Free Republic

Washington -- Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died. All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space...

FOUR arrests were made at a rowdy Far Right demonstration in Leeds in which pigs’ heads were thrown at police. A huge police operation involving over 100 officers swung into action on Saturday (May 4) as the English Defence league marched through Leeds’ Lingfield estate - at the invitation of residents angered after the go ahead was given to plans to turn a derelict pub into a Muslim-run community centre.

Cut-price air travel has arrived in South-East Asia - and it is making the same kind of impact as it did in Europe and the United States. Well-established national carriers that have enjoyed near-monopolies are finally being challenged. The newcomers use a similar business model to internet-based operations in Europe and the US. Because of the limited access to computers in some countries in the region, tickets are also available through travel agents. But the same principle applies: the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket. One of the main players is the Kuala Lumpur-based Air Asia, a company that...

As the U.S. airline industry unraveled over the past five years, JetBlue Airways Corp. proved that a carrier with the right mix of low overhead, cheap fares and distinguished service could succeed during a punishing downturn. The outlook for most big airlines is still pretty grim, with Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. in bankruptcy, and the rest unlikely to show a profit in 2006. What has changed, though, is that investors now lump JetBlue among the lackluster. The tarnish on JetBlue's reputation comes just as a few money-losing carriers, such as AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Continental...

LCC smoking ban includes outdoors College campus goes tobacco-free on Tuesday By Sharon Terlep Lansing State Journal Lansing Community College on Tuesday will become one of the first - if not the only - Michigan colleges to ban outdoor smoking. But lighting up is still allowed on a city-owned strip of land that runs through the heart of campus. LCC - Michigan's third- largest community college - planned to forbid smoking there until discovering Wednesday it couldn't. "We just want a healthier environment for our students and employees," LCC spokeswoman Ruth Borger said. "This isn't intended to punish someone." Smoking...