Free Republic

Go to work, come home. Go to work -- and vanish without a trace. Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why. The phenomenon was noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees also have been reported in Europe and Brazil. Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging...

Congressman wants better data on cruise ship crime WASHINGTON (AP) -- Only five of the 28 people who disappeared from cruise ships in the past three years were found, according to data disclosed to Congress by the world's largest cruise lines. A congressional memo compiled in advance of a House hearing on cruise ship safety Tuesday also details 177 sexual misconduct incidents, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape, and four robberies of amounts over $5,000. During that three-year period approximately 25 million people embarked on cruises from North America ports, the memo said.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - The United Nations says it has evidence that the Ivory Coast government is sending out death squads that have killed or abducted dozens of politicians and businessmen in the capital of Abidjan since civil war broke out four months ago. The United Nations is investigating the alleged death squads, which operate largely under the cover of Abidjan's 10 p.m. curfew. The deaths and disappearances have spread fear in the capital and silenced many of the government's political opponents. Hundreds of people have been killed, and an estimated 600,000 have fled their homes since civil war broke...