Free Republic

PARIS (AFP) - Police banned demonstrations outside the Chinese embassy in Paris on Thursday but critics of China's human rights record stepped up protests elsewhere in the world to mark the start of the Beijing Olympics. Police in the French capital said they did not want a repeat of the "violent disturbances" that broke out in April when the Olympic torch passed through Paris, when activists angry at China's crackdown in Tibet disrupted the route. They banned any protests outside the embassy on Thursday and Friday, when the Games officially open, including a demonstration planned Friday by a coalition including...

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2008 – Individuals and organizations around the globe are planning special commemorations to mark the quickly approaching seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. So far, nearly 185 America Supports You Freedom Walks are scheduled to take place on and around Sept. 11. Of those walks, eight are scheduled overseas, in Heidelberg, Germany; Santa Rita, Guam; Baghdad; Vicenza, Italy; Iwakuni, Japan; Moron, Spain; and Seoul and Daegu, South Korea. America Supports You is a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad. “The America Supports...

Scientists to capture DNA of trees worldwide for database By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer Graduate student Natalia Pabon-Mora works at The New York Botanical Garden's Pfizer Plant Research Laboratory at the Bronx, New York facility Tuesday, April 15, 2008. A team of researches there is leading a global effort to barcode the DNA of every tree species on Earth, all 100,000 of them. The laboratory, with sweeping views of trees and a pond, reflects the work going in indoors. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) (AP) -- The New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its orchid shows and colorful...

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Antique store owners in lower Manhattan, ticket vendors at India's Taj Mahal and Brazilian business executives heading to China all have one thing in common these days: They don't want U.S. dollars. Hit by a free fall with no end in sight, the once mighty U.S. dollar is no longer just crashing on currency markets and making life more expensive for American tourists and business people abroad; its clout is evaporating worldwide as foreign businesses and individuals turn to other currencies. Experts say the bleak U.S. economic forecast means it will take years for the greenback...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2008 – More than 150 people attending the America Supports You National Summit here today received a quick overview of the American military as it fights the war on terror. This is the third summit for the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, through which hundreds of volunteer groups and corporations are reaching out to American servicemembers. Ham, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, gave the group a quick tour of the world, starting with the United States and U.S. Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. “It is the command tasked to defend our...

Within the next 25 years, AIDS is set to join heart disease and stroke as the top three causes of death worldwide, according to a study published online Monday. When global mortality projections were last calculated a decade ago, researchers had assumed the number of AIDS cases would be declining. Instead, it's on the rise.

Hate crimes against Jews are increasing, not only in Europe but also in the United States, specifically in New York. Anti-Semitic activities in the Big Apple, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, are on the rise, up by eight percent according to a report in the daily New York Post quoting New York City police department (NYPD) officials. The number of attacks against Jews in New York City rose by 20 percent since 2005, from 39 to 47 in the period from January 1 to November 5. Anti-Semitism in Europe is also rising, according to a report presented...

Iran's Ambassador to New Zealand Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani said in Wellington on Monday that Tehran calls for dismantling of all weapons of mass destruction in the world. "(Former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons of the US and Europe against the Iranian nation during the Iraqi- imposed war...We called for dismantling of weapons of mass destruction particularly dangerous weapons of the Zionist regime. "We have followed up this goal at the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) for several years," he said. Pointing to Iran's peaceful nuclear program, he added that "Iran' just demand for recognition of its rights...

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2006 – The Defense Department is moving to establish a worldwide group of joint intelligence organizations designed to rapidly gather, interpret and act on information to better meet 21st-century military needs, senior military officials said here today. On April 3, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a directive to establish a Joint Intelligence Operations Center at DoD's Defense Intelligence Agency, at each unified combatant command and at U.S. Forces Korea, Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and warfighting support, told reporters at a news briefing. "What we're trying to do is...

Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister, "says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy," according to the BBC, in a story about the Mohammed caricatures. The Beeb claims that Abdullah is "promoting a moderate form of Islam," but his anti-democratic actions prove otherwise. Au contraire, Mr. Abdullah, it is your seething, Muslim masses that are the cause of this "chasm." Again, the BBC: As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at Western cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. ... "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy...

DAVOS, Switzerland - FBI director Robert Mueller said Thursday the United States now acts on intelligence from any place in the world to fight terrorism but has not sacrificed individuals' rights to privacy in that effort. However, during an interview with The Associated Press, Mueller would not discuss renditions, the practice of covertly moving imprisoned terrorist suspects between countries outside normal legal processes. He also would not elaborate on the National Security Agency's listening without a warrant to telephone calls in the United States that Bush administration officials believe involve al-Qaida terrorists. Lawmakers from both parties have questioned whether it...

LONDON (Reuters) - Corruption is on the increase in most countries and poor people are often the hardest hit, according to a global survey released on Friday. The poll, published on United Nations Anti-Corruption Day, found a majority of people in 48 out of 69 countries surveyed thought the problem had got worse over the past three years. "Today's survey shows that people believe corruption is deeply embedded in their countries," said Huguette Labelle, chairwoman of anti-graft group Transparency International, which commissioned the Global Corruption Barometer research. "When a poor young mother believes that her government places its own interests...

An incredible number of attacks by Islamic jihadists have been planned over the last 35 years. Although many have been averted, far too many plots have succeeded: Since 1970, jihadists carried out attacks in over 60 cities, in at least 41 countries, on five continents and Pacific islands. Jihadists have assassinated heads of state, ambassadors and military personnel, and killed thousands of men, women, and children of many ages, ethnicities and religions (including Muslims). They have sometimes deliberately targeted children and babies.The 78 incidents listed below should not be taken as a complete list, merely a representative one. The listed...

"…In 1995, the GATS agreement borrowed a World Trade Organization (WTO) term that describes the process of moving human capital across international borders. This process is called the ìMovement of Natural Persons,î(1) which refers to the entry and temporary stay of human laborers for the purpose of providing ìservicesî for employers. The term ìnatural personsî is an Orwellian euphemism used by the WTO to describe working class people who are considered to be nothing more than mere commodities. Immigration policies restricting the flow of ìnatural personsî would be considered a violation of the WTO rules because borders must be kept...

PHOENIX, AZ -- (ArriveNet - May 09, 2005) -- FPSnewswire/- A record number of young scientists and inventors arrive today to compete for $3 million in scholarships and awards at the 2005 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), presented by Agilent Technologies. Representing 45 countries, regions and territories, 1,447 high school students will spend the week meeting with senior scientists, sharing ideas and presenting projects on such varied topics as alternative fuels, water quality and organic compounds to fight infection and disease. Students range in age from 13 to 20; the split between females and males is almost...

About a year later, driving a company Jaguar, he gave me a tour of the England campus of the church's Ambassador College, which was closed and would ultimately be sold. Five years after that day, I shook the dust of Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God, the church where Meredith was a high official, from my shoes. I eventually became an evangelical, and swore off Armstrong's iconoclastic beliefs that Anglo-Saxons were descended from the "lost" tribes of Israel, that Old Testament feast days were to be preferred, birthdays shunned, and politics avoided—along with the Trinity, "unclean" foods, most medicines, and...

Jon Stewart, the sage of Comedy Central, is one of the few to be honest about it. "What if Bush … has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may … implode." Daniel Schorr, another critic of the Bush foreign policy, ventured, a bit more grudgingly, that Bush "may have had it right." Right on what? That America, using power harnessed to democratic ideals, could begin a transformation of the Arab world from endless tyranny and intolerance to decent governance and democratization. Two years ago, shortly before the invasion of Iraq,...

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov.) Skinheads are part of Russia's youth subculture, as sociologists believe about 55,000 young people in the country see themselves as neo-Nazis. Crime reports after skinhead attacks are filled with references to foreigners. An Indian woman miscarried after being assaulted by skinheads on the central Moscow street of Arbat, while a nationalistic gang, Russkaya Tsel (Russian Goal), left William Jefferson, a black US embassy guard and former marine, in hospital. Something similar happened to Peter Taaffe, the general secretary of the British Socialist Party. Russian sociologists are positive that this is Nazism and not...

Last week Kofi Annan presided over a UN seminar on "Islamophobia," explaining with a straight face: "When the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry -- that is a sad and troubling development. Such is the case with 'Islamophobia.' The word seems to have emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, the weight of history and the fallout of recent developments have left many Muslims around the world feeling aggravated and misunderstood, concerned about the erosion of their rights and even fearing for their physical safety." The focus, not unexpectedly,...

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!

It's one thing to know something intellectually. It's another to experience it viscerally so that it resonates to the core. Anyone who follows current events is keenly aware that we live in a world rife with anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism for that matter. Yes, there is a salient connection between the two. But, for the moment, let's stick with anti-Americanism. After watching the Fox News Channel's special "Hating America", based on John Gibson's insightful book of the same title, I was thoroughly heart-broken. Why is it that even long time allies now trash and betray America? And what can we do...

I need to know (perferable sourced to a trustworthy URL) the percentage of reservist we have stationed worldwide and stateside. I am tired of hearing how thinly spread our soldiers are without knowing the true figures. Can anyone give me an idea of what the percentages really are.

N.C.'s flu disaster plan 10/5/2004 3:45 PM By: News 14 Carolina Staff The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has a flu disaster plan. Officials are preparing to respond to a possible worldwide flu pandemic. A pandemic is illness and death worldwide, caused by a resistant flu strain. Researchers are working on developing vaccines. Health officials said people can help by getting their flu shot and limiting travel during a flu epidemic. North Carolina predicts a pandemic would cost an estimated one million doctor visits, 22,000 hospitalizations and almost 5,000 deaths.

Free Republic has been reported on, for the first time that I know of, in the Japanese- language press online.Granted, it is a Japanese translation of a recent original on-line American article; nevertheless, it has been no doubt seen by thousands of Japanese readers on the Internet! Here is the URL, (as well as linked above):http://japan.cnet.com/news/media/story/0,2000047715,20073486,00.htm

Levi Strauss & Co., the closely held maker of Levi's jeans, is seeking a buyer for its Dockers slacks business, sales of which declined last quarter, to help reduce debt and focus on the company's namesake clothing lines. The company hired Citigroup Inc. to help with the sale, San Francisco-based Levi said in a statement. The Dockers brand, introduced in 1986, generates about $1.4 billion in annual sales, or about a third of Levi's total revenue. Chief Executive Phil Marineau has moved production overseas and cut jobs and unprofitable product lines to trim costs and pare debt, which totaled about...

National NFRA: US Government Votes to Raise Oil Prices in OPEC CIA AND OTHER U. S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES HELP OIL CARTEL OPEC IN OIL PRODUCTION CUTBACKS TO SKYROCKET OIL PRICES WORLDWIDE By Carl Olson U. S. intelligence agencies have a duty to assist occupied Iraq and its oil cartel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "The President and Congress should reveal what help American spy agencies have provided to OPEC in causing skyrocketing oil prices," stated Carl Olson, Chairman of State Department Watch, a nonpartisan foreign policy watchdog group headquartered in Washington, D. C. "The American public does not deserve to...

Significant Terrorist Incidents, 1961-2001: A Chronology Office of the Historian Bureau of Public Affairs October 31, 2001 1961-1982 First U.S. Aircraft Hijacked, May 1, 1961: Puerto Rican born Antuilo Ramierez Ortiz forced at gunpoint a National Airlines plane to fly to Havana, Cuba, where he was given asylum. Ambassador to Guatemala Assassinated, August 28, 1968: U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala John Gordon Mein was murdered by a rebel faction when gunmen forced his official car off the road in Guatemala City and raked the vehicle with gunfire

World wide alert in new Sars scare A new Sars threat has been revealed after an infected Taiwanese military scientist did not go into strict home quarantine after becoming sick and two of his colleagues travelled to the United States. A search has also started for for five foreigners who travelled on the same plane as the infected man - a medical researcher - more than a week ago. So far, at least 90 people in Taiwan and Singapore have been quarantined, though none have developed Sars symptoms. The developments raise disturbing questions about decisions made by the 44-year-old patient...

Britons on worldwide bomb alert By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 22/11/2003) Defences were being strengthened at British embassies around the world last night as the Foreign Office ordered dozens of missions to review security after the Istanbul bombings. Barriers were erected, roads were closed and police patrols were stepped up around missions in Berlin, Athens and Paris. "Sir John Stevens: 'imminent attack in London' At the same time many embassies, particularly those in Muslim countries, received urgent instructions - marked "DESKBY", the second highest priority after "FLASH" - telling them to re-examine their protective measures. As Jack Straw,...

al-Qaida's Worldwide Threat Evaluated Tuesday November 11, 2003 2:46 AM By BETH GARDINER Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) - A report released Tuesday said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has been largely dismantled, but the threat posed by extremist Muslim terrorists remains high and has grown harder to track. The report by the London-based Control Risks Group said the number of countries likely to pose a medium security risk to Western businesses operating in them was 71 for 2004, with 14 countries bumped up from low-risk. The group is a private consultancy that advises companies on security. Many of this...

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is participating in worldwide tests of a potential vaccine that can stimulate important immune responses against the virus that causes AIDS. This is the first candidate vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be studied simultaneously in so many locations, from Brazil to Thailand, according to Merck & Co. Inc., which developed the vaccine. Vanderbilt currently is testing six potential AIDS vaccines, but the Merck product has gone farther than any other in generating cellular immune responses in preliminary human tests, says Dr. Paul Spearman, co-principal investigator of the Vanderbilt HIV Vaccine Program, one of...

JUSTINE PASEK MISS UNIVERSE® 2002 Justine Pasek, a crowd favorite during the 2002 MISS UNIVERSE competition, is a 22-year-old native of Panama City, Panama. She has been recognized all over the world for her supermodel looks and humble personality. Her natural beauty is indicative of the beauty in the new millennium. As Justine moves to New York City to take on the title of Miss Universe, she is ready to work hard as an ambassador for women around the world by representing the Miss Universe Organization. Before putting on the crown, Justine worked in production for television specials, charity...

<p>Californians have put themselves at the forefront of a movement to use the state civil courts to pursue international human rights violations. In doing so, they have raised concerns in parts of the federal government and put global corporations on the defensive.</p>

Two cases of SARS have hit San Francisco. One is at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and the other is at Kaiser in San Francisco. There are some who are voicing concern in San Francisco because many of its residents have weakened immune systems due to various diseases. At this time, there is not a cure, a shot, a magic bullet, or a cocktail. Your body has to fight it off. Perhaps it is not time to panic and I have no reason to believe it is widespread, but I have reports that some in SF do...

BERLIN, March 20 (AFP) - Thousands of extra security forces were mobilised across Europe Thursday to guard borders, transport hubs, embassies and military installations amid fears of terror attacks after the start of a US-led war on Iraq. It was also a case of urging public vigilance without causing panic. In Spain, a member of US President George W. Bush's "coalition of the willing" against Iraq, strategic points like public buildings, power stations, communications centres and major enterprises were under heavy guard. It was business as usual at the US embassy in Britain, Washington's major ally, where measures put in...

Amid Worldwide Skepticism, Cheney Again Slams Iraq Thu Aug 29, 4:57 PM ET By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday hammered home the U.S. case for pre-emptive action against Iraq, brushing off a groundswell of unease among European allies, Muslim states and broader world public opinion. Cheney used a gathering of Korean War veterans to repeat an earlier indictment of Saddam Hussein , charging the Iraqi leader with acquiring weapons of mass destruction and posing a "mortal threat" to the United States. He also downplayed concerns, laid out by some senior members of his...