Free Republic

Burning Man partiers were battered by a huge sandstorm over the weekend that threatened to ruin the finale of nine-day-long Nevada festival as hundreds left early to escape the dust while others strip off in 102F heat. The dust storm hit the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where it's been held since the early 1990s, on Saturday just before the main Burning Man event on Sunday — where the wooden 'man' effigy is ignited. The week-long festival has long been a tradition, frequented by scantily-clad individuals looking to let loose and soak in the event's characteristically psychedelic atmosphere. Burning Man's...

A Saudi official said Tuesday that the hajj pilgrimage, which usually draws up to 2.5 million Muslims from all over the world, will only see at the most a few thousand pilgrims next month due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The kingdom’s Hajj Minister Muhammad Benten said a “small and very limited” number of people — even as low as just 1,000 from inside the kingdom — will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage to ensure social distancing and crowd control amid the global virus outbreak. “The number, God willing, may be in the thousands. We are...

Planned Parenthood clinics in Pennsylvania have eliminated all services except for abortion in the wake of a statewide ban on elective surgeries meant to preserve scarce medical resources amid the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic governor Tom Wolf issued a directive ordering the shut down of all businesses "that are not life sustaining" on March 20, and a guidance from the state government prohibits elective procedures performed by health care services and hospitals. Despite these directives, Planned Parenthood Keystone, which serves central and eastern Pennsylvania, announced it would remain open "for abortion services only" while shutting down its other operations. Hospitals are...

LONDON — Gay marriage becomes legal in Britain as Queen Elizabeth II gives royal approval.

The ex-newspaper editor took great delight in making fun of President Bush for falling off a Segway - the two-wheeled, motorised, gyroscopically balanced scooter that, its makers promise, will never fall over. However, he was bitten by karma and suffered the same fate as Bush.

Today is going to be a terrible day for millions of people in the United States as Hurricane Katrina comes roaring ashore on the northern Gulf Coast of the country. Hopefully, prayerfully, despite the worst-case scenarios being predicted by many weather experts and others in the media, there will not be an enormous loss of life. But even if no one dies, the thought of hundreds of thousands of people having to leave their homes in the last 48 hours to stream out of the hurricane’s path, not knowing what they will come back to – what will happen to...

Trial was months ago---tape delay!