Free Republic

When the history of Vladimir Putin’s first decade in national politics is written, it will read like pulp fiction. One moment in the spring of 1997 he’s an unknown KGB spy plagiarizing his thesis at an obscure institute; the next he’s deputy chief of staff to Boris Yeltsin, and soon after that boss of the entire KGB. Within months of reaching that pinnacle, Russia’s leading human rights activist, legislator Galina Starovoitova, is shot dead, and a prosecutorial investigation into Kremlin corruption has been squashed by the revelation of the prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, on secret sex tapes. No sooner has this...

One of the excellent attributes of "Shut Up and Sing" is that it lets the cards fall where they may and really doesn't try to spin the Chicks themselves. It's quite possible, then, to watch the film and come to the conclusion that Natalie Maines has a big mouth. Spectacularly talented, the young singer is also a spectacular blowhard, and documentarian Barbara Kopple almost subversively focuses on Maines blabbering away at meetings without a serious thought in her head, no impulse control anywhere in sight, and, for some reason, always supine, as if her great status grants her the right...

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPEWASHINGTON WARNS BELGRADE OVER ARMS SALES TO IRAQ... The Untied States has "accused two state-owned companies in Yugoslavia and Bosnia of repairing the engines of Iraqi MiG fighters and demanded that the two countries' governments act to stop the trade," the "Washington Post" reported on 23 October (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 October 2002). Serbian experts are also believed to be helping Iraq improve its air defenses. Speaking in Washington on 22 October, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there is "clear evidence" of dealings with Baghdad by the Belgrade-based Yugoimport firm and the Orao company, which is located...

<p>The images are unforgettable: First one plane crashed into a tower of the World Trade Center. Then another into the other tower. Later in the day, the towers collapsed. But what happened inside the towers on Sept. 11? Talk to reporter Dennis Cauchon, co-author (with Martha T. Moore) of USA TODAY's series on the World Trade Center, the survivors, the malfunctions, and the miracles.</p>

<p>The bodies of 2,803 human beings were buried when the World Trade Center crumbled into 3 billion pounds of debris. Miraculously, 20 people survived the collapse, amid steel beams, concrete slabs and other wreckage. They escaped death in the most unlikely of ways and in the most surprising of places. Fourteen people survived inside the remnants of a stairwell at the center of the north tower. One man remembers falling from a 22nd floor stairwell in the north tower and regaining consciousness atop the 12-story-deep pile of rubble at Ground Zero. Two police officers, trapped in debris between the towers, barely survived both collapses.</p>

<p>A day of celebration became a time for citywide mourning Thursday when a hellish pre-dawn blaze caused a duplex to collapse, killing three firefighters and three young sisters trapped in the pile of burning rubble.</p> <p>Scores of emergency workers stared in disbelief at the charred, jumbled remains of the 2 1/2-story, wood-frame duplex on Broadway. It was the deadliest blaze for firefighters in New Jersey in more than a decade.</p>

GLOUCESTER CITY - Three-year-old twins, their five-year-old brother and three firefighters tried to rescue them died early today when a multi-story home caught fire and collapsed. One of the victims, a 39-year-old firefighter, proposed to his girlfriend at a Fourth of July fireworks display hours before the fire started, sad Gov. McGreevey, who visited the scene at midday. City firefighters passed directly in front of the duplex last night during a holiday parade. The roof of the home collapsed trapping eight firefighters inside, but five were dug out by their comrades, Acting Camden County Prosecutor James P. Lynch said. The...

There is a postmodern amorality afloat — the dividend of years of an American educational system in which historical ignorance, cultural relativism, and well-intentioned theory, in place of cold facts, has reigned. We see the sad results everywhere in the current discussions of the Middle East and our own war on terror. Palestinians appeal to the American public on grounds that three or four times as many of their own citizens have died as Israelis. The crazy logic is that in war the side that suffers the most casualties is either in the right or at least should be the...

One of the advantages of living in relative isolation on a farm is the opportunity to ponder idle questions when there are few experts around to give the proper answers. I list in no particular order a sampling of them that arose last night while I was walking alone through the orchard — on the chance that a few other puzzled Americans have also at times been just as exasperated and confused. Why does Mr. Mubarak lecture us to become intimately engaged in the Middle East Peace process, when Mr. Clinton, who was very recently intimately engaged, got the intifada...

Actress Amy Ting's first movie, "Miss Wonton," opens March 8. She won't be at the premiere. Airman Amy Ting will be in Wichita Falls, Texas, serving as an Air Force physical- therapist trainee. She got her assignment Friday, after finishing basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. She enlisted. In part, Amy Ting's story is a Sept. 11 story. Early that morning, Ting was a fledgling actress supporting herself with a job at the World Trade Center Marriott Hotel's front desk while she waited to see how "Miss Wonton" and her movie career would fare. "At 8:45," ...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - The fantasy epic ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' won best-picture honors and two other prizes at the first American Film Institute (news - web sites) Awards on Saturday. Denzel Washington was named best actor for playing a flamboyantly corrupt narcotics detective in ``Training Day.'' Sissy Spacek won lead-actress honors as a grieving, vengeful mother in ``In the Bedroom.'' Spacek, a five-time Academy Award nominee who won for ``Coal Miner's Daughter,'' could emerge as a front-runner for another Oscar. ``This film is so close to my heart,'' Spacek said. ``It was ...

The first step in any war is simple: Define the enemy. America's enemy is the Islamic Axis: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Afghanistan and the groups they fund, support and direct. These groups include the cells of Osama Bin Laden, Hamas, Hezbollah and the PLO. The next step is to define short-term dangers and long-term goals. The greatest immediate threat the Axis poses is an attack using nuclear, chemical or germ warfare. That is why America's first concern can't be chasing after Bin Laden or invading Afghanistan. Before that, it must disarm Axis countries that are on the verge ...

Web and quick thinking works wonders for a maverick 06/27/01 BY JEFF WHELAN STAR-LEDGER STAFF With the election just 10 days away, Bob Franks directed his campaign to cut a television ad charging that Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler used money intended for needy children for political ads promoting himself. But the Franks ad already had backfired. The reasons have a lot to do with why Schundler won the Republican primary for governor yesterday without the support of the party leaders, and they illustrate the kind of rapid-response, guerrilla tactics that helped a maverick mayor score the state's biggest political ...

DA: Girl confined since '97 Siblings told to lie, CPS official says 06/27/2001 By Jennifer Emily / The Dallas Morning News The 8-year-old Hutchins girl found in a filthy closet two weeks ago had been imprisoned in a "closet, attic or small room" since 1997, a prosecutor said at a custody hearing Tuesday. The girl's mother, Barbara Atkinson, has told authorities that the girl had been confined for four years, said Assistant District Attorney Michael Munden. He also said doctors told him the emaciated, malnourished girl resembled a "Holocaust victim." At the hearing, Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon ordered a home ...

THE GREAT SOCIAL SECURITY SCARE! by Larry Kudlow The Al Gore Democrats are out there running with the usual last-minute, pre-election, demagogic scare tactic that George Bush will bankrupt the Social Security system and deprive seniors of their benefits. Not just Gore, but Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers has taken up the mantra that Bush's plan to reform Social Security through the option of personal retirement accounts for private-market stock and bond investments will somehow rob the trust fund of $1 trillion. Normally, key Cabinet officers such as the secretaries of Treasury, Defense, and State stay out of election-year politics. But ...

Sometimes, saying you're sorry just doesn't cut it. Model-actress Elizabeth Hurley, who appears in the upcoming comedy Bedazzled, may never work in Hollywood again. The actress may be expelled from the Screen Actors Guild for crossing picket lines to film an ad for Estée Lauder, the cosmetics company she represents, according to the New York Post. Hurley, 35, has apologized profusely for shooting a non-union commercial in New York City during the five-month-long TV commercial actors' strike. "She was completely unaware of the situation because she doesn't live in this country," Hurley agent Tracey Jacobs explained to The Associated Press ...