Free Republic

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations said that an armed group captured 43 UN peacekeepers on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights on Thursday and that it was doing everything to secure their release. An additional 81 peacekeepers were "currently being restricted to their positions in the vicinity of Ar Ruwayhinah and Burayqah," it added. Israel closed off the area around Quneitra on Wednesday after an officer was wounded by stray fire as Syrian rebels, including fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra front, stormed the crossing. No details were released on the nationalities of the detained...

(Reuters) - The Israeli navy seized a ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday that was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied rockets made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip, the military said. The disclosure came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States to press his case for tougher international action against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and support for Islamist guerrilla groups. The Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel Klos C was boarded in international waters without resistance from its 17-strong crew in a "complex, covert operation", military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told...

Osama bin Laden´s son-in-law has been captured and is in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, two administration officials said on Thursday. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, was captured within the last week in Jordan, according to a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York. The lawmaker had been told of the capture by law enforcement officials. Congress was notified when Ghaith was taken into U.S. custody, the officials said.

A crack IDF team, along with several police units, has discovered and confiscated a cache of illegal weapons. The weapons were discovered in a sheep pen in the Bedouin village of Hura in the Negev. A number of residents of the town were taken into custody. The weapons were found in several sacks hidden inside the pen. Among the weapons were M-16 rifles and dozens of cartridges for them. Other weapons were found as well. The owner of the pen said that he had no idea that the weapons were there, nor did he know how they got there. He...

Spain to send military planes to Florida to collect a half of a billion dollars worth of treasure 17 tons of treasure that U.S. undersea explorers found could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history, experts speculate. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, February 20, 2012, 6:12 PM Spain said Monday it will soon send hulking military transport planes to Florida to retrieve 17 tons of treasure that U.S. undersea explorers found but ultimately lost in American courts, a find experts have speculated could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history.

Ireland's minister of finance, Michael Noonan, has outlined plans for a new tax on private pensions in Ireland. The new tax on private pensions will be 0.6%, and last for four years. Earlier: This was just tweeted by Ireland's RTE News: BREAKING: The Government is to impose a 0.6% levy on private pension funds for the next four years to fund its #jobsinitiative #dail Doubt this will go over well. More details to come...

The news of Hungary effectively seizing private pension fund assets to pay for the debt obligations of the state last week should come as yet another reminder of the urgent need to get tax-sheltered retirement savings away from the clutches of the state before it's too late. Hungary is just the latest country to decide that it's citizens retirement savings are the property of the state. The last major country to use similar tactics was Argentina who confiscated about $3.2 billion of pension savings in 2001 before the country stopped servicing its debt and then nationalized the $24 billion industry...

Alarms are ringing loud in the business sector. According to the Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria), 234 companies have been expropriated so far this year. "The private sector is seriously deteriorated, public policies implemented in the last few years have been steadily destroying jobs," said Carlos Larrazábal, president of Conindustria. The data do not include government's seizures in the agricultural sector. However, these figures confirm the intensification of the expropriation policy in the past two years.

Customs officers intercepted 12 alleged drug smugglers in a 24-hour period at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings and seized 763 pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine worth an estimated $1.16 million, authorities said Friday. The spate of arrests took place between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m Friday. In three cases, authorities said the alleged smugglers were U.S. citizens who tried to walk across the San Ysidro border crossing with marijuana strapped to their bodies. About 7 a.m. Thursday, customs officers working with a drug-sniffing dog arrested a 19-year-old man -- a U.S. citizen who lives in...

Google search the title to get to story. I'm not sure I can even post the link here [whack] This is a new story, not the same suspicious bonds from June of this year which showed up in Italy with Japanese travelers.

The City Council is considering a program to let the Police Department sell confiscated guns to licensed dealers. Sales could net $10,000 a year. Reporting from Colorado Springs, Colo. - This conservative city is taking an unusual, some might say extreme, step to try to stem its fiscal woes: It's entering the gun business.

Seized Iranian Rockets01:47

SAN DIEGO – More than 5,000 birds were seized and 50 people were arrested in what's being called the largest cockfighting raid in U.S. history, authorities announced Monday. Several law enforcement agencies took part in a raid that was carried out in several locations Saturday in South County, said San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. The largest of the raids was at a seven-acre compound in Otay Mesa near the border, where 4,400 birds including roosters, hens and chicks were found. “For years this particular site has been a bird factory – raising and training hundreds of roosters for illegal...

BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces seized 200 explosive belts along the Syrian border Wednesday, a police spokesman said, reinforcing Baghdad's claims that its western neighbor isn't doing enough to stop the flow of fighters and weapons to al-Qaida in Iraq. The belts were found during a search of a truck that had crossed into Iraq from Syria at the Waleed border station, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. "When the truck was searched, 200 explosives belts were found in it," the general said. He said the driver was detained but he would not give his name or nationality....

Britons seized while trying to flee Somalia By Bonnie Malkin and agencies Last Updated: 2:30pm GMT 02/02/2007 Four Britons are being held by the authorities in Kenya after being arrested apparently fleeing from war-torn Somalia, the Foreign Office has said. Police officials in Kenya said they were among several foreigners detained on the country's border with the east African state. Somalia is in the grip of a violent power struggle between Islamic extremists and government forces, who are backed by Ethiopian troops. Last month, there were reports that Britons had been fighting alongside the Islamic forces with some killed, injured...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2007 – U.S. soldiers assisted in the removal of a makeshift bomb near Baghdad after Iraqi police seized the devise along with a weapons cache during a raid on Jan. 13, U.S. military officials reported. The weapons cache included 60mm mortars, 81mm mortars, a 60mm mortar launcher, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and nine rockets, explosive formed charges, a 120mm artillery round, 107mm rockets, blasting caps and timers, officials said. Also on Jan. 13, a ceremony was held in recognition of Ramadi Iraqi police graduates. A total of 58 Iraqi police officers graduated from their weeklong advanced training...

Cocaine seized, 4 arrested in bustBy Sonja Elmquist Staff Writer Sheriff Sam Page (left) displays weapons and cocaine that were seized. WENTWORTH -- Four illegal immigrants were arrested Tuesday in western Rockingham County and charged with trafficking nearly 18 pounds of powder cocaine valued at $800,000. Deputies seized the drugs, automatic weapons and two vehicles. Sheriff Sam Page said Thursday that he didn't know if the drugs were destined for Rockingham County or if the alleged traffickers were just passing through. Either way, Page said, it was a danger. "When you have 171/2 or 18 pounds of cocaine going through...

Justice seeks end to delays in review of documents seized in raid WASHINGTON The Justice Department today opposed further delays in the bribery investigation of Representative William Jefferson, saying the agency should be allowed to review documents seized in a search of the congressman's office. On Monday, Chief U-S District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected requests from Jefferson and fellow lawmakers seeking the return of the material from the May raid on Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now seeking to delay the judge's ruling while he appeals. Hogan dismissed arguments by Jefferson and a bipartisan group of House leaders that the...

THIS five-foot martial arts sword capable of beheading a man was recovered by shocked cops in a house raid. The terrifying Batleth weapon is identical to one wielded by Klingon aliens in the Star Trek sci-fi films. Officers seized the three-handled sword — which has huge pointed blades at either end — at a home in Gloucester. It was shown yesterday at the start of a five-week national knife amnesty. Cops hope 30,000 blades will be handed in, with owners free from prosecution. Local Insp Mac McGarry wielded the sword, which he said had been sharpened to kill. He said:...

JABOURI PENINSULA, Iraq, April 16, 2006 – Operation Cowpens concluded maneuvers here April 14 after nearly a month of discovering caches and hampering insurgent efforts in the area. The joint operation included the 1-8 Combined Arms Battalion as well as two units of the Iraqi army's 4th Division: 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade and 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade. "The people saw that their people were there," said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel Dailey, command sergeant major, 1-8 CAB, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers. "I don't think it could have been done...