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BAGHDAD (Army News Service, March 10, 2006) – Residents of eastern Baghdad were given a first-hand opportunity to share their viewpoints with the commanding general and command sergeant major of Multinational Division – Baghdad March 1. Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, commanding general, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, and Command Sgt. Maj. Ronald Riling, went on a tour to get a close-up view of the quality of life and essential services in the neighborhoods in the capital city of the emerging democracy. They also met with Iraqi army and 4th Brigade Combat Team leaders during on-site discussions in the brigade’s sector, including...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 5, 2006 – Engineers from Task Force Pacemaker recently completed the construction of a 66-kilometer major logistical road linking the towns of Shinkay and Qalat in eastern Afghanistan. Soldiers from Charlie Company, 864th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy), Task Force Pacemaker, from Fort Richardson, Alaska, began construction of the road Oct. 20 at Forward Operating Base Sweeny near Shinkay, 20 kilometers from the border with Pakistan. They worked their way west through Daub Pass, a mountain trail renowned for its steep terrain, hairpin turns, inclement weather and lethal enemy threat. "The earth-moving engineers used dozers, scrapers and 20-ton...

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Former President Clinton praised former members of the Soviet bloc in the Baltic states and eastern Europe for moving to democracy, but said "we're going through a critical period" on the future of Kosovo. The Serbian province populated by ethnic Albanians and Serbs has been run by the United Nations since NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia, later renamed Serbia-Montenegro. Kosovo wants full independence; Serbia refuses to give it. As president, Clinton ordered the bombing of Serbian targets to force former President Slobodan Milosevic to end a crackdown on armed ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. Clinton...

Eastern Zhou grave pit unearthed in Luoyang www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-26 13:51:52Two worker clear up the relics in the newly unearthed pit. [newsphoto] The horse-and-vehicle pit excavated in this cultural relics discovery [newsphoto] Archaeologists and workers excavate cultural relics from an Eastern Zhou Dynasty grave that was found in Luoyang of Central China's Henan Province on October 25, 2005. Bronzeware, jade, and horse pit unearthed from the burial site are in good shape, which is peculiar in this ancient city of Luoyang, as usually 90 percent of the graves are empty upon discovery. [newsphoto]According to the experts, it is a a scholar-bureaucrat's...

ALSTEAD, N.H. - Prolonged, heavy rain caused flooding from North Carolina to New Hampshire over the weekend, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, knocking out electricity, weakening dams and making roads impassable. At least four people died, including two people killed in New Hampshire when a car apparently drove off a washed-out bridge into flood waters, officials said Sunday. A fifth person was missing and feared dead. Gov. John Lynch returned from Europe to take charge of relief efforts in New Hampshire. He declared a state of emergency and called in 500 National Guard members for assistance. "This is the...

THREE radioactive rockets capable of contaminating a city centre were offered for sale last week to a Sunday Times reporter posing as a middleman for Islamic terrorists. The Alazan rockets, which have a range of eight miles, were among 50,000 tons of weapons left behind at an arms dump in the breakaway eastern European republic of Transdniester when the Russian army withdrew after the cold war. They were offered to the reporter for $500,000 (£263,000) after he approached a senior officer in Transdniester’s secret police, claiming to represent a militant group in Algeria. The officer contacted a local arms dealer...

Former colonial power Britain is one of the biggest donors among nations that contributed almost $850 million to government coffers in 2003-2004, about 48 percent of Uganda's budget. Since 1987, rich nations have bankrolled Uganda's economic recovery, which has been based on stability, market liberalisation and improved security in a country haunted by bloody memories of the late Idi Amin's dictatorship. Uganda's economy has grown by about 6 percent a year for more than a decade. British budget support is linked to reforms, officials say, including setting up rules for multiparty competition and separating state organs from Museveni's "no-party" Movement...

On Great Friday the Church remembers the ineffable mystery of Christ's death. Death -tormenting, indiscriminate, universal - casts its cruel shadow over all creation. It is the silent companion of life. It is present in everything, ready to stifle and impose limits upon all things. The fear of death causes anguish and despair. It shackles us to the appearances of life and makes rebellion and sin erupt in us (Heb 2.14-15). The Scriptures assure us that "God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living, for He created all things that they might...

"We don't know if that's going to affect (relations) with the Russian Orthodox church. The future will show," Interfax new agency quoted Patriarch Alexy II as saying. Metropolitan Kirill, a senior official in the Russian Orthodox church, attended the meeting with Benedict on Alexy's behalf. Alexy ruled out the possibility of inviting Benedict to Russia in the near future, calling on the new pope to address the proselytizing of Orthodox followers by Catholic missionaries that he alleges went on during John Paul's reign. These accusations led Alexy to block John Paul from visiting Russia in 2004, ending the late pontiff's...

Divine Liturgy in the Maronite Rite. Principal Celebrant: His Beatitude Pierre Nasrallah Cardinal Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites. Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir celebrates mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Ukrainian Cardinal Lubomyr Husar (L), Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir (C), and Syrian Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud attend a mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City April 14, 2005. Cardinal Pierre Sfeir Nasrallah, Patriarch of the Antioch for Maronites, left, and Cardinal Lubomyr Husar from Ukraine, right, celebrate a Mass for Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, April...

Click on the link above the watch and hear the Prayers by the Eastern Churches at the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

For the past several years I have witnessed an ongoing crisis of identity within the Roman Catholic Church, which is evident even on the campus of Franciscan University. Often reduced to the battle between "Conservatives" versus "Progressives" or "Traditionalists" versus "Charismatics," the issues involved are multifaceted and complex. I have tried to make my own contribution to this debate, with varying degrees of success. Now I'd like to address it from a new perspective, i.e. as a kind of outsider, for that is indeed what I have become. I am an Eastern Christian. While gladly submitting to the authority of...

The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said. The plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president's top representative in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations. The Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country,...

Roughly half of America dislike everything George Bush says, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t the President of the United States. This is a point too few people keep in mind. Take, for instance, the example of Stas, a very nice Orthodox man, who read my recent piece on concerning the Muslim reporter who implicitly threatened to kill me and nuke America. He thought the piece excellent except for my statement that the Pope was the head of Christianity: “As for the Pope, 1 billion various protestants and 300 million Orthodox don't follow his words and that's half of Christianity.”...

Mar Maroun All that is known about Maron, the spiritual father and protector of the Maronites comes from Theodoret, the bishop of Cyr. In approximately 444, Theodoret undertook the project of writing a religious history about his religion. Theodoret never knew Maron personally, but only through the disciples of this holy man. He described Maron as "the one who has planted for God the garden which flourishes now in the region of Cyr." Little is known of the birth or youth of Maron because Theodoret was unconcerned about that aspect of his life. He felt that Maron was a...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Update at 4:30 pm nov 3 results for all presidental candidates ALL CANDIDATES CANDIDATE VOTE TOTAL VOTE % John Kerry, Democrat 55,104,702 48% George W. Bush, Republican (incumbent) 58,640,799 51% Ralph Nader, independent 392,219 0% Michael Badnarik, Libertarian 374,741 0% Michael Peroutka, constitution party 129,162 0% David Cobb, green party 104,591 0% Leonard Peltier, peace and freedom party 21,616 0% Gene Amondson, Prohibition Party 1,895 0% Andy Andress, Unaffiliated (no websites for candidate or party )716 0% Walter Brown, Socialist Party USA 10,258 0% Roger Calero, socialist workers party 5,263 0% Earl F. Dodge, Prohibition party 122 0% Thomas Harens,...

"When American citizens go to the polls in November, they will have the opportunity to change the course of history. On their decision largely rests the style and structure of the immediate future..... We, your Elder Brothers, cannot stand aside and watch while the very future of the world is under threat. America is a great nation with much of good to give the world. It must now awaken to its soul's longing to serve, to live in peace and justice, and, together, in harmony and co-operation, to work with all nations to remake this world. This election can be...

After talking with some left-wing friends this weekend, I realized now more than ever that the question of whether to vote for Bush or Kerry truly boils down to another question, “A war for our lives, or a nuisance to our lifestyle?” The later question was asked on Friday by eminent historian Victor David Hanson. He answers it with honesty and erudition, but leaves out a very important point: the fear factor. Hanson correctly identifies Kerry et al’s penchant for wanting to solve our foreign policy disputes through diplomatic bureaucracy ad nauseum -- e.g., the United Nations. He hints at...

"The Russians are coming...The Russians are coming..." Well, that could have been the headlines in Israeli newspapers until a few days ago, before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came to Israel. Now, after meeting with Israeli officials, the headlines could be, "Russian FM: Chechen Muslim terror evil, but justifies support for PLO Terror State and help for Iranian Nukes." The day before the Russian Foreign Minister came to Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin, to express his shock at the seizure of the Russian school in Beslan. Sharon told Putin that, "We must concentrate political and...