Free Republic

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Sunday endorsed a Nigerian-brokered deal to end his controversial land seizure drive in exchange for funds to implement a fair and just land reform program. Mugabe, whose personal seal is crucial to the deal, said he accepted the agreement in principle, but needed to pass it through his ruling ZANU-PF party politburo and the cabinet. ``We accept it...but we need to go through processes. They are legal and political,'' Mugabe told a news conference in his first public reaction to the pact under which Britain pledged to help finance Zimbabwe's land reform ...

Last year when Bush warned the economy was slowing and tax cuts were needed, now the dems are claiming it all just happened....Last year when congress drew up the budget we are living in now, they increased spending 12.8% aprox....now all of a sudden the money's gone and it's Bush's tax cut, (which I point out for those who have trouble with reality) has only just begun, and his budget, that will grow us out, is being held up by people in the senate, who paraded on TV today like people who know they may not get re elected......Senators Dashle ...

Two things: If you haven't seen "Pay if Forward" with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and "I see dead people" HaleyJoel Osment, go rent it. Second, if you haven't thought about a teacher that made a difference in your life, think about one. I guess I'm an old softy when I think about three or four teachers that I was lucky enough to have had in school. I've been out of University since '79 so you can do the math and the NEA back THEN isn't like it is today. Teachers were to be respected and obeyed. Mr. Bart Eiduke, ...

ANOTHER CHINABy Francesco Sisci PART 3: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE (Cont) CHAPTER 11: Peace or war? 11.1 Peace without peace World War II had barely ended when humanity plunged into another fierce confrontation, this time between those for and those against communism. The camps, led by the United States and the Soviet Union, convinced the world that it was on the verge of a nuclear holocaust. Entire generations grew up under this shadow. As historian Eric Hobsbawm points out, until the 1970s the Cold War was actually a cold peace, with both Americans and Russians careful not to escalate tension to ...

Is North Korea Stalinist? By Aidan Foster-Carter Some people find Stalinism offensive. Not the reality, which would be understandable considering the body-count - but the word, as applied to North Korea. Sometimes this is what the late Nobel economics prize winner Gunnar Myrdal called "diplomacy by terminology" - as in the phrase "developing countries", many of which aren't. True, it can be irritating when the Seoul press lazily uses "the Stalinist state" as a homonym for North Korea or the DPRK: either to put the boot in, or just avoid repetition. They do this less now, under the "Sunshine" policy. ...

Put your cat's intelligence to the test  Story By Mike Peters (Editor's Note: This has been a very, very, very busy week, so the jerk that usually writes this drivel didn't get a new column finished. After we beat him unmercifully for about two days, he finally came up with the following rerun of on oldie but goodie. He'll be back with a new column next week, or else.) Well, there I was, watching a Very Important Documentary on PBS entitled "Was Mr. Ed Really A Talking Horse, Or Was He Just Two Fat Guys in a Horse Suit?" and my ...

Nichols trial witness list expanded -- Testimony sought to strengthen case 2001-09-09 By Nolan Clay Staff Writer The revived state murder case against Terry Nichols will feature witnesses who were not used or banned from testifying at his federal trial. Among them will be a former U.S. Senate aide who recalls Nichols complained about the federal government just two days before the Oklahoma City bombing. "I was ... in shock," Lee Alexander said of recognizing the name of the caller after Nichols was arrested. Prosecutors sought new witnesses to strengthen their case against Nichols in hopes of avoiding an ...

This is a third thread, continuing the "The Real Murderers, Atheists or Christianity."

We are seeking suggestions and/or links to materials to help us educate our 9 yr old daughter on the Birds and the Bees. We raise her with Christian principles and involvement. She is a bright, happy child and we think it's time to begin speaking about this subject to her. Neither of our parents did this for us, so of course we learned from "the culture". Thank you in advance for any help/ideas/links you can share on this subject.

Scientists have created the ultimate GM crop: contraceptive corn. Waiving fields of maize may one day save the world from overpopulation. The pregnancy prevention plants are the handiwork of the San Diego biotechnology company Epicyte, where researchers have discovered a rare class of human antibodies that attack sperm. By isolating the genes that regulate the manufacture of these antibodies, and by putting them in corn plants, the company has created tiny horticultural factories that make contraceptives. 'We have a hothouse filled with corn plants that make anti-sperm antibodies,' said Epicyte president Mitch Hein. 'We have also created corn plants that ...

It's been a long night folks. Joseph Ferguson is still out there. Our shaken Burns Security officers who spent the night here at the center, answering question as we streamed this tragedy live and they comforted other employees who called in, have headed home. We know now, Burns knows more than we're hearing in the media. We know the City can't afford to make much noise ... who will replace all those contract private cops at city facilities. Sacramento Police officers put in one heck of a night, double shifts for most. See, those 400+ Clinton Crime Bill cops and ...

Australia in the shadow of the giant By Purnendra Jain and John Bruni ADELAIDE - During his visit next week to Washington, Prime Minister John Howard will celebrate with his American counterpart President George W Bush the 15th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty under which the United States has underwritten Australia's security. The US has secured a most trustworthy ally in the South Pacific, whose loyalty was clearly demonstrated recently when Australia unequivocally supported Bush's National Missile Defense (NMD) program. Canberra now commands a better standing in Washington's policy-making circles than before because both Japan and South Korea, the two ...

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Authorities sealed off a northern Nigerian state hit by Muslim-Christian violence, and warned communities across the state Sunday to be on guard against the conflict's spread. Residents of the 4 million-resident city of Jos, contacted by telephone, said the killing was persisting for a third day, despite deployment of the army Saturday. Rival Christian and Muslim gangs were playing cat-and-mouse with police and troops, singling out targets of opposing faiths and killing them when security forces were not around, residents told The Associated Press. The pace of the killing appeared to have slacked off from its ...

Elementary student charged with making terroristic threats By HOLLI DEAL ROACH, Reporter for the Statesboro (Ga.) Herald A nine-year-old boy was charged Thursday with making terroristic threats after he reportedly told two other Julia P. Bryant Elementary students that he was "going to kill them."       Statesboro Police reports revealed the child was charged, then released into his parents' custody.       Julia P. Bryant Principal Kelly Tharp said Friday the child was also disciplined according to Bulloch County Board of Education policies governing such infractions. Threats of any kind are not tolerated, according to school officials.       The incident was treated "as we ...

Reparations issue bogus    By Ron Woodgeard The Macon Telegraph Having been born on the Fourth of July in Ohio, I don't figure I owe anybody reparations for slavery. Naturally, I can't speak for the the rest of ya'll. If my ancestors fought for anybody during the Civil War, they fought for Mr. Lincoln. Since most of my early relatives were lacking an education, I doubt they gave much thought to the South's insistence on keeping slaves. If they had lived in the South, they certainly could not have afforded slaves. They were so poor and ignorant, and their ...

SEPTEMBER 10, 2001 Getting Radical Malaysians practice a famously gentle Islam. But a jihad mentality is starting to take root BY SIMON ELEGANT Kota Baru For a man in his position, Taufik Abdul Halim is serenely calm. The 26-year-old Malaysian lies on blood-stained sheets in a police hospital in Jakarta, far from his home in Johor. His left leg is a mass of wounds wrapped in grimy bandages. His right leg has been amputated below the knee. When he awakes from the anaesthetic, he is informed that policemen are guarding him around the clock and that he faces prosecution ...

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 08 2001 Why women have sex on the brain BY NIGEL HAWKES Scientific study has answered the question of why we fall in love in the most unromantic way possible THE question that has perhaps most obsessed and mystified the poets, philosophers and thinkers — why do we fall in love? — has been answered in the most unromantic way possible: by the scientific study of the humble prairie vole. Music was the food of love in Shakespeare’s book, but the truth, according to Professor Gareth Leng of the University of Edinburgh, lies in a “love potion” ...

      Individuals, companies using ''.org'' won't be evicted, task force decides MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) -- A task force established by the organization that oversees Internet addresses said Saturday that the group has no plans to restrict the use of the suffix ''.org'' to nonprofit groups. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, had indicated in the spring that ''.org'' might eventually be limited to nonprofits, sparking fears among other users that they might be forced to abandon the suffix. But a task force convened by ICANN -- a private group selected by the U.S. government ...

Give illegals the rights they have earned Cynthia Tucker - Staff Sunday, September 9, 2001 The newspaper story of the immigrant Mexican boy's bitter disappointment was poignant and memorable. Under the headline "The Dreams of Rigo Nunez," Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Jim Dyer profiled a 17-year-old who, despite a childhood of hard labor, became one of the brightest and best at Dalton High School in the nation's carpet capital. Rigo worked hard because his teachers assured him his academic talents would help him secure a scholarship to college. He did not wish to spend his life as a laborer in a ...

1 million jumpers fail to set off quake EXPERIMENT USES CHILDREN TO TEST SCIENTIFIC THEORY LONDON (AP) -- What is the impact of a million people jumping? Not a lot, scientists found. Seismologists said Saturday that an experiment in which more than 1 million children jumped up and down simultaneously in the hope of triggering an earthquake had produced scarcely a tremor. Children at London's Science Museum and at 5,000 schools around Britain jumped up and down for one minute at 11 a.m. Friday. Scientists predicted that the jump would release 2 billion joules of energy -- the same amount ...