Free Republic

The Republic of Georgia's defense minister said he was aboard a helicopter that came under fire as it flew over the separatist province of South Ossetia. He said the aircraft was damaged but nobody was hurt, and they landed safely in Georgian-controlled territory. Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili spoke hours after South Ossetian officials said their forces shot down a Georgian government helicopter Sunday that had invaded the breakaway region's airspace. Georgian military officials swiftly denied it was shot down. Georgia's Interior Ministry also said Sunday that in a similar incident last week a surface-to-air missile was fired at a helicopter...

WASHINGTON -- No evidence suggests that the deadly earthquake that rocked Pakistan on Saturday injured or killed the world's top terror leader, Osama bin Laden. The quake shook the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding. However, authorities at this point have no information indicating he's been injured or killed, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity. Bin Laden guided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks aimed at New York City and Washington. Hopes for bin Laden's death or capture were high in December 2001, when...

Ex-president Clinton's decision to ask Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for a high-dollar donation to his presidential library came just months after Saudi leaders rebuffed his request to take custody of Osama bin Laden - when officials in Sudan, where the al Qaeda chief was then living, offered him to the U.S. Former FBI director Louis Freeh revealed on Thursday that Clinton personally put the touch on Abdullah after failing to get the Saudi leader's cooperation in the probe into the June 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which - according to the 9/11 Commission - was a joint al Qaida-Hezbollah operation. The...