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STRIPTEASE artists have had an early win in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in their fight for an award to establish basic wages and workplace conditions. Canberra-based union Striptease Artists of Australia (SAA) presented its 47-page log of claims listing more than 300 businesses as respondents at a two-day hearing of the AIRC in Melbourne, beginning yesterday. The union has sought pay rates of up to $310 for three minutes of lap-dancing in skimpy clothing, $360 for a topless dance and $510 for a three-minute nude performance, $1960 for a 15-minute explicit table-top dance and $1100 an hour for a...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2005 – Iraqi and coalition forces have set the conditions for a successful Dec. 15 parliamentary election in Iraq that will be mostly free of violence, U.S. officials said today. The officials also said a broad and representative cross-section of the Iraqi population, including Sunnis, will participate "By and large, with the exception of the al Anbar province, (we) are very confident that there will be a large turnout and little or no violence," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said. Even in Anbar, "we expect better turnout this time than...

Mugabe spurned loan 'in fury over conditions' By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 17/09/2005) President Robert Mugabe rejected South Africa's offer of emergency cash to bail out Zimbabwe's collapsing economy and "humiliated" his officials when they presented him with a draft rescue package, it emerged yesterday. Mr Mugabe was "apoplectic" when he learned of the stringent conditions attached to a loan from South Africa. The conditions are believed to have included Mr Mugabe being required to open talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, repeal a series of repressive laws and implement ambitious economic reforms. A senior western diplomat...

8/18/2005 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- When providing medical care at a remote location, the pace of business and the variety of medical conditions can change quickly. For medical Airmen with the 40th Air Expeditionary Group at this forward-deployed location, it has been a combination of business as usual and urgent issues requiring 12 medical evacuations. “It seems surprising to have that many medevacs since we have a bunch of young, healthy people,” said Capt. (Dr.) Kevin Turneau, a flight doctor. The unrelated cases included appendicitis, heart attacks, a seriously gashed finger and a collapsed lung. Because the medical...

U.S. Democrats demand conditions on Social Security Sat Aug 13,11:46 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On the eve of Social Security's 70th anniversary, Democrats said on Saturday they are ready to move toward revamping the financially troubled retirement program but warned against stripping away benefits to retirees and relying on private accounts for funding. "We have a moral obligation to stand up and protect Social Security for the next 70 years and beyond -- that means stopping privatization and dropping partisan demands for private accounts," said Rep. John Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, in his response to President George W. Bush's...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military plans to ease conditions for some detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — housing them in a renovated section with televisions, stereos and a view of the Caribbean, the detention center's commanding officer said in court papers. For the past several weeks, the military has been renovating Camp Iguana for detainees who are deemed no longer a threat to the United States, Brig Gen. Jay Hood said in an affidavit filed late Tuesday in federal court in Washington. The renovations are scheduled to be finished around Aug. 15, and some of those designated...

BEIJING - North Korea's main envoy said Tuesday his country won't give up its nuclear weapons until an alleged U.S. atomic threat against the communist nation is eliminated, the first public comments from the North after eight days of six-party negotiations. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said "differences in opinions" remained between the North and the United States. "Our decision is to give up nuclear weapons and programs related to nuclear weapons if the United States removes its nuclear threat against us and when trust is built," Kim said outside the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. The North has...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - During a tour of the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists on Saturday, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said the United States has made progress in improving conditions and protecting detainees' rights. The U.S. lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cellblocks and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison for suspected terrorists since criticism of it intensified in the spring. A Senate delegation also was visiting this weekend. "The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few...

You know things aren’t going well for the Democrats when their main fighting issue is what the room temperature is at Guantanamo Bay’s Motel 6. Among the brilliant ideas of the “We Support the Troops” party is to close down the island-resort prison center affectionately referred to as Gitmo. The people most upset about the “torture” are mainly a bunch of leftwing, bed-wetting socialists who have never supported the war in any form or at any stage, but who we are now supposed to take as objective, credible persons. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Idiot) breathlessly announced the extent of the torture...

The latest hysteria alleging American human rights abuses of suspected terrorists comes from Amnesty International, which apparently hopes to turn even the slightest supposed mistreatment of prisoners into a full-scale Abu Ghraib-type scandal. According to the Washington Times, Amnesty International "last week called on foreign governments 'to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating U.S. officials implicated in the development or implementation of interrogation techniques that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' at the U.S. military base known as Gitmo." Furthermore, in a report titled "The State of the World's Human Rights," the organization charged that "the...

[VHFCN] Real news from Iraq Went to an AUSA dinner last night at the Ft. Hood Officers' Club to hear a speech by MG Pete Chiarelli, CG of the 1st Cav Div. He and most of the Div. have just returned from Iraq. Very informative and, surprise, the Mainstream Media (MSM) isn't telling the story. I was not there as a reporter, didn't take notes but I'll make some the points I remember that were interesting, suprising or generally stuff I had not heard before. It was not a speech per se. He just walked and talked, showed some slides...

While this writer was in the research process regarding allegations that Kerry had received a less than honorable discharge from the Navy, which was later changed, others were similarly engaged. Consequently, there are emerging simultaneously a number of allegations to that effect on the Internet; and the writer finds them to be generally true. Although the records Kerry has posted on his official site do not show an earlier discharge; and, incidentally, Kerry has finally admitted that he has not posted all of his records despite earlier claims that all were posted. Kerry publicly admitted during an interview with Tom...

Mississippi ranked 50th for the sixth year in a row. Other states in the bottom five were Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina. For the 14th year running, Alabama has ranked near the bottom in a national survey of "livability" that measures each state's quality of life based on factors such as hazardous waste sites and the rates of crime, bankruptcy and unemployment. Kansas-based Morgan Quitno Press ranked Alabama as the 47th most livable state. The group found New Hampshire the "most livable state." Others in the top ten were Minnesota, Vermont, Iowa, New Jersey, Wyoming, Virginia, Nebraska, Connecticut and South...

Hinckley allowed unsupervised visits 1 hour, 19 minutes ago By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan in a failed assassination attempt more than two decades ago, will be allowed to leave the mental hospital grounds for a series of unsupervised visits with his parents, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Over the objections of the federal government, the Reagan family and the former president's press secretary who was badly wounded in the 1981 attack, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman concluded that Hinckley, 48, no longer posed a danger and that all the medical evidence weighed...

<p>I HAVE been serving in Iraq for over five months now as a soldier in the 2d Battalion of the 503d Airborne Infantry Regiment, otherwise known as the "Rock." We entered the country at midnight on March 26; 1,000 of my fellow soldiers and I parachuted from 10 jumbo jets (known as C17s) onto a cold, muddy field in Bashur in northern Iraq. This parachute operation was the US Army's only combat jump of the war and opened up the northern front. Things have changed tremendously for our battalion since those first cold, wet weeks spent in Bashur. On April 10, our battalion conducted an attack south into the oil rich town of Kirkuk, the city that has since become our home away from home and the focus of our security and development efforts.</p>

BRITISH troops have been flown home from Iraq as casualties of the heat amid claims they are being forced to live in squalid conditions. There are 12,000 UK frontline peacekeeping troops in southern Iraq, and it is said their conditions have not improved markedly since hostilities ended three months ago. Personnel from units within 19 Brigade, which took over from the Desert Rats of the 1st UK Armoured Division in Basra last month, have contacted The Herald to complain about the lack of basic welfare for the soldiers patrolling the streets of Iraq's second city. Concerns include tents with no...

We are heading back to NJ from OK, and p;lan to use Rte 44 tthrough MO, changing over to Rte 64; thence to Rte 79 in WV; to Rte 68,and Rte 81 PA. Anybody know about road conditions, weatrher problems, flooding, etc. in any of these areas ?

I'm Battling Enemy Bugs in the Desert (Nobody has bathed for at least 10 days) Matthew Fisher National Post Friday, March 28, 2003 Overhead, the biggest swarm of Cobra attack helicopters seen so far during the war raced toward the front to soften the Iraqi position. The Marines' 155-mm howitzers also opened up to do the same thing. As dusk fell last night, U.S. spy drones passed overhead on their way to scout positions forward as U.S. forces prepare for their attack on Saddam Hussein's capital. The battle for Baghdad is looming, but it may not begin until next week...

Yes. Restrictions on 'unrestricted access'. Fetters on 'unfettered access'. Iraq fooled Charlie Brown again, but not Bush. Rush reported this at 3:30, referring to an article I've yet to find. Hannity at 3:30 said he 'Almost drove off the road' when he heard Rush's find. There's an article out there somewhere that the 'unlimited inspection' offer is limited, to military bases. Inspections are, in fact, limited only to military bases, which makes them useless.

Iraq has confirmed it will resume all of its Australian wheat imports for 2003 and beyond to normal levels as long as the Howard government promotes diplomatic solutions to the current situation in Iraq. Andrew Lindberg, managing director of AWB Ltd, formerly the Australian Wheat Board, announced the formal agreement between the AWB and the Grain Board of Iraq in Melbourne today. "This outcome will ensure that all current contracts for 2002 can now proceed with confidence," Mr Lindberg said. "The agreement for 2003 is very significant for Australian wheat growers with this trade valued at $800 million per year."...