Free Republic

N Korean flood toll thought to be 10,000 Up to 10,000 North Koreans are believed dead or missing in what Pyongyang's official media is describing as the worst flooding in a century, a respected South Korean humanitarian group says. "About 4,000 people are now listed as missing, and we expect the final toll of dead and missing to reach 10,000," the independent aid group Good Friends said. North Korea's official media has so far admitted that hundreds of people are dead or missing after the country was battered by heavy rainfall for nearly two weeks from July 10. Seoul-based Good...

RCMP say that 10-year-old Zachary Miller, reported abducted by a convicted pedophile, has been found alive and in good physical condition. He has been reunited with his parents. CTV's Jill Macyshon told CTV Newsnet on Tuesday that Miller had been spotted near Kipling, which is about 40 kilometres southwest of his home town of Whitewood. "He ran out of this abandoned farm, and told the people who had found him that Jordan Bruyere is still inside," she said. Bruyere, a 14-year-old Winnipeg youth, was travelling with Whitmore and had last been seen in Brandon, Man. He is considered missing, but...

She sneaked into Manhattan for a night of partying with her girlfriend. But it ended in tragedy when Jennifer Moore was snatched from the street, driven to a cheap New Jersey hotel, beaten, strangled and then dumped in a trash bin. The 18-year-old's body was discovered about 4:30 a.m. yesterday, two days after she got lost walking along 12th Ave. on the West Side, wearing a black halter top and white miniskirt. Chunks of her long, brown hair had been ripped out of her head and her body horribly bruised. As ex-con Draymond Coleman, 34, and his prostitute girlfriend were...

Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, in South Lebanon in March.On July 18, he provided CTV.ca with an update of his mission via e-mail. The PMO has identified Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener as the Canadian Forces soldier missing and presumed dead in an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon Tuesday. Hess-von Kruedener, a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, died when a bomb directly hit the UN observer base in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel. Hess-von Kruedener had completed nine months of his one-year tour of duty with the UN in Lebanon....

LOS ANGELES - Investigators said Tuesday they are trying to find at least 50 women they have linked to a photographer on death row for murdering two aspiring models in the early 1980s. Authorities are looking into whether the women were raped or killed between 1975 and 1984 by William Richard Bradford, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Web site. In the 1970s and '80s, Bradford posed as a freelance photographer in the West Los Angeles area, taking sexually explicit photos of women he met at bars and auto races, according to the site. The site showed women...

Cynthia McKinney Missing In Action Rep. Cynthia McKinney was a no-show this week in the U.S. House, as WSB Washington Correspondent Jamie Dupree reports that the Georgia Democrat missed all four days of legislative business and every vote on the House floor as well. McKinney's office offered no comment as to why the Congresswoman did not return to Washington after Tuesday's primary election, where she was forced into an August 8th runoff against Hank Johnson. Also left unanswered Thursday night was whether McKinney would be back at the U.S. Capitol next week. The House has one more week of work...

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 220 PM EDT TUE JUL 18 2006 ...OFFICIAL AMBER ALERT... This is a child abduction emergency received by the TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION The West Tennessee regional amber alert has been upgraded to a Tennessee statewide AMBER ALERT. VERONICA LOPEZ a sixteen year-old Hispanic female was abducted by CIPRIANO OVALLE on JULY 17, 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee. CIPRIANO is a twenty-two year old Hispanic male. He is five feet five inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. CIPRIANO was last seen wearing a blue...

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT: MADISON CO SHERIFF'S OFFICE at 1-540-948-5161 or Virginia State Police at 1-800-822-4453. MISSING CHILD 1: AMAYA MARIE JASPER Gender : female Race : B Date of Birth : 08/16/2005 Height : 2 feet 00 inches Weight : 20 Lbs Hair: BLACK Eyes: GREY Date and Time of Abduction: Jul 14, 2006 08:00 hours Circumstances: Child was last seen at 2004 TWYMANS MILL RD, MADISON, Virginia. Child was last seen wearing a PINK WITH A YELLOW PICTURE ON THE FRONT INFANT JUMPSUIT. MISSING CHILD 2: DIYON AMANTE JASPER Gender : male Race : B Date of...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., July 14, 2006 – Sharon Serio said her son, Matt, was a lot like her. Both middle children, they liked to go out and have a good time. Sharon Serio, an American Gold Star Mother from Rhode Island, talks with Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, Iraq's permanent deputy representative to the United Nations, after a ceremony at the New Jersey Vietnam Memorial on July 9. Serio's son was killed April 5, 2004, during operations in Iraq. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "We got along great together, him and I," the Rhode Island...

BATAVIA, Ohio (Army News Service, July 13, 2006) – Cake and ice cream, balloons, family, friends and presents – all ingredients for a birthday party held today in Batavia, Ohio. But scores of yellow ribbons decorating nearly every light pole, house and business within city limits reminded attendees that the guest of honor was missing. “It’s the third birthday he hasn’t been with us,” said Carolyn Maupin. Carolyn is the mother of the only missing American Soldier still unaccounted for in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin of the 724th Transportation Company was kidnapped just months before his 21st...

Sugar Land police and volunteers with search and rescue organization Texas EquuSearch are looking for a 16-year-old Sugar Land girl missing since Friday night. Ashton Glover was last seen at 11 p.m. Friday at University and Commonwealth boulevards, “seen leaving with an unknown male in a white Toyota pickup truck,” according to information from Texas EquuSearch. EquuSearch spokeswoman Barbara Gibson said Glover’s family contacted the Dickinson-based non-profit group Friday night, and when they began a search, Sugar Land police already were on the scene looking for the missing girl. “The biggest thing is her truck hasn’t been found, either,” Gibson...

TOKYO - A 79-year-old Japanese man who went missing at the end of World War II and resurfaced nearly six decades later in Russia went back to his homeland Sunday to be reunited with relatives. Yoshiteru Nakagawa, who disappeared on Sakhalin island in 1945 when the Soviets took it over from Japan, arrived at New Chitose Airport on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido for the first time since he left Japan in 1939, when his family settled on Sakhalin. "Little did I dream of being able to come back to Japan," Nakagawa, who still lives on Sakhalin, said in halting...

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that nine airmen missing in action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors. The nine are 2nd Lt. Hugh L. Johnson Jr., Montgomery, Ala.; 2nd Lt. Byron L. Stenen, Northridge, Calif.; 2nd Lt. John F. Green, Watertown, N.Y.; 2nd Lt. John M. Meisner, Pembroke, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Walter Knudsen, Sioux City, Iowa; Cpl. John A. DeCarlo, Newark, N.J.; Cpl. Robert E. Raney, Monon, Ind.; Cpl. William G. Mohr, Mt. Wolf, Pa.; and Cpl. Michael J. Pushkar, Mahanoy City, Pa....

TUCSON, Ariz. -- An empty casket with a military seal was discovered in a desert area south of Tucson, and sheriff's deputies were looking for the body. "Obviously it had the smell, and there was other evidence that it had been inhabited recently," Deputy Dawn Barkman said Sunday. Forensic investigators took DNA samples, and a nationwide alert was issued in hopes of finding out who was the recently-used casket, Barkman said. Deputies were called to a desert area near Interstate 10 around 5:30 p.m. Saturday after two people playing paintball found the casket, Barkman said. The casket was metallic silver...

Missing Soldier's Uncle Criticizes U.S. By LYNN BREZOSKY BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - As the families of two missing soldiers waited to hear if two bodies found Tuesday were their loved ones, the uncle of one lashed out at the government, saying it didn't do enough to bring the men home safe. ``Because the U.S. government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life,'' Ken MacKenzie, uncle of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, told NBC's ``Today'' show. U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the military has recovered what are believed to be the remains...

Rescue crews searched the Chesapeake Bay for a prominent publisher and diplomat after his sailboat was discovered empty in the water, the executive editor of The (Annapolis) Capital said Sunday. Philip Merrill's boat was found around 7 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. Merrill was still missing early Sunday, said Tom Marquardt of The Capital, which is part of Merrill's publishing company. The 72-year-old publisher had been sailing alone on a breezy day, Marquardt said in a telephone interview. He said he did not know what happened to him. "I'd have to speculate," Marquardt said. "There's just too many things that can...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military says two soldiers are missing after their team came under attack at a traffic control point in Yusafiyah, Iraq Friday night, that left one other coalition soldier dead.

Investigators report no human remains found in burned vehicle By ERIC HANSON and ROBERT CROWE Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle One of Houston Astros coach Jose Cruz's sons is considered missing after a pickup he had been driving was found on fire near an office building in Katy earlier this month. Jose Javier Cruz, 34, last talked to family members May 19 at his Houston home in the 10300 block of Huntington Place, said Katy police Capt. Gay Dickerson. "We are listing him as a missing person in danger because he is not answering his cell phone," Dickerson said Tuesday. ...

CAÑON CITY - "Evan, Evan," the searchers yelled down into the canyon, hoping the Lakewood boy would answer, but the wind carried away their calls. Moving to another vantage point at the top of the cliff, they peered into the crevices and megaphoned, "Evan . . . Evan." The wind simply swirled Evan Thompson's name away again, and the canyon fell silent. A third day of searching the rugged mountains of southern Colorado ended Monday with a previously located trail of shoeprints the only clue to the child's disappearance. "People can just vanish in this country," said Jack Bales, a...

(05-30) 16:55 PDT Canon City, Colo. (AP) -- An 8-year-old boy missing since Saturday was found alive Tuesday after searchers investigated a report of sounds of a crying child in a remote canyon about 35 miles southwest of Pikes Peak. "He's alive and well," said Zack Slutsky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison and a spokesman for the operation. The boy was being evacuated to a hospital. He was found at about 4:20 p.m. Nearly 100 rescuers and three aircraft were searching for Evan Thompson, who was last seen Saturday morning while camping with family friends and a teacher...