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WASHINGTON -- Claiming encryption controls are too vital to national security to let a trio of federal judges decide their fate, the US Justice Department on Monday asked for a rehearing in a lawsuit that seeks to lift the White House-backed regulations. On 6 May, a Ninth US Circuit appeals panel ruled that computer source code is a form of free speech constitutionally protected by the First Amendment, thus President Clinton's executive order making it a crime to freely export secure crypto-products is unconstitutional. Strong encryption is included in newer Web browsers and some email programs.... Justice Department lawyers stress ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Marines manning a checkpoint in Kosovo came under fire today by unidentified assailants and then returned fire, killing two people, the commander of U.S. forces in Kosovo said. No Marines were injured, Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock said in an interview from his Kosovo headquarters with reporters at the Pentagon. He said the confrontation began about noon EDT and was continuing. Craddock said he had not yet learned whether the two killed were military or civilian or whether they were Serbs or ethnic Albanians.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Marines manning a checkpoint in Kosovo came under fire today by unidentified assailants and then returned fire, killing two people, the commander of U.S. forces in Kosovo said. No Marines were injured, Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock said in an interview from his Kosovo headquarters with reporters at the Pentagon. He said the confrontation began about noon EDT and was continuing. Craddock said he had not yet learned whether the two killed were military or civilian or whether they were Serbs or ethnic Albanians.

Many of my youthful Saturday afternoons were spent at the theater watching Tarzan or Jungle Jim fighting in the swamps and jungles against the forces of evil. There were swamps and jungles because we saw them. When have you last heard the words swamps and jungles? Have swamps and jungles disappeared from the face of the earth? No, for political purposes they've been renamed. They're now wetlands and rain forests. The public can't be whipped into a frenzy about saving swamps and jungles, but wetlands and rain forests are a different matter. Everybody's onboard with the new terminology except the ...

California's multibillion-dollar effort to reduce the size of primary-grade classes has produced only small achievement gains for third-graders, according to the program's first comprehensive evaluation. Cutting class sizes to 20 students in kindergarten through grade three has exacerbated inequities among schools, but third-graders still made consistent though modest progress regardless of their ethnicity, income level or ability to speak English, the report found. The study, to be released today, showed that 34% of third-graders who attended smaller classes scored above the national average in reading on last year's Stanford 9 exam, while 32% in larger classes surpassed that mark. ...

"Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bad bill into law Friday, thus jeopardizing several thousand environmental-protection rules enforced by more than 100 state agencies. By signing Committee Substitute for House Bill 107, Bush further jeopardized wetlands-protection rules and other safeguards designed to protect the public interest. This lousy law will: • Expose to repeal at least 2,236 rules imposed by 114 state agencies and 3,614 rules applied by 19 school boards, as identified by the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee. • Allow state agencies to enforce only those rules for which state law provides specific authority. • Create the potential for ...

Republicans seem to often be frustrated by President Clinton's skill at usurping their rhetoric to propose watered-down versions of their ideas that take the steam out of an issue. A case in point is Social Security. In his State of the Union Address, the president pilfered the positive language of privatization -- individual ownership, savings and empowerment -- for his USA accounts. Of course, USA accounts do not reform Social Security; they are a new entitlement altogether. If the Republican leadership in Congress were willing to take Clinton on -- revealing the dirty truth about his proposal and offering their ...

Can the ANC's "Spear of the Nation" Guide the KLA to "Success?" In 1991-92 I spent 18 months living in South Africa, arriving there a month after President F.W. DeKlerk and his Naionalist party repealed the last apartheid restriction. DeKlerk, who was elected in 1989, lifted the bans on the African National Congress, the South African Communist party, and the Pan-African Congress in 1990. During those months I watched, and in fact interacted with, 23 political parties, composed of an extraordinary mixtures of races, ethnicities, tribal customs, African and European languages. They were having marathon meetings on the subject ...

To all American Patriots, Now is the time for you to come to the aid of five young Marines who are being persecuted because they refused to be injected with the experimental Anthrax vaccine. Read about them in thse two CNN articles. Marine gets 30 days in jail, bad conduct discharge for refusing anthrax vaccine Five Marines who refused anthrax vaccine plead innocent Read these articles from Captain Joyce Riley vonKleist's web site. Anthrax Vaccine is it Safe and Effective? Anthrax Vaccine Facts Read more info about vaccines on this web site Chris Gerner's Amerikan Exposé The young Marines ...

I have been on Freerepublic now for the past three months. First off, I would like to thank each and every one of you who posted information that has helped me to realize what is truly going on in this country and am proud of all of you who care about our country and our neighbors to take the time to post such information. I too, also care about the state of affairs in our country and worldwide. I expect some flames for this post as it is somewhat Christian in nature but I am sending it out anyway. ...

Russia has no reason to be proud of Kosovo settlement -view. MOSCOW, June 23 (Itar-Tass) - Russia "has no good reasons to be proud of the settlement of the situation in Kosovo," State Duma deputy speaker Sergei Baburin said on Wednesday. Speaking at a meeting with the editors-in-chief of military newspapers and magazines in the office of the Defence Ministry's daily Krasnaya Zvezda, Baburin said "the State Duma was not very happy with the reports of the Russian defence and foreign ministers at today's closed-door hearings in Yugoslavia." At the same time, he noted that "most deputies approved of the ...

Russian peacekeepers to have their own zone in Kosovo -- DM. MOSCOW, June 23 (Itar-Tass) - Russian peacekeepers will have a "zone of responsibility" in Kosovo and will do their best to fulfill the task assigned to them by the leadership of the country, Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said. Sergeyev told journalists after closed-door hearings on Yugoslavia in the State Duma on Wednesday that Russian troops will be stationed in Kosovo together with NATO troops and will not have their own sector. However, he does not see this as a disadvantage because Russian peacekeepers will be deployed in the areas ...

Gore Speech to Highlight UNITE Convention in Miami Beach June 28 to July 1 To: National and Assignment Desks, Labor Reporter Contact: Jo-Ann Mort of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, 305-674-4782 or 888-979-0365 (pager) MIAMI BEACH, Fla., June 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A speech by Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday, June 29, will highlight the 1999 Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) Convention taking place next week at Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel. From June 28 to July 1, more than 2,000 union delegates and guest -- representing more than 250,000 workers in the U.S., ...

Deep in the heart of hexes By David Nyhan, Globe Columnist, 06/23/99 Not all of my hexes live in Texas. But enough of them do so that I reflexively keep my left hand high when anything associated with the Lone Star State veers into my lane of life. And Texas looms extra-large this season. Lord Stanley's hockey cup just went to Dallas, where humidity is more of a problem than high-sticking. The estimable San Antonio basketball club looks on the verge of becoming world roundball champeens, in a state known more for broncs than buckets. And if Governor George Dubayah ...

Please put aside your chat hat, and take the time to read this very important essay. *** Has the left won America's culture war? Some observers, including political organizer Paul Weyrich (who coined the term "moral majority"), appear to think so. For many Americans who cherish our nation's traditions of individual freedom, limited government, and personal moral responsibility, the Clinton impeachment melodrama abounded in evidence that America has undergone a dramatic transformation. If one were to credit the ubiquitous opinion polls and the outpourings of the "mainstream" media, the American people were nearly unanimous in their support for President Clinton, ...

The press is carrying George W. Bush's water for now, they're keeping him around with high polls numbers (they control the poll numbers by their coverage you know). BR> Why do this this? Well, they need to keep the right together but in disarray, it's too early to destroy the Repubican candidate as theat might spark a serious third party move which might awaken many dis-enchanted as happened in Minnesota. It is important that the media pin the hopes of the Republicans on GWB and that they carry him right up to the election before they ruthlessly bring him down. ...

The Clintons’ road trip: Real partners or master campaigners? Hillary Rodham Clinton has joined her husband in the Balkans. Do you think they are real partners? * 2330 responses Yes. They are partners in a functioning marriage. 7% No. This is just another campaign trip. 93%

In October 1998 NATO faced a dilemma:(1) while its member states were threatening air attacks(2) against Yugoslavia in response to Yugoslav attacks on Kosovo Albanians, they also recognized that Kosovo is clearly within the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia. On March 24, 1999, NATO resolved this dilemma by committing the first unprovoked, opposed military aggression in Europe since Soviet troops invaded Hungary in 1956. The attacks were clearly contrary to international law and to the UN charter.(3) The aggression took the form of intensive bombing of the Yugoslav "infrastructure," the first such massive use of air attacks in Europe since World ...

Two elderly Serb civilians have been attacked and killed in their homes in the Kosovo town of Prizren, in what appear to have been revenge attacks by Kosovo Albanians. The pair - a man and a woman - were attacked in their homes near the town centre, apparently by ethnic Albanian civilians armed with an axe. Both bodies had been badly mutilated by the time German K-For troops arrived on the scene. One eyewitness said the woman had been virtually decapitated. The motive appears to be revenge for what happened to ethnic Albanians at the hands of the Serbs ...

Black Lawyer Defends Va. KKK Leader By DAVID REED .c The Associated Press HILLSVILLE, Va. (AP) - A Ku Klux Klan leader defended by a black civil liberties lawyer went on trial today before an all-white jury on a charge of violating the state's cross-burning ban. Barry Black, of Johnstown, Pa., was charged Aug. 22 with violating a state law against burning a cross in a public place or on the property of another person to intimidate any person or group of people. The felony is punishable by one to five years in prison. Lawyer David Baugh, who took Black's ...