Free Republic

A deputy chief of the Russian military general staff has been arrested on charges of large-scale bribery, Russian news reports said Thursday, the latest in a series of bribery arrests of high-ranking military officials. The arrest of Lt. Gen. Vadim Shamarin followed the arrest earlier in the week of Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, a former top commander in Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, also on bribery charges. In April, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested for bribery. Ivanov was a close associate of Sergei Shoigu, whom President Vladimir Putin dismissed as defense minister soon after Putin’s inauguration to a new...

<p>Baum said the family was Muslim but celebrated Christmas as a cultural holiday. The parents were originally from Iran.</p>

French are rudest, most boring people on earth: British poll Sat May 20, 3:17 AM ET LONDON (AFP) - The French have been voted the world's most unfriendly nation by a landslide in a new British poll published. They were also voted the most boring and most ungenerous. A decisive 46 percent of the 6,000 people surveyed by travellers' website Where Are You Now (WAYN) said the French were the most unfriendly nation people on the planet, British newspapers reported. The Germans have no to reason to celebrate the damning verdict. They came second on all three counts. WAYN's French...

Teachers' Union Officials Accused Of Embezzlement WASHINGTON -- D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams said Friday he is worried money allegedly stolen from the Washington Teachers Union may have made its way into his campaign coffers. News4 first reported Thursday that FBI, IRS and Inspector General agents, acting on a 50-page search warrant affadavit, were raiding the homes of several former teacher union officials. The document details page after page of expensive items allegedly purchased over a 7-year period and involving more than $2 million in unauthorized and illegal expenses. Art work, furniture, televisions, computers and files were among the items carted...