Free Republic

With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years. Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall. The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about...

RIYDAH, June 8 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead an American who worked for a U.S. contracting firm in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday, the fifth assault on Westerners in the world's leading oil exporter in five weeks. The latest killing in the kingdom, battling militants loyal to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, heightened fears among tens of thousands of expatriates, many of whom work in the oil industry. In Washington, a U.S. State Department official confirmed that an American man was killed in Riyadh but said he could not provide details, pending notification of the family. "I...