Free Republic

Armed men have seized the government buildings in the capital of the Ukraine’s Crimea region and hoisted a Russian flag over a barricade. The men occupying the parliament building in the regional capital, Simferopol, early on Thursday did not come out to voice any demands. They wore black and orange ribbons, a Russian symbol of the victory in World War II. The men also put up a sign saying “Crimea is Russia.” They threw a flash grenade in response to a journalist’s questions. Phone calls to region’s legislature rang unanswered, and its website was down.

Fresno firefighters had to remove a wall and use an improvised pulley system to remove a man believed to weigh more than 800 pounds who was found dead in a downtown residential hotel Tuesday night.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Duke lacrosse rape prosecutor Mike Nifong has been slapped with additional ethics charges by the state bar association, which has accused him of withholding DNA evidence and making misleading statements to the court. The new charges by the North Carolina State Bar against Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong were announced Wednesday and could lead to his removal from the state bar, according to a copy of the updated complaint. Nifong last year indicted three men from the Duke lacrosse team on charges that they raped a stripper at an off-campus party in March of 2006.

SIERRA VISTA — His Army outfit thought he was dead, but Al Waller survived five months in a prisoner of war camp in Germany during World War II and was on hand Sunday afternoon to help hoist a POW/MIA Flag, along with a U.S. Flag that once flew over the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. About 50 people gathered for a sun-drenched ceremony in the parking lot of the Sierra Vista Elks Lodge for a ceremony honoring the new flags. Waller was a guest speaker. Sierra Vista Mayor Tom Hessler, commenting on what he considered a small turnout noted...