Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2006 – Coalition soldiers killed 15 extremists Aug. 8 during a firefight at a provincial reconstruction team base in the Kamdesh district of Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, military officials reported. Two U.S. soldiers and one Afghan policeman suffered minor wounds when 30 insurgents attacked the base with small arms and rockets. Coalition forces responded with small arms and mortars. The wounded soldiers and police officer were treated on the scene and returned to duty. The coalition base was not damaged. “These extremists will never succeed in overcoming coalition and Afghan security forces,” Army Col. Thomas Collins, a coalition...

OUTDOOR COLUMN -- matthews-ONS -- 05jul06 Deer in peril by aqueduct, fencing work By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service A portion of the burro deer herd in Imperial and Riverside counties is being denied water during the scorching summer heat because of work being conducted by the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) on the Coachella Canal, located on the east side of the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley. The canal, which has delivered Colorado River water to farm fields in the Imperial Valley for decades, is being replaced with a concrete lined canal to eliminate leakage. This will increase the...

Hamas call to fight Israelis as 21 die By Patrick Bishop in Beit Lahiya (Filed: 07/07/2006) A Palestinian minister called on his security forces to take up arms last night after Israeli tanks re-occupied a tract of northern Gaza, provoking the fiercest clashes since an Israeli soldier was seized 11 days ago. Israeli troops killed at least 21 Palestinians as the air force launched missile strikes and tanks took up position among the Palestinian homes. One soldier was killed. Saeed Seyam declared a state of emergency Saeed Seyam, the Palestinian interior minister and a member of the governing Hamas Party,...

4 hours ago LONDON - Author J.K. Rowling said two characters will die in the last installment of her boy wizard series, and she hinted Harry Potter might not survive either. "I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books," Rowling said on Monday's "Richard and Judy" television show. "I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, `Well, I'm gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels. So it will end with me,...

Four police and eight robbers die in S Africa shoot-out By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 26/06/2006) Paramedics rushed to the scene of a "bloodbath" in central Johannesburg yesterday when a daylight gun battle between South African police and armed robbers left 12 dead. Four of those killed were policemen. The other eight were among a gang of 20 criminals. The shooting raged in the suburb of Jeppestown, east of the city centre and barely half a mile from Ellis Park stadium, one of the largest sports venues in South Africa and a key location for the next World Cup...

Pack up or die, street vendors told By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman (Filed: 04/06/2006) As the purveyors of nothing spicier than the odd dash of hot chilli sauce, Baghdad's falafel vendors had never imagined their snacks might be deemed a threat to public morality. Now, though, their simple offerings of chickpeas fried in breadcrumbs have gone the same way as alcohol, pop music and foreign films - labelled theologically impure by the country's growing number of Islamic zealots. In a bizarre example of Iraq's creeping "Talibanisation", militants visited falafel vendors a fortnight ago, telling them to pack...

A 27-year-old man was killed Friday night when he was sucked into a 10-foot-deep hole that opened up suddenly in a two-story home in rural Alta, Placer County sheriff's deputies said Saturday. The victim's body remained in the hole Saturday night, and efforts to extract it will resume this morning, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said.

HOUSTON -- Counties that were saddled with chaos and traffic-choked highways before Hurricane Rita are defying an order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during a disaster. Instead, a group of elected Gulf Coast leaders adopted a different plan Tuesday that puts the authority in the hands of a 15-person committee _ even though the ultimate power to evacuate still rests with individual counties.

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2006 – Three U.S. soldiers died yesterday from wounds suffered by enemy action in Iraq's Anbar province, military officials in Baghdad announced today. A soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died yesterday from wounds suffered April 8, and two soldiers assigned to the 2/28 Brigade Combat Team were killed in action yesterday. The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other news from Iraq, coalition forces raided adjacent suspected al Qaeda safehouses about 10 kilometers northwest of Balad today, killing one terrorist and detaining four others. Three of the detainees suffered...

From Monsters and Critics.com South Asia NewsAfghan convert is willing to die for his faith By DPA Mar 26, 2006, 19:00 GMT Rome/Kabul - An Afghan man at the centre of an international outcry because he risks being sentenced to death for converting to Christianity has said he is ready to die for his faith. In an interview published on Sunday by Italian daily La Repubblica, Abdul Rahman said: \'I do not want to die. But if God will decide this way, I am ready to confront my choices, until the end.\' Rahman, who is 40 and has two...

TOKYO - Four people suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked car Wednesday, officials said. The report follows a surge of such deaths arranged over the Internet. The bodies of three men and one woman, all believed to be in their 30s, were found in a car parked on a mountain road in Shizuoka, 100 miles west of Tokyo, police said. Authorities suspect suicide and said the four died from fumes as several charcoal burners were found inside the car, which had its windows sealed with tape, according to Kyodo News agency. There have been several...

22 die in clashes on Shia holy day By Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar and Thomas Coghlan in Kabul (Filed: 10/02/2006) Pakistan's attempts to curb Islamic extremism suffered a new setback yesterday when sectarian violence killed 22 people and left scores more injured on a Shia holy day. A Pakistani soldier stands guard at the site of the bomb explosion Sunni Muslim extremists were blamed for the suicide bombing of a Shia procession celebrating the festival of Ashura in Hangu in the North West Frontier Province. The attack, which left 60 per cent of the town's bazaar in ruins, provoked a...

Hamas vows to defend itself after three die in Israeli air strike By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 06/02/2006) Hamas reacted angrily yesterday to the first Israeli air strikes on Gaza since the Islamist group won the Palestinian election, vowing that it would never give up the right to "self-defence". The missile raids - in retaliation for a rocket fired from Gaza that injured three Israelis, including a baby - were a setback for international efforts to persuade Hamas to recognise Israel and give up its armed struggle. Palestinians gather around the wreckage of a car destroyed after being targeted...

THE drab compound that houses the Iranian embassy in Pyongyang is the focus of intense scrutiny by diplomats and intelligence services who believe that North Korea is negotiating to sell the Iranians plutonium from its newly enlarged stockpile — a sale that would hand Tehran a rapid route to the atomic bomb. It would confound the international campaign to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions by restricting its ability to make bombs through the alternative method of enriching uranium. The risk is viewed with such gravity in Washington that the United States has launched a concerted diplomatic and covert effort to prevent...

Two people die in horrendous car accident Posted: 11/23/2005 10:27 pm It is not yet known if weather was the cause of the accident Niles, MI - A deadly crash occurred Wednesday night near the Indiana/Michigan state line, on south 11th Street in Niles, just north of State Road 933. Two people died in a violent crash that left the cars completely mangled. At least three other people were hurt. One car ended up in a building, another smashed up like an accordion. One witness we spoke to was amazed that anyone was able to walk away. Linda Miller says,...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2005 – Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents in Iraq Nov. 2, officials reported. A soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Ramadi. Elsewhere, a Task Force Baghdad soldier died when a patrol struck an improvised explosive device south of Baghdad. The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other operations in Iraq, an Iraqi security forces patrol came under attack Nov. 1 in Baqubah. Iraqi soldiers from the 4th Division were preparing...

400,000 people in China die prematurely from air pollution annually: expert Cyclists make their way along a street in Beijing amid thick smog. More than 400,000 people in China die prematurely annually from air pollution, according to an unpublished study by the research arm of the government's environmental protection agency(AFP/File/Goh Chai Hin) BEIJING, (AFP) - More than 400,000 people in China die prematurely annually from air pollution, according to an unpublished study by the research arm of the government's environmental protection agency, AFP learned. The study, conducted by the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning in 2003, found that 300,000 people...

BINGHAMTON NY--the Ithaca New York antiwar protesters who threw blood on a recruiting center, a soldier and the American flag in 2003 have been found guilty of three counts by a federal court.According to the Ithaca Journal, the group, which calls itself “ the St. Patrick’s Day Four,” was found guilty of three counts of damaging federal property, but acquitted of the most serious conspiracy charge.The group was accused of going to a Army recruiting center near Ithaca on March 17, 2003, and throwing their own blood on the walls, the floor, the United States flag and Staff Sgt. Rachon...

The Tribune Co. saw its revenues drop in August as its major newspaper property the Los Angeles Times again reported declines in most categories of advertising, the company reported Wednesday. Tribune said that its consolidated revenues for the four-week period ending Aug. 28 were $428 million, down 0.9 percent from the $432 million reported for the like period a year ago. The company blamed declines in revenues on the results of its newspapers and television stations, which were partially offset by a significant increase in revenue of its Chicago Cubs baseball team. Tribune did not break out revenue for its...

More than 200 detainees in Guantánamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike, the Guardian has been told. Statements from prisoners in the camp which were declassified by the US government on Wednesday reveal that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment - including desecration of the Qur'an - by American guards. The statements, written on August 11, have just been given to the British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. They show that prisoners are determined to starve them selves to death. In one, Binyam...