Free Republic

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,400786,00.html

Relatives of U.S. Men’s Volleyball Coach Stabbed in Beijing, 1 Dead

Saturday, August 09, 2008

BEIJING — A knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men’s volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing, killing one and injuring the other on the first day of the Olympics on Saturday, team officials and state media said.

The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just five miles from the main Olympics site.

The brutal attack shortly after midday was all the more shocking because of the rarity of violent crime against foreigners in tightly controlled China, which has ramped up security measures even more for the Olympics.

The stabbing came only hours after what by many accounts was the most spectacular opening ceremony in Olympic history and it has already dampened some of the enthusiasm.

“They are deeply saddened and shocked,” Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said of the volleyball team.

The U.S. Olympic Committee said in a statement that two family members of a coach for the men’s indoor volleyball team were stabbed at the Drum Tower “during an attack by what local law enforcement authorities have indicated was a lone assailant.”

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I know he does and he knows our hearts.

Being a Christian with our lives dedicated to
the Lord, I never thought I would be here.

Thank you Cindy for your prayers.

Good evening everyone. Life has been such a mess the
past month.

Praise God I am working doing home health.

But shame on Satan that Dryman and myself have been
separated a few weeks.

Please pray for strength and direction for our family.

“I suspect a more aggressive stance towards Iran.”

I agree. I think that he is the best man to head
Centcom in the times we are in.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq;_ylt=ApN00MV3PlUsNmyqwuTCcOVI2ocA

Gen. Petraeus named as next commander of Mideast command

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general whose led troops in Iraq for the past year, has been tapped to become the next commander of U.S. Central Command, according to an official familiar with the decision.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would replace Navy Adm. William Fallon, who abruptly stepped down in March after a magazine reported that he was at odds with President Bush over Iran policy. Fallon said the report had become a distraction.

Taking Petraeus’ position as the senior commander in Iraq would be Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, who had until recently been serving as Petraeus’ deputy.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.

Petraeus, 55, is widely hailed by the Bush administration and members of Congress for developing and implementing a new strategy in Iraq, including the deployment of some 30,000 additional troops, that dramatically improved security.

BREAKING TODAY!!!!!!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352289,00.html

Gen. Petraeus to Head U.S. Central Command

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

WASHINGTON — Gen. David Petraeus has been tapped to become the next commander of U.S. Central Command, FOX News confirms.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352011,00.html

Report: Muslim Leaders Want Mecca to Be Center of World Time Zones

Monday, April 21, 2008

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) could be replaced by “Mecca Time,” if a group of Muslim leaders get their way.

At the conference, “Mecca, the Center of the Earth, Theory and Practice,” Muslim scientists and clerics called for the change, arguing that the holy city in Saudi Arabia is the center of the Earth and should be the reference point for world time, not Greenwich, England, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.

One geologist at the Qatar conference said Mecca’s longitude is perfectly aligned with magnetic north and should therefore replace the English city, which has been measuring time zones since 1884, the BBC reports.

Attendees of the conference also reviewed the “Mecca Watch,” an invention by a French Muslim which reportedly rotates counter-clockwise and displays Mecca’s direction from any point in the world, the BBC said.

The conference is part of a trend called “Ijaz al-Koran” or “miraculous nature of the holy text,” which tries to find precedents for modern science from passages in the Koran, the BBC reports.

But its critics say Ijaz al-Koran confuses spiritual truth — which depends on constant faith — with empirical truth, which depends on ever-changing science, the BBC said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351964,00.html

Defense Secretary Gates Says Air Force Must Step Up Efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan

Monday, April 21, 2008

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are “stuck in old ways of doing business.”

Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the military services, largely the Air Force, to send more unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been “like pulling teeth.”

Addressing officer students at the Air Force’s Air University, the Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to undertake new and creative ways of thinking about helping the war effort instead of focusing mainly on future threats.

While Gates’ comments were directed mainly at the Air Force, his concern about faster fielding of unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft included a broader appeal to the entire military. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps have been expanding their fleets of drone aircraft.

“In my view we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt,” he said. “My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield.”

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351953,00.html

Hamas Leader Vows Not to Recognize Israel After Carter Trumpets Terror Group’s Willingness to Be Good ‘Neighbor’

Monday, April 21, 2008

JERUSALEM — Just hours after former President Jimmy Carter trumpeted Hamas’ agreement to let Israel “live as a neighbor,” the same terrorist leader he met with face-to-face vowed not to recognize the Jewish state.

But Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal did offer Israel a 10-year truce if it withdraws from all lands it seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Carter met twice with Mashaal over the weekend.

The former president also said Monday that he would never sit down with Al Qaeda because the terror network has no “redeeming features.”

“[Al Qaeda] are not involved in any sort of a fruitful process. They are not recognized by their own people,” Carter told FOX News in an interview Monday. “On the other hand, you have to remember Hamas in an honest and open and fair and transparent election were elected the leaders of the Palestinian government.”

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351942,00.html

CDC: More Than 180 Sickened in 10 States From ‘Toxic’ Vitamins

Monday, April 21, 2008

Health officials are investigating more than 180 reports of illness in people who took dietary supplements containing toxic levels of the mineral selenium.

Last month, federal officials warned consumers about harmful doses of selenium _ a mineral considered healthful in small amounts — in plastic bottles of liquid Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega Formula.

The manufacturer recalled the product March 27, but reports of 184 illnesses indicate many people are still taking it, health officials said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found up to 200 times the label level of selenium in the products. The agency also found 17 times the label level of chromium but has not yet concluded if those levels are toxic.

Toxic levels of the minerals were in about 1,200 bottles distributed in 16 states and over the Internet, said Dr. James Lando, who is leading the team working on the investigation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials are looking into an escalating number of illnesses in 10 states — Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.

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You go girl!!!!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351478,00.html

Man at Center of Las Vegas Ricin Case Arrested

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

LAS VEGAS — A man hospitalized after authorities believe was sickened by the deadly toxin ricin was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas on federal charges.

The FBI says Roger Bergendorff, 57, was arrested after being released from a Las Vegas hospital where he had been since Feb. 14.

“He was released from the hospital and he’s in custody,” said Agent Joseph Dickey, spokesman for the FBI office in Las Vegas.

Bergendorff is charged with possession of a biological toxin and two weapons offenses stemming from materials authorities said were found Feb. 26 and Feb. 28 in his room at an extended-stay motel several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip.

The three charges carry a possible penalty of 30 years in federal prison and a $750,000 fine. Bergendorff was scheduled appear Wednesday afternoon before a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

A six-page complaint alleges that Bergendorff obtained castor beans, from which ricin is derived, by mail in June 2002, and made ricin from them while living in the basement of his cousin’s house in Riverton, Utah.

Bergendorff’s cousin, Thomas Tholen, 54, was indicted earlier this month in Salt Lake City for allegedly failing to report that the substance was being illegally produced.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351471,00.html

Hung Miami Jury Causes Second Mistrial in Sears Tower Terrorism Case

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

MIAMI — A federal judge in Miami has declared another mistrial for six men accused of plotting to spark an anti-government war by toppling Chicago’s Sears Tower and bombing FBI offices.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard ordered a mistrial when jurors reported that they were hopelessly deadlocked in the case of the so-called “Liberty City Seven.” The first trial ended in a mistrial in December because of a hung jury for the same six defendants and the acquittal of a seventh.

It’s unclear what the prosecution’s next step will be.

FYI...In the coming 30 minutes or so on E.D. Hill’s,
America’s Pulse show. She will be talking about
the efforts of some to not allow Carter back into
the U.S.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351440,00.html

Hamas Leaders to Meet With Former President Jimmy Carter in Egypt

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

JERUSALEM — Former President Jimmy Carter is set to meet Thursday with Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader with control over militants in the Gaza Strip.

The meeting expands the list of top officials of the terror group with whom Carter is meeting this week against the wishes of the Bush administration, U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials.

Reps. Howard Berman, D-CA, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Gary Ackerman, D-NY, chairman of the Mideast Subcommittee, wrote Carter Wednesday imploring him not to meet with any Hamas officials.

“[T]his visit will undermine the Middle East peace process and damage the credibility of Palestinian moderates,” they wrote, adding that the “legitimacy and prestige that Hamas will derive from your visit will be seen in the region as a clear demonstration that violence pays.”

Rep. Artur Davis, D-AL, told FOX News, “I don’t think Israel should try to negotiate with Hamas because Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.” Davis added that Carter’s overtures stood athwart a tradition of support for Israel in America.

Sen. Barack Obama, who has stated his disagreement with Carter on the Hamas visit but supports an open dialogue with Iran, was pressed Wednesday on the difference between the two.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351363,00.html

Brigitte Bardot on Trial for Using Muslim Slur

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Former French movie star Brigitte Bardot went on trial Tuesday in Paris on charges of “inciting racial hatred” by using a Muslim slur.

Prosecutors asked the court to give the former sex symbol a two-month suspended prison sentence and fine her $23,760 for saying Muslims were “destroying our country and imposing its acts,” according to Reuters.

“I am a little tired of prosecuting Mrs. Bardot,” Prosecutor Anne de Fontette told the court.

This is the fifth such trial for the blonde, best known for her films of the 1950s and ‘60s. She has been fined four times for inciting racial hatred.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351428,00.html

hmadinejad Calls Sept. 11 Attacks ‘Suspicious Event’

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast doubt Wednesday over the U.S. version of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, calling it a pretext used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Though Iran has condemned the Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington in the past, this was the third time in a week Ahmadinejad questioned the death toll, who was behind the attacks and how it happened.

“Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names,” Ahmadinejad told Iranians in the holy city of Qom.

“Under this pretext, they (the U.S.) attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and since then a million people have been killed only in Iraq,” said Ahmadinejad in the speech broadcast live on state-run television.

On the last anniversary of the attacks, the names of 2,750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a memorial ceremony there.

Last year, Ahmadinejad raised questions over the September 11 attacks, saying “what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved” needed to be examined.

In the past, Ahmadinejad has said that the attack was “a result of mismanaging and inhumane managing of the world by the U.S.” and it should not be turned into another Holocaust and “be used for slaughtering people.”

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351326,00.html

Plane Crashes in Populated Neighborhood in Congo, Dozens Killed

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

KINSHASA, Congo — A Congolese jetliner carrying around 85 people failed to take off Tuesday from an airport in this eastern town, crashing at high speed into a busy market neighborhood at the end of the runway, officials said.

Casualty figures varied widely. An airline official said 60 people had survived, but local officials said dozens of bodies were pulled from the wreckage, though it was unclear if they had been passengers or not.

Employees at the aid agency World Vision, which has an office less than half a mile from the crash site, said the plane “failed to leave the ground,” plowing instead “through wooden houses and shops in the highly populated Birere market.”

The plane appeared to have been “totally flattened” by the impact, said Rachel Wolff, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the international aid organization who has been in contact with her colleagues in Congo.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351326,00.html

Plane Crashes in Populated Neighborhood in Congo, Dozens Killed

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

KINSHASA, Congo — A Congolese jetliner carrying around 85 people failed to take off Tuesday from an airport in this eastern town, crashing at high speed into a busy market neighborhood at the end of the runway, officials said.

Casualty figures varied widely. An airline official said 60 people had survived, but local officials said dozens of bodies were pulled from the wreckage, though it was unclear if they had been passengers or not.

Employees at the aid agency World Vision, which has an office less than half a mile from the crash site, said the plane “failed to leave the ground,” plowing instead “through wooden houses and shops in the highly populated Birere market.”

The plane appeared to have been “totally flattened” by the impact, said Rachel Wolff, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the international aid organization who has been in contact with her colleagues in Congo.

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