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DALLAS -- Gunfire rang out on Sunday night, just two floors below Chris Bethel's hotel room in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. "I could just hear the gun shots, continuously. Just full automatic," Bethel told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth. "There was explosions going off. It was like a bomb just went off man. And then there were more gun shots."The Fort Worth resident was attending an IT conference in Las Vegas when the shooting unfolded. An Iraq War veteran, Bethel told the station he immediately recognized the sound as gunfire.Now, police are crediting the Haltom High School graduate with helping lead them...

Since it first began orbiting Mars in 2006, the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), a powerful camera attached to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has captured some 50,000 images of the planet. Its photographs have given scientists unprecedented access to Mars’s canyons, craters, mountains and sand dunes – the most detailed looks at the topography of another planet to date. In making A Fictive Flight Above Real Mars, the Finnish filmmaker Jan Fröjdman transformed stereoscopic anaglyphs taken by HiRISE into coloured, seemingly three-dimensional moving images, giving viewers something resembling the experience of a leisurely flight above our neighbouring planet. While often...

New York - Oil prices surged in electronic trading Monday after coalition forces launched an attack on Libyan military targets over the weekend. The benchmark U.S. contract, West Texas Intermediate, gained as much as $2.28 to top $103 a barrel for April delivery. It later dropped back to settle $1.26 higher at $102.33 a barrel. (Snip) "There's significant upside risk to the oil market," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst with PFG Best. "Lets face it, the situation in Libya is still in flux. And the entire region is in flux as well."

The Air Force will train more pilots to fly unmanned aerial systems from ground operations centers this year than pilots to fly fighter or bomber aircraft, Gen. Stephen R. Lorenz, the commander of Air Education and Training Command, told an audience Friday. Lorentz's remark illustrates the major transformation occurring within that service. In a Pentagon session last month, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Will Fraser told reporters that the unmanned systems are "delivering game-changing capabilities today, and ones that I'm confident will continue to be invaluable in the future."

Nobody is above the law, says Hamas after rival groups clash By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 03/04/2006) Hamas yesterday faced its toughest internal challenge since being swept unexpectedly to power in the Palestinian territories when rival militant groups in Gaza took part in a series of clashes that left four dead and dozens wounded. Clashes were sparked by the murder of Abu Yussef al-Gouga Said Siam, the newly appointed Hamas interior minister, appealed for calm and warned that his government would clamp down heavily on armed groups who used their weapons against each other rather than in the struggle...

AL ASAD AIRFIELD, Iraq (Feb. 9, 2006) -- By the time Lance Cpl. Blake Rowe was born in 1983, the aircraft on which he today so carefully labors had already been flying for nearly two decades, and shows no sign of touching the ground. Like the Colt .45 pistol (introduced in 1911) and the M-2 .50-caliber machine gun (around since 1919), the venerable CH-46E Sea Knight medium lift assault helicopter has become one of those tools of war whose dependability and utility has ensured its lifespan exceeds the careers of those who use it. Used primarily in the assault support...

  U.S. Army Sgt. Jeremy Keenan, a Troy, N.Y. native, rolls the "Shadow" out of the hangar to its flightline at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, Iraq. Keenan serves with A Company, 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Division. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Wojciechowski Unmanned Shadow Watches From Above By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark Wojciechowski / 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAQUBAH, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2006 – Troops on the ground in Iraq face many risks - the insurgents and anti-Iraqi forces are devious when it comes to placing improvised explosive devices and hiding weapons caches....

AL ASAD, Iraq (Jan. 6, 2006) -- There are many ways to avoid obstacles. You can go through them, under them or around them. Air Delivery Platoon, Combat Logistics Battalion 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward) soars above them. The platoon has air dropped 335,030 pounds of supplies, keeping 30 logistical vehicle systems and 60 Marines off the roads, as of Jan. 2, 2005, said Master Sgt. Sirisak Longnecker, the platoon’s officer in charge. The Marines, many of whom wear gold jump wings on their uniform, are responsible for palletizing, packing and loading supplies for air delivery. “We can drop...

When it comes to the law of unintended consequences, the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance "reform" is rapidly becoming a legal phenomenon. The latest example comes courtesy of the Federal Election Commission, where officials are being asked to extend the law to the very people it is supposed to empower: individual citizens. snip The problem facing the FEC is that McCain-Feingold broadly restricts coordination with, and contributions to, political candidates. So what is the agency to do with all those people who use their Web sites to praise a candidate? Computers and Web access cost money, which could be construed as a financial...

Threat of Hunger, Disease Looms As Reeling Nations Appeal for Aid COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Dec. 28 -- Devastated coastal areas across South Asia struggled Tuesday to prevent hunger and outbreaks of disease as dazed survivors searched desperately for the missing two days after a tsunami surged across the region. The death toll rose to more than 51,000 people, a large percentage of them on this island nation in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lankan officials said Tuesday that the freakish, earthquake-driven waves had killed more than 18,700 people here, a dramatic increase from earlier calculations. They said many more were...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

I am a Naval Aviator. I was born and raised in a small town in New England. I come from a family of five. I was raised in a middle class home and taught my values by my mother and father. My dad worked a series of jobs in finance and my mom took care of us kids. We were not an overly religious family but attended church most Sundays. It was a nice small Episcopal Church. I have a brother and sister and I am the youngest in my family. I was the first in many generations to attend...

The lead cop in the Pussy Palace lesbian bathhouse raid admitted yesterday he was told by senior Toronto Police officers, including Chief Julian Fantino, that he was a "lightning rod" who was "hated and feared" in the city's gay community. But Det. Dave Wilson denied a suggestion he has a personal issue with gay sex practices, saying "what I have a problem with is (illegal) activity going on in a public area." And Wilson further denied he thought it was immoral for the women to be topless inside the club. "Being semi-nude wasn't illegal. If it was criminal it would...