Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The Senate turned back an early attack on the broad immigration overhaul Tuesday, keeping alive a temporary worker provision that could bring in as many as 600,000 foreign laborers each year. Senators voted 64-31 to reject a proposal offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., and supported by some labor unions to delete the program, which is one of the measure's key elements. The vote was the first big test for the improbable coalition that wrote the measure and is struggling to keep the fragile deal from unraveling under pressure from across the political spectrum....

DENVER - Even her surgeon calls her a miracle. Shannon Malloy was critically injured Jan. 25 when a car crash slammed her into the dashboard. Her skull separated from her spine, although her skin, spinal cord and other internal organs remained intact. The rare condition is known as clinically as internal decapitation, and it left her with no control over her head.

Pfc. Andrew Woods, 20, a SAW gunner with 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, provides force protection to the Hurriyah Joint Security Station in Baghdad. Six months earlier Woods was wounded by a sniper, but now he has made a full recovery and returned to duty on his second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. CAMP LIBERTY -- The life of one paratrooper was forever changed Sept. 2, 2006. A 7.62mm round from a sniper’s rifle found its mark and struck the 20 year-old. Unlike other stories of fallen heroes, the story of Pfc. Andrew Woods continues to unfold....

Source: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Date: January 30, 2007 Salmonella Survives Better In Stomach Due To Altered DNA Science Daily — Since 1995 there has been a considerable increase in the number of infections with a specific type of Salmonella bacteria transmitted via food. This type, Salmonella serovar Typhimurium DT104, is resistant to at least five different antibiotics. Dutch researcher Armand Hermans found new genetic information in DNA of DT104 that might be involved in its survival and infection mechanism. This genetic information might also be involved in the increase in the number of infections caused by this pathogen....

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2006 – An Iraqi police chief survived an insurgent ambush Oct. 3, urging his troops to continue the mission, and Iraqi and U.S. soldiers captured three high-value terrorists and 25 others in Baghdad Oct. 3, military officials in Iraq reported today. The Iraqi police chief was wounded when his patrol was ambushed while in pursuit of suspected insurgents in the city of Baghdadi, Iraq. Col. Shaban al Obeidi was evacuated to a nearby U.S. military medical facility by helicopter for treatment and was reported in good condition. One policeman was killed in the attack. When asked if...

Long before the Bible's tale of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, a small wannabe star has emerged intact after being engulfed by a neighboring giant star, scientists say. The victim was a brown dwarf, a failed star too small to sustain the nuclear reactions that ignites regular stars. The purpetrator was a red giant, an ancient star that once resembled our Sun but which puffed up to enormous size after its hydrogen fuel was depleted. The red giant has since expelled most of its gas into space and transformed into a dense, Earth-sized star called a white dwarfs. Using...

Town N Country, Florida – A woman is in stable condition after being ejected through the sunroof of her SUV during an accident. Thirty-seven-year-old Ruth Matthews told paramedics that another vehicle cut her off in traffic, and she took evasive action to avoid a crash. Her Isuzu Amigo rolled over and she was thrown through the sunroof and onto the roadway. Investigators say she was not wearing her seatbelt. Paramedics initially tried to fly Matthews to Tampa General Hospital, but her weight, estimated at 600 pounds, made it impossible. Emergency crews were able to transport her to St. Joseph’s Hospital,...

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2006 – Iraqi soldiers and police completed the fourth day of Operation Lion's Hunt in Mosul, Iraq, today. Elsewhere, a provincial governor survived an assasination attempt. Nearly 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and police officers worked together to conduct the mission. The goal of Lion's Hunt is to introduce a strong Iraqi security force presence in the city's diverse communities and clean out pockets of terrorists hiding among law-abiding residents, U.S. officials said. The Iraqi-planned effort has been well received in the areas searched so far, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Wathiq, provincial director of police for Ninewah province, said. He...

PORTLAND, Ore. - An Oregon man who went to a hospital complaining of a headache was found to have 12 nails embedded in his skull from a suicide attempt with a nail gun, doctors say. Surgeons removed the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill, and the man survived with no serious lasting effects, according to a report on the medical oddity in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery. The unidentified 33-year-old man was suicidal and high on methamphetamine last year when he fired the nails into his head one by one. The nails were not visible when...

CAMP MERCURY, Iraq (April 3, 2006) -- Lance Cpl. Jason Willis has a new look on life after recovering from injuries he incurred just over a month ago. While driving a seven-ton truck on a late-night re-supply mission in late February, the heavy equipment operator attached to Headquarters and Support Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, was struck by an improvised explosive device. “I remember it quite well,” said the 23-year-old from Lakeland, Fla. “It went off right next to my door and blew it in three spots, through the window, gun port and through the floorboard.” At first he...

MUQDADIYAH, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 31, 2006) – Using the right protective gear and exercising good patrolling discipline meant the difference between life or death for a Bradley crew returning from a night mission Jan. 25. The Bradley Section of A Troop, 1st Battalion, 32nd Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division, was hit by a 155mm artillery shell rigged as an improvised explosive device. The IED was detonated as the second Bradley was passing. “It started as a little flash and then everything just exploded, sending dirt and shrapnel everywhere,” said Pfc. Robert Conley, turret gunner. Conley was protected by thick...

Dog survives 50-mile ride clinging to front of car By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent (Filed: 25/11/2005) A dog has survived a 50-mile journey clinging to the front of a car as it sped down the motorway. The resilience of the black and white collie cross-breed has astounded vets, not to mention the driver of the car, who was astonished to discover the dog trapped in the grille at the front of his vehicle. The motorist, who was travelling from Coleraine to Belfast in Northern Ireland, remembered hearing a thump as he was driving his Peugeot 306. Thinking he had hit...

Iraqi army hostage survives 22 days of torture by rebels By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 20/06/2005) A hostage who was found shackled in a torture room in Iraq by American soldiers has described how he was tormented for 22 days with electric shocks and daily beatings for no obvious reason. Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, who had served briefly with the Iraqi army, is one of the few to have survived abduction by insurgents. Ahmed Isa Fathil did not know why he was kidnapped He recounted how he was kidnapped while eating lunch with his mother, bundled into the boot...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A 70-year-old woman survived a nine-story fall from a condominium tower Wednesday when she landed on a canopy, officials said. The woman was cleaning her balcony when she fell at Coral Ridge Towers and landed on a first-floor canopy, according to the Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue. The woman, whose identity wasn't released, was alert and talking when rescuers arrived. She was transported to Broward General Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, rescuers said.

A man was attacked and injured after jumping into a lion's den at the Taipei Zoo and trying to convert the lions to Christianity. The 46-year-old man leaped into the den of African lions and shouted "Jesus will save you," according to the report. He also said, "Come bite me" before one of the male lions attacked and bit the man.

<p>Support for a ballot initiative that essentially would have split the property tax rolls and charged more to business and apartment owners collapsed last week - and that's good news.</p> <p>Tax increase opponents discovered in the initiative a drafting error, which could have made the land on which houses are built - as distinguished from the actual houses - subject to annual reassessment. If true, homeowners would have been affected by the initiative as well as businesses.</p>

Palestinian cabinet minister survives restaurant shooting Masked gunmen have opened fire on a Palestinian minister and a top economist in a Jenin restaurant. Both men escaped without injury, but two bystanders were injured, including a Palestinian policemen. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group loosely linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. Health Minister Jawad Tibi, and Mohammad Shtayyeh, managing director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, were in Jenin to attend the opening ceremony of a new hospital. After the ceremony, they went to lunch at a restaurant in the town centre. As...

A young Ocean Beach woman survived a severe allergic reaction that had University of California, San Diego Regional Burn Center staff scrambling to save her life, 10News reported. By all accounts, Sarah Yeargain, (pictured, left), shouldn't be alive. But she is and some are calling it a medical miracle. Three weeks ago, the skin on Yeargain's body began sloughing off. Dr. Daniel Lozano, from the UCSD Regional Burn Center, said, "She lost skin in her entire body. It's rather dramatic to really see this coming off in sheets." Even the membrane covering her internal organs -- her eyes, mouth, and...

Girl, 2, Survives for Days After Dad Dies Fri Dec 19, 8:24 AM ET PHOENIX (Reuters) - A two-year-old girl survived on a diet of butter, mayonnaise and water for at least several days in her west Phoenix home as her father lay dead on the couch nearby, authorities say. Police said Thursday they believed the girl was able to open the refrigerator and turn on a kitchen water faucet to sustain herself for the days she spent alone in the small residence. She was found late on Wednesday by police officers and was reported to be in good condition...

An Australian land mine expert survived the truck bombing at the UN offices in Baghdad - less than a year after narrowly escaping injury in the Bali nightclub blasts. Rodney Cocks, of Melbourne, was at the UN headquarters when the huge explosion rocked the building on Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald said. The 27-year-old was in Iraq as part of a mine clearance unit. The newspaper said that moments before the detonation, he left his desk, about 15 yards from the centre of the blast, and walked to another office to search for a phone number. "I was standing there,...