Free Republic

C’est la vie, mon fils. First lady Jill Biden escaped to France to mark US re-entry into a United Nations cultural agency this week, while her stepson Hunter’s federal plea deal for tax and gun crimes imploded spectacularly in a Delaware court. The 72-year-old — whom Hunter once called an “entitled c–t” in text messages found on his abandoned laptop — grinned and shook hands with officials in Paris during a Tuesday flag-raising to re-establish American ties with the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) and counter the growing influence of China in international bodies. “I was honored...

A convicted bomber serving a life sentence for a deadly 2007 blast on the Las Vegas Strip escaped from a Nevada prison after reportedly leaving a dummy in his cell — and his absence was not discovered until days later. Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, 42, vanished from the Southern Desert Correctional Center in Indian Springs on Friday night, the Nevada Department of Corrections confirmed. Officers at the medium-security prison didn’t realize the inmate was missing until a head count on Tuesday, at around 7 a.m., and they launched a search for him an hour later. Duarte-Herrera had created a dummy, possibly out...

The young teen, identified only as Jericho W., escaped from social services' custody at about 12:10 p.m. local time while wearing leg restraints and no shoes, according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff's office said the boy was in court facing two counts of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon charges. Jericho was last seen wearing a white shirt and beige pants. He's also described as being about 5 feet tall and approximately 110 pounds. Although state law typically prohibits law enforcement agencies from releasing photographs of juveniles, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety issued...

WICHITA COUNTY, Texas — The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office got quite a surprise Thursday afternoon when a prisoner escaped from a patrol car while the arresting deputy was driving down an interstate highway. The entire incident was captured on video shot by Jennifer Mustain and later posted to Facebook. Martin Estrada, 31, was reportedly being transported from the Red River facility in Wichita Falls to a center in Abilene when the inmate managed to free one of his hand from handcuffs and then shatter the rear passenger window of the patrol vehicle. Estrada demanded the deputy pull over or the...

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Police have confirmed that DNA evidence proves two escaped killers are in the Mountain View area, sources tell the Press-Republican, and searchers are closing in on them. A break-in and sighting of a man Saturday at a remote hunting camp prompted police to begin searching in and around Mountain View, near Malone. The small community is located about 20 to 25 miles from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, from which Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, escaped on June 6, launching a massive manhunt that has had area residents living on edge for 17 days. BOOTS,...

Rope gives Houdini a run for his money

LONDON (Reuters) – Police were hunting Monday a convicted arsonist who escaped from London's Pentonville prison by clinging to the underside of the security van that brought him there. Julien Chautard, 39, gave prison officers the slip shortly after he was counted off the van, newspapers reported. His disappearance Friday evening was not noticed before the van was cleared to drive out of the jail. It was only when CCTV footage was checked seven hours later that officers noticed a shadow under the van that had not been there before. Chautard had been sentenced earlier in the day at Snaresbrook...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2008 – Many wounded warriors who have served in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have paid the price for their participation in combat. Depending on that price, many view not only themselves as a hero, but those who were lost. Army Spc. Susan Downes holds an Afghan girl during her tour there in 2006. Downes was seriously wounded there in November 2006 when the convoy she was riding in ran over a bomb. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I was just doing my job. I think we all were,” said...

BUTTE, Mont. -- Two inmates, including one who was once accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son, escaped Friday in a truck while working at a state prison ranch. Kelly A. Frank, 45, and convicted burglar William J. Willcutt, 22, were assigned to a crew that moves irrigation pipe at the prison ranch, jail officials said. A supervisor noticed Willcutt and the 1965 truck were missing around 4:20 p.m., and the prison was locked down, a jail statement said. An inmate count showed Frank was also gone. The missing truck had been assigned to Frank, the statement said. Officers...

HUSAYBA — Cpl. Jamie L. Emerson is one lucky 'Bastard.' The 22-year-old assigned to the 'Betio Bastards' of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment escaped death when an enemy bullet ripped through his Kevlar helmet Aug. 1 in Husayba, an area on the Euphrates River near the Syrian border. “Everybody’s been calling me ‘lucky,’” said Emerson, a mortarman with Regimental Combat Team 5. The battalion earned the nickname 'Betio Bastards' during a bloody World War II battle at Tarawa, a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean where hardened Japanese marines defended the island of Betio with more than 5,000 troops....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI agents and U.S. marshals are searching for a convicted murderer who escaped Wednesday from a federal prison in Louisiana. Richard McNair, 47, is serving a life sentence in the U.S. penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, after being convicted of murder and burglary in North Dakota. "This inmate is considered to be dangerous and should not be approached," the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. Officials describe McNair as a 6-foot tall, 210-pound white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He has scars on his left wrist and both knees.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls the Republican Party his home. And after a weekend of political tension with rebellious conservatives, he has no reason to change his address. Attempts by a breakaway conservative faction to push Schwarzenegger to the political right at a state party convention fizzled, with mainstream party members uniting around their well-known, if struggling, candidate. It was a weekend in which an essential political objective - the need to re-elect the governor in November - steamrolled a debate about ideological purity on such issues as a balanced budget and mounting public debt. State...

SYDNEY, Australia - A prison inmate in Australia lost a dramatic amount of weight, squeezed through a gap in the wall and escaped, a newspaper reported. Robert Cole, 35, was serving time for sex offenses and armed robbery in a prison hospital in New South Wales state when officials noticed he was missing early Wednesday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported in its online edition. Cole, who had recently undergone a dramatic weight loss, slipped his 123-pound body through a gap between the bars on a cell window and a brick wall at which he'd been chipping away, the paper quoted...

Iraqi Justice Minister Escapes Bomb Blast 20 minutes ago By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb struck the Iraqi justice minister's convoy as it passed through western Baghdad on Saturday, killing four of his bodyguards. The minister was unhurt in the blast, one of several bloody attacks across Iraq and the latest attempt on the life of a top government official. The blast hit the tail end of Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan's convoy at an intersection 500 yards from his home. About the same time, a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi National Guard...

Winnie escapes serving jail term Winnie Mandela is still hugely popular The former wife of ex-president Nelson Mandela has won an appeal against a five-year custodial jail sentence. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had been convicted in April 2003 of theft and fraud in connection with bank loans she obtained for ANC workers. But a South African judge overturned her theft conviction and cut and then suspended in full her jail sentence. "The crimes were not committed for personal gain," Pretoria High Court Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann declared. 'Difficult role' An icon of the anti-apartheid movement, the former president of the African National Congress...

Musharraf narrowly escapes assassination attempt By Phil Reeves 15 December 2003 Pakistani authorities were last night investigating whether the country's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, was the target of an assassination attempt after a bomb detonated on a road minutes after his motorcade passed. The explosion happened about a mile from the Islamabad International Airport as the president was returning home after a visit to the southern city of Karachi. Witnesses said the blast occurred at a bridge close to a military compound. Sheharyar Khan, whose car was stopped at a roadblock shortly afterwards, said: "As the president's motorcade passed,...

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A Chinese-Filipino businesswoman kidnapped by suspected Abu Sayyaf members escaped after almost four months in captivity, the military said yesterday. Marine products trader Gertrudes Tan, 50, eluded her captors in a coastal village in Maimbung, Sulu last Monday night, said Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, chief of the Armed Forces’ Southern Command. Kyamko said Tan drifted into the sea using a small plastic jug as float until fishermen found her at about 2:30 a.m. the following day. The fishermen brought her to the Maimbung town proper where she took a passenger jeepney that brought her to the capital...