Free Republic

SAN JUAN —Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted, blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa field. The 18-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed by police, was walking to a friend’s house about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. A black van pulled up alongside her and three men hopped out, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. They snatched the girl, blindfolded her and took her to Reynosa. The kidnappers began calling the woman’s family demanding ransom money. “The kidnappers somehow missed it that she had a cell phone,” Gonzalez said. “We...

LAREDO, Texas – Mexican rancher Isidro Gutierrez watched with disgust as federal inspectors here chalked a long stripe on his steer's hindquarter. The animal could not be imported because its breed can be vulnerable to disease. If inspections were still being done across the Rio Grande in Mexico, routine rejections like that would be just an inconvenience. But drug violence in the border region has chased American cattle inspectors back to the U.S. side, so Gutierrez has to pay brokers in both countries and hire a truck to take back rejected animals. "It's cheaper to kill him here," Gutierrez said....

ATLANTA (AP) -- A caged, 2-inch turtle traveling with a 10-year-old girl caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn't bring their pet along. The sisters threw the animal and cage in the trash and returned to their seats crying Tuesday after AirTran Airways employees on the jetway said they couldn't care for the turtle while their father drove to retrieve it. Two days later, however, Carley Helm was reunited with Neytiri even though at first the family thought the pet was emptied with the...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Mexicans are seething over the second death of a countryman at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in two weeks, an incident near downtown El Paso that is threatening to escalate tensions over migrant issues. U.S. authorities said Tuesday a Border Patrol agent was defending himself and colleagues when he fatally shot the 15-year-old as officers came under a barrage of big stones while trying to detain illegal immigrants on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. About 30 relatives and friends gathered late Tuesday to mourn Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, whose shooting Monday evening...

Mexican and U.S. authorities were "secretly scrambling" last month to thwart a Mexican drug cartel's plot to blow up a Texas dam that would have flooded an area with about 4 million inhabitants, according to the Houston Chronicle's Dane Schiller and James Pinkerton. Law enforcement officials were reportedly tipped off to a plot when they found one of the handbills that the drug cartel Los Zetas was distributing on the Mexican side of the river, warning residents to clear out ahead of the explosion. Authorities found "small amounts of dynamite near the dam," the Chronicle said. Los Zetas wanted to...

Gov. Rick Perry, reiterating his concerns about a federal takeover of education, gave the final word today that Texas will not apply for the second round of a federal grant worth up to $700 million for local schools. Perry refused to compete for the first round of the Race to the Top grant in January, but had not definitively said the state would sit out round two. The Republican governor repeatedly has criticized President Barack Obama's education grant because it favors states that adopt common curriculum standards. “This administration's attempt to bait states into adopting national standards is an effort...

SAN DIEGO – Retired Navy Lt. John Finn, the oldest Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, died Thursday at his Southern California ranch. He was 100. Finn enlisted in the Navy just before his 17th birthday and went on to become the first man to receive the nation's highest military award for heroism during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, according to a Navy statement. He was the oldest of 97 Medal of Honor recipients still living. Despite head wounds and other injuries, Finn, the chief of ordnance for an air squadron, continuously fired...

For the past year, intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Asia have been watching as equipment and machines capable of being used to build nuclear weapons have been flowing into Burma, raising the specter that the isolated and secretive Southeast Asian nation may become the world’s second rogue nuclear power. Because of the nature of Burma's paranoid and repressive ruling military junta, there is tremendous fear that, if it acquires a nuclear capability, it will set off an arms race that could change the political dynamics of Southeast Asia. But experts caution that Burma, also called Myanmar, is so closed...

Gov. Rick Perry warned tea party organizers to watch their backs for liberals who wish to make them look bad as thousands were set to stage tax-day rallies across the state on Thursday. At rallies from El Paso to Tyler, supporters of the conservative tea party movement were planning to send their message of limited government and lower taxes to Washington. About 150 activists, many shouting chants against President Barack Obama, gathered in Austin on Thursday. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was set to speak at another rally at the Capitol later in the day. Thousands are expected to participate...

<p>WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc, he is retiring. President Barack Obama now has his second high court opening to fill.</p> <p>Stevens said Friday he will step down when the court finishes its work for the summer in late June or early July. He said he hopes his successor is confirmed "well in advance of the commencement of the court's next term."</p>

Apparently a white powdery substance was released when a secretary at a Dallas elementary school opened the mail this morning... They were rushed to the hospital and it was determined to be non-life threatening... HAZMAT teams at two (2) separate campuses in the area have been evacuated... No further news at this time...

Editor's Note: The following is an open letter from actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who penned this response to actor Sean Penn's recent remarks on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in which the left-wing actor defended Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Dear Sean, WHY? Even though I have great respect for your artistic talent, I was appalled by a recent television interview where you vigorously showed support for the regime of Hugo Chavez. Therefore, I've decided to set the record straight for you regarding the Chavez regime, supporting my case based not only on my political ideologies, but on proven facts...

Mumbai – With 22 pen strokes, President Obama signed into existence not just a historic healthcare reform law but also monumental piles of paperwork: New member registration forms. More claims. Ever-expanding databases. And on top of that, pressure to cut costs. The bulge in administrative work may look like a nightmare to American insurance firms and government employees. But to outsourcing executives here in India, it’s heaven-sent. A number of Indian companies are already anticipating an increase in workload thanks to Obama's healthcare law. The addition of 32 million insured Americans is “very significant” for Indian outsourcers, says Ananda Mukerji,...

Hey, kids! Here's something I bet you didn't know: Black people? Back in 1800 or whenever? They liked being slaves. True! Many savvy, industrious Negroes actually volunteered for that fine, desirable position. It was a completely balanced, fair, hugely successful system, until those damn liberals came along and ruined everything. I know, right? What a shame. Do you know what else? America was wholly victorious in Vietnam. It's a fact! Kicked some serious enemy butt! Mission accomplished! Sure it was a little bumpy for awhile, but President Nixon, that great and wronged American hero, put us on the righteous path...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

LONDON – Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up. Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers....

<p>AUSTIN — Shots have been fired at the Texas Capitol, the Texas Department of Public Safety has confirmed.</p> <p>The shooting occurred minutes before noon. A trooper at the Capitol said a person has been taken into custody. The building has been locked down to make certain there are no other shooters.</p>

Like his father before him, French publisher, author and political commentator Eric Naulleau was born into a military family assigned to a temporary foreign posting. But because his birth happened abroad, where his father - himself born in Lebanon to a French army father - was serving France's national interests, Naulleau has had to wage a long and surreal battle with the government to prove that he's actually a French citizen. Naulleau is just one of a growing number of French people born outside France or in the country to foreign parents who are now being told they must present...

HONOLULU (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday it appeared the man suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the Islamic militant network. Defending his administration's counterterrorism efforts amid scathing Republican criticism, Obama said he received preliminary results of the reviews he ordered into air travel screening procedures and a "terrorist watchlist system" and expected final results in the days to come. Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, had called for an immediate study of what he termed "human and systemic...

A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda's attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.