Free Republic

This is weird. This was posted April 4 on the Diego Garcia Passenger Facebook Page. Via RedFlagNews:Malaysian news reported MH370 Captain Zaharie Shah’s homemade flight simulator had five runways programmed into the system.The runways included:** Three airports in India and Sri Lanka** One airport in Maldives** One US military base in Diego GarciaThe Malaysian pilot on missing flight MH370 was reportedly a political fanatic who attended the trial of the country’s opposition leader hours before the flight.The Daily Mail reported:

| The discovery of mysterious rocks on the brightest large asteroid in the solar system, Vesta, deepens the mystery surrounding the huge object's origins, researchers say. Vesta is the second-largest asteroid in the solar system. The 330-mile-wide (530-kilometer) protoplanet is also the brightest large asteroid, with a surface about three times more luminous than Earth's moon.

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – San Francisco’s pension fund for retired city workers is even worse off than projected. The city will have to contribute around $600 million next year to pay for pension costs. Last year, the Civil Grand Jury caught flack from city workers’ unions for predicting that San Francisco would have to contribute 17 percent of retirees pensions. As it turns out, it’s even higher – 18 percent, according to Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who sits on the City’s Retirement Board. That’s 4.5 percent higher than last year, and it’s now projected to rise to 26 percent in three...

ATHENS—Greece's fiscal crisis took a new turn to violence Wednesday when three people died in a firebomb attack amid a paralyzing national strike, while governments from Spain to the U.S. took steps to prevent the widening financial damage from hitting their own economies. U.S. Treasury officials have been quietly urging their European and International Monetary Fund counterparts to put together a Greek rescue plan more quickly to contain the damage, it emerged Wednesday, as U.S. policy makers worry the continent's problems could undermine a U.S. recovery much as U.S. housing woes hammered Europe in 2008. In Spain, rival political leaders...

The federal investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys could jolt the political landscape ahead of the November elections, according to several people close to the inquiry. Washington’s attention has been diverted from the scandal since the August resignation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, and has focused instead on Democrats’ efforts to hold White House officials in contempt for ignoring congressional subpoenas to testify on Capitol Hill about the firings. But recent behind-the-scenes activity in several investigations suggests that the issue that roiled Congress in 2007 could re-emerge in the heat of the election year. Two inquiries by...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's political tumult intensified as President Emile Lahoud said the country is in a "state of emergency" and handed security powers to the army before he left office Friday without a successor. The rival, pro-Western Cabinet rejected the declaration. Lahoud's final announcement created new confusion in an already unsettled situation, which many Lebanese fear could explode into violence between supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Western-backed government and the pro-Syria opposition led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The departure of Lahoud, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime during nine years in office, was a long-sought...

Astronomers have discovered a chaotic scene unlike any witnessed before in a cosmic "train wrecK" between giant galaxy clusters. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical telescopes revealed a dark matter core that was mostly devoid of galaxies, which may pose problems for current theories of dark matter behavior. Astronomers have discovered a chaotic scene unlike any witnessed before in a cosmic “train wreck” between giant galaxy clusters. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical telescopes revealed a dark matter core that was mostly devoid of galaxies, which may pose problems for current theories of dark matter behavior. "These results challenge our...

Iran in turmoil as president's purge deepens Simon Tisdall and Ewen MacAskill Friday November 18, 2005 The Guardian (UK) Iran is facing political paralysis as its newly elected president purges government institutions, bringing accusations that he is undertaking a coup d'état. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's clearout of his opponents began last month but is more sweeping than previously understood and has reached almost every branch of government, the Guardian has learned. Dozens of deputy ministers have been sacked this month in several government departments, as well the heads of the state insurance and privatisation organisations. Last week, seven state bank presidents were...

Sacrificial burial deepens mystery at Teotihuacan, but confirms the city’s militarism Partially uncovered figurine, carved in jade, found in connection with three unbound, seated bodies and other objects at the top of the pyramid’s fifth stage (the offering was presumably made in the construction of the sixth stage), circa 350 AD. This object is notable in that it is carved from jade that originated in Guatemala, and appears to be Mayan in style. Other jade objects on top of the figurine are beads and earspools. A spectacular new discovery from an ongoing excavation at the Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Moon...

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 - A crisis in Los Angeles County's emergency health care system became more acute this week with the announcement that the oldest hospital in the San Fernando Valley would close by Dec. 31, officials said here Friday. News of the closing of the institution, the Northridge Hospital Medical Center campus in the Van Nuys section, which opened in 1929, follows by a week the closing of the emergency room at Elastar Community Hospital in the East Los Angeles neighborhood. In the last two years, four other emergency rooms, most in low-income areas, have closed in the...

Space station's air leak mystery deepensEquipment looks fine; no immediate danger, NASA says NASANASA astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri celebrated New Year's Day on the space station, then were notified Monday that the air pressure was slowly dropping. By Marcia Dunn Aerospace Writer The Associated Press Updated: 1:05 p.m. ET Jan. 09, 2004CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - An air purifier that was the prime suspect for a cabin leak at the international space station turned out to be airtight Friday as the crew widened the search for the mystery leak. The cabin pressure continued to slowly fall as...

<p>MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin signed an order Thursday relieving his chief of staff of his duties, the Interfax news agency reported, deepening the political and economic turmoil following the arrest of Russia's richest tycoon.</p> <p>Rumors that Voloshin had resigned had rattled Russian political and business circles for several days.</p>

FBI Probe Deepens Racial Split in Philly Tuesday October 21, 2003 2:46 AM By DAVID B. CARUSO Associated Press Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Mayor John Street gets polite applause when he talks about policy on the campaign trail these days. The big cheers come when he mentions the bug planted in his office by the FBI. In the two weeks since news broke that Street was a subject of a federal investigation, Philadelphia's second black mayor has sought to cast himself as a man being persecuted because of his race, and the message appears to be resonating with black voters....

Wednesday, 16 October, 2002, 17:44 GMT 18:44 UKDiscord deepens over Iraq resolution Russia says the United States must make changes to a draft United Nations resolution threatening force against Iraq. Moscow's view has been backed by French President Jacques Chirac who is reported as saying he is "completely hostile" to any automatic authorisation of force if Iraq contravened a new resolution. If Iraq gains even greater destructive power, nations in the Middle East would face blackmail... Chaos in that region would be felt in Europe and beyond In Washington, US President George W Bush signed into law a Congressional resolution...