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HONG KONG, June 26 — A top Chinese official said there's no need for Hong Kong to move toward democracy, prompting opposition figures to charge Wednesday that Beijing was meddling in the territory's affairs. Vice Premier Qian Qichen told the South China Morning Post he supports Hong Kong's current electoral system — in which pro-Beijing forces and special interest groups recently re-elected Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to a second term, without opposition. ''This should be kept intact,'' Qian was quoted as telling the English-language Post in an interview published Wednesday. ''Hong Kong is a commercial city and one of our...

Anyone have the details from the Today show? We are all interested in how this interview went. Thanks!

Prayers and Guidance Needed for J. C. Watts Congressman J. C. Watts Jr. is a special friend of Conservatives. His Conservative beliefs run deep. His earliest lessons were from his father J.C. Watts, Sr. As a Baptist preacher in rural South (it doesn’t get much more rural than Eufaula, Oklahoma), “Buddy” Watts taught his son the truths of self-reliance, honesty and moral behavior. As the only Black Republican in Congress, J.C. has been the lightning rod for self-serving liberals who tell him he is not “black enough” or a discredit to his race because he does not agree with their...

COLUMN: Candidate pack is thick on horizon of governor's race John Maginnis Posted on June 26, 2002 Even with more than a year to go before qualifying, even before this fall's U.S. Senate election campaign gets into gear, the next governor's race has begun. If you've not heard from any candidates yet, take heart, for at this early stage, they won't be seeking your advice, your time or even your vote. They will want your money. Any candidate spending a lot of time talking about ideas and issues is losing ground in the chase for dollars. The early race already...

The End Is Nigh, Again Environmentalists insist that humanity really has overshot the earth’s carrying capacity this time. By Ronald Bailey The United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development is coming up at the end of August, so expect to see a spate of news stories warning that humanity is on an unsustainable economic path. To bolster this notion, environmentalists are positioning their views to make it easy for the press to echo them. In an article published this week by the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of environmentalists led by Mathis Wackernagel of...

MANILA, June 26 — Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Wednesday she was calling off the six-day-long search for the body of rebel commander Abu Sabaya, after viewing U.S. spy plane footage of the gunbattle in which he is believed to have been killed. Speaking to business leaders, Arroyo said U.S. spy planes recorded last week's sea gunbattle in which Sabaya, one of the Philippines' most hunted Muslim rebel leaders was believed killed by pursuing Filipino sailors. The military said Sabaya, the most well known leader of the the Abu Sayyaf group linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda...

There isn't much the city can do about a raunchy record company billboard that is causing an uproar on the Westside, legal and zoning officials told the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday. The news prompted Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents the area, to consider proposing a local law restricting the content of billboards near residential neighborhoods, schools and places of worship. The council also voted 11 to 0 to send the matter to a committee that will study the council's options regarding Tha Row Records' billboard, which features a cartoon character sitting on a toilet and a corresponding vulgarity....

BEIJING, June 26 — A top Pentagon official met with Chinese army commanders Wednesday to explore resuming military exchanges, which were curtailed last year after the seizure of a U.S. spy plane. U.S. Defense Department officials said last week that Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, would tell Chinese officials that such exchanges must be more beneficial to the United States. Contacts have included academic conferences, exchanges of students and visits to military installations. They were limited after a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided over the South China Sea on April...

MARILYN CHASE, The Wall Street JournalWednesday, June 26, 2002 ©2002 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/06/26/financial1000EDT0060.DTL (06-26) 07:00 PDT (AP) -- ATLANTA -- In an experiment unfolding under tight security, six rust and silver monkeys this past week grew listless, refused to eat, and broke out in blisters. Four have become sick, and two have died. The cause: smallpox. On June 18, microbiologist Peter Jahrling and a team of spacesuited scientists passed through steel doors with key cards, and entered an air-locked laboratory -- the "Hot Suite" -- at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their mission: to infect animals with...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “word for the day”. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the “word of the day”; in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on.... moil \MOIL\, intransitive verb; noun: moiles; moiled; moiling moiler; noun moilingly; adverb 1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge. 2. To churn or swirl about continuously. 3. Toil;...

<p>Conventional wisdom compares September 11 to Pearl Harbor. But this war's Pearl Harbor has yet to come. Before Dec. 7, 1941, World War II was known as the "Phony War." Hitler had invaded Eastern Europe, but America watched from safety beyond a great sea. One of America's greatest heroes, Charles Lindbergh heiled Hitler. Britain's Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, pursued peace at any price. The bombing of our embassies, the first World Trade Center bombings and the USS Cole — all these were battles in a unilateral "Phony War" in which we refused to engage. Now, like the English, the war has come to our own soil. And so, it's time for America's Churchill. A voice that says if we are going to fight, and fight we must, then we must fight to win. The American people, the whole world, must hear this message at every turn: We will fight to protect ourselves and we will win. Our victory will be convincing, complete and unconditional. The president began the year successfully rallying the nation, sounding much like the Churchill he so admires. But that good beginning has since been sullied by some hard to rationalize policy decisions. Administration officials have been predicting a coming holocaust, calling it "inevitable." Even our redoubtable vice president says the next attack is "not if, but when." As a realistic assessment of the future threat, this is important. But outside the context of assured ultimate victory, these statements are fatalistic defeatism, unworthy of the United States. And they raise an important question: Are we doing all we can to be ready for the worst-case scenario? A quick read of current headlines does not inspire confidence. While Osama bin Laden is regrouping, the American war effort includes the following incomprehensible actions: Our Federal Aviation Administration has denied weapons to most American pilots; National Guard troops have been pulled off of our Mexican border while at the same time we are loosening the inspections of semi-trailer trucks traversing that porous border; we hear of cargo ships with large, overseas-shipped containers coming off ships to our ports uninspected; we have arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants working in restricted areas of our airports with false Social Security numbers — an apparently easy thing to obtain for blending into society; and, it is still possible for foreign nationals from countries that sponsor terrorism to sponsor students at flight schools. We must win first, and here's how: We must identify our enemy. The enemy has common characteristics — we know who they are; we know the countries that encourage them. The political correctness that has airport personnel frisking grandmothers while young men who fit the profile of terrorists with one-way tickets and no luggage board unchecked must be stopped. We must secure our borders. Our enemy is within and without. One area that cries out for adult attention is the massive level of illegal immigration that has overwhelmed our ability to stop terrorists from entering the country. We need a wartime immigration policy. In the year 2000 alone, more than 100,000 illegal immigrants obtained Social Security numbers using fraudulent documents. The enemy must be kept out of our country. No visitor visas should be issued for nationals from countries harboring terrorists until our technology and manpower can deal with the massive numbers we are currently handling. Citizens from other countries who are here without permission should be sent home. Law-enforcement officials nationwide should be given immediately the list of illegal aliens already slated for deportation, rather than expecting the INS to do the job alone. A nationwide database for tracking international visitors should become top budget priority. We must realize we are at war. At this very moment our enemy is planning to kill more American families. Islamic terrorists are committed to bring America to its knees. The axis of evil continues to amass weapons of mass destruction. As the president has said, "time is not on our side." Saddam Hussein must be removed from power. The first President Bush was deterred from destroying Saddam in the Gulf War by voices of caution and hesitancy. Today, Saddam is our implacable foe bent on revenge, capable of producing and using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Anything less than absolute victory will signal our internal weakness and produce our eventual defeat. That leads to the last point: We must win. The only remedy to terrorism is to so completely crush the enemy that his will and ability to wage war is eliminated. Picture Berlin in May 1945, or Dresden or Tokyo. If our victory is not decisive, we place our children and our country's future at risk. Do we really want an America in which homicide bombings at the local mall are part of the price you pay for living in America? That will must be reinforced consistently from the top. In times of war, great leaders inspire, and surround themselves with like-minded warriors. King Henry challenged his troops before their great victory at Agincourt: "He that hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart." Those in the Bush administration who cannot support the war effort should stand silent behind the commander in chief. Faced by a resolute foe committed to our destruction, our country will be taking these steps, sooner or later. We can take these measures now before a dirty nuclear device is detonated in New York, Washington or your hometown. Or we can await that horror and get serious later. I know which choice I chose. Do we have the will to win? The lasting image of Winston Churchill from World War II is one of him signaling the V for Victory. And victory is what he achieved.</p>

<p>SNOWFLAKE - The U.S. Forest Service's strategy to combat the massive "Rodeo-Chediski" wildfire came under intense criticism Tuesday from Mogollon Rim residents who say firefighters abandoned the community of Pinedale and didn't use heavy equipment and other resources offered by private businesses and Apache County to protect the Heber-Overgaard area.</p>

NEW YORK (AP) - News of another accounting scandal sent stocks plunging at the start of trading Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrials dropping more than 100 points and below 9,000 for the first time since Oct. 10.An announcement from WorldCom that it had disguised $3.8 billion in expenses last year and early in 2002 stunned a market already mistrustful about corporate accounting following the collapse of Enron Corp. and revelations of bookkeeping irregularities at other companies.Investors responded with intense selling in the early going. The Dow was at levels not seen since early October, when the stock market was...

The switch from PC to Mac has been an intense educational experience, so I feel compelled to respond to Ken Elder's question. After a decade of being a PC user I purchased a souped-up hotrod of a G4 with "the works" in order to use FinalCut Pro software for video editing. After 9 months of working on a Mac I am not impressed. These are the myths that I have found to be less than accurate: 1. The real publishing world and graphic designers only use Macs; 2. Macs are more user-friendly; 3. You can find comparable Mac software for...

Anti-Syphilis Campaign Toned Down By CHARLES ORNSTEIN A smiling cartoon penis will star in a syphilis awareness campaign to be unveiled this week in San Francisco to stem sharp increases in the sexually transmitted disease among gay men. But the "Healthy Penis 2002" campaign--and its motto, "Making every penis a healthy penis"--has been rejected in Los Angeles County because health officials say it is too racy, demeaning to the gay community and potentially offensive to others. To read the rest, click HERE.

SYDNEY, June 26 (Reuters) - News Corp shares fell 8.1 percent on Wednesday as traders used the stock as a proxy for the the U.S. Nasdaq market, which is expected to fall after telco giant WorldCom Group disclosed almost US$4 billion in accounting irregularities. Shares in News Corp, the world's fifth-largest media company, dropped 86 cents to A$9.73 by mid-afternoon to levels not seen since December, 1998. The company's market capitalisation has shed A$10 billion in the past month. "A lot of hedge funds which use short sales as a strategy are doing quite well at the moment and are...

WorldCom Stock Halted After Shares Plunge Wed Jun 26, 8:24 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of WorldCom Inc. were halted after they lost almost all of their remaining value in premarket trading on Wednesday after the No. 2 U.S. long distance phone company said it discovered accounting inaccuracies of nearly $4 billion. The irregularities, which the Securities and Exchange Commission ( news - web sites) (SEC) said were of a magnitude never seen before, caused the company's already battered share price to plummet to 9 cents in premarket trade on Instinet. By 7:10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday 13.6...

<p>Earlier this week, CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan offered a mea culpa for giving disproportionate play to an interview with the mother of a Palestinian suicide bomber. This followed a memo in which Jordan said CNN would no longer cover ''the statements of suicide bombers or their families'' without an ''extraordinarily compelling reason.''</p>

On Monday President Bush courageously called for a real Palestinian democracy. But to achieve this goal, the present governing structures, including the well-armed security services staffed by terrorists, will need to be removed. This endeavor will entail risk and require resolve.In the face of these difficulties Egypt and Saudi Arabia (who don't really want an Arab democracy), and interest groups who value stability above all else will try to shift the focus to merely maneuvering Arafat out and replacing him with some more palatable figure. But the Palestinian leaders best placed for such a coup — Mahmud Abbas (also...

After each election we find our elected political leaders seem to have forgotten prolific promises to end poverty in this country. The U.S. Census confirms more than 41 million people in the United States are living in poverty. We need an epic plan to end poverty in civilization. Everyone is in agreement that poverty is a scourge on humanity and is one of the major causes of war, crime, and terrorism. Neither prayer nor charity has solved the problem. Poverty is a plague on society. We must elect political leaders who will remember the poor; poverty has no political representation....