Free Republic

By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem, Israel --- March 24, 2013 … Russian media sources have confirmed that Syria President Bashar Assad was shot by an Iranian bodyguard Saturday night. "The lone assassination pumped several bullets at point blank range into Assad," said the source. "Assad was rushed to Al-Shami Hospital in Damascus in critical condition. He died on the operating table from heart failure resulting from massive blood loss." An Israeli security analyst believes the report to be accurate. "In the last 24 hours have we seen Assad? Any photographs or video? No. Nor will we see any as...

Filmmaker George Butler wants his friends to know he's very much alive, despite a premature obituary on "The Charlie Rose Show" this week. During Rose's annual New Year's Eve tribute on PBS to notable figures who died during the year, he included Butler, whose 1977 film "Pumping Iron" featured a then-unknown bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger. The screen even flashed a Butler tombstone, 1943-2008. The PBS show had confused him with another George Butler, a longtime jazz record executive who signed Wynton Marsalis, who died April 9. snip- Rose, who did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking comment, apologized at...