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WASHINGTON, May 25, 2006 – The Department of Veterans Affairs has begun a thorough examination of policies and procedures after the loss of 26.5 million veterans' personal information, the VA's leader told the House Armed Services Committee today. "I've formed a task force ... to examine comprehensively all of our information security programs and policies to bring about a change in the way we do business," R. James Nicholson said. His testimony today followed the May 22 announcement that a Veterans Affairs employee had taken electronic data home with him, though he was unauthorized to do so. The information was...

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2006 – The United States is doing all it can to prevent civil war from breaking out in Iraq, but it's ultimately up to Iraqis to maintain political and security progress, President Bush said here today. Bush said he believes Iraqis have chosen democracy as their preferred path, as evidenced by their three successful elections in 2005. "It wasn't all that long ago that 11 million people went to the polls, ... that people defied assassins, car bombers, threats, and said: 'We want a democracy,'" Bush said at a conference of the National Newspaper Association. Iraqis recently...

Bush Fails To Prevent East Coast Blizzard Minorities Hit Hardest by Brian Williams NBC 02/12/06 As President Bush and his staff cowered in the White House, the snow continued to pile up on the many poor and African American victims who could not afford to get out of town or to safety in Florida. Crucial supplies of blankets, hot cocoa, popcorn and dark rum, so essential to surviving the stress of any major snowstorm, lay in stores undelivered. "Where is the government? I need my sidewalk shoveled so I can get out to buy my danged lottery tickets!" said one...

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower: the vegetables that may prevent cancer · Foods contain chemicals that help repair DNA· Study backs link between diet and disease Ian Sample, science correspondent Wednesday February 8, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Natural chemicals found in soya beans and vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower boost the body's ability to repair damaged DNA and may prevent cells turning cancerous, scientists said yesterday. Studies have suggested that eating vegetables appears to provide some protection against certain cancers, but until now the reason why has been a mystery. Researchers at Georgetown University in Washington DC believe the answer...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2006 – The president's terrorist surveillance program serves the purpose of gathering intelligence against terrorists wishing to attack the United States, the nation's No. 2 intelligence officer said in appearances on Sunday morning talk shows. "This is focused on al Qaeda," said Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, principal deputy director of national intelligence and former director of the National Security Agency, during a "Fox News Sunday" interview. "The only justification we have to undertake this program is to detect and prevent attacks against the United States." Through the president's authorization of the program, the NSA can...

Simple Test Reveals Fake Currency An everyday object can test for counterfeit currency. LOS ANGELES, CA -- Science writer reveals simple method to verify counterfeit currency. Consumers are wary of receiving large denomination bills during the holiday season. Last week 4th graders from Gary, Indiana were caught with counterfeit currency produced on their personal printers. In the United States in 2002, $43 million in fake currency was circulated. When counterfeit currency is seized, neither consumers nor companies are compensated for the loss. So what can we do about it? Two things: Visual inspection and a little-know test to tell good...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2005 – Though Iraq is responsible for dealing with prisoner abuse or mistreatment by Iraqi security forces, the United States has an obligation to ensure Iraqis are properly trained and are aware of the damage such abuses can cause, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here Nov. 29. Iraqi leaders know they need the support of the international community and they understand the consequences of abuse allegations, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. "A good way to lose (international support) is to make a practice of something that's inconsistent with the values of the international community,"...

Brussels - After two weeks of violent urban unrest in France, Muslim communities in the country will face long-term retaliation, a Euro MP said Thursday, urging the French government to take action and condemn revenge attacks against Moslems. French politicians had failed to give immediate assurance that they would support the country's unity, leaving citizens in a state of disarray and shock, British socialist MEP Claude Moraes said. With no ethnic monitoring, France could not know the level of discrimination in the country, Moraes said, comparing the situation in France with Britain. French police also had no guidelines for dealing...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2005 – Coalition forces have captured two key terrorist medical doctors, dealing a serious blow to al Qaeda attempts to establish treatment facilities for terrorists in Iraq, military officials here announced this week. Coalition forces acting on multiple intelligence sources and tips from concerned citizens raided two suspected terrorist locations in the Baghdad and Baqubah regions Aug. 29 and 30 to capture known terrorists operating in the areas, officials said. Anis Abd-al-Razaq Ali Muhammad, also known as Dr. Anis or Dr. Saad, was captured during those raids. Dr. Saad is an admitted terrorist and senior member of...

Musharraf moves to prevent 'Talibanisation' of lawless tribal areas By Peter Foster, South Asia Correspondent (Filed: 02/08/2005) In a fresh attack on Islamic extremism, Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, has moved to overturn plans to introduce Taliban-style moral laws into the country's lawless tribal areas. The general, who ordered the arrest of 600 suspected militants last month, is fighting the introduction of a strict Islamic Hasba (accountability) law in North West Frontier Province. Gen Musharraf will confront the mullah-clerics of the Frontier Province Critics say the law, passed by a majority of hard-line Islamists in the province's local assembly last...

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - By giving pedophiles and at-risk offenders a phone-in resource center, Stop It Now! is trying to change the public perception and approach to dealing with child sexual abuse. It's a mission the group has been on since it was started 13 years ago — trying to shift the focus of child sexual abuse from solely a criminal justice matter to a public health problem. The group's tactics are gaining a growing audience. Stop It Now! will be part of a child abuse prevention advisory committee being organized by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, according...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new chemical compound, part-cat and part-human, may provide an end to misery-making cat allergies, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. And they said their approach in creating the compound may work against more dangerous allergies, such as deadly peanut allergies. The compound, tested in mice bred to be allergic to cats, virtually shut down the histamine reaction that causes the uncomfortable symptoms of cat allergies such as runny eyes, sneezing and itching, Dr. Andrew Saxon of the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine and colleagues reported. Writing in the April issue of Nature Medicine, they...

CHICAGO, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Anti-Terrorism and Aviation Protection Act," (H.B. 1098), passed out of the Illinois House of Representatives Human Services Committee today, a homeland security bill to prevent a terrorist from using a .50 caliber sniper rifle to shoot down a civilian airliner during landing or takeoff. Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-57th) and Rep. Beth Coulson (R-17th), the two main sponsors, have launched a bi-partisan effort to keep the most deadly and powerful sniper rifles on the market out of the hands of terrorists to protect Illinois aviation and vulnerable industrial targets. .50 caliber sniper rifles were designed...

Israeli rock/folk singer Ariel Zilber, who moved to the Gaza Coast in solidarity with the Jews of Gush Katif, was a guest on Israel National Radio’s "The Beat with Ben Bresky" today. Zilber had just returned from his weekend home in Elei Sinai, a Jewish community, home to residents with a wide range of Jewish observance. “On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I live in Natat, in the Galilee,” said Zilber - “near the Hizbullah. And on Thursday I travel to Elei Sinai to spend the weekend with the people of Gush Katif.” The veteran Israeli pop-music icon is known...

A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who believes in the "right to die" has changed his mind about the Terri Schiavo case, pointing to "uncomfortable details" about her estranged husband that now lead him to side with the parents of the brain-damaged Florida woman, who are fighting to keep her alive. John Grogan said in a column published today, "I no longer so blithely believe Schiavo's feeding tubes should be pulled and her life allowed to end. I'm no longer so sure her parents do not deserve a say in their daughter's future. I no longer am totally comfortable assuming her husband,...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council on Wednesday to add at least 100 military police to a Congo peacekeeping mission to help prevent sex abuse of women by the U.N. forces. In a letter to the 15 council members, Annan reiterated his "personal outrage" at the allegations of sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13 by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo. He said the United Nations is actively working to root out the problem, which has tarnished the reputation of the world body and the nearly 65,000 peacekeepers serving in 16 global hotspots. "I reiterate...

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!

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Eleven days later, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. All twenty-five members of the European Union supported the motion.[1] The EU position would not have been so offensive had it not then undertaken an act of stunning hypocrisy. In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from...

<p>Stopping an adversary in his boots with a nonlethal ray gun is no longer just a sci-fi pipe dream, according to a local defense contract official.</p> <p>Nonlethal directed-energy scientists have tested a weapon that does just that, only on a slightly larger scale than a handgun, said Wade W. Smith, deputy of Raytheon Missile Systems' Directed Energy Weapons division.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - The U.S. Forest Service plans to market a forest-thinning plan in the Sierra Nevada range as necessary to prevent devastating wildfires like those that swept Southern California last fall.</p> <p>Regional Forester Jack Blackwell was to announce Thursday the final version of a controversial revision of a Clinton administration plan for managing 11.5 million acres spanning 11 national forests.</p>