Free Republic

<p>We've never liked the idea of the International Criminal Court, and we like it even less having seen what happened earlier this month to the Washington Post.</p> <p>The United Nations tribunal investigating war crimes in the Balkans ruled that retired Post reporter Jonathan Randal, who is American, can be forced to testify about what he saw in Bosnia in 1993. If he doesn't comply, the court can instruct the French police to pick up Mr. Randal in Paris, where he now lives.</p>

Zimbabwe's government wants to dismiss a state prosecutor who has recommended a fine instead of a jail term for a British journalist charged with publishing "false news" . Sources in the ministry of justice have confirmed a report by the state-owned Herald newspaper that the government is investigating the prosecutor, Thabani Mpofu. Mpofu told the court during Andrew Meldrum's trial last week that if the journalist for the Guardian was convicted, the state would recommend that he be fined and would not seek a jail term. The sources said Mpofu's remarks had incensed Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo, who wanted...

<p>June 28, 2002 -- A talented Wall Street broker became pals with a corrupt Mexican governor-turned-drug-lord - and laundered $30 million of his cocaine profits through a maze of accounts at Lehman Brothers, the feds charged yesterday.</p> <p>The reputable financial house hired Consuelo Marquez, 39, from the New York office of a Mexican investment firm in 1995 - but the bosses say they didn't know she was bringing along a client whose millions came from protected drug smugglers.</p>

Animal abuse rampant after Zim land seizures June 28 2002 at 08:25AM The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) on Friday appealed to the public to help protect Zimbabwe's animals from "unspeakable atrocities" being perpetrated against them. IFAW President Fred O'Regan said the Zimbabwean NSPCA had recently found a pet pony that had had its hoof chopped off as a warning to its owner, a white farmer, never to return to his farm. "Pets are beaten, tortured and mutilated in acts of recrimination," O'Regan said in a statement. He said that IFAW had received reports recently of a farmer who...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's outlawed paramilitary force on Thursday declared support for what it said was a new rightist militia formed in neighboring Venezuela to wage "civil resistance" against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a 10,000-member militia, said in a letter that it supports a shadowy Venezuelan sister group that announced its creation earlier this week in a video sent to Colombian television. In the video, a man wearing a ski mask to conceal his identity said he had mustered 2,200 fighters to fight leftist Colombian guerrillas who cross the long jungle border into oil-rich...

WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- A fundraising letter distributed by a conservative advocacy group says Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., poses a "far greater danger" than accused American Taliban John Walker Lindh. The letter, which is being used by the National Conservative Campaign Fund to raise money for conservative candidates, compared Daschle's successful defeat of the Bush administration's plan for exploration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other Republican initiatives with Walker Lindh's alleged treason. After stating that Walker Lindh might deserve to die for joining the Muslim extremists in Afghanistan, NCCP head Tom Phillips said Daschle was...

On Monday, President Bush offered Palestinians pretty much everything they said they have been killing and dying for over more than a half-century. For Israel, the President outlined a plan that — even though heavily sprinkled with unanswered questions — he thought could end the terrorism that poisons every day of every Israeli Jew.So at once, Bush was denounced not only by Muslims and Europeans who relish Jewish sorrows and blood, but also by Israeli and American diplomats who for years made fat careers by running negotiations that succeeded only in strengthening terrorism inside Israel and slicing the country...

<p>Stamford, Connecticut, June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Xerox Corp. shares fell as much as 23 percent in Germany after the Wall Street Journal reported the world's biggest copier maker may have improperly recorded revenue of as much as $6 billion in the past five years. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter.</p>

ISLAMABAD, June 27: Pakistan said Thursday its determination to track down al Qaeda fugitives had been bolstered by the death of 10 of its soldiers at the militants' hands this week, but added it needed more Western help to do the job, reports Reuters Pakistan's army was hunting Thursday for a group of 20 or 30 suspected al Qaeda militants, who escaped this week after a botched raid on their hideout in the country's lawless west."Frankly this has motivated us more to make sure that these terrorists ... are brought to book," presidential spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi said. "They...

Two new probes of Crook Street are underway.Federal and local prosecutors are looking into allegations that stock analysts at several brokerage firms deliberately misled investors by hyping stocks they privately felt were dogs, the Daily News has learned.Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Manhattan U.S. Attorney James Comey have launched separate investigations of Wall Street analysts, say several sources familiar with the matter.Both probes center on whether analysts violated securities laws by intentionally giving misleading advice, the sources said.The probes mirror a noncriminal inquiry of Merrill Lynch by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer — who settled the...

<p>H, MY ... God! Since no politician can afford to be seen as godless, no matter how completely they lean on the everlasting arms of lobbyists, they rushed to fax machines to be the first to cast stones at the ruling Wednesday by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel held that the phrase ''one nation under God'' makes the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.</p>

FIVE South African boys have been killed and more than 50 seriously wounded in circumcision initiation rituals in hills south-east of Johannesburg. A so-called traditional healer - usually described outside Africa as a witchdoctor - and four of his subordinates were charged in court yesterday with the murder of five youths aged 15 to 22 who had attended two initiation camps. While deaths occur annually at circumcision camps, the killings in the hills above a small black settlement called Ratanga, near Heidelberg, have provoked outrage across all communities. Amos Mkhwanazi, 22, for example, was found frozen to death on a...

Let's make a deal.Martha Stewart's stockbroker has approached prosecutors seeking immunity from charges if he tells them whether his A-list client lied to the FBI to cover up insider trading, said a source familiar with the investigation. The broker, Peter Bacanovic, was put on administrative leave by Merrill Lynch last week after brokerage house lawyers discovered inconsistencies in his explanation about the sale of Stewart's ImClone Systems stock just before it collapsed.Manhattan U.S. Attorney James Comey is investigating whether the princess of potpourri made false statements to investigators when she answered questions in April about why she sold her...

Las Vegas Terror Threat Update - An Interview with the Man Who Heard the Call by J.J. & Nancy Johnson Published 06. 24. 02 at 10:14 Sierra Time FBI News Release, June 21, 2002: "The FBI's investigation into the allegations made by Michael Hamdan is substantially complete. The remainder is expected to be concluded in the next several days. Results of the investigation to date do not substantiate these allegations and the FBI has determined that this information is not credible." Hamdan sits with J.J. Johnson Sierra Times Photo Yet Michael Hamdan, 54, is sticking to his story -...

WASHINGTON A former government biologist whose Maryland apartment was searched for anthrax commissioned a 1999 study on how a bioterror attack could be carried out by mail. The study, meant to help improve defenses against bioterrorism, described what would happen if an envelope of weapons-grade anthrax were opened in an office. Letters containing anthrax that were mailed last October to offices of media organizations and Democratic senators killed six people and panicked the nation.The FBI says Dr. Steven Hatfill, 48, who worked in the government's secret Fort Detrick bioweapons labs in Maryland until 1999, is not a suspect and...

Beating what's likely to be the Democratic war drum in this year's elections, Al Gore blamed the nation's economic scandals — from Enron to WorldCom — last night on President Bush's economic policies."You see now what it means to have an administration that's that committed to fighting and working on behalf of the powerful, and letting the people of this country get the short end of the stick," Gore told more than 200 supporters at a Manhattan fund-raiser.It was his strongest attack yet on Bush's economic policies and a preview of the likely Democratic strategy for November's elections."What we...

ARAB WORLD TAKEN ABACK BY BUSH SPEECH ON MIDDLE EAST By Michael Widlanski Arab leaders and the Palestinian community were sharply taken aback by the tone and content of President George Bush’s Middle East policy speech that called for a change in Palestinian leadership. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat tried to put a good face on the Bush speech that did not mention Arafat but hinted broadly at the need for his replacement. Arafat’s WAFA press service issued a short statement welcoming the Bush speech, but privately Palestinian officials were outraged. “This is a slap in the face of the...

<p>The dreadlocked doyenne of comedy shocked - and thrilled - an audience attending a gay award ceremony at City Hall last night when she announced that she once dabbled in some sapphic sister acts.</p> <p>"There was a time I played on both sides of the street," Goldberg told an audience of about 600 at the Absolutely Fabulous 2002 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Awards.</p>

<p>A Palestinian living in Florida is believed to be an "important link" to "dirty bomb" suspect José Padilla and a possible al Qaeda network in the United States, it was reported last night.</p> <p>Padilla contacted Adham Hassoun of Sunrise, Fla., while overseas and was apparently headed to see him when he was arrested, CBS News reported.</p>