Free Republic

EXCLUSIVE: THE shooter who killed at least 10 people at a US college has been identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer, who appeared to have bought Nazi paraphernalia online and supported the IRA. In disturbing images posted online, Harper-Mercer posed with guns and shared pro-IRA newspaper front pages, an Express.co.uk investigation has found. He also posted a three-minute video on the social networking site MySpace featuring IRA fighters branding guns and wearing balaclavas. On his dating profile on the website Spiritual Passions, he wrote that he "doesn't like organised religion". His username on the dating site was ironcross45 – a possible...

Among those enthralled last week by NASA's landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars was President Barack Obama, apparently. To show his support, President Obama will call members of the mission control team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., today (Aug. 13) at 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT). Scientists at JPL designed and built the car-size Curiosity, and will direct its two-year mission on the Red Planet.

The Democrats’ upset victory in a special House election this week has stimulated hopes the party can retake the chamber and triggered speculation about what kind of role Pelosi will play in the 2012 elections. During a press conference on Thursday, a beaming and re-energized Pelosi said, “We had a spectacular election in New York-26.” Pelosi was frequently cited as one of the most powerful Speakers until the historic GOP wave of 2010 stripped her of her gavel. As she withdrew from the media’s eye, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) political stock rose.

MORAGA — The much-anticipated speech Wednesday by militant-turned-college-professor Bill Ayers at Saint Mary's College attracted nearly 600 people, many of them very clearly in diametrically opposite political camps. That figure does not count the roughly 200 people who loudly protested Ayers' appearance outside the packed Soda Center auditorium in an unparalleled level of interest in an academic lecture at this rural, private Catholic college. Inside, Ayers' 90-minute presentation drew jeers, boos and an emotional outburst from a woman who swore at him and left. He also received plenty of laughs and claps and even a few standing ovations from the...

Sometime in mid-December, as the winter winds howled across the snow-dusted hills of Pakistan's inhospitable border regions, 40 men representing Taliban groups all across Pakistan's northwest frontier came together to unify under a single banner and to choose a leader. The banner was Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, with a fighting force estimated at up to 40,000. And the leader was Baitullah Mehsud, the man Pakistan accuses of murdering former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The move is an attempt to present a united front against the Pakistani army, which has been fighting insurgents along the border with...

Bill Clinton's new brief was to make the case for his wife Hillary as a woman of action and experience "who gets things done". But he could not stop himself drifting back to his years in the White House and the glory days of his 1992 campaign. The more he talks, the greater the danger is that he harms Mrs Clinton's chances by focusing on the past when voters are looking for change and highlighting his star power compared to her own plodding style. Seven years after he handed over the presidency to George W. Bush, Mr Clinton can still...

ROME -- President Bush, determined not to upstage the funeral of Pope John Paul II, kept an unusually low profile in Rome yesterday, although former President Bill Clinton gave a television interview watched by millions. "He recognizes the significance of the moment," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said of Mr. Bush. "And the focus rightly should be on the Holy Father." Mr. Bush became the first president in years to conduct a full day's schedule on foreign soil without allowing a single press question, photograph or even fleeting image on videotape. His father, the first President Bush, also refrained from...

<p>The armored black limousine glides to a stop near a U.S. military jet at Andrews Air Force Base early one morning in May 2002. Laura Bush is about to embark on her first solo trip as first lady, a 10-day visit to three European nations, where she will speak out for Afghan women's rights.</p>

THE Taoiseach agreed yesterday to give Bill Clinton up to €110m to fight AIDS and HIV in Africa.According to the former US President, it will make Ireland the world's third largest buyer of drugs for the treatment of AIDS.The Government yesterday became the first in the world to back the aid organisation set up by Mr Clinton the William J Clinton Presidential Foundation to provide anti-retroviral drugs to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.Under the agreement, the Taoiseach immediately committed to giving the foundation €50m over five years with the possibility of an additional allocation up to €60m.This year the Government is...