Free Republic

Explosions have been heard in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, as fears mount that shelling is underway. Residents in the city, which is located in south eastern Ukraine, have been woken up by blasts 30 miles from the Russian border.

Fewer people are seeking asylum in Sweden, with the number of applications dropping 33 percent last year, according to new statistics. "During 2008, 24,342 persons sought asylum in Sweden, which is a decrease of 11,865 applications compared to 2007," Statistics Sweden (SCB) said in a statement on Friday. Two-thirds of applicants were men and one-third were women, a common proportion since 2000, it added. Over 100 nationalities were represented among the asylum seekers. The largest group was Iraqis who accounted for a quarter of applications. However, SCB noted that the number of Iraqi asylum seekers was down dramatically. "Iraqis represented...

SALT LAKE CITY - University of Utah geneticist Mario Capecchi got a bonus after winning the Nobel Prize for medicine last fall: He learned he has a younger sister. Capecchi, 70, and half-sister Marlene Bonelli, 69, met last month in northern Italy. It was technically a reunion, but really more of an introduction; they were too young to remember when they were separated in the early days of World War II. Bonelli had long believed that Capecchi and their mother had died in the war, he told The Salt Lake Tribune. Capecchi's mother gave birth to Bonelli in 1939, when...