Free Republic

At Least 13 Killed In Earthquake In Chechnya (RTTNews) - At least 13 people were reported killed Saturday in an earthquake that shook the Caucasus mountain regions in Chechnya. More than 100 people were reported injured in the quake that measured 5.3 on the Richter scale. Tremors were felt as far as Georgia and Armenia. The quake centered about 25 miles east of the Chechen capital Grozny, hit the region around noon local time and lasted about 40 seconds. Though termed as moderate, the quake disrupted power supplies and communications, and inflicted heavy damages to roads and buildings. More than...

A car bomb blast near Russia's peacekeeping headquarters in South Ossetia has left six military personnel killed and four others injured. The explosion took place on Friday near the command post of the Russian peacekeepers in Tskhinvali, the capital of the independence-leaning republic. The car, with some quantities of arms in it, was seized earlier in a nearby village, said South Ossetia's press department, AP reported.

Many people were trapped in rooms of the burning five-star Marriott Hotel in the Pakistan capital after a suicide bomber detonated a large truck loaded with a ton of explosives at the hotel gate, killing at least 60 people and injuring some 200 more. The Marriott, frequented by foreigner and local VIPs and the hotel of choice for American officials, is danger of collapse. The ceiling of the banqueting hall crashed down on 500 guests at the Ramadan evening meal.

Dozens dead in Pakistan hotel blast At least 40 people were killed and 100 wounded in the explosion at the Marriott [AFP] At least 40 people have been killed and 100 others wounded after a truck-bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. Reports said a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the entrance of the hotel. Many foreigners stay in the hotel while visiting Pakistan and it is heavily guarded. The blast resounded through Islamabad. Reuters news agency reported that at least 40 people had been killed. Police sources also said the death toll stood at 40. But there were fears the death toll could rise as many...

(CNN) -- A suicide bomb attack Wednesday outside the gates of the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa killed 10 security staff and civilians and six attackers, an embassy spokesman told CNN. Mohammed al-Basha said the blast, described by witnesses as a "fireball," was caused by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest. A Yemeni security official said there was a gun battle between attackers in police uniform and security staff. The second car exploded after it passed an outermost gate to the Embassy but before it reached a second protective barrier, the official said. Another U.S. Embassy spokesman,...

22 dead, scores injured in New Delhi bomb blasts NEW DELHI (AFP) - Five synchronised bomb blasts ripped through crowded markets across the Indian capital New Delhi on Saturday, killing more than 20 people and wounding at least 90 others. Police said a further four unexploded devices were found and defused, including one at India Gate, one of the country's most iconic monuments and a major tourist attraction in the heart of Delhi. A Muslim militant outfit, Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the bombings, which were all triggered within a 45-minute period. "In the name of Allah, the Indian Mujahideen...

Total Is About Double The Death Toll In Iraq CHICAGO (CBS) ― An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period. In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 123 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1. According to the Defense...

Rural Kanpur is fighting its most frightening scourge — a mystery disease that has left a long line of bodies in its trail and doesn’t seem anywhere finished. What started from one village two weeks ago has now spread to 350 and has so far claimed 160 lives. Thousands more are bed-ridden. On an average, 15 to 20 people have been dying every day; Saturday saw the highest toll in a day: 24. The district’s health department is somewhat confused about the nature of the disease that has struck. At the beginning, the diagnosis was viral fever. Then doctors concluded...

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Iraqi police recruits, killing 28 people and wounding 45, police said. It was the biggest attack for weeks in Iraq, where which has been enjoying some of its lowest levels of violence in four years. It came amid Iraqi efforts to conclude a security deal with the United States that would allow American forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. A police source said the bomber, wearing an explosive vest, struck a large crowd lining up to apply to join the police in the town of...

At least 25 African migrants have died from hunger, thirst and exposure after trying to reach Spain by boat. A cargo ship rescued 25 survivors off the coast of southern Spain's Almeria province. Five women and five children were reportedly among the survivors. A boat patrolling waters between Malaga and Melilla rescued the migrants from a half-submerged boat late on Monday. Every year, tens of thousands of Africans try to enter Spain by boat to find work in Europe. "We can never know the exact number," a Red Cross employee at the port of Malaga said, according to The Associated...

TBILISI, Georgia -- It was evening, and Manana Rodiashvili had just milked her cow. The disputed region of South Ossetia had seen skirmishes in recent days, but her village was calm. And then, suddenly, tanks appeared in her street. "They began shooting all around," said Rodiashvili, 55, an ethnic Georgian. She crouched in her cousin's basement as men speaking Russian entered the house. Then she hid for five days in the countryside. Like many of the tens of thousands who have fled their villages since the war between Georgia and Russia began more than two weeks ago, Rodiashvili doesn't have...

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Twelve people have now died out of 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning linked to deli meats produced at a plant owned by Maple Leaf Foods Inc, Canadian health officials said Monday. There are another 29 suspected cases of listeriosis, officials told reporters, and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the government expected more cases in coming days. Maple Leaf Foods, one of Canada's biggest meat processors, had said it hoped to reopen the Toronto plant associated with the outbreak on Tuesday, but health officials said they will test and hold all meat produced there until they...

A massacre at a drug rehab center last week helped push the number of homicides in the Mexican border city of Juarez to more than 800 this year as rival drug gangs battle for turf. On Wednesday a commando-style group fired a barrage of more than 60 rounds during a religious service at the drug rehab center, killing eight and wounding five. Five other people were killed elsewhere in the city on that day. More than 100 people have been killed so far in August in the war between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels, which broke out in January,...

Islamic separatists kill 28 in Philippines rampage International Herald Tribune, France By Carlos H. Conde MANILA: Islamic separatists attacked several towns and villages Monday in the troubled southern Philippine region of Mindanao, ...http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/18/asia/phils.php

OTTAWA, August 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Critics say that the reasons to avoid using the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, continue to pile up in the form of thousands of instances of severe side effects, including numerous deaths. In response to the mounting evidence that the vaccine may not be safe for widespread use, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is slated to release a study in October that will attempt to determine the validity of these reports. Judicial Watch, a public interest group, has closely monitored Gardasil since it was released by creator Merck in 2006, periodically detailing statistics on the...

Traffic deaths in the United States declined last year, reaching the lowest level in more than a decade, the government reported Thursday. Some 41,059 people were killed in highway crashes, down by more than 1,600 from 2006. It was the fewest number of highway deaths in a year since 1994, when 40,716 people were killed.

OTTAWA (AFP) - Air pollution this year will kill more than 20,000 Canadians, the Canadian Medical Association said Wednesday in a report. The research on the human costs of pollution and pollution-related diseases estimated that around 21,000 people in Canada will die from breathing in toxic substances drifting in the air this year. By 2031, short term exposure to air pollution will claim close to 90,000 lives in Canada, while long-term exposure will kill more than 700,000, the report said...

<p>Deliberate attempts by the Russian government to exaggerate the number of people killed in the South Ossetia conflict are provoking revenge attacks on Georgian villagers in the breakaway republic, a respected human rights group claimed today.</p> <p>Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who is leading a team investigating the humanitarian damage in South Ossetia, told the Guardian that Russian estimates of 2,000 dead in the conflict were "suspicious".</p>

GAZA CITY (AFP) - The bodies of 3 Palestinians have been recovered from a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and the Gaza Strip which collapsed at the weekend, while 6 people are missing, medics said Monday. The tunnel near the Rafah border crossing caved in on Saturday, burying the 9 Palestinians, the medics said. Several Palestinians have died in recent months in the tunnels, which are used to smuggle arms, fuel, and other supplies into the Gaza Strip, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for nearly a year. Israel, which sealed Gaza off from all but vital humanitarian aid...

Tbilisi - Georgian forces have killed several hundred Russian servicemen and shot down at least 18 Russian aircraft, President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Monday.

CARACAS, Venezuela — At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. -snip-

According to early reports, an express train crashed into a collapsed bridge at around 87 mph, sending the locomotive and three passenger carriages careering off the tracks. A Czech Railways spokesman said the EuroCity train derailed after the crash, which took place at Studenka, around 215 miles from the capital, Prague, close to the border with Poland.

At least a dozen people have been killed in a bus crash in Sherman, north of Dallas, this morning. Sherman police say the bus was heading north on Highway 75 when it ran off the highway near Park Aveneue a little before 1 a.m. A police department spokesman says they're investigating a report that the bus blew a tire but that has not been confirmed. The bus was apparently on its way from Houston to Missouri. An unknown number of passengers were hurt, some of them critically, and they've taken to area hospitals.

PRAGUE (AFP) - An express train crashed into a collapsed road bridge in the Czech Republic on Friday killing at least six people and injuring 31, rescue services said. The train was travelling at about 140 kilometers (85 miles) an hour when it hit debris and derailed near Studenka in the northwest of the country, said a Czech railways spokesman. The locomotive and six passenger carriages came off the tracks and were left a mass of twisted metal. There were about 400 people on the train at the time, including a large group heading for a music festival in the...

Close to 150 Hindu worshippers, including scores of children, are confirmed to have died at a temple in northern India in the worst stampede in the country in three years, police said Monday. Tens of thousands of people had thronged the Naina Devi shrine in Himachal Pradesh state to attend week-long religious festivities when the rumour of a landslide triggered panic among devotees on Sunday... The bodies of devotees were strewn along the steep four-kilometre (2.5-mile) path leading up to the temple, located about 150 kilometres from the state capital Shimla, witnesses said late Sunday... In the early 1980s, more...

An ice avalanche has killed at least 11 climbers on Pakistan's K-2 mountain, CNN.com reported Sunday. Mountaineer Fredrick Strang said at a K-2 base camp that the climbers were descending the Himalayan mountain, the second highest peak in the world, when the avalanche destroyed a fixed rope that the group was using to get to the summit. K-2 is 28,250 feet tall -- about 785 feet shorter than the world's highest peak, Mount Everest -- but climbers generally regard K-2 as the more difficult to summit. Roughly 22 climbers were in the group trying to summit K-2 on Friday night,...

GAZA CITY: A tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed, killing at least five Palestinians and wounding 18, Palestinian security and hospital officials said Saturday. The tunnel collapsed late Friday, near the Gaza border town of Rafah. A wide network of tunnels runs under the border and is used to bring supplies into Gaza. Israel says Hamas' rulers use the tunnel to bring in weapons and cash, and has urged Egypt to do more to stop the smuggling.

In all the talk about reparations one significant fact seems to be consistently overlooked. Over a quarter million Union soldiers willingly and freely surrendered their lives in order to free a slave race whom they did not personally know and to whom they were not indebted -- morally or otherwise. It seems to me the blood of these soldiers is reparation enough to atone for the horrible atrocity of slavery. If not, then perhaps we should discuss war reparations for all those Union families who lost their sons (and daughters) to a war to set others free. That's all. I...

This week, a toddler fatally shot himself after finding a gun in his parent's car. According to Jackson, Miss., authorities, the 3-year-old was sitting in the car at a gas station when he found the gun in the front seat and shot himself in the face. Police questioned the boy's parents, but no charges have been filed. But these aren't freak accidents. More than 500 children die annually from accidental gunshots. Some shoot themselves, while others kill friends or siblings after discovering a gun. Here are more scary stats: Americans own 200 million firearms, and 35 percent of homes contain...

A total of 290 Mexicans have died trying to cross the border into the United States in the first half of 2008, according to a lawmaker in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies. (snip)

Sixteen bombs hit India's Ahmedabad, 18 killed AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - At least 16 small bombs exploded in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding 110, a day after another set of blasts in the country's IT hub, officials said. On Friday, eight bombs exploded in quick succession in the southern information technology city of Bangalore, killing at least one person and wounding six others. Saturday's blasts were in Ahmedabad's crowded old city dominated by its Muslim community. One was in a metal tiffin box, used to carry food, another apparently left on...

Some interesting testimony from an FBI interrogator in the trial of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, July 23 — Osama bin Laden’s driver witnessed the al-Qaeda leader being briefed on the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and overheard him express satisfaction that the death toll had exceeded expectations, an FBI interrogator testified Wednesday. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, now held at the U.S. military prison here, had said under questioning six years ago that bin Laden was “happy about the results� of the terrorist strikes because he had expected “only� 1,000 to 1,500 people to...

MORE than 40 members of the Deeper Life Church in and around Umuolighe in Alaoma community near Omoba in Isialangwa South Local Government Area of Abia State died mysteriously at the weekend shortly after a family deliverance prayer session. The incident, which occurred early Saturday morning, came to people’s knowledge on Sunday. Nigerian Tribune gathered that one Mr. Martin Iheukwumere, a zonal coordinator of the Deeper Life Bible Church, had organised the family deliverance in his newly-built house in the community and had invited other church workers and family members. Sources also said since he built the house, he had...

Excerpt - Rescuers who have reached a ferry sunk by a typhoon in the Philippines and carrying more than 700 people say they have recovered only three survivors. The Princess of the Star ran aground after being hit by massive waves caused by typhoon Fengshen. ~ snip ~

A car bomb tore through a market area in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and wounding dozens, officials said, the deadliest such attack in more than three months. The attack occurred just before 6 p.m. as the market in the northwestern Hurriyah neighborhood was packed with shoppers preparing for their evening meals. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is known to use car bombs and suicide attacks. A soft drink vendor who witnessed the blast, Kamil Jassim, said the car that exploded...

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A plane carrying about 200 passengers apparently veered off a runway late Tuesday and burst into flames. It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the plane arriving from Amman, Jordan apparently veered off the runway as it landed in Khartoum and then burst into flames. It was not immediately clear what airline was involved. Ambulances and fire trucks were seen rushing to the scene. Sudan has a poor aviation safety record. In July 2003, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed...

One dead, 8 injured during Macedonia voting 1 June 2008 | 11:04 -> 15:33 | Source: Beta SKOPJE -- An ethnic Albanian is dead after a shootout with police at a polling station in Macedonia, it has been confirmed. The man, identified as Naser Aivazi, 40, opened fire at police officers this morning in the village of Aracinovo near Skopje, Macedonia's MUP says. Naivazi is said to have been a Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) supporter. At least five others were injured during the incident, none of them police officers, spokesman Ivo Kotevski told a news conference in the Macedonian...

Obama says 10K people died in Kansas...

China earthquake death toll rises to 68,977 www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-31 16:06:55 Print Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in China's major earthquake increased by 119 to 68,977 as of Saturday noon, the Information Office of the State Council said. Another 367,854 people were counted as injured and 17,974 listed as missing in the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12. A total of 45.55 million people were affected by quake, of whom 15.15 million were relocated, according to the office. Hospitals had treated 89,818 injured survivors as of Saturday noon, of...

DUJIANGYAN, China — More than 18,000 people have been buried under rubble in one town after China's worst earthquake in three decades, state media reported. The Xinhua news agency reported that 3,629 are confirmed dead with 18,645 buried in the town of Dujiangyan. A day after the powerful 7.9 magnitude quake struck Monday afternoon, state media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county — where the number of casualties was still unknown. But rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a mission to the area due to heavy storms, the official Xinhua News...

Myanmar cyclone death toll will hit 200,000, say British By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon Last Updated: 12:05AM BST 16/05/2008 British officials have said that the number of dead and missing after the Burmese cyclone is expected to rise to more than 200,000. There are more calls for the secret military regime in Burma to allow aid workers into the country, following the deadly cyclone. The Foreign Office said British officials were working on the basis that 217,000 people had died or were unaccounted for. The figure, which a spokesman said was based on new United Nations estimates, is approaching the...

A devastated scene near the Hanuman Mandir after the serial blasts in Jaipur. A series of explosions rocked the walled city on Tuesday evening, killing and injuring several people JAIPUR: Terror struck yet again — this time in Jaipur, at the busiest market, at the busiest hour, aimed with chilling precision to kill, maim, terrify and cleave the country. At last count, the toll was 80 killed, and with over 150 injured, it could go up. (Watch) The first blast took place at 7.20pm on Tuesday in the crowded Johari Bazaar and within 15 minutes seven more blasts occurred in...

Chinese state media say 3,000 to 5,000 people have died in one county in Sichuan province alone from a massive earthquake. The official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that another 10,000 people were believed hurt in Beichuan county after the 7.8-magnitude quake. Nearly 900 students were trapped after their school collapsed about 60 miles from the epicenter. Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Pro-government Sunni Muslim gunmen and militiamen loyal to Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah battled with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the northern city of Tripoli on Monday. The violence, which broke out when Hezbollah gunmen fought pro-government forces in Beirut last week, is the worst since the end of the 1975-90 civil war in 1990. Security sources said six people were wounded when Sunni government supporters in Tripoli's Bab Tebbaneh district exchanged machine gun and grenade fire with Alawite militiamen allied to Hezbollah in the nearby Jebel Mohsen area. The fighting later gave way to the occasional...

A tornado that spun across the Oklahoma-Missouri border killed several people as severe storms raked the nation's heart Saturday, taking at least 11 lives, mangling buildings and trapping people in rubble in the storm-weary region. At least six people were killed as the tornado flattened the northeastern Oklahoma town of Picher before the funnel struck about 15 miles away near Seneca, Mo., and killed at least three, authorities said. The death toll in Oklahoma could climb, said state Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten. The tornado in Picher — a depressed and pollution-scarred mining town that many residents had already fled...

But what's worse this time is that Gore's blundering attempts to blame global warming for Burma's agony distracts attention from the real causes of this catastrophe - despicable causes we may at least hope to do something about. If Cyclone Nargis had struck not Rangoon, but Melbourne or Tokyo, it is unlikely more than a few dozen people, if that, would have died. And that's because we are free, and rich - as free people tend to be with capitalism. Even Bangkok would have survived this far, far easier. But in Burma as many as 100,000 are now feared dead...

Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio 48 minutes ago YANGON, Myanmar - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported. Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said. Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles...

via translation - ALERT - New record of hurricane Nargis Official: more than 15,000 dead RANGOUN - The Burmese authorities have revised upwards the death toll of the devastating cyclone that Nargis was Tuesday to more than 15,000 dead, including about 10,000 in the town of Bogalay (south-west), reported the official media.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Troops fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis on Monday, killing two people in the latest eruption of violence over soaring food prices around the world. Wielding thick sticks and hurling stones that smashed the windshields of several cars and buses, the rioters jammed the narrow streets of the Somali capital, screaming, "Down with those suffocating us!" In Mogadishu, protesters including women and children marched against the refusal of traders to accept old 1,000-shilling notes, blaming them and a growing number of counterfeiters for rising food costs. Within an hour, a reporter for The Associated Press...

REDWOOD, Miss. (AP) - A county sheriff says an explosion at a paper mill has killed two people and left nearly a dozen missing. Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace confirmed the deaths Saturday at the International Paper mill in Redwood. He told WJTV in Jackson that nearly a dozen people are missing and nearly 20 others are injured. The mill employs about 300 people in and around Warren County. The county is west of Jackson.