Free Republic

WILLISTON, N.D.—With the nearby oil boom draining this city of many of its service workers, businesses here are relying on a cultural-exchange program for foreign college students to keep the local economy humming. More than 500 foreign students—from Thailand, Jamaica and about a dozen other countries—are staffing nearly every hotel, car wash and fast-food place in town, tending to the troops of roughnecks from the oilfields. "Without them, I don't know what we'd do," said Ward Koeser, mayor of this city of 16,000, citing long lines, slow service and limited hours at stores and restaurants before the students arrived. But...

Yet again, Barack Obama's minions in the U.S. State Department are behaving like the mythical "Ugly American," and are strong-arming yet another sovereign nation into accepting the Obama State Department's imperial dicta on "gay rights."

A Southern Californian man thrown off a Caribbean gay cruise earlier this week has said that that he and his partner were taunted, humiliated and subjected to inhumane treatment when they were arrested for indecent exposure.Dennis Jay Mayer, 53, of Palm Springs said he has no doubt they were arrested in Dominica because they were gay. Police said it was because they were seen having sex in public on the balcony of their ship cabin. Mayer said they were not having sex, but were ‘partially clothed’. (edit) The pastor of Dominica's Trinity Baptist Church, Randy Rodney, praised the police for their...

THE Granville Police in St James seized a firearm along with one round of ammunition yesterday morning. Reports from the Granville Police are that about 7:30 am, a team of police was on patrol along Tucker Main Road, when they searched a man and a homemade handgun and one 9 mm round was found on his person. The man was arrested and charged. Meanwhile, quick and coordinated efforts on the part of police personnel from the Flying Squad, the Motorised Patrol Division, the Denham Town Police and the Newport West Police led to the recovery of a motor vehicle within...

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure. Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said. Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side. The fuel did ...

BARRINGTON Llewellyn, founding member of the group Heptones is dead. He was 63. According to Earl Morgan — founder of the trio — Llewellyn began complaining of not feeling well and was rushed to the University Hospital in St Andrew on Tuesday. He passed away at 3:15 a.m. the day after. No cause was given for his death The funeral is scheduled for Jamaica Association for Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA) headquarters at 5-7 Hagley Park Road, Kingston 10 on Sunday, December 4. Llewellyn, who would have celebrated his birthday on Christmas, is best remembered as the lead vocals in...

A "cross-dressing" Jamaican drug lord extradited to New York after a month-long gun battle with police that killed at least 70 people has asked for leniency in a letter that begins, "Good day to you, Sir," and cites his support of community jamborees and holiday treats for the elderly. Christopher "Dudus" Coke, leader of the Jamaica-based international criminal organization called the "Shower Posse," pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courtroom on August 31, 2011 to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. When Coke was arrested in...

A mother and daughter were beheaded Wednesday by attackers who invaded their home in a gritty area outside Jamaica’s capital, near where a wanted 18-year-old gang member was found with his head chopped off earlier this week. The decapitated bodies of Charmaine Rattray and her 19-year-old daughter, Joyette Lynch, were found on a bed inside their home, investigators said. Their heads were not found. On Monday, 18-year-old Scott Thomas, a reputed member of the Clansman gang named by police as a suspect in several killings, was beheaded in his Spanish Town home by a group of men armed with guns...

Jamaican missionaries lead effort to stop abortion, launch massive pro-life center by Rebecca Millette KINGSTON, Jamaica, June 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although abortion is currently illegal in the Caribbean island of Jamaica, the effort to fight recent attempts at its legalization, as well as the back alley abortion trade, has required an enormous amount of energy and ingenuity. The leaders in this effort are The Missionaries of the Poor (MOP), an international monastic order of brothers and priests, with over 500 members worldwide, founded in 1981 by Rev. Fr. Richard Ho Lung in Kingston, Jamaica. The order also recently started...

The gap between America's rich and poor is reportedly at an extreme high, much higher than many developing countries like Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, and even Yemen. According to the Central Investigative Agency's (CIA) World Fact Book, which ranks countries in terms of how 'equally' wealth is distributed, the U.S. is the 42nd most unequal country in the world, the Daily Mail reports. It has been ranked way behind the European Union and the United Kingdom in terms of equality of pay. In fact, the situation is so extreme that it has even been placed behind countries such as Cameroon,...

A vacation in Jamaica for an Athens pastor and his wife ends in a nightmare in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 26-year-old Steven Carter, a youth pastor at The Church at Southside in Athens, was arrested by security officials at the Jamaica Airport when they found a .22-caliber bullet stuck in the seams of the bag. "They don't know how it got there,” said Church Pastor Jeff Williams. “Steven doesn't own a gun, but evidently it has been there a while."Carter might be able to see a judge Thursday morning after spending the night in an open jail cell in Montego Bay with several...

Scores of reggae fans from across the globe placed roses before a statue of Bob Marley on Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the musician, whose charismatic, loose-limbed stage presence and lyrics promoting "one love" took the Jamaican musical genre to an international audience. Tourists watched as three clerics from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church spread incense and holy water around the Bob Marley Museum, the singer's former home in the capital of Kingston. Rastafarians who gathered around the property spoke in reverential tones about the icon of reggae music who died of cancer in 1981 at...

A missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was shot and killed in Kingston, Jamaica, Monday. Elder Jermaine Luther Walker was shot by a stray bullet from a police shootout. The LDS Church confirmed Elder Jermaine Luther Walker was shot when he and a group of elders got caught in the crossfire of a police shootout. Elder Walker was a native of Kingston, Jamaica. "It appears the van they were in was caught in the crossfire as local police were pursuing another vehicle," a statement from the Church read. "Elder Walker was immediately driven to a nearby...

Law enforcement officials said they did not believe the incident had any links to terrorism. The FBI described the man as a 37-year-old nationalized U.S. citizen traveling en route to Jamaica. Authorities did not specify his previous nationality. Authorities detained the man after a baggage handler reported a small explosion while unloading luggage from an American Airlines (AMR.N) flight that arrived in Miami from Boston. FBI spokesman Mark Leverock said the man's luggage contained hundreds of bullet primers -- a key component of bullet cartridges.

While I support the conclusion of Robert Kraniak’s letter (“Right to keep and bear arms is most important amendment”), I would like to gently correct Mr. Kraniak’s assertion that my letter regarding Bill of Rights Day contained an “oversight in not mentioning the most important amendment” — the Second Amendment. The Roundup has a 400-word limit for its letters; it was almost impossible to adequately address the importance of the whole of the Bill of Rights within this limit. Nonetheless, I did clearly cite the right to self-defense as one of the rights that the Bill of Rights protects; the...

Two men from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were held without bail Friday on charges that they smuggled Middle Easterners into the United States through third countries for $20,000 each. Iqbal Munawar and Chelliah Sri Kajamukam were arrested late Thursday at Miami International Airport on charges filed in New York, federal authorities said.They made federal court appearances Friday and were ordered to return to court for bond hearings Thursday.An Indian businessman led the smuggling ring, which illegally flew people to Miami and New York and carried them to the United States by boat, FBI agent Timothy Ryan wrote in a court...

Haiti’s Latest MiseryPublished: October 26, 2010 The cholera outbreak in Haiti — the first in 50 years — has layered fresh anxiety atop long-standing misery. By Tuesday the disease had sickened more than 3,000 people and killed more than 250. While the authorities have expressed cautious hope that the outbreak might soon stabilize and remain largely confined to the rural Artibonite region, there is still fear that the disease could overwhelm the shattered capital, Port-au-Prince. **SNIP** More than 1.3 million Haitians were left homeless by the quake, and more than 1.3 million remain homeless today. Thousands of people live in...

Jamaicans who have for long eyed the United States (US) as a frontier for economic advancement would be concerned about immediate job prospects for those planning to migrate based on recent reports showing a weakening of the recovery. Specifically, the job report confirmed that the US economy con-tinues to shed jobs while employers are exercising unusual caution about hiring. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high at 9.6 per cent and the number of long-term unemployed at record levels, the US is now a less favourable outlet for people from our unskilled, semi-skilled, and professional ranks. Just how important the US has...

Leonardo Thompson now has a swollen face and stitches to his left eye and thumbs, but he is thankful to be alive after he was attacked by a crocodile in Hell-shire, St Catherine, on Sunday morning. Thompson told THE STAR that "honestly, I thought I was going to die", after the crocodile, measuring about seven feet attacked him suddenly from behind, took aim at his head and pulled him with force under the water. As he recounted the incident, Thompson said initially, he thought he was attacked by a shark, but later realised that it was a crocodile. He said...