Free Republic

Feature: Foresters urge more tree thinning By Hil Anderson From the National Desk Published 6/29/2002 11:25 PM SHOW LOW, Ariz., June 29 (UPI) -- The old saying about fighting fire with fire is a truism that has grown closer to the hearts of professional foresters and the people who live in the fire-ravaged mountains of eastern Arizona this summer. With the huge Chediski-Rodeo Fire still savagely churning in the parched Ponderosa pines around Show Low, the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and other mountain communities, there was a renewed clarion call this week for an accelerated program of tree cutting...

ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands, June 28 — As part of its effort against terrorism, the United States has secured permission to station specially trained American customs officials in three large European ports in the coming weeks. The aim is to learn more about cargo heading for the United States and to screen sea containers for possible weapons of mass destruction, a United States Customs Service spokesman said. The agreement, announced here this week, will first involve the ports of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Antwerp in Belgium, and Le Havre in France. Talks are under way with five other European ports, in...

Fox News Channel reporting.

Moscow, June 29. (PTI): Pakistan has offered China naval facilities and listening posts on its Makrana Coast to keep an eye on Indian and American activities in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf, a Russian weekly reported. During their visits to Beijing in 2000, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz promised to provide Chinese Navy port facilities in Gwadar and Ormara naval bases, 'Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye' (Independent Military Review) weekly reported in its latest issue. They also offered to allow China to build a monitoring station on Makrana Coast to intercept US communications in the Gulf. China...

<p>A bogus street address in Venezuela, a free e-mail account and a wire transfer to a bank in Malaysia were all that was needed to publish a militant Islamic Web site that promotes Al Qaeda and asks readers to pray for America's destruction.</p>

'Friend and confidant' abused boys for 20 years 29.06.2002 By EUGENE BINGHAM When Father Alan Woodcock left after just a year at St Patrick's College, Silverstream, the school yearbook ran a glowing tribute. "Father Woodcock's stay at Silverstream has proved all too short," it said. "He quickly established himself as a friend and confidant to those boys with an interest in music and others who came to recognise and appreciate his availability and sympathetic approach." In fact, Woodcock was moved on from the Upper Hutt school after allegations of abuse by three boys. It was the second time complaints had...

JOHANNESBURG, 27 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - A move by Zimbabwe's frustrated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to boycott parliament could spell disaster for the opposition party, analysts warned on Thursday. They said parliament was the last remaining platform for the MDC to safely challenge the government. The Financial Gazette on Thursday quoted MDC's shadow foreign minister for Harare North, Tendai Biti, as saying it was futile for the MDC to continue in parliament if it was "solely going to rubber stamp ZANU- PF madness and misgovernance". Biti added that his views were shared by most MDC colleagues. However, the party's...

POONCH, June 29: Security forces today gunned down four more infiltrators—a total of six during last two days—on the Line of Control (LoC) in Balakote and Mandi sectors of this district belying Pakistan claims that infiltration (of the terrorists) has stopped. Defence sources here said the security personnel observed a group of six to seven terrorists trying to infiltrate into Indian territory through the LoC in Pakhwari Gali in Balakote sector in wee hours of this morning. Security personnel, who were maintaining a high alert on the LoC following last evening’s infiltration attempt in Angan Pathri area of Mandi sector,...

Catholics Are ´Blogging´ On the Internet ... to Evangelize by Tim Drake June 12, 2002 / If you haven´t yet heard of blogging, you soon will. The latest Internet trend in personal journalism, it is currently undergoing an explosion among Catholics, connecting lay Catholics, priests and seminarians across the country. Blog - short for Web log - is a cross between a traditional Web site and an online diary. Web logs allow individuals or groups of users to post news, links and commentary on an hourly or even minute-by-minute basis - free-of-charge and without the need to understand complex...

To no one's surprise, a joint Canadian-American inquiry into the accidental bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan reached the same conclusions yesterday as a Canadian inquiry that was simultaneously released. That is, that two American pilots were "the direct cause" of the incident in which four members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry died and eight others were wounded. The American inquiry - with a Canadian brigadier-general as its co-chairman - reached the same conclusion as that of a separate Canadian panel headed by retired general Maurice Baril. Both reports said the lead American pilot mistook for hostile fire...

Larson Joins Kennedy Townsend's Ticket in Md. By Daniel LeDucWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, June 27, 2002; 1:30 PM Kathleen Kennedy Townsend today named former Naval Academy Superintendent Charles R. Larson as her running mate on the Democratic ticket for Maryland governor.Townsend announced her choice at a morning press conference in Annapolis at which she called Larson "one of our great leaders." Her selection had remained a closely guarded secret among her top advisers.SNIP Until two weeks ago, Larson was a Republican. He is a close friend of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.); the two attended the Naval Academy together. Larson...

WASHINGTON - WorldCom's revelation this week that it fudged its accounts by $3.8 billion, followed by Xerox's saying it had booked billions of dollars in revenue before it should have, could whip the politics of corporate corruption into a Republican disaster. Democrats already were honing a populist attack line against President Bush and Republican lawmakers, arguing that they were too cozy with corporate America and out of touch with average people. The mushrooming scandals over fraudulent accounting, which began last year with Texas-based energy giant Enron, could make those attacks stick and drive Democrats to victory in November's congressional...

June 28, 2002, 11:07PM More light may be shed on Enron Bankers' transactions required inside cooperation, officials say By TOM FOWLER Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle THE charges filed against three British bankers Thursday for defrauding their company through an Enron-related partnership bring investigators within firing range of a number of Enron insiders. The bankers were charged by Enron Task Force investigators with defrauding their employer, National Westminster Bank, out of about $7.3 million through a complex transaction that required the cooperation of a number of former Enron executives. For the transaction, the three men and their Enron colleagues used a...

ABSTRACT: As the problem of “poverty” has been transmuted into the problem of “overpopulation” so have our consciences been mollified. We no longer feel so acutely our duty to make sacrifices in order to alleviate third world suffering with food, shelter, infrastructure, and the means to develop third world economies. We now can say, "It's your fault. If you'd just stop making babies, you wouldn't be living in poverty." Instead of corn meal, we ship them condoms. Rather than artificial contraceptives, which can have life threatening complications, always seem to be paired with abortion, and frequently undermine third world societal...

Appeals court says gun seizure by Wayne police was proper JENNIFER V. HUGHES The Wayne Police Department had the right to revoke a township man's firearms ID card and seize his weapons even though he had never run afoul of the law with his guns, according to an appellate court ruling handed up Thursday.Four DWI convictions over the past 20 years proved to be a problem for Thomas Whitney, the court ruling said."I don't go drinking with a gun. I use them for sport," said Whitney, 43, who works in construction. He said he is a National Rifle Association member...

Article Dated 6/25/2002 In his efforts to strengthen and put his administrative approval to the reauthorization of the welfare reform act of 1996, President Bush wants to "to encourage the formation and maintenance of healthy two parent married families and responsible fatherhood", especially among the poor, unmarried young people in this nation. He supports spending hundreds of millions in federal money to see this accomplished. I must say I support his efforts in this area because I believe that the federal government, instead of the reverse, should encourage two parent families. Yet, my main concern is the prevalence of illegitimate children in...

The coffee, paprika and tobacco need attention, but a legal battle to keep farming prevents Sharon Kockott and her husband from getting down to work on their land in Zimbabwe 30 June 2002 A deadline for most white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe to stop work expired at the beginning of last week. In just over another month, they are supposed to leave their land altogether, but many are staying put. Andrew Kockott and his wife Sharon bought their farm in the Hurungwe district of northern Zimbabwe in 1995. They grow tobacco, coffee and paprika under irrigation, and run cattle and...

President Robert Mugabe is threatening "stern action" against Zimbabwe's white farmers, who have vowed to defy his "lawful orders" to stop farming and vacate their properties to facilitate resettlement of black peasants. Mr Mugabe told a meeting of his Zanu-PF party's central committee late on Friday that he was also ready to clamp down on the MDC, the main opposition party, which is planning demonstrations against his rule, and any civic groups which sought to join in. "We shall not brook such nonsense," he warned. "The government and its appropriate arms are ready to deal most effectively with any planned...

Growing fire hits 700 acres, threatens DeadwoodBy Journal Staff and APDEADWOOD -- A ridge-running forest fire burned Saturday on the edges of Deadwood, threatening but not entering the northern Black Hills gambling town.Officials ordered residents, casino guests and others to evacuate Saturday afternoon. However, not every one complied in what residents said was chaos amid smoke and slurry bombers overhead.There were no reports of injuries.The timber fire was burning over more than 1,000 acres. An accurate size estimate was not available at 8:30 p.m., Beth Adam of the state Wildlands Fire Suppression Division said.The fire's cause was not immediately known,...

JIMMY CARTER: TRAITOR THE COMMUNISTS LOVE THEIR PAWN By: Alan Stang There is only one thing we need to know about Jimmy Carter, and it isn't the increasingly distasteful sex life he has been boasting about since the days he had lust in his heart. No other commentator we know of has said it, so I will. Carter is a traitor. He has committed the treason the Constitution cites, and needs to be indicted, tried and convicted. I'm not talking about his recent trip to Communist-occupied Cuba, which has made him even more of a joke--if that were possible--than he...