Free Republic

He is accustomed to being in command — he led a 700-strong rebel unit in Syria's civil war — and he is now keen to help others dealing with exile. "Everyone wants to leave Syria," he said. "My (home) is the most dangerous city in the world. About 70 percent of the city is destroyed ... In Syria, Al Qaeda want me, Daesh (the Islamic State extremist group), the government — I fought them all. I don't care. Some people are afraid. I'm not." As a seasoned fighter, Al Saleh moves fast. He clandestinely crossed Syria's porous border with Turkey,...

Out of Africa, Not Once But Twice Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Out of Africa March 14, 2008 -- Modern humans are known to have left Africa in a wave of migration around 50,000 years ago, but another, smaller group -- possibly a different subspecies -- left the continent 50,000 years earlier, suggests a new study. While all humans today are related to the second "out of Africa" group, it's likely that some populations native to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia retain genetic vestiges of the earlier migrants, according to the paper's author, Michael Schillaci. Schillaci, an...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Skyrocketing housing prices are driving people from San Francisco, Boston and other big cities. Warm weather and more affordable living are behind the rapid growth in midsize cities in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California. Census Bureau figures being released Thursday show no letup in the migration to the South and West, which are home to all 10 of the fastest-growing cities with at least 100,000 people. The Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Ariz., topped the list. The city grew by more than 46,000 people, or 42 percent, to just over 156,000 residents in a little over four years....