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After joyously toppling a dictator, protesters trusted the army to hold power until elections—but a vicious show of force this week has soured their faith. Ursula Lindsey reports from Cairo. The warm relations between Egyptians protesters and their army are over. Military police and, reportedly, masked special forces violently broke up protests in downtown Cairo late Friday night. The attack—and ongoing reports of "disappearances" and abuse—has soured the once hopeful relations between the military and pro-democracy forces here. The film director Ahmad Abdalla was in a group of several hundred protesters standing and chanting in front of the Egyptian parliament...

President Obama took aim at the health insurance industry Sunday, using an op-ed to accuse the insurance companies of discriminating against millions and rally support for a comprehensive reform package to hold them "accountable." The op-ed in The New York Times escalated an approach the White House and congressional Democrats have taken in recent weeks, in which they've focused more on Americans who have insurance, rather than the staggering number of uninsured. In doing so, health care reform proponents have cited a litany of examples of how Americans’ health insurance plans are falling short.

TAMPA, Fla. - Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday pointed to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as fresh evidence of the ongoing battle against terrorism that underscores the need to keep President Bush's Republican allies in control of Congress. "This conflict is a long way from over," Cheney said at a fundraising appearance for a GOP congressional candidate. "It's going to be a battle that will last for a very long time. It is absolutely essential that we stay the course." Cheney's visit to Tampa helped raise about $200,000 for the campaign of Gus Bilirakis, a state legislator who...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (March 8, 2006) -- “At first it was rough, because they didn’t look at me as a Marine,” said Cpl. Christine DeCaprio, an administrative clerk, of fitting in with an all male military police squad in Iraq. “But, once I got up on the [.50 caliber heavy machinegun] they changed their minds.” This event set the tone for DeCaprio’s next ten months in the desert with Company B, 2nd Military Police Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group. Being the only woman in a platoon full of men proved difficult in the early stages of the...

2/23/2006 - SEMBACH AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Security forces in Europe are preparing for deployment to war zones with an up-to-date curriculum. The mission of the 786th Security Forces Squadron’s regional training center, otherwise known as "Creek Defender," is to provide predeployment integrated base defense training for U.S. Air Forces in Europe security forces. The training also prepares command security forces for missions throughout the European Command’s area of operations and other combatant commands worldwide. When previous training became outdated, the staff prepared a concept of operations in October that remedied that situation, said Senior Master Sgt. Patrick Herdman,...

Lake Placid, N.Y. (Oct. 12, 2005) -- “Left, right, left, right… Double Time!” And just like that, the pristine peace and quiet of the Lake Placid was broken recently by the cadence of a Marine as the young New York Apple Core’s Future Stars Junior “C” minor team hustled down the town’s main road for Boot Camp Hockey. Maj. Dave Andersen, an active-duty Marine, part time junior hockey league coach, and founder of the week-long hockey intensive known as Boot Camp Hockey, said he drew his inspiration for the program from his years as a Basic School instructor at Marine...

HIT, Iraq (Sept. 21, 2005) -- When Sgt. Keith M. Wagner, a squad leader with 3rd Platoon, K Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, learned he would be deploying to Iraq last year, he enrolled in the Survival Level Arabic Course to communicate with the people. He became so interested in the language and the people that he began studying independently in his spare time and after classes with his teacher who is from Baghdad. A year later, as he walks the streets of Hit, one would think he was a linguist because of his proficiency in the language. But...

Were a lyricist to pen words to this imaginary "Bankruptcy Forever" March the lyricist could combine the serious with the absurd. Alas, absurdity often plays well in Congress. Because there is no effective germaneness requirement in the Senate Rules, human imagination cannot envision the projects upon which Congress appropriate taxpayers' money. How about $1.5 million for a bus stop in Anchorage? ("The Streetcar Named Desire" in New Orleans evidently struck out but "The Bus Stop Named Profligate" made it.) Or $1 million toward the National Flag Museum in Pittsburgh? ("National" Flag in Pittsburgh?) Or $1 million for a DNA study...

Eeeeeeeewwwwwwww! Wed Jan 19, 8:40 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - The makers of the handy spray lubricant WD-40 proudly list 2,000 uses for their product, from unsticking rusty screws or squeaky bicycle chains to polishing frying pans. But British police have found another -- keeping the public from snorting cocaine off toilet lids in bars. Police in the English city of Bristol said Tuesday they have been advising pub and nightclub owners to spray the colorless lubricant on toilet seats and other flat surfaces in the lavatory that customers often use to snort drugs. Apparently, cocaine and spray lube don't...

ATLANTA - Gay rights activists are denouncing an anti-gay marriage march that starts near the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as an effort to hijack the slain civil rights leader's legacy. The march, set for Saturday, is being organized by the predominantly black 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church of suburban Atlanta, whose pastor, Bishop Eddie Long, opposes gay marriage and counsels gay members to abandon their lifestyle. The church's Web site said one of the march's goals is to promote a constitutional amendment to "fully protect marriage between one man and one woman." A quote from King...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) - Joe Nemechek is "G.I. Joe" to many NASCAR fans, a nickname stemming from the GoArmy.com logo on the hood and bumper of his Chevy Monte Carlo. Every lap he leads and every pole he wins puts the Army in millions of living rooms nationwide. Sponsoring Nemechek is part of a military recruiting strategy, which includes advertising at football games and rodeos, aimed at maintaining the all-volunteer force during the war in Iraq and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. "We have to get the best young men and women in the Army to continue," said...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s campaign, using powerful imagery of prowling wolves, suggests in a new TV ad that the country under John Kerry (news - web sites) would be vulnerable to terrorists because "weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm." Countering, Kerry's campaign accused the president of employing "the politics of fear" out of desperation. Reminiscent of Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s Soviet "Bear" ad that was credited with helping frame the 1984 race, the commercial shows a dense forest from above. Scurrying is heard as the camera plunges deeper into the...

DRAGUIGNAN, France (AFP) - A top US admiral speaking at a ceremony in southern France paying homage to World War II US troops used the occasion to draw parallels with US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s worldwide war on terror. "Today we are fighting a war against an enemy that respects no borders, has no civilised norms of behaviour in sparing innocent lives and who does not share our sincerest vision and deeds of goodwill to all peoples," Admiral Gregory Johnson said. The senior officer, who is the NATO (news - web sites) commander for southern Europe...

WASHINGTON - As Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry arrived in California on Wednesday, President Bush tried to deploy an unusual political weapon against him -- Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein is a strong Kerry supporter who delivered one of his nominating speeches at the recent Democratic convention. But the Bush campaign Wednesday used her support last fall for legislation to fund troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to highlight Kerry's vote against it. ``Senator Feinstein understands that supporting the troops at the front lines of the war on terror is not a complicated decision,'' Bush campaign spokesman Steven Schmidt said...

Israel uses Russian snipers on West Bank By David Blair in Jerusalem (Filed: 23/09/2003) Veterans of Russia's campaign in Chechnya are serving in the Israeli army as highly trained snipers in the West Bank and Gaza. Russian immigrants fill the ranks of a specialist sniper unit known as the Aliya (Immigration) brigade, the army confirmed yesterday following a report in the newspaper Ha'aretz. Sharpshooters with experience in Chechnya have been concealed at vulnerable points where Israel is open to infiltration from the occupied territories. A security official told Ha'aretz that the men were deployed to reinforce the defences of "weak...