Free Republic

Vladimir Putin's fierce rival and critic Alexei Navalny has died, according to the prison service. The Russian opposition leader, who was the most prominent and persistent domestic foe of President Vladimir Putin, had been serving a 19-year sentence on an extremism conviction. He had been incarcerated in central Russia’s Vladimir region, 140 miles east of Moscow. Navalny has been behind bars in Russia since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests.

The 44-year-old activist is well known nationally for his reports on the corruption that has flourished under President Vladimir Putin’s government. His wide support puts the Kremlin in a strategic bind — risking more protests and criticism from the West if it keeps him in custody but apparently unwilling to back down by letting him go free. Protests erupted in dozens of cities [90] across Russia on Saturday to demand the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. Police arrested more than 3,000 people, some of whom took to the streets in temperatures as frigid as...

A poison specialist and former medical resident at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is charged with fatally poisoning his wife, a 32-year-old pharmacist who died days after she went to a hospital in August with stomach distress. Authorities say Connor Bowman, 30, tried to stop the autopsy on his wife, Betty Bowman — arguing she should be cremated immediately and claiming she had a rare illness, which hospital tests did not confirm. The medical examiner's office halted the order for cremation, citing suspicious circumstances, according to a criminal complaint, and an autopsy showed Betty Bowman died from toxic effects of colchicine,...

DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. (WSVN) – A Central Florida woman has been arrested and charged with poisoning a man by allegedly lacing his drinks with Raid roach spray. Deputies from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Wheeler Street in DeLeon Springs around 4:30 a.m., Friday, following reports of a poisoning incident. The victim was found at the scene and later transported to a hospital for medical attention. The victim told law enforcement officials that Veronica Cline, 29, of DeLeon Springs, had returned home after a night of drinking at a local bar and urged him to continue...

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko checked into a hospital near Minsk, according to Belarusian publication Euroradio and watchdog Belarusian Hajun. They reported that Lukashenko's convoy arrived to the hospital at around 7 p.m., during which time access to the clinic was closed off and the roads to it were guarded by armed enforcers. Lukashenko was publicly seen in Moscow celebrating Victory Day with Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States countries, where his apparent physical weakness drew attention. Unlike the other leaders, he had to be driven around the small perimeter where the event took place....

The Colorado dentist charged in his wife’s poisoning death had serious financial trouble — from going bankrupt, to gambling issues to losing big in crypto, according to documents obtained by The Post. James Craig racked up $2 million in personal debt while his dental business was losing about $120,000, according to his Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, which was finalized in July. The money woes got so bad, his practice failed and he was forced to sell it off. All this came as the 45-year-old’s wife, Angela, 43, had three life insurance policies out on her when she died on March...

A man is dead while a woman and a baby were taken to the hospital after a hazmat situation in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Fire Department medics were called to a home in the 4000 block of Teesdale Street around 10:35 a.m. Friday for an unresponsive man in the basement. A white, powdery substance was found on the man and throughout the basement, Outlaw said. At this time, the powder is believed to be fentanyl. A 22-year-old woman and a 6-month-old baby were taken to the hospital for treatment...at one point the woman became unresponsive in the presence...

Anthony Cole, a former Department of Justice (DOJ) official, said on Sunday that former President Trump’s remarks about his possible looming arrest in New York was an attempt to “intimidate local prosecutors” and would “poison” the jury pool. “What I think is happening here is [Trump] trying to, number one, intimidate local prosecutors and number two, I think it also has the effect of poisoning a jury pool,” Cole, who used to head the DOJ’s Department of Public Affairs, said in an interview with Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC.

Iranian authorities announced Tuesday the first arrests linked to a series of mysterious poisonings of schoolgirls across the country. "A number of people have been arrested in five provinces and the relevant agencies are conducting a full investigation," said Iran's deputy Interior Minister, Majid Mirahmadi, on state television.

Parents protest over suspected poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls More at link.

Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls needed hospital treatment on Tuesday after another mysterious poisoning, a news agency reported, the latest in a spate of suspected attacks in the Islamic republic. Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls mainly in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospitalisation. A government official said on Sunday that the attacks were believed to be a deliberate attempt to force the closure of girls' schools. "Today (Tuesday) at noon, a number of students were poisoned at the Khayyam Girls' School in the city...

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.On February 3, a 141-car Norfolk Southern train derailed in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine. About 50 of the rail cars were damaged, including five tank cars carrying toxic and carcinogenic vinyl chloride. Safety crews vented and burned the vinyl chloride. The town was ordered evacuated, ‘Leave Now’: Hundreds of Residents Near Site of East Palestine, Ohio Train Derailment Ordered to Evacuate.To call the official response tepid would give it too much credit.The Biden White House has essentially ignored the issue. Our...

DUNNELLON, Fla. - A Florida man was arrested after detectives say he purposely poisoned pets in his neighborhood using antifreeze. Marion County investigators arrested 36-year-old Jeremy Stromwall on aggravated animal cruelty charges. On Dec. 2, deputies responded to the 20100 block of Southwest 84th Lane in Dunnellon after receiving a report that a cat had possibly been poisoned. The pet owner, John Scharf, told investigators his cat, named "Mr. Cat," began acting sick and was having seizures the previous night. He took Mr. Cat to Dunnellon Animal Hospital for treatment, where it passed away. According to the sheriff's office, further...

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are allies, not rivals. Portraying them as political opponents is yet another twisted mistake in judgment that gives political gamesters something to add to their tactics for dividing America. The Trump versus DeSantis game is aimed at destroying both of these outstanding Americans. Don’t fall for it. And take political commentary that distorts the relation between Trump and DeSantis -- even that from “conservatives” -- with a ton of salt. What Trump did for America before Biden knocked down the vast improvements that Trump ushered in, and what DeSantis did for Florida to make that...

US President Barack Obama was told of the alleged murder of British businessman Neil Heywood before foreign secretary William Hague. The president was briefed about the 41-year-old's suspected poisoning within hours of Chinese police chief Wang Lijun walking into a US consulate to tell officials he was murdered. The decision to inform the President so soon after the killing of a British citizen overseas so soon after it happened was described as 'almost unprecedented'. John Tkacik, who worked for the US state department in China for 20 years told The Sunday Telegraph: 'This was a very high official with extraordinary...

As the mournful notes of the cello brought the four minutes of The Dying Swan to a close at The Hague on January 24, 1931, the audience was in tears. Throughout the performance, there had been no dancer — only a moving spotlight emphasizing the absence of Anna Pavlova, the ballerina the world loved. She had died the day before, of a mysterious lung infection that began almost immediately after her train had left Paris. She'd told doctors she suspected she'd been poisoned. Unable to reach a diagnosis, they treated her symptoms but failed to save her. For Soviet émigrés...

Roman Abramovich, .. has shuttled between Moscow, Lviv and other venues to help negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russian .. Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said. Russian .. developed symptoms that people familiar with the matter blamed on hard-liners in Moscow who they say want to sabotage peace talks Mr. Abramovich, Ukrainian lawmaker Rustem Umerov and another negotiator developed symptoms following the March 3 meeting in Kyiv that included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin...

Brian D. Hill of USWGO news files Petition for Rehearing in Virginia Supreme Court; again argues Actual Innocence as Exception to Default Procedural Denial – Your opinions: @LLinWood @SidneyPowell1by Laurie AzgardBrian D. Hill, formerly of USWGO alternative news who had filed his petition with the highest Court in Virginia, had his petition for appeal refused by the writ panel in the Virginia Supreme Court for his state writ of habeas corpus petition after making his oral argument on Dec. 1, 2020. One day before New Years Eve, Brian had filed a petition for rehearing saying the writ panel had erred...

A Chinese tycoon who died on Christmas Day was poisoned, Shanghai police say. Lin Qi, 39, was the chairman and chief executive of games developer Yoozoo, best known for the Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming strategy game. The Shanghai police statement pointed to one of Mr Lin's colleagues - identified only by his surname Xu - as the main suspect. Mr Lin was believed to have a net worth of around 6.8bn yuan (US$1.3bn, £960m), according to the Hurun China Rich List. Many employees and ex-employees gathered outside Yoozoo's office on Friday to mourn his death. Who was Lin...

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Qi, 39, died yesterday after first arriving at the hospital back on December 17 with symptoms that were attributed to the consumption of poisoned tea. While the Shanghai police did not initially provide much identifying information about the suspect other than their surname and the fact that they worked work Qi at Yoozoo, the South China Morning Post identified the suspect as Yao Xu, another film executive recently tasked with heading up Yoozoo’s Three-Body Universe, the unit within the company responsible for overseeing projects tied to the Three-Body intellectual property.