Free Republic

A nationwide electricity outage struck Ecuador on Wednesday, leaving the nation of some 18 million in the dark, including the capital's subway system, as authorities worked to repair faulty power lines, a senior official said on Wednesday. "There is a failure in the transmission line that caused a cascade disconnection, so there's no electricity at a national scale," Public Works Minister Roberto Luque said in a post on X. Luque also serves as the country's acting energy minister. A Reuters witness said there was confusion on the streets of Quito, the capital, as traffic lights ceased working. Operations of Quito's...

A high school student in Texas whose hobby is inventing thought he had a great idea for a project: to build his own clock. The effort landed him in handcuffs and juvenile detention on Monday, accused of making a hoax bomb. The detention of Ahmed Mohamed, 14, a student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Tex., near Dallas, generated a national furor even after the police said on Wednesday that he would not be charged as questions arose about whether he was targeted because of his religion. The episode even came to the attention of the nation’s top leaders, who...

A small pipe bomb packed with gunpowder and BBs exploded in a subway station last night, injuring a transit cop and throwing several blocks near Times Square into chaos. A police spokesman insisted that authorities do not believe that the incident was terrorism — but federal officials, including the Secret Service and the Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating, it was learned. The officer, whose name was withheld, was standing near a staircase leading to the A, C and E trains at 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue at around 8 p.m., when he saw a burning knapsack, police said. He...

A single algorithm which placed and then cancelled orders on the Nasdaq accounted for 4% of all quoted traffic in the US with no clear goal. An investor gives FRANCE 24 his insight into the mystery which has concerned market watchers. A single mammoth mystery algorithm has set alarm bells ringing for market regulators and players, and underlined the market’s vulnerability to technology and the woeful lack of regulation on algorithms. A single algorithm last week placed and cancelled orders on the Nasdaq accounting for 4% of all quoted traffic in the US. Not only this, it also accounted for...

President speaking live now! Topics: 1) Steps feds taking;2) Investigating ongoing; 3) How awesome he is and how HE stopped the attack (just kidding); 4) Actions to protect Americans;5) Statement on the unrest in Iran

Kudos to US Airways. Risking fines and a boycott, it did the right thing this week by removing a group of Muslim men from a flight to protect its crew and passengers. By most accounts, the six bearded men were behaving suspiciously at a time when airports were on high alert for sky terror during the holidays. "There were a number of things that gave the flight crew pause," an airline spokesman said. According to witnesses and police reports, the men: • Made anti-American statements. • Made a scene of praying and chanting "Allah." • Asked for seat-belt extensions even...