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UK plans for UN reserve army By Rupert Cornwell BRITAIN AND France laid the foundations yesterday of what could become a stand-by army for the United Nations, able to intervene without delay as a peacekeeping force in emergencies around the world. The move was announced at a meeting in London yesterday between the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, George Robertson the Defence Secretary and Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General. Under the agreement, Britain will be putting up to 8,000 men on permanent standby for the UN. They will be front-line, rapid-reaction forces, backed by aircraft and communications, engineering and command-and-control ...

WASHINGTON, June 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) released a statement today condemning federal blacklisting regulations being circulated by the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration first announced that it would issue a regulation stating that federal contracts would be issued only to contractors with "satisfactory" labor records two years ago. The proposed regulation is expected to be published in the Federal Register by the end of June with a 120-day comment period. "The problem with the Clinton administration's blacklisting regulations is that innocent contractors can be banned from federal work simply due to 'allegations' of unfair labor ...

There's something about testifying in front of a grand jury. Your memory just goes all to hell. Do you recall all the, "I don't recalls" which peppered King Billy's testimony? Rush Limbaugh had great sport with this on his show when he put together and played a continuous string of such quotes from the boy president's mouth.All this, of course, is contrary to the widely reported power of King Billy's memory.We've already seen a White House steward's account of King Billy's outstanding memory for facts. At page 1607, Harold Ickes weighs in on the state of Billy's memory:"Q All right. ...

Although many Americans have allowed themselves to become desensitized to the horror or children slaughtering other children with automatic weapons, I am now fully convinced that the events in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999 crossed a line for a historically significant portion of Americans. A line from which--once it has been crossed--there is no turning back. And this my friends, this frightens those evil men and women who seek to use tragedies like Columbine for fascistic disarmament agendas to the depths of their very souls. I am not going to go into the gun debate in this article. But ...

Impeachment of Clinton may aid GOP after all By Ralph Z. Hallow THE WASHINGTON TIMES Republicans actually helped their image with voters -- and boosted their election prospects in the 2000 election -- by impeaching President Clinton, a leading Democratic pollster said Thursday. At the same time, Democrats are suffering from a delayed voter disgust with Mr. Clinton's scandals that has improved GOP chances for the presidency and Congress in next year's elections, according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. As a result of the "time-release" change in attitude among voters, moral values have become the dominant issue for voters ...

Reuters Photo Full CoverageKosovo Peace Agreement By Jonathan WrightWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will not give Serbia ``one red cent'' to rebuild unless the Serbs show remorse for atrocities by the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, President Clinton said Friday.``They are going to have to come to grips with what Milosevic ordered in Kosovo... If they think it's OK, they can make that decision, but I wouldn't give them one red cent for reconstruction,'' he told a news conference.Clinton linked Serbian remorse with the future of Milosevic, who has been indicted by an International Criminal Tribunal for war ...

QUAYLE TIED FOR SECOND IN  LATEST POLL OF GOP VOTERS Results of a nationwide FOX News / Opinion  Dynamics poll conducted June 23 – 24 that asked  likely Republican voters to identify the candidate  whom they believe should be the Republican  Presidential nominee (Source: FOX News, 6/25):    George W. Bush 54 %  Dan Quayle 9 %  Elizabeth Dole 9 %  Steve Forbes 4 %  Orrin Hatch 3 %  John McCain 3 %  Pat Buchanan 3 %  John Kasich 2 %  Rudy Giuliani 2 %  Gary Bauer 1 %  Bob Smith 1 %  

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE Cellular phones, the film "Titanic" and the World Wide Web will be among the 1990s memories represented on 15 new commemorative postage stamps issued next year by the U-S Postal Service. Nationwide balloting held last month offered the public the opportunity to select from 30 different 1990s subjects. Other subjects that'll appear on the stamps are Recovering Species...Gulf War... Improving Education..."Jurassic Park"...Computer Art and Graphics...` "Seinfeld"...Special Olympics...Baseball Records...Extreme Sports... Virtual Reality...Return to Space...and Sport Utility Vehicles. The stamps will be issued next April. (Editors: contact Don Smeraldi of the U-S Postal Service at 202-439- ...

DNC Donor From '96 Campaign Guilty WASHINGTON (AP) -- A figure in the federal campaign fund-raising investigation pleaded guilty Friday to mail fraud, tax evasion and assisting in an illegal $325,000 contribution to the Democratic Party using funds from a foreign national. Appearing in federal court in San Francisco, Yogesh Gandhi, 50, of Walnut Creek, Calif., also admitted that he obtained a corporate American Express card by signing the name of a business associate to the application without his permission. In doing so, Gandhi used the associate's credit rating to obtain a card, the Justice Department said. The mail fraud ...

Bob Woodward, Sacred Cow By L. Brent Bozell III June 24, 1999 Bob Woodward, one of Washington's sacred cows, is on another triumphant book tour. He glides along through interviews, without any heartfelt challenge from his colleagues to his journalistic practices. A few ask about his sourcing, but readily accept his refusal to discuss sources. As Salon's Jake Tapper exclaimed, "it's because he occupies a higher journalistic plane than the rest of us." His new book, "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate," is mostly about the Clintons and their parade of lies through the Lewinsky scandal. But the ...

Pro and Con London -- Every Spring about this time the popular British historian Paul Johnson and his wife Marigold hold a garden party at his London home. The mix of politicians, intellectuals, and businesspeople is unlike anything one would come upon in the United States. Political Correctitude is not yet a religion here. At the Johnson's party there are apt to be people from the left such as the playwright Harold Pinter and Lord and Lady Longford. Like me they are now war resisters. Then too there are authoritative, if divergent, students of the Balkan fracas, such as Noel ...

White teacher sacked for setting 'kaffir' story in exam By Anton La Guardia in Johannesburg     Definition of 'kaffir' - The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable   South Africa - Africa News Online   A WHITE teacher has been sacked from a school in Pretoria after setting pupils an English examination paper containing the word "kaffir". Black parents at the Cullinan school in Pretoria, formerly all-white but now catering for all races, protested when pupils were asked to write a report based on a short story by the South African author Herman Charles Bosman. Kaffir, an Arabic term meaning ...

News story BLACK GUARDSMAN SUFFERS ATTACK A black guardsman on duty in central London has been attacked by three men who sprayed a "noxious substance" in his face, before running off. The attack happened as the guardsman, from the Blues and Royals Regiment, was standing in full uniform in the archway outside Horse Guards, in Whitehall. Police are investigating whether the attack was racially motivated

Behind the Headlines June 25, 1999 TURKS IN A TIZZY The poor Turks: no matter what they do, no matter how deep and low they salaam to the West, no matter how eagerly they try to make themselves useful, they just can't get no respect. For decades, the military junta that really runs the country has been doing the bidding of the West. Turkey was a de facto American military outpost all through the Cold War, and the post-Soviet era has seen this relationship grow even closer. The Turks have even gone so far as to enter into a ...

The China Connection House Government Reform and Oversight Committee June 24, 1999 Prepared Testimony of Congressman Curt Weldon Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I welcome the opportunity to testify today -- not as a Republican looking for a target of opportunity to attack the Administration, but as a Member of Congress concerned about the politicization of national security matters and retribution against government employees who stood up against it.  In fact, it was my efforts to bring bipartisanship to the national missile defense debate that brought me here today. In 1995, the congressional leadership committed to passing legislation that would ...

In Race for 2000, a Tortoise and Hare Start Media Portray Gore Hobbled by Baggage and Running Out of Points Behind Bush In the picture painted by the press, Vice President Gore's White House campaign is hardly off to a great start. Interviewers have pressed him on his view of President Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lewinsky. Commentators have ridiculed his shouted oratory, with the Chicago Tribune's James Warren likening him to a "Baptist minister on amphetamines." And no report on Gore is complete without noting the early horse-race polls that show him trailing Texas Gov. George W. Bush by ...

President Clinton said today he's not surprised that ethnic Albanian are engaging in revenge attacks on Serbs ``after what they've been through,'' but he said NATO is doing its best to stop the violence as refugees return home. ``NATO is not letting it happen,'' the president said at his first news conference since March. ``We're doing what we can to stop it.'' Despite NATO's appeals, ethnic Albanians torched Serb houses in western Kosovo Thursday and looted Serb-owned shops in the capital of Pristina. Tens of thousands of returning refugees are exceeding NATO expectations. Asked about the lawlessness, Clinton said, ``I'm ...

Waiting for a Democrat: Who dares run against Asa? IT WAS a familiar ritual for ages in some parts of Arkansas: A sacrificial Republican candidate was trotted out to run against an entrenched Democrat. The results were predictable in a one-party state. These strange days, Northwest Arkansas provides a mirror image of how things used to be. Asa Hutchinson, the Republican heir to the Third District seat, is the Established One. First elected in 1996, he holds a congressional seat that has been in Republican hands since 1966. How secure is that seat with Asa? Well, you call him "Asa," ...

A guy has set up a web site at http://home.talkcity.com/ArenaBlvd/mar_1/fight_4_2_amnd_rites.html to show support of the 2nd Amendment. He is trying to achieve 1 million hits in 100 days. He has his counter set to only acknowledge each visitor once a year, so he's looking for real numbers. Please help him out.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) -- Energy Secretary Bill Richardson sought to reassure Asian-American scientists at the Los Alamos weapons complex Thursday that their loyalty is not in question, but he got the most heated feedback on another subject -- polygraph testing. Richardson, making his first visit to the weapons research lab since the Chinese espionage furor erupted in March, met about 600 workers, including Asian-Americans, to hear their grievances. Later, he participated in a similar session at the Sandia lab near Albuquerque. "Asian-Americans feel their patriotism is being questioned . . . and that their careers will suffer as a ...