Free Republic

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Fierce battles over strategic positions spread Wednesday to central Gaza, with Hamas fighters wresting control of the coastal strip's main north-south road and positioning to cut off reinforcements to beleaguered forces of the rival Fatah faction. In the southern town of Khan Younis, a one-ton bomb in an underground tunnel tore through the headquarters of a security force loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, said Ali Qaisi, a presidential guard spokesman. At least one person was killed and eight were wounded, medics said. Before the blast, Hamas militants demanded officers inside the building come...

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE? --IT'S DEPTH, BREADTH, DIMENSIONS-- Have prayed since Jr High to be able to love like Jesus. That's a pretty hazardous prayer. The training for answers to that prayer is a lot like the training for wisdom, humility and patience. Lots of long dark nights of the soul; refiner's fires; being ground to powder, blown to the 4 winds--recollected--dipped in vinegar and ran through the manure spreader backwards . . . can all be SOP--common events. Here are some questions to get us started prayerfully considering these principles and truths: 1. What is...

Paras kill 21 Taliban in fierce fight among alleyways By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 10/06/2006) The first significant encounter between soldiers of the Parachute Regiment and the Taliban involved close-quarters fighting among alleyways and mud buildings. It was an early indication of the challenges facing British troops recently deployed in southern Afghanistan. Within 10 seconds of disembarking from their Chinook helicopters outside the village of Nauzad, the troops came under heavy fire from insurgents hidden in houses and behind walls. As machinegun bullets and rocket-propelled grenades cut through the air, the Paras ran for cover, returning fire only when...

The Capitol's state-budget dance has begun, and the governor hopes that this year it will be a quick two-step. First, resolve the bonds to face voters in November. Then, flush with new money from a strong economy, approve a 2006-2007 spending plan of perhaps $127 billion. Above all, keep the bonds and budget separate. "That's because the budget bill is a leverage point that the Legislature can use against the governor on the bonds. It gives the Legislature control because of the timing," says Bill Leonard, a Republican and former legislative leader who served in both the Assembly and the...

October 7, 2003 was a bad day for Darius Anderson. A top fundraiser for Gray Davis, Anderson had counted ranking Davis administration officials, including then-deputy chief of staff Susan Kennedy, as friends. He founded his own lobbying firm in 1998, parlaying his connections to the administration into a thriving business. By 2003, Davis' last year in office, Anderson's Platinum Advisors pulled in $3.9 million in lobbying receipts, good for third best in the state. But when Davis was recalled in 2003, Anderson's influence diminished. His shop's lobbying receipts declined by more than $1 million as big name clients like Microsoft,...

A bitter-sounding Sen. John Kerry dismissed the historic Iraqi election on Sunday, warning Americans not to "overhype" the watershed event. "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press." The failed presidential candidate questioned the historic referendum's legitimacy, saying, "It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't vote." Kerry also pooh-poohed reports of a surprisingly high 72 percent turnout by Iraqi voters, insisting instead that the election has "gone as expected." Asked if he thought Iraq was now less of...

Al-Zarqawi Said to Declare 'Fierce War' 13 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - A speaker purporting to be Iraq's most feared terror leader declared a "fierce war" on democracy and said in an audiotape posted Sunday on the Web that the Americans were using next weekend's Iraqi elections to install the Shiites in power. "We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology," said the speaker, who identified himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq. "Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part...

Qalat, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan soldiers were waging a fierce battle with entrenched Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan after a night of heavy U.S. bombing that left many Taliban fighters dead, an Afghan intelligence chief said Friday. The U.S. military said a special operations soldier died in an accidental fall during the fighting, some of the fiercest in recent months. The soldier's name was not immediately released. U.S. warplanes began bombing two suspected Taliban positions in the Chinaran and Larzab mountains of Dai Chupan district in southern Zabul province late Thursday, provincial intelligence chief Khalil Hotak told The Associated Press....