Free Republic

A quick-thinking forklift driver ruined an Ohio man's plans to steal a car by lifting the vehicle 20 feet in the air with the suspect still inside. Only when he was trapped up there did they take the time to call the police. It all went down in October at Arlington Auto Wrecking in Akron, Ohio. This was the third incident they had with this guy, but when they got him this time, even the 911 operators were cracking up when an employee called in the situation: “So, he’s still in the car about 20 feet in the air in...

Chinese Correspondent Baffled by Pyonyang High Life The Xinhua correspondent in Pyongyang is perhaps the most prominent foreign journalist to wonder how a swish new shopping mall there selling Western and South Korean luxury brands stays in business. Dubai Yu in a piece for the state-run biweekly Globe said it is a "mystery" how people in the impoverished country can afford lifestyles reminiscent of the upper class in Beijing and Shanghai. Yu has been reporting from the North Korean capital for about a year now. According to the magazine, the Haedanghwa mall contains not only a high-end shopping center but...

HONG KONG (AFP) - The eldest son of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has been living the high life in southern China's casino haven Macau for most of the past three years, a media report has said. Kim Jong-nam, 35, and his family have made their home on the territory's leafy Coloane island, and he has been spotted dining in fine restaurants and gambling in the plush casinos, the South China Morning Post reported here. He has apparently been living untroubled despite a crackdown by the United States on the tiny city's financial links with the Pyongyang regime. North Korea...

Given the kinds of cases they’re getting these days, French courts are starting to resemble clown circuses. Last week a French court had to listen to “Goldfinger” George Soros’ whine about his human rights being violated for an inside trading conviction. This week, a French court gets to listen to Venezuelan “International Man of Mystery” Carlos The Jackal carp about not getting enough terrorist-issue Froot Loops inside his French jail cell. Apparently, pate and champagne aren’t happening for him these days in Paris. And for the Shagadelic Jackal, that’s no fair. The Austin-Powers-era Marxist terrorist is actually suing in a...