Free Republic

As more neo-Soviet horrors are revealed to the public, it's time to call U.S. policy towards Russia its proper name: appeasement. The Russian tinderbox known as Chechnya is smoldering once again, indicating a complete policy breakdown on the part of the Kremlin that has wide and deep repercussions for the outside world — including a greatly increased risk of terrorism at the 2014 Olympic Games. If the Obama administration does not act soon, it may have blood on its hands. Current events coming out of the region look like a public relations nightmare for the Kremlin. First came the renewed...

On Aug. 1, Reza Baruni, the father of Iran's military UAV program, died in a mighty explosion that destroyed his closely secured villa, debkafile's military and intelligence sources reveal. He lived in the high-scale neighborhood secluded for high Iranian officials in the southern town of Ahwaz in oil-rich Khuzestan. Very few people in the country outside the top leaders and air force knew about his job and so his death was not generally appreciated as fatally stalling Iran's military drone program for many years. The official version produced the old standby of an exploding gas canister as the cause of...

The Orange County Sheriff's Office has confirmed a Sea World employee died Wednesday after being attacked by a killer whale. Emergency officials arrived just before 2:00 pm Wednesday (02/24/2010) and found the person unresponsive. Witnesses are reporting that the victim was a trainer who was dragged into the tank and drowned by the whale.

A Muslim immigrant opened fire and killed five people in Finland today before turning the gun on himself.
CNN reported: A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping center near the Finnish capital of Helsinki Thursday, leaving five people dead, police said. Four of the victims — three men and one woman — were killed at the Sello shopping center in Espoo, just west of Helsinki, police said. Some were employees of a grocery store at the mall, police said. A fifth victim, also an employee of the grocery store, was found later at an apartment in Espoo, police said, without...

At 12:30 Donna Jackson woke up to her dog barking like someone was in her backyard. She went to to her backdoor and sure enough she was face to face with a man trying to break in. “Oh he’s getting ready to break the window,” said Jackson to the dispatcher. Jackson immediately went and got her shotgun, hoping an officer would get there so she didn’t have to use it. But the man trying to break in had other plans, he then grabbed some patio furniture and broke the back door. “Dear god hurry. I haven’t shot yet. Hurry,” said...

A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say. Two other militants escaped, one of them badly wounded, after the attack in Kulgam district, south of Srinagar. The militants had assault rifles but were taken by surprise - police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked.The militants had made their hideout in a cave which was actually the bear's den, said police officer Farooq Ahmed.The dead have been identified as Mohammad Amin alias Qaiser, and Bashir Ahmed alias Saifullah. News of the attack emerged when their...

Swine Flu Kills 19 Kids In A Week 114 children have died in U.S.; widespread in all but 2 states By ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA (AP) | Swine flu has caused at least 19 more children's deaths - the largest one-week increase since the pandemic started in April, health officials said Friday. At least 114 children have died from swine flu complications since the spring, up from 95 reported a week earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, the government has decided to release the last of its stockpile of liquid Tamiflu for children because of reported...

As the H1N1 flu outbreak strikes the U.S. early and hard, health officials are pointing to a worrisome number of child deaths and warn that supplies of vaccine will remain scarce for at least the next couple of weeks. Delays in producing the vaccine mean 28 million to 30 million doses, at most, will be divided around the country by the end of the month, not the 40 million-plus doses that states had been expecting. The new count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention means anxiously awaited flu-shot clinics in some parts of the U.S. may have to...

Computerworld - A proposed amendment that would have given Congress more oversight over the White House cybersecurity czar and at least 17 other czars appointed by President Obama was shut down in the U.S. Senate today. The amendment, proposed by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), sought to restrict federal funds for the expenses of White House-appointed czars unless two conditions are met. One of them was to require the president to agree that every czar would respond to "reasonable requests" to testify before Congress on matters related to the office. The other required White House-appointed czars to issue a report to...

EATONTON, Ga. -- Authorities say an Augusta businessman killed himself after being chased by police in Putnam County. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says a deputy tried to pull Jay Weinberger over early Saturday morning because he was towing a trailer with an expired tag. Sills says Weinberger eventually pulled over but took off when the deputy approached his car. The car left the road after a short distance, where the deputy found Weinberger dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sills says the trailer was stolen and police later found several other stolen trailers in Weinberger's possession. Excerpt - more...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Nearly a third of all cocaine seized in the United States is laced with a dangerous veterinary medicine - a livestock de-worming drug that might enhance cocaine's effects but has been blamed in at least three deaths and scores of serious illnesses. The medication called levamisole has killed at least three people in the U.S. and Canada and sickened more than 100 others. It can be used in humans to treat colorectal cancer, but it severely weakens the body's immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to fatal infections. Scientific studies suggest levamisole might give cocaine a more...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A US missile strike from a drone aircraft Thursday killed at least eight Taliban militants in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said. The strike was followed hours later by a suicide attack in the northwestern tribal region of Khyber that officials said killed 21 policemen. The US strike "targeted a Taliban compound in Kaniguram village of South Waziristan, killing eight militants and wounding six others," a senior security official told AFP. Another official confirmed the casualties and said that the US drone fired two missiles, but added it was not immediately...

ISLAMABAD – A suspected missile attack early Friday destroyed a militant hideout in northwest Pakistan, killing at least seven people, two intelligence officials said. The officials said some people also were wounded when the two missiles hit a compound in the village of Dande Darpa Khel, near Miran Shah in troubled tribal region of North Waziristan. ... The area is also believed to be frequented by associates of an Afghan Taliban leader, Siraj Haqqani, whose network is powerful in eastern Afghanistan.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces attacked Taliban fighters on Wednesday killing at least 64 of them, the military said, after the United States called on the government to show its commitment to fighting militancy. Expanding Taliban influence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has spread alarm at home and abroad and will be a core issue when U.S. President Barack Obama meets his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in Washington later on Wednesday. A February peace pact aimed at ending Taliban violence in Swat has collapsed and thousands of people fled from Mingora, the region's main town, on Tuesday after a government...

Coalition challenges Humane Society ‘outdated’ policy (Killing Puppies) Dear readers, we know that this story is difficult. Best Friends feels as you do that animal welfare organizations are more effective when we get along and work together. In this case we felt it was important to draw public attention to HSUS?s policy on dogs from fighting busts because its clout and its relationships with law enforcement informs and justifies state and local animal control policies. The court-ordered destruction of 145 dogs, including about 75 puppies, which were seized from a fighting dog breeding operation in December, was based on the...

NEW ORLEANS – A man who initially told police gunmen kidnapped his 2 1/2-year-old son was arrested Saturday, accused of committing an "extremely hideous" murder because he was ordered to pay child support, Police Superintendent Warren Riley said. Danny Platt confessed, told police where to find the child's body and will be booked on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Ja' Shawn Powell, Riley said at a news conference. "He had said he would kill either his wife or his child before he paid child support," which he recently had been ordered to do, Riley said.

(10-13) 17:42 PDT SAN MATEO -- An intoxicated teenage driver ran a red light in San Mateo this morning and broadsided a taxicab, killing the driver, then fled as flames engulfed his car where two other teenagers were trapped, police said. Police were able to pull the badly injured youths from the burning Volkswagen Jetta on El Camino Real near Hillsdale Shopping Center, but there was nothing they could do for the cabdriver, 48-year-old Michael Earl Prescott of Redwood City. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2008 – A U.S. Hellfire missile killed an insurgent near the site of a roadside-bomb attack in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district today, U.S. military officials said. A vehicle was destroyed while another insurgent fled the scene. “Our soldiers, along with the Iraqi security forces, continue to meet with the local populace to identify these criminal elements and eliminate the threat they pose,” said Army Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a Multinational Division Baghdad and 4th Infantry Division spokesman. “We will continue to use precision fire to defend the Iraqi people and ourselves against these criminal elements.” In yesterday’s operations:...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s Air Force launched an air strike Thursday morning killing a Hamas terrorist involved in the kidnapping of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. The air strike, which was based on information from the Shabak (General Security Service) was carried out in Rafiah, along Gaza’s southern border with Sinai, as the terrorist, Nafez Mantzour, was driving with two other Hamas terrorists. The first missile missed the vehicle, according to Hamas reports, and one of Matzour’s accomplices escaped before the second struck. Mantzour was killed and one of his accomplices was wounded. The kidnapping of Gilad Shalit happened in July, 2006 at...