Free Republic

[snip] Victoria, a 2-year-old rat, sniffs for TNT, sticking her nose high in the air to indicate she's found some. She works her way down a 10-meter line with a handler on either end, and is able to detect the presence of TNT at a distance of approximately half a yard. [Yes, the article is from 2015]

N. Korea lays land mines near border to prevent defection by soldiers: sources 2016/08/23 16:45 SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea was seen laying anti-personnel mines along its side of the inter-Korean border, presumably to block potential defection by its own soldiers, a government source said Tuesday. "The North Korean military was witnessed burying land mines on the northern side of a bridge in Panmunjeom last week," the source said. The small bridge known as the Bridge of No Return is located within the truce village and spans the military demarcation line between the two Koreas. It was the...

(2nd LD) N. Korea's Kim fires party officials (ATTN: UPDATES with S. Korean government's response in last 3 paras) SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has dismissed some members of the ruling party's central military commission, state media reported Friday. The dismissals took place at an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency. It did not say when the meeting was held, but the communist nation is known to often report events a day after they take place. The meeting "dismissed some...

N. Korea behind recent mine explosion in DMZ: Defense Ministry 2015/08/10 10:30 SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to have masterminded the bloody explosion of land mines in the demilitarized zone last week, the Defense Ministry said Monday, in the latest military provocation by the North, happening just weeks before a scheduled joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S. The mine blasts took place on the morning of Aug. 4 on the southern side of the DMZ near the city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, while eight South Korean Army troops carried out a regular scouting...

A giant spinning metal rototiller shreds bombs without flinching. The Digger D-3 is the most recent addition to my own personal list of robots not to stand in front of. It's a mine-clearing robot, and not the sort of mine-clearing robot that pokes around with a metal detector. Instead, it's the sort of mine-clearing robot that just sucks it up and tells the landmines to bring it. At the front of the D-3 is a giant spinning metal pulverizer-thing-of-death, which has tungsten hammers that beat down almost a foot into the ground, turning everything they touch into mulch. This includes...

(CNN) -- Niko Mushi hated rats, as did most people in his village near Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro -- until he learned the critters had a nose for land mines. Mushi, 32, has been working with giant African pouched rats for almost seven years. He now enjoys their company -- "They're just like my friend," he says -- but he concedes he was skeptical when the man who conceived the idea for HeroRats first told him they could sniff out live ordnance. "I thought maybe he was making some jokes," Mushi said. "I was amazed that rats could do such a...

"British soldier shot in Afghanistan is saved my his ROSARY... just like his great-grandfather in WWII" A soldier who stood on a landmine and was shot in the chest in Afghanistan is convinced a rosary saved his life in exactly the same way as his great-grandfather towards the end of World War II. Glenn Hockton, 19, who is now home from a seven-month tour of duty with the Coldstream Guards in Helmand Province, was on patrol when his rosary suddenly fell from his neck. His mother Sheri Jones said today: 'He felt like he had a slap on the back....

Authorities say a Fort Campbell soldier has been arrested after selling a machine gun and a land mine to an undercover federal agent. Authorities said 22-year-old Eric David Waldman, of Clarksville, Tenn., was charged Monday with one count of possession of an unregistered machine gun.

Washington (CNN) -- The United States won't join its NATO allies and many other countries in formally banning landmines, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said during his midday briefing Tuesday. "This administration undertook a policy review and we decided our landmine policy remains in effect," Kelly said in response to a question. "We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention." Opponents of the U.S. landmine policy said they were surprised.

MANILA (Reuters) - One U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded in a landmine explosion in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, a Philippine army spokesman said. Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner said three Filipino soldiers were also wounded when the vehicle they were riding in struck an improvised landmine near Indanan town on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf militants.

ARVADA, Colo. — A land mine found in a suburban Denver Goodwill donation box forced the evacuation of a strip mall. The rectangular, olive-green box with the words "Front Toward Enemy" raised the suspicions of Goodwill workers Tuesday. Arvada police say the Claymore land mine didn't go off in the donation box and no one was hurt. A bomb squad disposed of the device. Police Sgt. Jeff Monzingo says it's unclear whether the device was operational or where it came from. ~snip~ Claymore mines were widely used during the Vietnam war.

The woman who wants to be the next Republican First Lady pledged today to expand her humanitarian work if she makes it into the White House, taking inspiration from the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Speaking ahead of a political fundraiser in London tonight, Cindy McCain said that she felt "very honoured" to serve on the boad of the Halo Trust, the Anglo-American anti-landmine charity endorsed by Diana and which organised her controversial walk through an Angolan minefield in 1997, the year of her death. Speaking to The Times, Mrs McCain said of Diana: "She was (a) great inspiration to...

A LANDMINE blew up in the home of a religious cleric in southern Afghanistan, killing the mullah, two of his sons and two other men who had been preparing an attack, police said today. The cleric's wife was critically wounded in the blast in their compound in the southern province of Helmand late yesterday, and a daughter was hurt, provincial police chief General Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said. The bodies of the mullah and his two sons, both under 15 years old, remained at the site of the blast, he said. Other people in the compound said two other men were...

Out of the ashes of war will rise a beauty queen. Ten women will show off their beauty and brains — and their landmine injuries — in Angola next April in a competition to win a golden prosthetic limb and the title of Miss Landmine 2008. The project, created by Norwegian theater director Morten Traavik, is designed to raise awareness of the plight of landmine survivors. Contestants will have to demonstrate their skills and take part in an interview, though the details have yet to be finalized. "There is no sensationalistic intentions within Miss Landmine," Traavik said. "Of course the...

Ananova: Students played 'frisbee' with land mine Two Swiss students on holiday played frisbee with an object they found on a beach unaware it was a live land mine. Lukas Aider, 20, and Christoph Kurz, 19, took a plunge in the Danube river in Budapest when they found the mine and began their potentially lethal game. A lifeguard watching stopped them and immediately called the police. A bomb squad then arrived to make safe what turned out to be an old Soviet 6 kilogrammes anti-tank mine.

The six-legged shoes protect the wearer by lifting up a leg if it is over a mine so that the device is not triggered Device promises to save thousands of lives every year Scientists have developed a robotic shoe that will allow people to walk through minefields unharmed. Landmine clearance agencies are showing interest in the device, the inventors say. Landmines kill or wound tens of thousands every year, the majority of them non-combatants, according to mine research organisations. "We presented and exhibited a fully functional prototype at the Asian Defence Technology 2006 Exhibition in February with good responses,"...

Reuters - INDIAN MAOISTS KILL 50 PEOPLE IN LANDMINE BLAST - POLICE

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Aug. 18, 2005) -- To any casual observer visiting the F-11A pistol and battlesight zero range here, 1st Lt. Charles E. Hayter, a 26-year-old native of Billings, Mont., looks like any run-of-the-mill platoon commander… standing, watching over his Marines as they zero their rifles before they deploy to Iraq. A closer examination might reveal otherwise, but it would have to be a real close observation. The only telltale sign would be the tightness of one boot over the other and it’s rigid appearance, because inside that boot exists a prosthetic. Hayter, platoon commander for...

Iraq: The other side of the story Teddybear clutching Iraqi girl saves American convoy Monday, January 10, 2005 Good works by American troops and their allies protecting our freedom in Iraq never find their way to the mainline media. Although virtually ignored by news outlets such as CNN and the New York Times, some of the out-of-the-news stories inspire a well of hope and inspiration. One such moving story came from an ASA veteran in a regular letter written to a friend back home. "…Just wanted to write to you and tell you another story about an experience we had...

Grozny, Russia, Jul. 13 (UPI) -- Chechen Acting President Sergei Abramov survived an assassination attempt Tuesday when his motorcade in Grozny hit a landmine, Itar-Tass reported. Abramov, 32, escaped injury, but one of his bodyguards was killed. Three others were seriously injured. Few other details were available. Abramov, who is considered to be pro-Moscow, took over as interim leader after pro-Moscow president Akhmad Kadyrov was killed by a bomb attack May 9 during public celebrations. The day before, 18 servicemen of the pro-Moscow Chechen police force were killed in a clash with rebels near the village of Avtury, the Interfax...