Free Republic

Gov. Mike Easley on Friday strongly objected to any use of poisons by the Navy to control birds at a proposed airstrip near a national wildlife refuge. Easley said the Navy's plan would destroy the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. "I want to make sure you are aware of this threat to our state's fragile and priceless natural heritage," Easley said in a letter to state officials before six public hearings, starting Monday, scheduled by the Navy to gather comments on the proposal. The Navy wants to build a jetway for pilots to practice aircraft carrier landings about five miles...

Dozens of children in war-torn Chechnya have come down with a mysterious illness that doctors and emergency workers said may have been caused by poisoning. "Right now there are 48 people hospitalized," Akhmed Dzhayrkhanov, deputy head of the emergency situations ministry in Chechnya, told AFP by telephone. "So far we cannot say exactly whether it is a case of poisoning."