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China WTO entry possible this year, Barshefsky says WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - China appears to still want to join the World Trade Organisation this year, despite political problems that have derailed negotiations with the United States, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said on Thursday. ``They've continued to negotiate with other trading partners, the non-NATO countries, particularly Japan, Australia, Brazil and others,'' Barshefsky told reporters after a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on trade. ``I think that indicates they have still set their sights on entry in 1999,'' she added. China and United States came close to striking a deal on ...

This article was published in Spanish. This is a very rough translation, for anyone who is interested in reading the orginal article in Spanish you can find it here China is operating in Cuba a sophisticated network of electronic espionage towards the United States, which the regime of Fidel Castro in electronic his denominated ``War against Yankee Imperialism ' in agreement with sources of intelligence and documents of governmental agencies also takes advantage of to which the New Herald has had access. ``For Chinese the use of Cuba as base of electronic listening is of a tremendous importance, because means ...

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Pristina Serbs say they are being "terrorised" by armed Albanians PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 24 (AFP) - The murder of three Serbs at Pristina's economics faculty on Wednesday night did little to reassure the thousands of Serbs already packing and leaving their homes in Kosovo's capital, many of them saying they had been expelled from their appartments by armed ethnic Albanian groups. Nor did the Serbs seem to be reassured by the Thursday visit to Pristina by NATO's Secretary-General Javier Solana and the alliance's supreme commander General Wesley Clark, who both spoke of "security for all the citizens of Kosovo." "The ...

  - HillaryNo.Com - Giuliani Web site encouraging Hillary not to run for Senate from New York. - RunHillary.Com - urging the First Lady to run for the New York Senate seat. - Hillary4Senate.org - the latest on the First Lady's possible candidacy. - HillaryYes - satirical take on Hillary's possible New York Senate run. - White House: Office of the First Lady - site includes her weekly column, speeches, photos. - Hillary Rodham Clinton - official White House page. - Hillary Rodham Clinton Biography - from the White House. - Hillary: A 'Woman Wronged' - profile of the First ...

A lthough activated by spirit of competition and by complex of inferiority, Russian paratroopers have arrived at Pristina--capital of Kosovo--before NATO troops, it's a little consolation. Small unit of Russians crossed border between Bosnia and Serbia and finally stationed its camp near Pristina airport. And what? Will they fight NATO troops? Hell no. Act of weakness and desperation. It is awfully depressing to watch a NATO victory over Yugoslavia. Eleven weeks of awfully costly bombardments and medium-size country, European, independent, with an experienced, courageous army, is on its knees. Blitzkrieg, however, was made possible by multiple factors: 1). By concentration ...

GOP Rebounding Among Public Opinion By Ben Anderson CNS Staff Writer 24 June, 1999 (CNS) - Despite some reports indicating ties with congressional Republicans could prove to be a liability for Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor George W Bush, a recent "Battleground" survey indicates public opinion is on the upside for the GOP. The bipartisan poll conducted by Democrat pollster Celinda Lake and Ed Goeas shows Republicans are leading Democrats by eight percentage points in a generic presidential ballot, 43 to 35 percent. Among generic congressional races, the poll indicates both parties are dead even at 39 to 29 ...

6/24/99 -- 4:58 PM Newspaper report says NATO bombing damaged just 13 Serb tanks LONDON (AP) - Despite thousands of sorties with sophisticated precision weapons, NATO's 78-day bombing campaign damaged just 13 of the 300 Serb battle tanks in Kosovo, the Times of London reported Thursday. Defense Correspondent Michael Evans, reporting from Kosovo, said NATO troops fanning out across the Serb province have so far come across only three crippled tanks. Asked to comment, Britain's top military commander, Gen. Sir Charles Guthrie, acknowledged NATO did not know exactly how many Serb tanks its bombers hit. ``Mathematics isn't everything. I have ...

Politicians Think We're Fools; They're Right Don FederJune 23, 1999 If politics doesn't make you cynical, nothing will. Prepping for a Senate race next year, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman is parading in pro-family drag. Whitman, a Republican who's dogmatically pro-abortion and slavishly devoted to gay rights, has indicated she'll sign a modified parental-consent law for minors seeking abortions, pending before the state legislature. The governor also looks with favor on a gay-marriage ban. Whitman has been elected governor twice, in off years, by margins of less than 1 percent. She'll be running for the Senate in a presidential ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Extending its support of NATO intervention in Kosovo, Turkey is contributing 1,000 peacekeepers who will arrive in the province within a few days to serve alongside German troops, Turkish Ambassador Baki Ilkin said today. Moving into Kosovo through Bulgaria and Macedonia, the Turkish troops will be deployed mostly in areas where the 60,000 people of Turkish ancestry live, Ilkin said at a news conference. Turkey, a NATO member, supported the NATO bombardment campaign and took in 17,600 refugees from Kosovo while housing 10,000 others in tents in Albania and Macedonia, Ilkin said. No European country has done ...

The American medical system has traditionally provided us with the best health care available in the entire world. Patients from all over the globe travel to the United States to receive care and treatment that is either not available, or is rationed, in other countries. Now, under the guise of "healthcare reform", and with the active cooperation of the health insurance industry, managed care companies, and the politicians in Washington D.C., a move is afoot to limit the care that is available to American citizens, to limit our access to doctors of our choice, to limit the use of the ...

WASHINGTON, June 24 (UPI) - A federal judge in Washington earlier this week levied a judgment of more than $1 billion against Mideast businessman Abdul Raouf Hasan Khalil in connection with the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International, better known as BCCI. British-appointed liquidators of the notorious bank had filed the suit, claiming Khalil had cooperated with fraudulent schemes by BCCI's former management. Banking regulators around the world seized the corporations collectively known as BCCI in July 1991, uncovering the largest international bank failure in history. "Eight years later," U.S. Judge Joyce Green said in her opinion handed down ...

Note to Freepers: The latest Pew Research poll is all WET: Republicans are NOT Suffering a 10% deficit in congressional Generic preference ballot polling, as the just-released, non-partisan Battleground poll shows........JohnHuang2 BI-PARTISAN NATIONWIDE SURVEY SHOWS DIVIDED ELECTORATE IN SEARCH OF LEADERSHIP ON MORAL VALUES AND KEEPING AMERICA PROSPEROUS, WITH HISTORIC BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS GOING INTO THE NEW MILLENIUM WASHINGTON, D.C. -- June 23, 1999 -- Americans are evenly divided in their partisanship and in their preference on the generic Congressional ballot, and while very satisfied with the economy, are growing increasingly concerned about lack of ...

FOR RELEASE: June 24, 1999 Paul leads effort to stop National ID Bipartisan team supported by broad-based coalition WASHINGTON, DC -- Calling on the federal government to end its war on the privacy rights of American citizens and the prerogatives of state governments, US Rep. Ron Paul (R, Texas) is leading a bipartisan team attempting to stop the national ID card, which is set for implementation on Oct. 1, 2000. The Privacy Protection Act of 1999 was introduced Thursday, June 24, to repeal the sections of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibilities Act that set the national ID ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday that the Justice Department will be ready to take on the job of appointing special prosecutors to investigate misconduct by high government officials when the independent counsel law expires next week. Reno said the department is nearly finished crafting new rules it will follow in naming special investigators. ``Our regulations will be ready by July 1,'' she said at her weekly news briefing. Barring any last-minute attempts to keep it alive, the independent counsel law, which spawned Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Clinton and 20 other probes of high-level officials over ...

PRIVACY NEWS UPDATE ------------------------------------ THREE QUICK ACTION ITEMS: 1) CURRENT ONLINE PETITION: Know Your Customer Sunset Act (HR 516) and Bank Secrecy Sunset Act (HR 518) gaining cosponsors. If you haven't signed the online petition, please do so today. 2) NEW ACTION ITEM: July 9th deadline set for public comment on new privacy-violating regulations from the US Postal Service. They're only accepting comments via U.S. mail. 3) IMMEDIATE ACTION ITEM: U.S. House will vote Thursday (June 24) to reform asset-forfeiture laws ------------------------------------ Here's what's going on in the fight for privacy: 1) CURRENT ONLINE PETITION: Know Your Customer Sunset Act ...

"The role of a newspaperman," legendary Chicago reporter Finley Peter Dunne once wrote, "is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Simple rule. Good rule. Notice Dunne didn't say "journalist." Dunne hated the term "journalist." A journalist, he once said, is "an unemployed newspaperman." Dunne worked for newspapers when such jobs were fun. You raised hell and took names later. You drank hard, lived hard and took no prisoners. Politicians existed only to be exposed. Elected officials? Obviously corrupt. It was only a matter of time when you caught them at something criminal. Newspapermen were overworked, underpaid outsiders. ...

MSNBC's so-called News Chat has a new all-Hillary, all the time format. You know the drill by now: She's a "victim", anyone who even mildly disagrees with her is, of course, a "hater". Anyway, follow this link to the News Chat Question of the Day to "vote", as it were...Oh, and while you're at it, email MSNBC and tell them, politely, what you, gentle reader, think of Hillary...

World Bank approves China loan, critics outraged By Mark Egan WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - The World Bank tried on Thursday to defuse one of its most bitter disputes in years as it approved a $160 million loan to China that had angered its biggest shareholders and outraged Tibetan activists. The loan, to be used in part to resettle 58,000 poor Chinese farmers to an area where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was born, put the bank at the centre of a political storm prompting myriad cries of foul. Among those who opposed the project in recent days were ...

Fight Internet Taxes Sign the petition click here for the petition To add your voice to the fight against taxing Internet sales, sign our petition. We will registered your name and will include it when we submit the petition to the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC). The Petition Project needs word-of-mouth publicity to succeed. The more people who sign the petition, the stronger our case will be for keeping the Internet a tax-free zone. You can help by forwarding our web site address http://www.fightnettax.com, to your friends and colleagues. Or you can go to this location to send an already-written ...