BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -
Ingrid Betancourt woke up, as always, at 4 a.m., for another numbing day in her seventh year of rebel captivity deep in Colombia’s jungle.
The former presidential candidate listened to news of her mother and daughter over the radio then was told to pack by her guerrilla captors - helicopters were coming.
The sound always filled her with dread, but this time she and 14 other hostages - including three U.S. military contractors held since 2003 - were airlifted to freedom in an audaciously “perfect” operation involving military spies who tricked the rebels into handing over their prize hostages without firing a shot.
The stunning caper involved months of intelligence gathering, dozens of helicopters on standby and a strong dose of deceit: The rebels shoved the captives, their hands bound, onto a white unmarked MI-17 helicopter, believing they were being transferred to another guerrilla camp.
Looking at helicopter’s crew, some wearing Che Guevara shirts, Betancourt reasoned they weren’t aid workers, as she’d expected - but rebels…
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By PABLO GORONDI
Comments by Saudi Arabia’s oil minister suggesting his country had no immediate plans to boost production also lifted prices.
Expectations that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates later Thursday could further weaken the U.S. dollar and drive oil prices even higher, as investors turn to commodities as a hedge against a falling greenback, traders said.
By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $2.28 to a record $145.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On Wednesday, the contract set a new closing record for floor trade at $143.57 - a full $2.60 above the previous close.The latest spike means a barrel of crude has gone up by more than 50 percent since the end of last year, when oil was going for $96 a barrel…
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WorldNetDaily
Diana Palmer, the first vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party, joins her political colleague Joy Johnson, the third vice-chairwoman of the party, and Johnson’s spouse, Joseph Craig, in facing charges.
Palmer, 44, surrendered to police in Durham, N.C., this afternoon and was charged with being an accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon. She’s being held at the Durham County Jail under $95,000 bail.
Additional charges were also filed today against Johnson and Craig…
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WorldNetDaily
“A gun that malfunctions is not a machine gun,” Larry Pratt, executive director of GOA, said. “What the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] has done in the [David] Olofson case has set a precedent that could make any of the millions of Americans that own semi-automatic firearms suddenly the owner [of] an unregistered machine gun at the moment the gun malfunctions.”
Officials with Gun Owners of America told WND they met with Olofson today before he surrendered to federal authorities for his prison term. U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert had imposed the sentence after the gun in question let loose three shots at a firing range.
“It didn’t matter the rifle in question had not been intentionally modified for select fire, or that it did not have an M16 bolt carrier … that it did not show any signs of machining or drilling, or that that model had even been recalled a few years back,” said a commentary in Guns Magazine on the case against Olofson, of Berlin, Wis…
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ABC News
Since deserting his unit in Iraq and fleeing to Canada two years ago, Corey Glass has become the poster boy of the war resisters movement. Thursday in Toronto, supporters are planning to protest his scheduled deportation back to the United States.
But it turns out Glass has had little reason to be on the lam, ABC News has learned.
Unknown to him and his legion of supporters, Glass, 25, was actually discharged from the U.S. Army shortly after he went AWOL in 2006.
Glass and about 40 other American deserters who, like him, sought refugee status have prompted a national debate in Canada that last month reached the floor of parliament on where to draw the line between cowardice and conscience.
“I had absolutely no idea that I had been discharged,” said Glass when ABC News informed him of his status. “This is insane. This is so weird. There are no warrants? No one is looking for me?”…
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LiveScience
New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade.
Hidden 2.5 miles (4,000 meters) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes are up to a mile (2,000 meters) in diameter and a few hundred yards tall.
They formed along the Gakkel Ridge, a lengthy crack in the ocean crust where two rocky plates are spreading apart, pulling new melted rock to the surface…
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WorldNetDaily
“I can confirm Rev. Graham did indeed ask Obama about his personal faith. Because it was a private meeting, it is up to Obama if he wants to release any more information,” Graham’s spokesman, Jeremy Blume, told WND.
Obama’s meeting with about 30 Christian leaders took place at a downtown Chicago law office. According to The Nation’s Max Blumenthal, quoting sources inside the meeting, Graham, who serves as chief of the Christian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, sat next to Obama…
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WorldNetDaily
“The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain,” Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum, told the group, according to the bulletin.
“Our shared conservative evangelical values and our concern about judicial activism compelled us to unite around the presidential candidate who most closely aligns with us,” Staver said. “That candidate is obviously Sen. John McCain. United we will move forward to advance our values in the short- and long-term. We are committed to a transgenerational, multiethnic and multiracial conservative movement.”…
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WorldNetDaily
“This is so loaded. It’s written in an open-ended fashion that anybody can take just about any part of it and grow it into a huge monstrosity,” state Rep. Kevin Lundberg told WND today. “It was written with intentional [vagueness].”
He spoke with WND after a news conference at which a number of groups and organizations announced plans to challenge the law. Among those promising to dispute the new limitations on speech and actions was Liberty Counsel, which is reviewing the situation now in preparation for a legal challenge.
“Section 8 of Senate Bill 200 is a wide open door for any judge to censor anything that condemns homosexuality, including Scripture,” Lundberg said at the news conference. Section 8 is headlined, “Publishing of discriminative matter forbidden.”…
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FoxNews
Some Houston residents are upset after Korans were left on the doorsteps of hundreds of homes in their neighborhood as part of a campaign to educate people about Islam.
Residents of Braes Timbers in southwest Houston began finding the holy books two weeks ago, MyFOXHouston.com reported. The Korans came with a note saying they had been left by the Book of Signs Foundation, which claims to have distributed 30,000 free copies of the texts to residents throughout the city.
“If we went into a Muslim country and left a Bible, we would be in prison and then decapitated a few years later,” Sue Ann Pieri, a resident who chose not to destroy the book, as other neighbors did, told MyFOXHouston.com.
The foundation, which left the books on doormats or hanging from doorknobs, said in a note accompanying the Koran that “rather than judging Islam and Muslims by the actions of a few, we want our fellow citizens to judge us by the book that influences and guides the lives of over 1 billion Muslims.”…
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Boston Herald
You could say Mary Trainor was bowled over, flush with excitement.
Twelve years after her late mother thought she’d lost her wedding rings down her toilet, one of the home’s new owners last week miraculously discovered the beloved bling. And the young hero - just 10 years old - tracked her down.
“I was thrilled to get them back. I can’t even wrap my head around the situation. It is truly unbelievable,” said Trainor, of Chatham. “My brother and I had searched the toilet high and low for those rings, but couldn’t find them. To have the rings back is amazing.”
The discovery of the rings in her family’s former Chatham home was providential…
King James Version
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
New International Version
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Eyeblast.tv -
London Sunday Times
Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week.
The movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a large-scale exercise earlier this month in which the Israeli air force flew en masse over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel believes Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons.
The sources said Iran was preparing to retaliate for any onslaught by firing missiles at Dimona, where Israel’s own nuclear weapons are believed to be made…
