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It has lain hidden for nearly 70 years and looks, to the untrained eye, like a building site. But this insignificant tunnel opening in the soft sand of western Poland represents one of the greatest examples of British wartime heroism. And the sensational story became the Hollywood classic, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen. We are standing in the notorious PoW camp Stalag Luft III, built at the height of the Third Reich, 100 miles east of Berlin. Ten thousand prisoners were kept under German guns here on a 60-acre site ringed with a double barbed-wire fence and watchtowers. Read...

(Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam called his father frequently on the telephone and increasingly feared being hit by a mortar bomb as he tried to escape from the town of Bani Walid last week, an officer who had been with him told Reuters. "He was nervous. He had a Thuraya (satellite phone) and he called his father many times," said al-Senussi Sharif al-Senussi, a lieutenant in Gaddafi's army who was part of Saif's security team in Bani Walid until the city fell on October 17. "He repeated to us: don't tell anyone where I am. Don't let them...

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Two of Moammar Gadhafi's sons, who had been reported captured over the weekend, were free early Tuesday as forces loyal to the embattled Libyan leader battled rebels trying to consolidate their hold on Tripoli. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi showed up at the Rixos Hotel, one of the remaining strongholds of pro-Gadhafi forces, in a convoy of armored Land Cruisers. In a brief interview with CNN's Matthew Chance, he said his father and several of his sisters were safe in Tripoli, and that loyal troops had "broken the back" of the rebels who moved into the capital over...

A Mexican woman has been arrested for trying to sneak her husband out of prison in a suitcase following a conjugal visit. SNIP Staff became suspicious as the young woman seemed nervous and was struggling with a black, wheeled suitcase which looked particularly bulky. Police spokesman Gerardo Campos said prison guards checked the bag and found inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina curled up inside. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST

In three weeks there have been three inmates who escaped from the Huntington Work Release Center. One inmate has been caught, but two are still on the run. HUNTINGTON -- At the Huntington Work Release Center, 50 male inmates and 12 female inmates reside. According to Deputy Commissioner James J. Ielapi of the West Virginia Division of Corrections, these are a low custody classification of inmates who are physically able to work. “It’s a step toward going back to a community to live.” The center, located on Fifth Avenue in Huntington, has supervisors who keep track of inmates. Every morning...

MIAMI (CBS4) – City of Miami Police are desperate to find a mother and her five children after she allegedly beat up a Department of Children & Families case worker coming to take away the kids. Authorities say DCF worker Lovern Alleyne-Babb, along with another co-worker, went to the home on the 400 block of Northwest 6th Street on April 8 with orders to remove the children from the home. Once inside, police say the children’s mother, Caneema Atkins, lunged at Alleyne-Babb punching her in the nose and stomping on her eyeglasses.

Before dawn approximately 475 Taliban fighters escaped from a large prison in Kandahar. The Prisoners opened their cell doors and left the prison through a well prepared tunnel. Like the classic movie “The Great Escape” They managed to escape without being detected. This is not be a Hollywood script but may have been influenced by one. The Tunnel In a well thought-out plan to break out prisoners took 5 months to build a tunnel from a local house to the section of the prisons where the fighters were being held. The 1000 foot tunnel were designed and dug by engineers,...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – More than 400 inmates — many of them Taliban insurgents — escaped from the main prison in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar overnight through an underground tunnel, an official said Monday. The massive jailbreak in Kandahar, the focus of much of the international military effort to defeat the insurgency, is a reminder that the Afghan government is still weak and easily thwarted in the south, despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. The escape comes after years of security upgrades and tightened procedures at the 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison following a brazen 2008 Taliban attack...

MONTESANO, Wash. -- Yesterday, they were installing TVs. Today, two Comcast employees are being featured on them, after their heroics helped capture an escaped jail inmate. "You could see just embarrassment on his face, like, 'Really? I just got caught by a couple of cable guys?' which is fantastic," said Jeff Furth, a field technician for Comcast. "It was a great feeling to help out."

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – A tanker truck loaded with 8,000 gallons of fuel exploded on Friday morning in Oklahoma City when it collided with a car driven by a teenage girl on her way to school, fire officials said. Neither the truck driver nor the teenager were seriously injured, to the surprise of firefighters and police. "Her car was on fire as she was getting out," said Oklahoma City Fire Battalion Chief Brian Stanaland. "Pretty miraculous."

Tony Rezko's former development partner is broke. ### Dan Mahru -- a lawyer who became an ice peddler and real estate developer -- has filed for bankruptcy, declaring that he and his business partners, including Rezko, owe as much as $95 million to creditors. Mahru estimates his personal debts could be as high as $50 million. Mahru and Rezko split a few years ago. But they're still fighting dozens of lawsuits filed over housing developments they built. "I couldn't handle all the multitude of lawsuits involving Mr. Rezko,'' Mahru says. Mahru lists $48,970.61 in assets in the bankruptcy case he...

Fiscal Policy: Anyone who believes high tax rates bring prosperity need only look at New York. Soak-the-rich rates there contribute to a wealth and talent drain the state can't afford. To help their state weather the recession, New York lawmakers in 2009 adopted a surcharge on personal income taxes for those making more than $200,000. Called a "millionaire's tax" even though 76% of those who pay it are not millionaires, the levy lifted the top rate by 31%. It was intended to be temporary. But according to a report by the Partnership for New York City, a group of 200...

Natalie Holloway murder suspect, Joran van der Sloot, has been ominously quiet for quite a while. That's not surprising since he's been languishing in Peru's Miguel Castro Castro prison since June awaiting the completion of the investigation of Stephany Flores's murder. On January 15th however, Van der Sloot suddenly decided to lunge back into the headlines by stabbing a guard and then attempting to hold him hostage in a crazy, and therefore unsuccessful attempt to break out of prison. According to the National Enquirer, Van der Sloot suddenly "freaked out" when guard, Luis Gavancho, brought a tray of food into...

EDGARTOWN, Mass. — President Barack Obama biked and golfed under a brilliant New England sun Friday, yet he couldn't escape the cascade of dour news on the economy as his vacation neared its end. The Commerce Department reported the economy grew at a much slower pace this spring than previously estimated, a mere 1.6 percent. That followed reports earlier in the week on badly slumping home sales and tapering business spending on manufactured items. Obama has conferred with his economic team on the phone while vacationing. And before his latest round of Martha's Vineyard golf Friday, he met for about...

NOWY TARG, Poland – With every step toward the gate, Jerzy Bielecki was certain he would be shot. The day was July 21, 1944. Bielecki was walking in broad daylight down a pathway at Auschwitz, wearing a stolen SS uniform with his Jewish sweetheart Cyla Cybulska by his side. His knees buckling with fear, he tried to keep a stern bearing on the long stretch of gravel to the sentry post. The German guard frowned at his forged pass and eyed the two for a period that seemed like an eternity — then uttered the miraculous words: "Ja, danke" —...

EL PASO, Texas -- U.S. Marshals confirmed to ABC-7 Friday afternoon that a body found in a Sunland Park, N.M. landfill was that of a federal inmate who escaped the El Paso jail earlier in the day. Carlos Roberto Medina-Bailon, 30, of Delicias, Mexico, is believed to have escaped the El Paso County Detention Facility between 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Friday by using the garbage disposal system.

In the end, it was only time from which he could not escape. Jack Harrison, the last of those involved in the 'Great Escape', has passed away, peacefully and quietly, at the age of 97. It has been 66 years since the dark night when he waited with bated breath, preparing to crawl through ‘Harry’ and under the wire of Stalag Luft III. Many years after the war the former RAF pilot, and his brave and resourceful comrades, would be immortalised by the iconic 1963 film - starring Richard Attenborough and Steve McQueen - which remains the staple fare of...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran may escape censure at a meeting of the 189 signatories of a global anti-nuclear arms pact, despite growing concerns that Tehran might be developing atomic weapons, according to a draft declaration. The United States and other countries say Iran is in breach of its obligations under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a landmark arms-control pact that has been the focus of a month-long conference and review wrapping up this week. A draft declaration prepared by conference president Libran Cabactulan of the Philippines fails to mention Iran or its nuclear program, though it names India,...

Check this out - who knew about the utilization of monopoly? I wonder what one of these versions would bring at auction today! This is a very interesting little tidbit I've never heard about before concerning WWII. Read and enjoy just one more example of American/British ingenuity. Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape... Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not...

POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- An inmate made a break for it Tuesday, losing his clothes in the process, authorities said. Bradley Norris was under a detention deputy's watch at the Lake Wales hospital Tuesday when investigators said he attacked her and made a run for it. He lost his hospital gown in the struggle. The be-on-the-lookout call was for a naked man shackled at the ankles. He made it 300 yards before being captured.

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida fugitive Paula Eileen Carroll got an unpleasant birthday surprise this morning when she was arrested by Brevard County Sheriff’s Officers at her home for escaping from the Florida prison system more than three decades ago. Carroll escaped 34 years ago from a Florida prison where she was serving a five year sentence for buying, receiving or concealing stolen property. She was sentenced on July 18, 1975 for the Osceola county offense, and escaped less than two months later, on September 3, 1975. A tipster had contacted Fugitive Coordinator Rita Hall with the Department of Corrections’ Fugitive Unit...

Folks, several weeks to a couple of months ago, someone here on FR posted a link (within a thread) to a short video of North Korean defector Shin Dong-Hyuk. Mr. Shin grew up in a North Korean concentration camp - his parents were prisoners and he was born into the camp.I'm trying to locate that link to the video, but cannot seem to find the thread it was on. All of the other videos I can find of him on-line are too long to use for what I need (presentation). Any help on finding that thread and link is greatly...

WEST SUMMERLAND KEY, Fla. -- Two 17-year-olds fled from a juvenile diversion program at a Florida Keys campground in a stolen fire truck. The teens were arrested and charged with grand theft auto. The truck belonged to the chief of the Big Pine Key Fire Department. Authorities said a Camp Sawyer counselor called the Monroe County Sheriff's Office Monday morning to report that the teens were missing from the site on West Summerland Key. Deputies then learned of the missing fire truck. The boys, who were only wearing underwear, were caught 90 miles away. Monroe County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Becky...

ELIZABETHTOWN — Police quickly ended a Communicare patient’s escape Thursday morning after tracking the man over snow covered trails at Freeman Lake Park and arresting him near Ring Road. Hardin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Greg Lowe said the patient fled the mental health and substance abuse treatment facility after learning he faced jail time for violating rules he was ordered to obey. It was shortly after 11 a.m. when emergency dispatchers flooded the airwaves with reports of Brandon Mullins, 21, running into Freeman Lake Park from Communicare. Lowe said Deputy Bud Baumgardner followed footprints through the park, toward Ring Road,...

The U.S. Marshals Service is hunting for three men who escaped from a detention center in Ullin, Illinois. The Marshals provided no details on how the men were able to escape today from the Tri-County Detention Center. Click to learn more... The men -- all considered armed and dangerous -- were being held on federal charges. They are:

PORT RICHEY — Deputy Matthew Kadel was taking a man to jail the morning of July 19 when he decided to grab some food. It was 9 a.m. and he'd been working since 5. He was hungry and thirsty and had at least a 20-minute drive ahead of him. As Kadel, 45, pulled into the McDonald's drive-through and placed his order, the man in the back seat — Richard Zukoski, 21, arrested on auto burglary and theft charges — used his own handcuff key to free himself. He took off through the parking lot off U.S. 19, just south of...

Link only due to copyright issue

Detectives are hunting a convicted murderer who absconded while out on an escorted shopping trip. Patricia Gillette, 41, escaped at around 3pm on Friday while visiting shops in West Wickham High Street, near Bromley, south east London. Gillette, of Streatham, south London, was being held at the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227788/Dangerous-murderer-escapes-shopping-trip-prison.html#comments#ixzz0WvpECzWW

The head of Eastern State Hospital resigned today in the wake of last week’s Spokane Interstate Fair escape by a criminally insane patient who had been committed in the brutal killing a woman in 1987 in Sunnyside. Phillip A. Paul, 47, walked away from the fair and stayed on the run for three days before being recaptured in a remote wooded area Sunday near Goldendale, Wash. Eastern CEO Hal Wilson announced his resignation on Wednesday, according to officials in the state Department of Social and Health Services, the state agency that oversees mental health services. Wilson has contended the mental...

Police are searching for killer committed to a mental institution after he escaped during a field trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair. Spokane County sheriff's Sgt. Dave Reagan says 57-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul was last seen Thursday morning in the northeast part of the fairgrounds. The sheriff's office told KXLY in Spokane that they were "dismayed" that the Eastern State's Hospital didn't notify authorities for more than an hour and a half after they knew he was missing. "It appears now there was a two hour lapse from the point he disappeared from his attendant to the sheriff's office...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia has escaped, reportedly by killing three of his captors, Somali officials said Wednesday.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia last month was a free man Wednesday and under protection at the presidential palace, officials said. There were conflicting reports over whether the man escaped or was released and whether he had killed three of his captors. The fate of another French security agent kidnapped with him was not immediately clear. Farhan Asanyo, a Somali military officer, told The Associated Press that the man came up to government soldiers early Wednesday, identified himself and said he had escaped after killing three of his captors. -snip-

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. - Police and prison guards aided by search dogs hunted Sunday for two convicted killers and a third man who escaped the maximum-security Indiana State Prison, apparently through underground tunnels and pipes. All three men were considered dangerous, and prison officials used a telephone notification system to send alerts to nearby residents and others. It was not known if any of the men had weapons. Authorities identified the men as Charles Smith, 48, and Mark Booher, 46, both of New Castle, and Lance Battreal, 45, of Rockport. Smith and Booher were convicted of murder in the 1990s....

WALLOPS ISLAND The escape worked beautifully. Forty minutes after sunrise Wednesday, a chubby little rocket left the pad at NASA’s facility here, climbing 7,000 feet into the cool morning air. Less than a minute later, after 16 separate pyrotechnic events, nine parachute deployments and a perfect tailwind, NASA’s newest astronaut escape pod was floating safely down toward the Atlantic off the Eastern Shore. The unpiloted test was conducted in conjunction with NASA’s Constellation Program, which is designing the Orion spacecraft to take humans to the International Space Station by 2015 and to the moon by 2020. NASA already has one...

David Rohde, a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban, escaped Friday night and made his way to freedom after more than seven months of captivity in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Until now, the kidnapping has been kept quiet by The Times and other media organizations out of concern for the men’s safety.

A New York Times reporter known for making investigative trips deep inside dangerous conflict zones escaped from militant captors after more than seven months in captivity by climbing over a wall, the newspaper said Saturday. David S. Rohde was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter colleague and a driver south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He had been traveling through Logar province to interview a Taliban commander, but was apparently intercepted and taken by other militants on the way. The Times reported that Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahi Ludin on Friday climbed over the wall of a compound...

A 17-YEAR-OLD Indonesian model, allegedly held against her will by her husband, a member of the Kelantan royalty in Malaysia, returned home yesterday after a dramatic escape from a hotel in Singapore. Ms Manohara Odelia Pinot said she was being 'escorted' from her room on the 13th floor of Royal Plaza Hotel to another room on a lower floor on Saturday when she managed to escape from her bodyguards. Referring to her bodyguards, she said 'they were going to give me an injection (in the lift), but I resisted'. Instead, she kept pressing the emergency button in the lift on...

MEXICO CITY -- Security camera footage shows that guards at a Mexican prison nonchalantly stood by as 53 dangerous inmates walked out _ and didn't rush into action with their guns drawn until well after their convoy of escape vehicles had disappeared into the inky night. The footage published by Reforma newspaper Thursday provides a rare inside look at lax security inside Mexico's prisons, a problem that makes prosecuting drug smugglers vastly more difficult. Interpol described the worst of the criminals, who escaped without firing a shot, as "a risk to the safety and security of citizens around the world."...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US ship captain being held hostage by pirates off Somalia jumped off the lifeboat where he was being held early Friday but failed to escape his captors, US networks reported. Captain Richard Phillips jumped into the water during the night and tried to swim towards the nearby US destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, but pirates jumped in and recaptured him, three US television networks reported. US military officials told CNN that Phillips was in good condition and that the pirates did not hurt him. The Bainbridge, accompanied by a P-3 Orion surveillance plane, was preventing the pirates...

American Captain Tries Daring Escape from Somali Pirates Both Sides Send Reinforcements to Pirate Standoff The American captain being held hostage by Somali pirates dove into the water during the night in an attempt to escape, but was quickly recaptured, Defense Department officials said today. The daring overnight escape attempt by Capt. Richard Phillips was the Vermont sailor's latest bit of heroics in the four day old drama on the high seas 300 miles from the nearest coastline. Phillips had earlier volunteered to be a hostage after his unarmed men took back their freighter, the Maersk Alabama, from the pirates....

Remember when Bush was elected all the liberals threatened to move to Canada? And never did? They stayed here and now they've got exactly the President and Congress they've always wished for. And the rest of us are getting the shaft. And our children and grandchildren will be paying in every way for this folly unto the last generation. My daughter and her husband have been asking me where they can move to to avoid the inevitable disasters that will ensue from Obama's policies, and I've been hard put to come up with a refuge that doesn't have its own...

"Here you'll be anyone you're not. Here you'll know anyone you won't. Here you'll touch anything you can't. Here you'll see everything you don't." Read more and watch performance here.

ATHENS, Greece – For the second time in their lives, two robbers escaped from a high-security prison Sunday by scaling a rope ladder to a hovering helicopter amid a gun battle with guards. The men remained missing late Sunday night. They had been scheduled to appear before a magistrate Monday about their first escape — from the same prison — three years ago. The shaken government quickly dismissed three Justice Ministry officials, and the prime minister scheduled an emergency meeting of part of his cabinet Monday to discuss the country's prisons.

It was less than a Great Escape. Two New Zealand prisoners who were handcuffed together as they fled a courthouse foiled their own getaway when they ran to opposite sides of a light pole

Yearning For Zion Ranch, Texas » Betty Jane Jessop's favorite phrase: "Good grief!" That's what Betty utters as she reads the new epilogue in her mother's best-selling book, Escape . In those pages, Carolyn Jessop describes her daughter's return to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, calling her brainwashed. "It just makes me want to laugh," said Betty, 19, shaking her head. Besides Carolyn herself, the character in Escape that most intrigues readers is Betty -- the second of Carolyn's eight children with FLDS bishop Merril Jessop. Why, they ask, did Betty return to the sect...

For junior capitalists fleeing the financial meltdown, is the highly leveraged, hotly speculative Middle Eastern insta-metropolis the last, best place on Earth—or a mirage?Business is booming right now! I mean, the place has what, double-digit GDP growth? Like, that’s crazy!” Brooke Butler tucks her silken hair behind her ears, flashes a wide smile, and digs into her dumplings. It’s Pan-Asian night at Entre Nous, the restaurant on the ground floor of Novotel Dubai, and Butler, a 24-year-old Texan with an exuberant demeanor and a slim volleyball player’s build, is taking a pause from a long day schmoozing real-estate executives. She...

(11-12) 13:42 PST San Francisco - -- Two San Jose brothers who survived a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo have filed a long-expected lawsuit against the city, zoo and others, claiming slander and civil rights violations in the aftermath of an incident that drew international attention. [snip]

Melanie Allen has been "scared to death" this week knowing her son was scheduled to begin a risky escape from the country of Georgia, where Russian troops are poised for further invasion. Lee Allen, 34, and his Georgian wife, Tiko, were to have become part of a caravan fleeing the war-torn country. It may be days before Melanie Allen learns if the couple made it out safely. She was at her Ocean Springs home Tuesday night with friends who are supporting her. -----snip On Monday, four days into the fighting as Russia seized several towns and a military base deep...

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - One of Africa's most wanted al Qaeda operatives, sought for his role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, has narrowly escaped capture in Kenya, police said on Sunday. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, high on Washington's list of terrorist suspects, left a home in the Indian Ocean resort of Malindi late on Saturday just minutes before officers crashed through the door, police said. "We sealed off the whole area and had sea and land patrols but unfortunately, Fazul got leakage of the intended raid and escaped," said one senior detective who asked not to...

Refugees shot fleeing North Korea Michael Sheridan in Hunchun, China North Korean guards, newly armed with Russian Dragunov sniper rifles, have shot dead refugees attempting to ford the river that divides their hungry homeland from China, according to human rights campaigners. On the Chinese shore alone, two bodies, marked by several bullet holes, were found by a local activist, said Tim Peters, an American pastor who runs a Christian group supporting the fugitives. The shootings indicate a coordinated change in tactics by North Korea and China to deter refugees from crossing. They want to stamp out bribery among border guards...