Free Republic

U.S. cancels $1.4 million in debt owed by Belize in exchange for forest conservation By Associated Press, 8/2/2001 16:53 WASHINGTON (AP) The United States agreed Thursday to cancel a portion of Belize's debt in return for conserving 23,000 acres of tropical forest. The agreement provides Belize with $1.4 million in debt relief and will allow it to save $10 million in interest payments over 26 years, the Treasury Department said. ''President Bush is very much behind these kinds of arrangements,'' said John Taylor, Treasury's under secretary for international affairs. Belize is the third nation to benefit from a 1998 law ...

I am looking for some articles that have been posted here at FR about a homeschooling family whose youngest was nude in the front yard. Human services was called and things got tough for the family, they ended up in court. Does anyone remember this story? I was talking to a reporter recently and he totally did not believe that homeschoolers have it tough because of homeschooling. Any other urls or articles I could send him would be appreciated.

Settlers: Bring PA to verge of collapse By Margot DudkevitchJERUSALEM (August 2) - Settler leaders yesterday called on the government to adopt harsher measures against terror and, if necessary, bring the Palestinian Authority to the brink of collapse so it to realizes that terror does not pay. Benny Kashriel, chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, said that ordering the army to carry out retaliatory action, dubbed by the government "active defense," is not enough. "Instead of responding tit for tat, the government must launch a widespread and thorough operation against the entire Palestinian terrorist ...

Death In The Big Tent "A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land – the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. And worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?" – Jeremiah 5:30-31 It is doubtful that Jim Jones' followers knew when they signed up for duty that mass suicide was part of the package. Ditto for David Koresh and his followers at Waco – even though they had some help. But what about us? The scent of death is beginning to waft ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel voted Thursday to extend a ban on Internet-specific taxes for five years and declined to approve legislation that would help states tax online commerce. Democrats on the subcommittee and other supporters of the sales tax effort who had hoped to tie the two issues together said they would try again when the full committee takes up the matter in the fall. As the clock runs out on a temporary ban on Internet access taxes and other Internet-specific taxes, state and local governments have used the opportunity to pick up congressional ...

SHANGHAI -- Jimmy Li was an ordinary Taiwanese cop. He never expected to find a new career in mainland China, much less settle down there with his wife, two kids and his mother-in-law. "China's problems will be solved by economics, not missiles," said Lin. "When China is strong, Taiwan will want to come back automatically. Many of us already feel as if we are part of one country."

Pentagon fire forces partial evacuation By Associated Press, 8/2/2001 17:08 WASHINGTON (AP) A fire at the Pentagon sent heavy smoke billowing at midday Thursday and prompted the evacuation of several thousand workers. No one was hurt in the fire, which was extinguished by the Arlington, Va., fire department, said battalion chief John J. White. The Pentagon is in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from Washington. The fire apparently began in cables in an air duct and sent smoke through a portion of the southern section of the building, White said. About half the workers were asked to leave. On ...

The wide open spaces of America's virgin lands are one of the great glories of the United States, as successive presidents and large numbers of voters have recognised for more than a century. In voting through President Bush's energy plan by a comfortable margin, the US House of Representatives has disavowed both history and popular sentiment. It has amplified the anti-environmental message that the Bush administration has been sending to the world and set a dangerous course for the future. In agreeing to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and rejecting tougher fuel economy standards for large cars, ...

WASHINGTON (AP) The House ethics committee dismissed a complaint that Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer used government resources to help the Republican Party during the presidential election recount in Florida. The committee said, however, that a member of Buyer's staff did act improperly. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., last month filed a complaint claiming that Buyer used his position at the time, as chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel, to obtain e-mail addresses and other information on service members who voted by overseas ballot. The complaint said he gave that information to the Republican Party to influence the outcome ...

WASHINGTON - Israel has asked the United States to permanently base some Israeli fighter jets at a U.S. Air Force base in America for combat training of Israeli pilots, officials of the two countries said Wednesday. They told Reuters that Washington was considering the request to station a contingent of Israeli jets at a U.S. base but that no decision had been made. Such an agreement would be another sign of long and close military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel. Germany has a contingent of its fighter jets based at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and rotates ...

CAMPAIGN MISSION The Four-Part Mission of the Shake the Nation Campaign: ---To be a voice for the voiceless and encourage the President to nominate pro-life justices. ---Let the U.S. Senate know that millions of Americans support the confirmation of pro-life justices. ---To encourage and re-invigorate the pro-life community. ---Respond to the pro-abortion ad campaigns of NARAL and other pro-abortion organizations with a message of Truth.

Gunmen abducts three children from caseworker 08/02/01 BRYAN DENSON and ASHBEL S. GREEN A Grants Pass man engaged in a battle to get his three small daughters back from state custody took the children from a caseworker at gunpoint Wednesday afternoon and escaped in a state van, Oregon State Police said. Police searched through the evening for a white Chevrolet Suburban that they think he later put the children in. State Police said the gunman is Brian E. Christine, 28, and they also are looking for his wife, Ruth E. Christine, 28. Police did not say whether she was ...

Canadians Flee in Spanking Dispute Church Members Take U.S. Refuge By William Claiborne Washington Post August 2, 2001 CHICAGO, Aug. 1 -- More than 100 women and children from a fundamentalist church in Canada have fled their homes for rural communities in the Midwest over fears that authorities will seize their children because church members administer spankings with switches and paddles. The 28 mothers and their 80 children, members of the Church of God, a nondenominational church in Aylmer, Ontario, say they may ask for asylum in the United States.

GOP senator says Democrats have dropped 'so help me God' from witness oaths By Jeffrey Mcmurray, Associated Press, 8/2/2001 16:39 WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Jeff Sessions wants witnesses before Senate committees to say the oath, the whole oath and don't leave out God. The Alabama Republican scolded Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for leaving out ''so help me God'' when swearing in nominees and others who testify in front of his panel. ''Ninety-five percent of the people believe in God. An invocation of his name, in conjunction with the seriousness of telling the truth, has an importance beyond mere legal ...

MR. FLEISCHER:Good afternoon.I have a very lengthy list of nominations the President is making today, and so I would like to go through that with a little bit of background word on it as well.And then I want to give a preview of something the President will do shortly at his education event later -- early this afternoon. The President intends to nominate Pamela Hyde Smith to be Ambassador to the Republican of Moldova.The President intends to nominate the following 12 individuals to serve as United States attorneys:Susan Brooks with the Southern District of Indiana; Leura Canary, for the Middle ...

I have identified two more participants involved in the OKC bombing. They were from Arizona, known to the FBI and FBI Deputy Directors Larry Potts and Weldon Kennedy (originally FBI SAC in Phoenix), were in OKC on the day of bombing and were close associates and neighbors who met many times with McVeigh and Jack Oliphant, head of the Arizona militia in 1995. Oliphant died in November 1995. It is also known that these two John Does were with McVeigh in Kansas near Herrington around April 14, 1995 and traveled with McVeigh from Arizona to Kansas and then throughout Oklahoma ...

Medieval Sourcebook: Gildas: from Concerning the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio Britanniae) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gildas Bandonicus, a British [i.e. Celtic] monk, lived in the 6th century. In the 540s - in the most aggressive language - he set out to denounce the wickedness of his times. He ended up being the only substantial source which survives from the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain, and the best source before the much more impressive work of the Venerable Bede [who completed his Ecclesiastical History of the English People almost 200 years late in 731]. At any event, the Anglo-Saxons began arriving ...

Lima, Aug 02, 2001 (EFE) -- Peruvian Supreme Court judge Jose Luis Lecaros on Thursday declared ousted former President Alberto Fujimori a fugitive and issued an international warrant for his arrest. Lecaros told a press conference that his move came in response to Fujimori's failure to appear before a court hearing the case brought against the former head of state for desertion and dereliction of duty. Amid a crisis sparked by a corruption scandal involving presidential confidant and spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, Fujimori left Peru in November for Japan, from where he submitted his resignation as president. Peru's Congress ...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. CANTON, Ohio (AP) - The Timken Co., a bearings maker with operations in 24 countries, plans to cut another 300 jobs, about 15 percent of its work force, due to a slowing economy. Timken said Wednesday it would cut the jobs in North America and western Europe, most of them by December. The specific locations weren't disclosed. In April, Timken announced plans to eliminate 1,500 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force, as part of a restructuring meant to save $100 million a year. The company employs about 19,700 people, ...

The European Space Agency has started building a recycling system that will convert astronauts' waste into food, oxygen and water. The Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative (MELISSA) system could enable future astronauts to travel to Mars and back, an epic voyage that would take three years to complete. It could also be a vital feature of space bases on other planets. Michael Dixon who is leading part of the project at the University of Guelph in Canada thinks such research is integral to the future of space travel. "If we can't do it, we're not getting much further off this planet," ...