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Harare - The victory of Zimbabwe's ruling party in a hotly contested by-election suggests that President Robert Mugabe is likely to keep power if he contests next year's presidential polls, analysts have said. The result of the weekend poll, which came at a testing time for Mugabe's regime, was a blow to the two-year-old Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but the opposition party still poses a credible challenge. The MDC won 57 of the 120 seats contested in parliamentary elections in June last year, delivering the sternest warning yet to Mugabe since he gained power in 1980. The MDC's by-election ...

Washington, July 31 (Bloomberg) -- A bipartisan group of senators is proposing legislation that would give a tax break to low-budget movie and television producers who film in the U.S. Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, introduced the bill today. It would offer a wage credit for film, TV or cable productions with labor costs between $200,000 and $10 million. The U.S. loses more than $10 billion annually to countries with lower film production costs, the Directors Guild of America and other entertainment-industry trade groups said in a news release, citing a U.S. Department of Commerce study. Some ...

Fox has a serious article on a new line of men's lingerie... with dopey pix of men in spaghetti strap teddies. I've seen it all!! http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,30925,00.html

Chilean Court Authorizes Submitting Questions to Kissinger About Slaying of U.S. Filmmaker By Eduardo Gallardo Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 31, 2001 SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Chile's Supreme Court has authorized an investigating judge to submit questions to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about the assassination of an American filmmaker during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's rule. Judge Juan Guzman, who has sought unsuccessfully to try Pinochet on human rights charges, wants to question Kissinger as part of his probe into the death of Charles Horman, who was killed shortly after the dictator seized power. The court gave its approval ...

Adelaide - Australian police have blown a hole in the rotting body of a whale that had become a troublesome attraction for tourists watching sharks feed on its massive carcass. Television pictures were beamed around the world last week of great white sharks tearing chunks of flesh from the dead Southern Right whale. Sightseers in boats patted the sharks' snouts and even climbed on to the back of the whale as the sharks fed. Officials were aghast and even considered imposing new laws "to protect people too stupid to protect themselves". Sightseers in boats patted the sharks' snoutsSouth Australia state ...

Fox has a serious article on a new line of men's lingerie... with dopey pix of men in spaghetti strap teddies. I've seen it all!! http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,30925,00.html

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation criminalists reviewing cases assigned to Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist estimate their investigation could take another nine months. Since the investigation began 12 weeks ago, the five-member OSBI team has reviewed 421 of the 1,651 Gilchrist case files. The criminalists have recommended 62 cases for further review, Kym Koch, OSBI spokeswoman, said Monday. Criminalists have completed examination of all cases in which the defendant received the death penalty, life in prison without the possibility of parole or life in prison with the possibility of parole. "From here on out, the case file reviews will ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=list_threads&om=2390&forum=DCForumID35 SoCalDem (217 posts) Jul-27-01, 01:03 PM (ET) "Open Letter to the World....." LAST EDITED ON Jul-27-01 AT 01:05 PM (ET) To Whom It May Concern: Just a friendly note to let you know, that the imposter who is flitting around the globe, purporting to "represent" the United States,does not represent the majority of us. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for foisting this idiot upon the world stage. You see, we had an election in November 2000, and the majority of our nation voted for the other guy...Unfortunately, for us and you too, the imposter and ...

Some BIG news out here in California!!! I got an email from Simon campaign with a blurb about the filing today of the Simon campaign report (today is apparently the deadline for all the candidates to report their fundraising) and Simon has reported $3,300,000+ dollars raised! Of this $2.9 million was from donors and "only" (they think this is only? LOL - damn these rich guys) $590,000 or so was Bill Simon's money. This is great to take the wind out of the sails of the Draft Riordan effort!!! Simon the billionaire who already has money manages to raise $2,900,000+ ...

The Compassionate Amoralist Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century. By Jonathan Glover. Yale University Press. 464 pp. $27.95. Reviewed by J. Budziszewski Jonathan Glover is stirred and troubled by the atrocities of the twentieth century, and wants to know why ordinary people can commit such terrible deeds and how to prevent them. The volume that he gives us is clear, interesting, full of agonized tenderness—and deep in a suffocating darkness. "I have been thinking about this book for most of my adult life," he writes. "Since I first heard about the Nazi genocide, I have wondered how ...

6. Looter and scapegoat (continue to "Unbridle power of law enforcement agency" on July 30, 16:08 PDT) After I suffered from two hits from isotopic money, I asked myself:" Why they used that kind of money on me, an innocent man?" In 1993(or 1992), my family had a reunion. I told them how my health was hurt by isotopic money. Within a week, my youngest sister's house was burglarized for three times. First time, some Asians broke into the house, stole a safe box. After my sister reported police, they came again, this time brought with a black man. On ...

TORONTO, July 31 /CNW/ - Who says Canadians are shy? The Comedy Network has put out a cross-country casting call for noisy lovers -- raucous coital partners willing to share the sounds of their lovemaking on national TV. AFTER HOURS WITH KENNY ROBINSON will give 15 minutes of fame to Canadian couples willing to share one minute of audiotape featuring the sounds of their hot and freaky sex sessions. The best entries will be selected as the show's "Sexy Couple of the Week" and will be broadcast on AFTER HOURS, The Comedy Network's new, late-night urban comedy. Interested couples ...

Ex-Presidents: Create National Voting Holiday AP Former President Jimmy Carter Tuesday, July 31, 2001 At a Rose Garden ceremony Tuesday, President Bush welcomed the report from the National Commission on Federal Election Reform chaired by former Presidents Carter and Ford. While Bush avoided taking a stand on specific proposals recommended by the commission — including making election day a national holiday, restoring voting rights to felons and allowing voters challenged by poll workers to cast provisional ballots anyway — he praised the report as "impressive." "Today I accept their report and recommend the key principles drawn from the report as ...

PRISONERS OF AGENDA The families of 54 Indian soldiers missing after the war of 1971 try to find a new voice and a broader platform for their plight after the Agra talks By Sharda Ugra To some, cliches do not apply. Time does not heal wounds as efficiently as platitudes promise nor do memories and grief fade together in slow and perfect synchronisation. Jasbir Kaur has just spent a few minutes using her coffee table to map out the battlefield where her husband Major Kanwaljit Singh was last seen on a winter's evening in 1971. "I am a very brave ...

A big THANK YOU is due Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA/5th dist)who has signed on as the 17th cosponsor of HR 189, and the first in over a month.While we have heard no statement being issued yet, it is difficult to imagine that the efforts of Americans For HR 189: Repeal The Motor Voter Law which has been spearheading the effort to get HT189 out of committee and onto the floor of the House for an unamended vote.These efforts currently include "SUPPORT HR 189: REPEAL THE MOTOR VOTER LAW", an online petition that has in only three days already gathered more ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Russian test of a long-range missile is getting a close look from the Bush administration to determine if it is part of a program designed to foil a U.S. anti-missile shield. For intelligence reasons, U.S. officials are reluctant to discuss the test except to say a long-range missile was tested about two weeks ago. Among the questions under review are whether the missile's flight took an unusual path and whether it carried new technology designed to overcome missile defense plans being explored by the Bush administration. Officials briefed senators and the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel ...

DENVER, Colorado, (Zenit.org).- ZENIT is reprinting a column written by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput on the topic of human embryos and stem-cell research. U.S. President George W. Bush is now deciding whether to allow federal funds for such research. In embryonic stem cell research, end does not justify the means In the debate over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, some of the massive media coverage has been fair, accurate and thorough, but much of it -- too much of it -- has fallen short of reasonable journalistic standards. By far the most troubling piece I´ve seen was the ...

Congress is hearing today about invasion of privacy concerns raised by the use of red light cameras. Critics say the systems are set up, not to improve safety, but to raise revenues for the cities that use them. Law enforcement support the devices, citing drops in crashes and intersections where the cameras are used. Do you favor the use of red light cameras at intersections? Link to Poll

Tuesday July 31 3:37 PM ET U.S. Criticizes Israeli Hamas Attack By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) and the State Department on Tuesday deplored Israel's deadly attack on Hamas offices on the West Bank, calling it a violation of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer (news - web sites), conveyed the president's views to reporters, saying, ``Violence is violence, and the president has deplored the violence in the region.'' A State Department spokesman, Charles F. Hunter, said targeted killings of Palestinians and the killing and ...