murphy found that a Boise police officer who used a Taser on a suspect's buttocks violated the police department's use-of-force policy. The Boise Police Department did an internal investigation, and both employees were disciplined; details on the discipline were not released. It is considered an internal personnel matter, said police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower. Murphy transcribed some of it in his report: Officer #3: Do you feel this? Complainant: Yes, sir. Officer #3: Do you feel that? That’s my - Complainant: Okay Officer #3: -Taser up your ass. Complainant: Okay Officer #3:...

  The untold story of 2008's terrorist attack, in the words of its victims and the gunmen. The programme contains graphic images and descriptions of the atrocity which may upset some viewers. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai tells the story of what happened when 10 gunmen held one of the world's busiest cities hostage; killing and wounding hundreds of people while holding India's crack security forces at bay. Featuring footage of the attacks and interviews with senior police officers and hostages, including the testimony from Kasab - the sole surviving gunman, Dispatches reveals...

DUBAI: In a damning indictment, a top US General has said the ISI is fomenting "chaotic activity" in Kashmir and Afghanistan and asked the Pakistani spy agency to change its "strategic thrust". The US is having "discussions" with the Pakistani leadership on this issue, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. Elaborating, he said the ISI has been supporting militant groups in Kashmir and the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) bordering Afghanistan. "I believe that in the long run the ISI has to change its strategic thrust which has been to foment chaotic activity you know...

NEW DELHI: After a beguiling interval when Pakistan seemed prepared to see its internal challenges as more serious than those on its eastern border, Islamabad has flatly refused to move troops from the Indian front in what looks like a bid to protect the Taliban from a US surge in Afghanistan. In briefings to prominent US media, Pakistan officials have suggested that the American military surge in Afghanistan — post the review ordered by Barack Obama after he took office — would result in a sharp spillover in Balochistan where an insurgency is already raging. Containing increased levels of insurgency...

Prime Minister Gillani Petitions Envoy for Drone Technology, Real-Time Data ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 22 -- Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani on Wednesday called on the United States to provide real-time intelligence, unmanned aircraft technology and other military assistance to help his country combat the Taliban without relying on attacks from U.S. drones. Gillani raised the issue with Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who is on his fourth visit here since becoming the U.S. envoy to the region, according to a statement from the prime minister's office. Pakistan has asked before for the capability to carry out its own drone strikes,...

WHEN she landed in Mumbai on July 17th as the first front-rank visitor from Barack Obama’s administration, Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, faced an unfamiliar difficulty. India was uncommonly keen on his predecessor, George Bush. In the words of Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, its people “deeply loved” Mr Bush for his efforts to strengthen bilateral bonds between the world’s biggest democracies. At the heart of this strengthening was a nuclear co-operation agreement that made India an exception to the global counter-proliferation regime and a more legitimate nuclear power. By contrast, many Indians have looked on Mr Obama nervously....

An Australian man burst into flames after a policeman hit him on the bridge of the nose with his Taser. Sound ridiculous? Not so much if you know the man was arrested on suspicion of huffing gasoline.The man pretty immediately went up in flames, and the officer, recognizing that a man becomes significantly less dangerous once he's on fire, went to the suspect's aid, patting him all over (and getting burned himself) to quell the flames. While the officer tried to help the flammable man, he was hit by rocks thrown by a young woman also on the scene, also...

MUMBAI: Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving 26/11 terrorist, told the special court that he decided to confess to his crime as he came to know that Pakistan has admitted that he was its national. Following is the excerpt between judge M L Tahiliani and Kasab: JUDGE: "Aaj achanak aapne kyun confess kiya? Jab pehle charges frame hue toh tab kyun nahi kiya? (Why are you suddenly confessing? Why did you not confess when the charges were framed earlier?)" KASAB: "Pehle Pakistan ne yeh nahi mana tha ki main unka hoon. Aaj maan liya hai. Isiliye main bayan de raha...

Was that headline mean? I'm sorry, but the silliness of this story, which centers around one couple's quest to annoy/sue the hell out of their entire apartment building, warranted it. The ridiculous story unfolds like this:On Saturdays, Dr. Dena Coleman and her husband Gordon claim they are imprisoned in their condo because the landlord went and installed a motion-sensing security light to save energy and money. As Orthodox Jews, they say triggering the light violates a Sabbath rule, so they sued. Which rule? The Promethean one: [The couple] claim they cannot leave their holiday flat on the Sabbath because...

Now, you don't get this often. An Indian minister talking straight and sharp. Less diplomatic, but quite political on an important global issue. In the presence of the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Todd Stern, US president Barack Obama's special envoy for climate change, Indian Minister for the Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh spoke in no-nonsense terms on India's actual position on climate change and, in process, gave a response in the same coin to none other than New York Times' strong editorial which gave advise and comments on the Indo-US bilateral issues, including climate change and...

NEW DELHI: Stung by China's aggressive posturing, including its deployment of missiles in Delingha near Tibet, and other increasingly hostile activities in India's neighbourhood, the Cabinet Committee on Security is considering a proposal to set up separate centres for nuclear or missile intelligence and maritime security. In fact, with strong backing by National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, the CCS, which is still smarting under the Chinese `aggression', is all set to give the go-ahead to the proposal. The inability of central intelligence agencies like RAW, DIA and IB in keeping a tab on recent deployment of intermediate range missiles...

NEW DELHI — India's only satellite orbiting the moon came close to failure after overheating but scientists improvised to save it and have achieved more than 90 percent of the mission's objectives, an official said Friday. The launch of Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 put India in an elite group to have lunar missions along with the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China. But on May 16, the satellite lost a critical instrument called the star sensor, the Indian Space Research Organization's chief Madhavan Nair told reporters. The sensor helps the satellite stay oriented so its cameras and...

India selected two sites U.S. companies can eventually build nuclear-power reactors, a significant step as the countries look to implement the landmark nuclear pact they completed last fall, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. companies must still overcome a range of regulatory and legal hurdles in both countries and are concerned that state-backed rivals from France and Russia -- which face fewer regulations in both India and on their home turf -- have an advantage in India's $100 billion nuclear energy sweepstakes. India has already designated sites for French and Russian nuclear reactors. The U.S.-India agreement ended...

A leading defence expert has projected that China will attack India by 2012 to divert the attention of its own people from "unprecedented" internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country. "China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century," Bharat Verma, Editor of the Indian Defence Review, has said. He said the recession has "shut the Chinese exports shop", creating an "unprecedented internal social unrest" which in...

NEW DELHI: Has India blinked in the climate change negotiations? This seems to be the case as at the Major Economies Forum meeting in Italy, India has gone back on some of its key principles -- like a refusal to accept emission caps -- that it held to be non-negotiable till just before the G-8 meet in Italy. In the course of some tough negotiations, India appears to have bent a bit in the face of pressure from industrialized countries, and the biggest compromise at the MEF was to accept that all countries would work to reduce emissions in order...

NEW DELHI (AFP) — For India's gay community, the joy that greeted this month's court ruling legalising gay sex is tempered by the fact that, although the law now accepts them, society still does not. For all the celebrations and talk of an historic milestone, many believe it will take more than a court decision to change public attitudes toward homosexuality, which is largely taboo in India and considered by many to be a mental illness. Although the Delhi High Court's verdict has served as a morale booster for men and women who lived in constant fear of being criminalised,...