Free Republic

European companies have almost doubled their shipments of Russian oil since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, despite desperate efforts by EU leaders to squeeze the Kremlin war machine by blocking Russia’s exports from global markets.Campaigners said EU-based shipping firms had made a “mockery” of plans to sanction Russia, and warned that a partial oil embargo announced this week would do little to hurt Mr Putin or shorten the war.In February, when Mr Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, companies and vessels linked to the three countries shifted 31 million barrels of Russian oil. In May, that figure had jumped...

I recently made the acquaintance of a lovely lady from Trinidad, and became interested in the culture of her country. The favorite street food in Trinidad is called ‘Boubles’. It’s a piece of fried flatbread with spiced chickpeas and various condiments on top – including the Green Sauce/Seasoning that is ubiquitous in the food of the Islands. The dish is very influenced by the historical Indian presence in the Islands, and it gained the name ‘doubles’ when it became a street food, and people asked for an extra piece of the fried bread -'can you double the bread?'. Here, from...

I may not have done this correctly, but it's Christmas so I blame the eggnog if this is incorrectly formatted. This is a YouTube video, I guess a vanity, about VP Biden having a double. He obviously has gone to some trouble to put together a narrative of Biden being swapped out for a doppelganger. I can think of several reasons why this might be desirable by the Biden's supporters. There was a series on TV a few years ago about a Russian couple that was inserted into out society as a travel agent. It was a fun series, the...

OROVILLE — The cost of repairing the crippling damage to Oroville Dam’s spillways caused by last winter’s fierce storms has almost doubled, state water officials said Thursday. Kiewit, the Nebraska-based construction firm that has the main contract to rebuild the main spillway and emergency spillway at Oroville, the nation’s tallest dam, estimated in its winning bid in April that the work would cost at least $275 million. But the price tag has now grown to at least $500 million, said Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Water Resources.

During the past few weeks, something of a back-and-forth has developed between New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and conservative talker Mark Levin. The topic: disparaging comments Friedman made about the government of Israel. Last month, in an appearance on Bloomberg’s “The Charlie Rose Show,” Friedman said, “Israel today — I’m sorry — it has the most inbred, unimaginative government I think it’s ever had.” And on Monday’s “Imus in the Morning” show on the Fox Business Network, Friedman clarified those remarks. “The right words Don, are inbred, brain dead and completely, I would say, indifferent to the situation that...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A Northern California city is moving forward with plans for a municipal identification card that is being touted as the first in the nation that would double as a full-fledged debit card. The Oakland City Council this month awarded a contract to issue the cards. The goal is to help any city residents, including illegal immigrants, who may have difficulty obtaining a state-issued ID.

LONDON (Reuters) – Piracy incidents nearly doubled across the globe in the first quarter of 2009 almost entirely due to an upsurge in attacks by gangs off the Somali coast, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Tuesday. The London-based watchdog recorded 102 attacks worldwide in the first three months of 2009 compared with 53 in that period a year ago, with 61 attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Somalia compared with 6 in the first quarter of 2008. Somali pirates have made millions of dollars in ransoms hijacking commercial vessels in the busy...

Every serious sportsman knows that by late August, the Scottish Highlands offer an array of riches. Grouse season is a couple weeks under way. Deer stalking is at its peak, and the fly-fishing doesn't get any better. Sotheby's annual sale of antique sporting guns at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland is popular this time of year because winning bidders can walk out the door and take to the field with their elegantly engraved rifles and shotguns. City bankers and sundry members of the English upper class have always favored the Highlands in August (and the golf is phenomenal, too). But...

In the last day before its recess Friday, the US House of Representatives and Senate approved loan guarantees to Israel and the doubling of US arms stored in Israel for emergency use. The new Department of State Authorities Act of 2006 adds three years to the U.S. provision of loan guarantees to Israel (until 2011), also including an aid package for Israel separate from the annual U.S. aid package to the Jewish state. In 2002 Israel requested loan guarantees from the United States to help it deal with the economic effects of the Oslo War and to prepare for the...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has doubled its capacity to enrich uranium by successfully executing the process with a second network of centrifuges, a semiofficial news agency reported Friday, sending a defiant new message to the U.N. Security Council. Council members are working on a draft resolution that would impose limited sanctions on the Islamic republic because of its refusal to cease enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for a civilian nuclear reactor or fissile material for a warhead. The Iranian Students News Agency quoted an anonymous official as saying Iran has successfully begun injecting gas into a second network...

Dictator hires doubles to do the boring jobs By Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 30/09/2006) Korean leader Kim Jong-il (or is it?) inspects a farm run by Korean People's Army The eccentric North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has hired doubles to carry out his more mundane tasks, according to South Korean intelligence officials. While Kim himself attends major state occasions, two men stand in for him for more routine visits to tractor factories or farms. "They are the spitting image of Kim — the same age, same height and with the same bouffant hairstyle and pot belly," a South Korean...

8/14/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Air Force Theater Hospital records here indicate that in the past year the number of combat-wounded Iraqis is increasing while U.S. casualties seen at the hospital are beginning to decrease. In a strange twist, this means more work for the U.S. Air Force and Army surgeons who performed more than 1,200 surgical procedures in July, nearly doubling April's tally. "Today, the ratio of trauma patients is about 40 percent U.S. and 60 percent Iraqi," said Col. George P. Costanzo, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group commander here. "Eight months ago, the ratio was about...

NEW YORK - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. reported Tuesday that its first quarter loss more than doubled, due largely to expenses of $225 million in stock-based compensation to its star shock jock Howard Stern. Revenue nearly tripled as the company expanded its subscriber base. Sirius reported a net loss of $458.5 million, or 33 cents a share, for the January-March period compared with a loss of $193.6 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago. By far the largest factor affecting the results was costs for stock-based compensation, which all companies had to begin recording this year under new...

BOSTON (Reuters) - The common form of sleep apnea, in which the throat closes off throughout the night, at least doubles the risk of stroke or death, a study released on Wednesday showed. The researchers at Yale University also raised questions about whether existing apnea treatments reduced that risk, the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed. A separate Canadian study also published in the journal concluded that breathing machines used to treat a form of apnea common in people with heart failure do not prevent death or the need for a heart transplant. About 4 percent...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro announced on Thursday the minimum wage would be more than doubled to 225 pesos ($10) a month from 100 pesos ($4.50), effective on May 1. The raise will benefit 1.6 million Cubans who earn the lowest salaries in Communist Cuba, including farm laborers, plumbers, carpenters, bakers and undertakers. Castro made the announcement in the latest of his three-hour speeches addressing economic problems endured by Cubans since the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged Cuba into deep crisis. It was the eighth speech in 10 days broadcast live to the nation. "The increase will...

Mounting evidence suggests a plastic additive common in baby and sports bottles and used to line the inside of soda and tin cans is accumulating in our bodies at levels far beyond those known to cause considerable health problems in lab animals. At least that's the conclusion in research underwritten by the government or an independent source such as a university, a new review of 115 peer-reviewed publications has found. Industry-sponsored research has so far found no problem with the additive, bisphenol-A. And that, say the authors of a report published in the current edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, contributes...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set box office records and bodybuilding records. Now he has a campaign fund-raising record. The Republican governor pulled in $28.8 million from campaign donors last year, more than twice as much as former Gov. Gray Davis collected in his first year in office. Davis, the Democrat whom Schwarzenegger ousted in the 2003 recall election, still holds the single-year mark with a $29.1 million haul in 2002. Schwarzenegger didn't do it for his own possible re-election campaign in 2006 - those accounts had less than $700,000 in them at the end of 2004. Most of the cash...

SADDAM Hussein is not a man you would think anyone would choose to imitate. And yet celebrities are following the despot's lead and employing body doubles. Britney Spears was apparently inspired to hire a lookalike who acts as a decoy to distract stalkers, after an aide told her that Saddam used the technique to avoid assassination. Eminem, who is afraid of being shot, employs a man named Particles, while Russell Crowe was reported to have used a lookalike to deflect press interest in his wedding. Michael Jackson also regularly uses body doubles for security purposes. Kevin O'Brien, who owns OBS...

That is a double speaking. Saddam doesnt have double chin!

Transcript: LINDA MOTTRAM: So is it possible that Saddam Hussein has already left Iraq? Given his use of body doubles as a security measure, it is likely, according to German forensic scientist, Doctor Dieter Buhmann, the man who knows as much about the Iraqi president's stand-ins as anyone. At the request of German television ZDF a while back, he applied his skills to a detailed examination of photos and videos of Saddam Hussein and determined which were the real Saddam and which were the doubles. Dr Buhmann believes that he's got the issue pegged, unlike the far right Austrian politician,...