Free Republic

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) An explosion triggered by a land mine or a boobytrap ripped through a school west of Pristina on Monday, killing two Nepalese soldiers serving in the British army and two civilians, NATO said. The two soldiers, from the 69th Gurkha Field Squadron, were the first fatalities among NATO peacekeepers since they entered Kosovo on June 12 to enforce the Kosovo peace agreement. One civilian was also injured, NATO said. The troops were clearing ammunition from a school in the village of Negrovce, about 20 miles from Kosovo's capital, when a mine or a boobytrap exploded, NATO ...

Representative Is "Out of Step," Clinton Charges ARKANSAS GAZETTE, August 8, 1974 FLIPPIN -- United States Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison is wrong in opposing President Nixon's resignation and is wrong in questioning whether the president has committed an impeachable offense, Bill Clinton of Fayetteville, Hammerschmidt's opponent, said here Wednesday. In the wake of the president's admission Monday that he had lied about his role in the Watergate coverup, Hammerschmidt said, "We need to do our duty as quickly as possible. We should have done it a year ago." "I don't see how in the world he can say ...

Ex-Hate Radio Journalist Arrested By HRVOJE HRANJSKI .c The Associated Press KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - A former Rwandan radio journalist accused of broadcasting the names of minority Tutsis who were later hunted down and killed during the 1994 genocide has been arrested after four years in hiding, the attorney general said Monday. Valerie Bemeriki was taken into custody by police last week, Attorney General Emmanuel Rukangira said. She is one of the 1,000 most-wanted genocide suspects sought on charges of organizing and planning the 1994 slaughter of more than 500,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus on the orders of an ...

NATO killed far more Serb civilians than soldiers during its 11-week bombardment of the country and most of the Yugoslav Third Army emerged unscathed from the massive air attacks on its forces in Kosovo, according to evidence emerging in Yugoslavia. Nato officers have been astonished that thousands of Yugoslav tanks, missile launchers, artillery batteries, personnel carriers and trucks have been withdrawn from the province with barely a scratch on them. At least 60,000 Yugoslav troops - rather than the 40,000 estimated - were waiting to fight the Western armies in Kosovo. Yugoslav military sources said that more than half ...

Five Life Terms for Gays' Killer .c The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man who said he killed five gays to stop the spread of AIDS was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole. Juan Chavez, 35, got five consecutive life sentences for the 1986 and 1989 killings. He avoided a possible death sentence in March pleading guilty during his trial. Prosecutor Mike Duarte said Chavez used the promise of sex to lure the men to their homes. Then, he forced them to disclose their ATM access codes, strangled them and stole their vehicles. For Purposes of ...

'Give Me Back My Party!' A common lament is uniting Democrats and Republicans By John L. Perry Posted June 20, 1999 California's Willie Brown, on a downhill slide ever since, provided the high point of the 1972 Democratic National Convention held in Miami Beach. In a doomed attempt to deny George McGovern the presidential nomination he had won fair and square in the primaries, the old guard recognized an anti-McGovern slate of California delegates instead of the McGovern delegation chaired by the now-mayor of San Francisco. Appealing the credentials committee's ruling on the floor of the convention, Brown captured the ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1999 DEMOCRATS “WRITE OFF” RURAL AREAS DCCC’s Patrick Kennedy gives up on rural America WASHINGTON (June 21) – The man in charge of the Democrats’ effort to regain control of the House of Representatives says he’s “written off” America’s rural areas – and the Chairman of the Republican National Committee says “they’re giving away the farm.” According to The Providence Journal, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview that “we have written off the rural areas” in the fight to win Republican-held Congressional seats. “If they’re ...

Breaking: Lewinsky Psychiatrist on Probation .c The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - The license of Monica Lewinsky psychologist Irene Kassorla, once described as ``shrink to the stars,'' has been placed on probation. The state Department of Consumer Affairs on Monday cited ``repeated negligent acts'' that included failing to keep notes on therapy sessions. Kassorla also admitted to referring a patient to her husband for a business consultation. No further details of the charges were disclosed. Kassorla agreed to a settlement that calls for an immediate three-year license probation. Kassorla must complete an ethics course and repay the state $6,000 ...

Quick: What exactly did George Stephanopoulos do in the Clin- ton White House? He hosted the daily press briefing for a few months, but he botched the job so badly that Clinton handed the job to Dee Dee Myers. So how did he spend the rest of his tenure? Don't feel bad if the answer escapes you. Stephanopoulos himself seems confused about what he was supposed to be doing, a problem that has apparently plagued him for years. In 1989, he signed on with Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), then the House majority leader. "My new job was as exciting as ...

Poll: Bush Bounces, Gore Flat After Tours By Alan Elsner Reuters WASHINGTON (June 21) - Texas Gov. George W. Bush holds an 18 percentage point lead over Al Gore in the race for the presidency in a new Reuters poll released Monday, suggesting the vice president received no boost from his formal campaign kickoff last week. The poll of 1,006 likely voters was conducted for Reuters by Zogby International Thursday through Saturday at the end of a week in which Bush made his first campaign swing and Gore formally announced he was running for the presidency. Bush, the leading Republican ...

North Korea Postpones Talks With South Wants Promised Fertilizer Shipment By TARA SUILEN DUFFY .c The Associated Press BEIJING (June 21) - North Korea postponed high-level government talks with rival South Korea today until Seoul delivers a promised shipment of fertilizer, a South Korean official said. North Korea put off the talks, due to have started today in Beijing, until it receives the last of 100,000 tons of fertilizer that the South failed to deliver by a Sunday deadline, said Yang Young-shik, the South Korean vice unification minister. It was not clear when the talks - the highest-level meeting between ...

"Imagine," John Lennon's song from 1971, unveiled a utopian vision: a world without borders, a "brotherhood" of man.... Nearly thirty years later, some of Lennon's contemporaries are now seated at the highest levels of government. Many of their ideas are influencing U.S. global strategy. What is the mind set driving U.S. foreign policy in this post cold war era? A quick examination of some statements by U.S. foreign policy makers will give us a clue: Before he became Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, in one of his Time magazine columns wrote, "...Within the next one hundred years nationhood ...

Clinton: No Yugoslav Economic Aid By MARTIN CRUTSINGER .c The Associated Press BONN, Germany (June 21) - President Clinton today firmly rejected spending U.S. dollars to help Yugoslavia rebuild bridges and other public works damaged during the NATO air campaign. ''Not a bit, not a penny,'' he said. Speaking during a closing news conference for the European Union summit, Clinton said the United States would help with humanitarian aid, such as repairing hospitals and power plants to restore electricity to the Serb population. ''Their hospitals should be able to function. Babies will be born, people will be sick,'' Clinton said. ...

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Police in Belgrade broke up protests by angry Kosovo Serbs Monday as Serbia's umbrella opposition group demanded early elections and democratic change. British Prime Minister Tony Blair challenged the population of Serbia to oust President Slobodan Milosevic, saying they could no longer turn a blind eye to their country's alleged atrocities in Kosovo. NATO, fresh from clinching a deal to disarm ethnic Albanian guerrillas, vowed to stamp out ethnic violence in Kosovo and urged Serb refugees to return. Two Nepalese Gurkha soldiers of the British army and two civilians were killed by a mine during an operation ...

The critics have spoken: "Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace" is a farce, a violent travesty, a waste of digitized footage. If the world wasn't sure that George Lucas had spent his last iota of talent long ago, it is now. And Lucas' latent racist tendencies are on full display with that Jar Jar Binks -- a Stepin Fetchit for the new millennium. Blah, blah, blah. If you're like me -- and the Force informs me that most of you are -- you don't give a Jawa's heinie what critics say. You've long since realized that the vast ...

Four Killed in Kosovo Explosion By LAURA KING .c The Associated Press PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (June 21) - An explosion in a school outside Pristina killed four people today, including two Gurkha soldiers in the British peacekeeping force, NATO said. A fifth person was injured, the first casualties since the allied peacekeepers entered Kosovo on June 12. The blast that killed two civilians as well as the two soldiers from the 69th Gurkha Field Squadron was caused by a mine or booby-trapped device on school grounds west of Kosovo's capital, the allies said. Kosovo Albanian rebels signed a demilitarization pact with ...

Family Grapples With Kosovo Return By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN v.c The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The pull of the past, of roots and homeland, is pulling the Hasanraka family apart. Some of them yearn to go back to their native Kosovo and rebuild their homes and livelihoods, now that Serbian troops are leaving and NATO peacekeeping forces take their place. ``Kosovo is the land where my mother breast-fed me,'' said Arzije Hasanraka, 39, who fled her burning house in the town of Urosevac along with her husband, son and daughter. ``I have many relations there. We want to ...

Joy of Kosovo return mixed with horror of reality By Anatoly Verbin DRUAR, Serbia, June 21 (Reuters) - For Kosovo refugees, the euphoria of coming back to a homeland free of Serbian forces is slowly giving way to the realisation that they have to start from scratch in a devastated land. Only with the withdrawal of Serb forces allowing free movement has the full scale of Kosovo's destruction started to emerge. To a large extent it appears similar to the separatist region of Chechnya, trashed by Russian forces in 1994-96. The main difference is that the Russians mostly used heavy ...

Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, who promised to serve only two terms but is now starting his third, has officially endorsed Algore. There is also a possibility Algore is coming to Denver, maybe as soon as tomorrow. I can't find any further info, can you FReepers help? Thanks!

The father of the Internet, model for Love Story and hog-slopping Renaissance man has a new avocation. Vice President Al Gore got religion. Actually, he assures, he already had it but has "never worn his religious commitment on his sleeve." I believe, and I acknowledge no theological training, that one of religion's goals is to have one's life exemplify one's spiritual tenets, i.e. Catholics suffer during Lent, Mormons drive Suburbans filled with many minors, and Jehovah's Witnesses ring doorbells. Gore describes himself as a man of faith who, when asked, will admit it, but complains that we "have enough ...