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US President-elect Barack Obama says he will shut down the "war on terror'' internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and rebuild "America's moral stature in the world,'' in a major interview aired overnight. "I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,'' the Democrat, who takes office on January 20, told the CBS program 60 Minutes. "I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world,'' Senator Obama said....

BALTIMORE – A man alleging a Maryland doctor stapled his rectum shut during an operation — causing him to go without defecating for 17 days — took his federal lawsuit to trial Monday in Baltimore. Ronald Watkins, 64, of West Virginia, is suing Manuel Casiano, a doctor in Frederick County, for allegedly botching a 2004 surgery that left Watkins with permanent bowel problems. “The reason for suing Dr. Casiano is very simple: His rectum was stapled shut,” said Julia Lodowski, who with attorney Emily Malarkey is representing Watkins and his wife, Brenda.

BEIJING - Construction will halt, heavy industries will close, and even spray painting will stop in order to clean Beijing's polluted air for the Olympics — an issue that suddenly has taken a back seat to political protests. An aggressive plan to temporarily shutter belching steel and chemical plants, cut back emissions by 30 percent at 19 heavy-polluting companies and stop excavation and pouring of concrete at hundreds of sites around the city was explained Monday by the city's Environmental Protection Bureau. "From the suggestions of experts we think that we need to take these measures to guarantee the air...

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2007 – Coalition forces killed eight terrorists, detained scores of others and confiscated money, weapons and bomb-making materials in various recent operations, military officials reported. A raid today in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood targeted an individual suspected of funneling weapons and money from Iran to a clandestine terrorist network that operated in Baghdad, Basrah and Maysan provinces, officials said. Four armed terrorists fired on coalition troops during the raid. Coalition troops returned fire, killing two of the terrorists. Coalition troops searched 11 buildings during the operation, which yielded bomb-making materials, large amounts of Iranian money, and more...

A DNA mail order kit that checks the sex of an unborn child at just six weeks is under investigation after concerns it will lead to couples terminating unwanted children. The do-it-yourself home test can be ordered over the internet and shipped to Australia for less than $500. But the futuristic "pink or blue" kit has sparked an uproar among ethicists and anti-abortionists, who fear it will be used as a "sex select" tool.

LATEST NEWS (Monday night, Jan. 22) AFFECTING THE FORT AND U.S. FOREST ROADS: Continued severe winter weather affecting the Sierra Vista area has caused Fort Huachuca officials to delay work start until 9 a.m. today, according to post spokesman Maj. Matt Garner. The late start is for all non-essential military and civilian personnel. All mission-essential military and civilian personnel will report to work as directed by their commander or supervisor, he said. Additionally, the Fort Huachuca Accommodation Schools will start classes at 9 a.m. as well, Garner added. School staff are to be on site at 8 a.m., to support...

BALAD RUZ, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2007 — After a nine-day operation in the Turki Village area, soldiers from 1st Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army, together with 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, defeated “The Council,” a known terrorist group which has historically targeted families and tribes with violence throughout the region. Coalition Forces continue to maintain a presence to further the peace and stability of the area. “The group, made up of former Ba’ath Regime members, Al Qaeda and Sunni extremists, refused to participate in any political dialogue and preferred attacking innocent civilians in the Diyala province, killing as many...

Hard pounding, gentlemen: but we shall see who can pound the longest.- Arthur Wellesley. Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo by Bill Levinson Editor's note: The difference between 400 GB and 800 GB of “bandwidth” per month at my service provider is about $10/month. GB is GIGA-bytes. A gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. An average blog/message board web page is 150 KB — 150 kilobytes. A kilobyte is 1000 bytes. So they’re saying the Democratic Party, with millions in its war chest, can’t spend $20.00 over the next two months for 5,333,333 (that’s 5.3 MILLION) page hits? Yeah,...

Vanity

Shut up, Chinese diplomat tells US By Harry Mount in New York (Filed: 18/08/2006) One of China's most senior diplomats has made an extraordinary attack on America, saying that it should "shut up" about China's growing military capacity when America dominates global military spending. Sha Zukang, China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, launched his diatribe in an interview with the BBC yesterday during a progamme about China's booming economy and military strength. "It is much better for you to shut up, keep quiet," the ambassador said, referring to America, raising his voice to a high-pitched yell. "Are you the...

TROUP, Texas - The police chief and a sergeant in this eastern Texas town were arrested on drug and evidence tampering charges and the department shut down. Police Chief Chester Kennedy was charged Friday with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. He was released from jail on a $400,000 bond. Sgt. Mark Turner, last year's chamber of commerce Officer of the Year, was booked into Smith County Jail late Thursday on a misdemeanor delivery of marijuana charge and a third-degree felony charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Turner was being held on bonds totaling $500,000. The department's equipment...

Saudi paper 'shut' in cartoon row By Sebastian Usher BBC World media correspondent Saudis have begun boycotting Danish products A newspaper in Saudi Arabia has stopped publishing after printing some of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Shams (Sun) has been suspended as part of an investigation into its decision to publish the cartoons that have caused anger across the Muslim world. It printed them next to articles urging Saudis to take action against Denmark where the cartoons first appeared. Three weeks ago, Shams, became one of few newspapers in the Arab world to print some of the cartoons. The...

Beijing Poultry Markets Shut on Bird Flu Fears Monday, November 07, 2005 BEIJING — Authorities ordered all live poultry markets in China's capital to close immediately and went door-to-door seizing chickens and ducks from private homes, as the government dramatically beefed up its fight against bird flu (search) on Monday. Beijing also announced that 6 million birds had been slaughtered around the site of China's most recent bird flu outbreak, and the World Health Organization (search) said it had been asked to help in the reopened investigation of the country's possible first human cases of the virus. The escalation of...

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!

Ken Mehlman, Bush campaign manager, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the campaign should focus on Kerry's judgment during his 20 years in office. We will, too, starting soon. However, Bob Dole said two weeks ago that he can't remember a single piece of legislation that Kerry sponsored. We can. We can remember a lot of the hateful legislation Kerry supported; legislation that would have definitely been harmful to low and middle-income American families. Democrats are generally uninformed, politically. In all fairness, many of them are occupied trying to make ends meet and just have no time to pay attention...

Technology Playing Role in GOP Protests By ELLEN SIMON NEW YORK - Gary Boston and Jeff Adler are just two guys with a dream: shutting down New York City for a day. What they want is a general strike, with everyone from Broadway dancers to Madison Avenue street sweepers calling in sick Wednesday to protest the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday. Both men are in their 30s and have full-time jobs, and neither has any organizing experience. Boston, who had never built a Web site before, put together ShutItDownNYC.com in three days, using Microsoft FrontPage software and the...

As the truth comes out about John Kerry's whopping Vietnam lies, will the DNC's damage control have to resort to this?

NEW YORK -- President Bush wasted international sympathy for the United States after the 2001 terrorist attacks by shifting from the search for Osama bin Laden to the ousting of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, former President Clinton said Tuesday. The move alienated many U.S. allies and created a false impression among Americans that Saddam had a key role in the al-Qaida-engineered terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Clinton said. "I think the world was really pulling for us after 9-11," he said, but the Bush administration "divided the world ... to pursue our vision _ not...

Haj means 'shut up', pilgrims complain January 07 2004 at 01:59PM By Farook Khan The Muslim faithful who throng Mecca during the annual haj pilgrimage "must not cause trouble", Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abul Aziz has warned. "All the pilgrims must carry out their rituals and avoid anything which might disturb their pilgrimage or that of their brothers," Abdullah told a cabinet meeting in the capital this week. The Saudi authorities have issued similar warnings every year, also banning meetings or the raising of slogans, since 1987 when clashes between security forces and Iranians protesting...

Solitude is likely to persist at park Its owner, TXU, cites noise, security climate, potential hazards North Lake Park used to be a happening place, even during the holiday season. Radio-controlled jets used to streak through the skies above while motorboats and water-skiers skimmed the surface of the 850-acre lake. Families and friends would gather on weekends around the picnic tables. In 1986, about 25,000 people listened to evangelists rail against rock 'n' roll and secular education with the lake in the background. There used to be a two-mile Christmas lights display along the lakeshore each December. Today, the only...

Mixed-sex pool halls shut down in Iran November 01 2003 at 03:55PM Tehran - Ten billiards clubs found to have been allowing mixed-sex games have been closed down in the Iranian capital, the Jam-e Jaam newspaper reported on Saturday. The paper said the clubs, shut down last week, had been caught breaking the Islamic republic's strict rules on gender segregation late at night. Snooker, billiards and pool clubs have only recently been opening in Iran, after a ban on the pastime was lifted. But the games remain banned in two of the country's 28 provinces, on the grounds that they...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has shut more than 3,300 Internet cafes for safety reasons after a fire tore through an underground Beijing cafe in June killing 25 people and injuring 12 others, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. Li Rongrong, minister in charge of China's State Economic and Trade Commission, was quoted as saying officials had inspected about 45,000 Internet cafes in the past six months. Operations of nearly 12,000 of them had been suspended pending improvements and more than 3,300 were permanently closed, it said. China sentenced two Beijing boys to life in prison in August for...