Free Republic

Syrian Authorities Break Up Rare Protest Monday March 8, 2004 11:46 PM By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press Writer DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - In a capital awash with Syrian flags, posters supporting President Bashar Assad and pamphlets declaring his party's achievements on its 41st anniversary, a paper banner raised Monday urging freedom for political prisoners did not fit in. Syrian authorities quickly tore it up, broke up the rare demonstration and arrested the small group of activists - who knew that was the most likely outcome of their call for change. A U.S. diplomat observing the demonstration was also briefly detained,...

Their boss insists that they're not trying to act like jerks. It's just that the border patrol agents who descended on Portland last weekend are new to Maine and, this being the dead of winter and all, they apparently can't help themselves."A lot of our agents are just off the southern (U.S.) border and there's a different atmosphere down there," said Monte J. Bennett, assistant chief patrol agent for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Houlton. "There are a lot more numbers down there. Things are more aggressive."In other words, if you're an immigrant in Maine these...

Lebanese Authorities Seize Iraq Currency Saturday January 17, 2004 3:46 AM BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanese authorities have confiscated billions of new Iraqi dinars from aboard a private plane that came from Baghdad. Officials said that 19.5 billion dinars, worth about $15 million, were confiscated aboard the Lebanese-owned Magic Carpet plane late Wednesday. The officials said Thursday that the notes might have been brought to Lebanon to try to trade at money exchange companies. Lebanon's Financial Prosecutor's office detained three Lebanese businessmen who were aboard the plane for questioning. The confiscation of the new money came as Iraq's old bank...

<p>ST. LOUIS (AP) - Only a month since the rollout of retooled $20 bills meant to thwart counterfeiters, authorities say a Missouri woman has joined a growing list of people trying to cash in with knockoffs of the colorized currency.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Suicide has been discounted as a possibility in the death of an actress found dead at the home of music producer Phil Spector, authorities said Wednesday.</p> <p>Spector's attorney, Robert Shapiro, did not immediately return a phone call today seeking comment.</p>

DETROIT (AP) - A tip to New York police from a man who said his ex-brother-in-law was a terrorist linked to al-Qaida and "was getting ready to bomb you guys" has triggered the arrest of a Yemeni man in Michigan. Agents who raided the home of Mohamed Nasser Alajji found a number of anti-American tapes and documents, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. State police and federal agents arrested the 31-year-old Detroit resident Thursday near Springfield, a Battle Creek-area community about 120 miles west of Detroit. Alajji appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday on charges of possessing two social...

PMW has documented in the past the Palestinian Authority’s [PA’s] tactic of encouraging children to seek heroic Shahada - death for Allah, and then using the numbers of dead children in their PR war against Israel. A PMW bulletin last week week noted the PA’s recent attempts to brings crowds of violent demonstrators into the streets, in an attempt to change the image of the terrorist war to that of a popular uprising. Now the PA has combined the two tactics, once again encouraging children to die as part of the “popular uprising”, as they have renewed the broadcasting of...

<p>About 2,000 convicted sex offenders in Maine did not register with authorities by this week's deadline, police said.</p> <p>The number of crimes covered by the state's registration law was expanded by the state Legislature in 1999 and 2000. The changes, which took effect last September, also made the law retroactive to 1992.</p>