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RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The United States will continue to give humanitarian aid to ease the plight of the Palestinians despite militant group Hamas's victory in elections, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Saturday. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the aid payments to ease the hardship of the Palestinians would be made via humanitarian organizations working in the region.

Ottawa program offers drinks to homeless alcoholics Last updated Jan 3 2006 07:37 AM EST CBC News Shelters across the country are taking a closer look at an Ottawa shelter that gives drinks to homeless alcoholics after a study suggested the program is having a positive impact. Two men in the program receive their drinks at an Ottawa shelter. Dr. Tiina Podymow envisioned the program after volunteering with chronic alcoholics, including some who drank upwards of 40 drinks per day of alcohol and liquids such as mouthwash. Participants in the Managed Alcohol Project were given permanent beds in a shelter...

What Should Society Do With Its “Tookie Monsters” ? The “ Tookie Williams Saga “ has finally ended. After decades of appeals and delays , and more appeals and more delays; after vast agitation by a wide variety of people : ranging from sincere opponents of the death penalty, to shameless self-advocates looking for more media “face time”, Tookie Williams – the convicted murderer of four people finally got the justice a jury of his peers had decreed. There are many who say the death penalty is “barbaric” ; or that it serves no useful purpose. I tend to agree...

Two recent Oregon Supreme Court cases demonstrate the American Civil Liberties Union's commitment to the pornography industry, claims an internationally respected expert and Justice Department consultant on the subject. According to Judith Reisman Ph.D., the cases – State of Oregon v. Ciancanelli and City of Nyssa v. Dufloth/Smith – demonstrate that the ACLU will defend the most extreme elements of a business that now, as these cases show, includes "live sex shows." Late last month, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down a state law banning live sex shows as well as an ordinance that regulated the conduct of nude dancers....

Some Parables for a Troubling World In Texas, a young woman decided to pose for photos at a tiger preserve. She was scheduled to graduate from high school ,and wanted “something different” for a graduation picture. She climbed on the back of the tiger – which promptly seized her by the throat – as tigers will – and killed her. In the Grand Canyon , tourists are killed every year when they try to pose for pictures with the resident grizzly bears. There seems no way to get it through their heads wild animals are capable of being …wild. In...

Back in 2003, netwmd.com spearheaded an effort to oppose the Palestinian Solidarity Movement's (PSM) "conference" at Ohio State University (OSU). Despite the fact that the PSM is basically a group of pro-Palestinian terrorist supporters and enablers, Ohio’s “mainstream” Jewish community, including the Ohio State Hillel, did nothing to oppose the 2003 hate fest at OSU – this is even after repeated requests on my part for their assistance. [1] Yesterday, I received a form letter from Hillel decrying the PSM, and asking for money to “help Jewish students respond to the one-sided, anti-Israeli propaganda of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement on...

After 14 weeks of trial, and seven days of deliberation, the Jackson case came down to a battle of two videos. Both videos played at the end of closing arguments showed the statement of the young accuser to the police, and the Bashir documentary outtakes that showed a side of Michael Jackson that is innocent and wistfully childlike. In the end, the jury decided that Michael Jackson was not guilty of molestation. Everyone knows that Michael Jackson is more than weird, he is a universe unto himself. But the jury may have leaned on a universe of innocent love and...

An academic awarded a doctorate by Glasgow University for his thesis which described sex between adults and children as sometimes positive was criticised last night by child abuse experts. Richard Yuill said his research, based on interviews with paedophiles and their victims, "challenged the assumption" that sexual relations between adults and under-16s were inherently abusive. "The conclusions are that in such relationships I think you've got the good, the bad and the ugly, and that's where I stand on that," he said in the Times Higher Education Supplement. But child abuse experts said his thesis would play into the hands...

UN accused of collaborating with HezbollahRelatives of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed convene press conference ahead of filing civil suit against UN. Charge kidppings couldn’t have succeeded without UN assistance and active involvement. Anat Shihor-Aharonson “Today we can say with certainty that the UN was actively involved in the kidnappings of our sons”, the families of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed charged during a press conference they convened ahead of filing a civil suit against the UN in a US court, eight months after their bodies were returned to Israel for burial as part of the...

UN accused of collaborating with HezbollahRelatives of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed convene press conference ahead of filing civil suit against UN. Charge kidppings couldn’t have succeeded without UN assistance and active involvement. Anat Shihor-Aharonson “Today we can say with certainty that the UN was actively involved in the kidnappings of our sons”, the families of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed charged during a press conference they convened ahead of filing a civil suit against the UN in a US court, eight months after their bodies were returned to Israel for burial as part of the...

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Philippines will withdraw its forces from Iraq (news - web sites) "as soon as possible," Philippine Deputy Foreign Minister Rafael Seguis said on Monday in a statement he read out on al Jazeera television. "In response to your request, the Philippines ... will withdraw its humanitarian forces as soon as possible," Seguis said according to al Jazeera's Arabic translation of his remarks. His statement was addressed to the group which is holding a Filipino driver hostage.

ENGLAND fans will be allowed to smoke dope before Sunday’s crunch clash with France — to keep them calm. Cops in Lisbon plan to crack down on drunk supporters while turning a blind eye to those spotted puffing on a spliff. Pot-smoking fans have been assured they will not be arrested, cautioned — or even have their drugs confiscated. Last night experts said the Portuguese police’s “Here We Blow” policy would reduce chances of a punch-up between rival fans. Alan Buffry of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance said: “If people are drinking they lose control, if they smoke cannabis they don’t....

THE PERSECUTION OF RUSH GOES ON MARK A SITY 12/26/03 Years ago, Brett Favre had a problem with pain killers. He was buying them illegally after a prescription ran out for after an injury that still hurt. He became addicted. After the news came out, he apologized to his fans, went into treatment, and all was right with the world. Not a soul seems to be interested in investigating Ozzy Osbourne’s drug use, but there might be a reason for this. Ozzy seems to be attempting to prove the theory of evolution by devolving into lower forms of life before...

Mary Jo Melone, a columnist for the left-wing St. Petersburg Times, says it's impossible to compare Bill Clinton the rapist to Arnold Schwarzenegger the groper because "Clinton's women wanted him." In a hysterical 627-word tantrum denouncing the male and female voters who "elected a serial groper," Melone rages, "Whatever were they thinking?" As the campaign ended, we heard Schwarzenegger compared to the illustrious and sexually industrious Bill Clinton. You know what followed. If Clinton could be forgiven, why not Schwarzenegger? There was a difference, if not in their conduct than in their choices. Clinton's women wanted him. Will Melone...

John Burns, the great New York Times reporter, offers us a brutally blunt assessment of how badly Western correspondents covered Saddam Hussein's regime. His report, excerpted by The Wall Street Journal and Editor & Publisher, is spreading rapidly on the Internet and is bound to have an impact on the public's already low respect for most journalists. The compulsively candid Burns, until recently the New York Times bureau chief in Iraq, wrote his comments for the new book "Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq" (The Lyons Press), a collection of first-person accounts by journalists in Iraq. Burns, who has...

Immediately after the President's speech on Iraq, ABC radio went to its damage control and counterattack segment(under the guise of analysis). First up was a foreign policy 'expert', which they loudly trumpeted as working for the Reagan, Bush, and (suddenly mumbled) Clinton administrations, implying that he was oh so impartial. He immediately began to attack Bush's credibility, focusing on how there was no connection between Al Queada and Iraq. Said Bush wants badly to imply such a connection, while being careful not to actual state any proof, since "clearly there is absolutely no connection between Iraq and Al Quaeda." I...

WASHINGTON, June 27 — In one of the first consequences of its landmark ruling on gay rights on Thursday, the Supreme Court today set aside the lengthy prison sentence imposed on a gay Kansas teenager for having had sex with a younger boy. In a brief order with little elaboration, the court vacated the 17-year sentence imposed in 2000 on the defendant, Matthew Limon, and returned the case to the Kansas courts "for further consideration in light of Lawrence v. Texas." The case of Lawrence v. Texas, which was decided on Thursday and overturned an Texas antisodomy law, upheld the...

Ex-President Bill Clinton "sexually molested" a female steward aboard Air Force One and was later forced to apologize to the woman, a bombshell new book by White House whistleblower, Lt. Col. Robert Patterson reveals. The identity of the woman, an enlisted member of the Air Force, is being protected by Lt. Col. Patterson. But the searing new account of a commander-in-chief preying upon a military subordinate could spell trouble for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, would have jurisdiction to investigate the incident. In "Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Osama bin Laden succeeded magnificently, it seems, in at least one of his goals: creating a rift between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Odds are that Osama shrewdly sought to create discord by deliberately choosing Saudis to be the grunts of 9/11, picking them to fill 15 of the 19 hijacker positions, even though the teams were led by an Egyptian, Mohamed Atta, and other key players were from Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Al Qaeda had plenty of Yemenis, Kuwaitis and north Africans whom it could have tapped, but it apparently went out...