Free Republic

A senior Iranian cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex, causing more earthquakes in Iran, a country that straddles several fault lines, newspapers reported on Saturday. "Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes," Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran.

Starbucks to close 600 U.S. stores, cut 12,000 jobs By Matt Andrejczak, MarketWatch Last update: 6:43 p.m. EDT July 1, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Starbucks Corp., dragged down by a slowing U.S. economy, is pulling the plug on 600 of its underperforming U.S. coffee shops and trimming the number of stores it had planned to open over the coming year. The shutdowns, starting now and running through March 2009, are far more than the coffee-shop chain had originally planned. In January, Starbucks said it planned to close 100 U.S. stores as part of the transformation plan set in motion...

CODY, Wyoming (Reuters) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the Wyoming Republican presidential caucus on Saturday, taking seven of the state's 12 delegates with nearly all precincts reporting, according to a state party official. Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee won two delegates and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California won one, said Amy Larimer, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party. Larimer said two delegates remained undecided while officials counted all the votes. A final tally was expected later in the day. The victory gives Romney supporters something to tout as the focus of the U.S. presidential election shifts...

GARLAND, Texas (AP) - An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: ''My daddy died this year in Iraq.'' While gripping, it wasn't true - and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mom acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie. The sponsor of the contest was Club Libby Lu, a Chicago-based store that sells clothes, accessories and games intended for young girls. The saga began Friday with company officials surprising the girl at a Club Libby Lu at a mall in suburban Garland, about...

OCALA, Fla. -- A 10-year old Ocala girl brought her lunch to school and a small kitchen knife to cut it. She now faces a felony charge after being arrested. The school and the sheriff's office disagree on the reason for the arrest.

Attack: Pope Benedict criticised climate-change prophets of doom Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology. The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering. The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of...

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - San Francisco radio talk show host Bernie Ward has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of using the Internet to send and receive child pornography, his lawyer said today. The indictment is under seal, but the charges were confirmed by Ward's lawyer, Doron Weinberg, and by his employer, KGO radio. Weinberg said Ward, 56, pleaded not guilty to the indictment before a federal magistrate in San Francisco today. He said Ward is due to reappear in court in late January before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker for a status conference and scheduling...

The story of our Baghdad Diarist. For months, our magazine has been subject to accusations that stories we published by an American soldier then serving in Iraq were fabricated. When these accusations first arose, we promised our readers a full account of our investigation. We spent the last four-and-a-half months re-reporting his stories. These are our findings. When Michael Goldfarb, a blogger for The Weekly Standard, left me a message on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-July, I didn't know him or his byline. And I certainly didn't anticipate that his message would become the starting point for a controversy. A...

ABC News' Eloise Harper reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton faced an unfriendly crowd in Iowa. At the Heartland Forum in Des Moines, IA, Clinton, who called in to speak to the crowd of thousands because of weather difficulties, took questions on topics from healthcare to illegal immigration. Clinton was asked if she would "make a decision to give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship" during her first 100 days in office. Clinton said, "I have been favoring a plan to citizenship for years. I voted for it in the Senate, I have spoke out about it around Iowa and the...

Film at link(I'd like to see Air Force Amy on the stump for Paul.....)

In the latest tape of Bin Laden that I just heard in Arabic he is basically focusing solely on Afghanistan and asking the Europeans not to help the US in Afghanistan. In other words he gave up on Iraq because he knows that his terrorists are utterly defeated in Iraq, it is all over for them there. If you want to read the English subtitles translation of the latest audio speech you may click on the link below which was posted on a major terrorist forum. The English subtitles were translated by “Al Sahab” which is the main media wing...

MIAMI - Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died early Tuesday, a day after the Pro Bowl player was shot at home by what police say was an intruder. He was 24. Family friend Richard Sharpstein said Taylor's father told him the news around 5:30 a.m. "His father called and said he was with Christ and he cried and thanked me," said Sharpstein, Taylor's former lawyer. "It's a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him. Obviously God had other plans." Taylor died at Jackson Memorial Hospital,...

TORONTO (AP) – The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear the appeals of two U.S. Army deserters who sought refugee status to avoid the war in Iraq, leaving them without a legal basis to stay in Canada and dealing a blow to other Americans in similar circumstances. Jeremy Hinzman, a former resident of Rapid City, S.D., and Brandon Hughey deserted the Army in 2004 after learning their units were to be deployed to Iraq to fight in a war they have called immoral and illegal. The court refused Thursday to hear their appeals, and, as is usual, did...

Chafee quietly quits the GOP 01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 16, 2007 By Bruce Landis Journal Staff Writer PROVIDENCE — Lincoln D. Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republican sentiment in last November’s election, said yesterday that he has left the party. Chafee said he disaffiliated with the party he had helped lead, and his father had led before him, because the national Republican Party has gone too far away from his stance on too many critical issues, from war to economics to the environment. “It’s not my party any more,” he said. Chafee’s departure...

NEW YORK (AP) - Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit Wednesday against CBS, alleging that the network made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service. The 75-year-old Rather, whose final months were clouded by controversy over the report, says the complaint stems from "CBS' intentional mishandling" of the aftermath of the story. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, also names CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves, Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone, and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward. Rather, the former anchorman of the "CBS Evening News," is seeking $20...

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas police said they've arrested O.J. Simpson on charges related to an armed robbery of sports memorabilia. The arrest came after another man was taken into custody in the alleged incident. Police said Walter Alexander was arrested on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon. Two firearms were seized, police said. Simpson has said he was among several people who went to a casino hotel room this week. He said he'd hoped to retrieve some items that...

DEVELOPING STORY: California businessman Norman Hsu, a former New York apparel executive and major contributor to Democratic candidates and causes, failed to appear for a bail reduction hearing Wednesday, leading to speculation that he again is a fugitive from the law, FOX News has learned. Where is Hsu?

NEW YORK -- Katie Couric, who will mark her one-year anniversary as anchor of "CBS Evening News" next week, is embarking tonight on a 10-day trip to Iraq and Syria, the first network evening news anchor to visit the war zone in six months. It will be Couric's first visit to both countries, and the network plans to devote substantial air time to her coverage, with 16 stories by the anchor and chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan slated to run over four days. Beginning Tuesday, Couric will anchor the broadcast live from Baghdad for two nights and from Damascus another...

Three Arab princesses were thrown off a packed British Airways flight after refusing to sit next to male passengers they didn't know. The delayed plane sat on a baking Italian runway for almost three hours The dispute - in which the three princesses from the ultra-conservative Qatar royal family demanded segregated seating - left the London-bound plane delayed on a baking Italian runway for nearly three hours. Furious passengers whistled and clapped as the row intensified before the captain eventually ordered the women to be escorted off the plane. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani: related to the Princesses...