Free Republic

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Turkey, the only Muslim NATO member, took command Sunday of the strategic Kabul airport, the key lifeline for the Afghan capital and international peacekeepers stationed in this war-ravaged country. Turkish air force Col. Kazem Ondul accepted command from Britain of the 2,453-member international force stationed at the airport. Britain is expected to scale back its forces in Afghanistan. On June 20, Turkey — an historic Afghan ally — took command of the 19-nation peacekeeping mission in the capital. ``Our mission is to run and maintain the airport up to international standards and one day return it...

The fat-busters By Avi Shmoul The desire to be thinner and more shapely can carry a heavy price tag: About $4 billion was spent in the United States in 2001 on liposuction surgical procedures. The price tag can sometimes be more than just financial. There are potential costs to one's health: Invasive surgery can pose several dangers. If the invention jointly created by Dr. Ami Glicksman, a plastic surgeon at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, and Dr. Yoram Eshel, a physicist specializing in the use of high-power ultrasound to destroy blood clots without the need for invasive surgery, successfully passes...

<p>Miller and Solot met in an anthropology class at Brown University nearly 10 years ago. As bisexuals, both became activists for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights. They've been together since college and say they have a monogomous relationship.</p> <p>He does the dishes and she does the laundry. She balances their shared checkbooks and he pays the rent. They have been completing each other's sentences for almost a decade. But don't mistake Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller for husband and wife.</p>

Paolo Esperanza, bass-trombonist with the Simphonica Mayor de Uruguay, in a misplaced moment of inspiration decided to make his own contribution to the cannon shots fired as part of the orchestra's performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture at an outdoor children's concert. In complete seriousness he placed a large, ignited firecracker, which was equivalent in strength to a quarter stick of dynamite, into his aluminum straight mute and then stuck the mute into the bell of his quite new Yamaha in-line double-valve bass trombone. Later, from his hospital bed he explained to a reporter through bandages on his mouth, "I thought...

<p>Brig. Gen. David Tzur and Minister of Interior Security Uzi Landau met with U.S. officials Thursday in the hope of creating a new office to fight terrorism.</p> <p>The office, to be in Washington, would monitor an almost instantaneous communications link between the proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Defense and the Israeli government on matters of homeland security. Visa policies, terrorist profiles and virtually all other internal security data — except classified intelligence — would be swapped by computer, fax and telephone.</p>

DECKERS, Colo. - It was not an easy sell when the Forest Service came to people living among the crowded trees of the Rockies last summer and said it wanted to set the woods on fire. What the foresters had in mind was not just a little burn, but a big blaze, 8,000 acres of national forest land bordering some very expensive new houses. Homeowners in the area were incensed. Suburban communities said that the smoke would hurt people's health. And Colorado politicians tried to stop it and other planned fires, citing fears that the flames might get out of...

U.S. Building Up Forces at Obscure but Important Air Base in Qatari Desert AL-UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar June 30 — If President Bush ordered airstrikes on Iraq, this vast, remote and little-publicized base in the central Persian Gulf would be a critical hub for U.S. warplanes and their aerial pipeline of bombs and supplies. The government of Qatar is spending millions of dollars to expand al-Udeid. Over the past months, the U.S. military quietly has moved munitions, equipment and communications gear to the base from Saudi Arabia, the control center for American air operations in the Gulf for more than...

<p>CAPE TOWN — U.S. millionaire Steve Fossett was heading out over the Indian Ocean on Sunday on the last leg of his attempt to fly a balloon around the world solo.</p> <p>At 9 a.m. EDT, Fossett was making for Australia after crossing the eastern coast of South Africa, near the resort town of Margate, and descending to 11,000 feet to avoid thunderstorms, according to his Web site.</p>

<p>With Independence Day nearly upon us, we thought it an appropriate time to reflect that the word "independence" comes from the noun "independent" whose meanings include "not being under control" and "unwilling to be under an obligation to others."</p> <p>It is a bit sad, during this week of patriotism, to encounter the oxymoronic world of Washington. As we celebrate a day of independence — not being under control and unwilling to be under obligation to others — we witness those who are dedicated to making a decent president look stupid and others intent on making a flamboyant, corrupt former president and his family appear upright and conscientious. Obligations and control — your name is politics.</p>

<p>IF you watch enough TV, you will see that the governor's race is showing a little life -- at least a little dueling-commercials life.</p> <p>Gov. Gray Davis and his Republican opponent, investor Bill Simon, have rolled out some new campaign ads that present California voters with this enticing choice: a rotten, money-grubbing governor or a rotten, money-losing businessman.</p>

THE United States was ready last night to force the collapse of the United Nations mission in Bosnia over a bitter clash with its closest allies. Washington was preparing to use its veto power in the UN Security Council to block the routine six-month renewal of the UN’s police-training operation in Bosnia because Britain and other allies have refused to grant US peacekeepers immunity from the new International Criminal Court, which comes into force today. America has rejected the jurisdiction of the new court and removed its signature from the Rome treaty that established it, saying that US troops and...

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - President Robert Mugabe has accused mining giant Anglo-American Corp. of hoarding salt amid Zimbabwe's hunger crisis and threatened to seize the company's local assets, state media reported Sunday. Mugabe said his government "will not tolerate companies bent on causing unnecessary suffering to the people by creating unnecessary shortages," state radio reported. The radio said ruling party officials last week found 2,000 metric tons (2,200 tons) of salt in warehouses belonging to National Foods, a company partially owned by Anglo Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of London-based Anglo American. A National Foods executive said the salt had not been...

Will George Bush be turned out of office by Enron or by Arafat? No one can say but financial scandals such as Enron or WorldCom cannot happen in England or even damage the global economy. Irving Fisher, the leading American economist of the first half of the 20th century, lost all his own money in the slump. In his excellent book Booms and Depressions, first published in the dark year of 1932, he discussed the origins of the Wall Street crash of October 1929. “In Britain there had also been a boom market: and, on the tide of it, Clarence...

Muhaned Taher, who is considered the most senior West Bank militant wanted by Israel, was assassinated Sunday evening by IDF troops in Nablus. Taher was commander of the Hamas military wing in the Hebron area. A second Hamas member, Imad Draoza, was also killed and another was injured and arrested. Palestinians said Taher, known as "the Engineer-4", topped Israel's most wanted list. According to preliminary reports, the three were shot by elite IDF soldiers who surrounded his home. A security source said that they had intended to kill just Taher, but an exchange of gunfire broke out, which led to...

<p>ATLANTA — Georgia's Hope Scholarship Program, which mandates that any student maintaining a 'B' average or better gets money to attend a state university, is considered by many to be a real success.</p> <p>More kids, both black and white, are college-bound, and other states are working to copy the 10-year-old program.</p>

<p>SAN DIEGO (AP) - A chance encounter at a San Diego mosque led him to Kashmir and a meeting with the man later accused of killing journalist Daniel Pearl. Fighting with the mujahadeen in Chechnya cost him his leg. While working as an FBI informant, he was invited to chat with Osama bin Laden at a terror camp.</p>

Egypt threw its support behind Yasser Arafat and said Sunday that Mideast diplomacy should focus on the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks rather than efforts to oust the Palestinian leadership. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher accused Israel of "obstructing peace and stability in the region" in remarks after President Hosni Mubarak met Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat and a delegation from the Senate Intelligence Committee headed by chairman Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat. "Egypt strongly supports the democratically elected Palestinian leadership and refuses any attempt to outflank it," Maher told reporters. "We have told all (parties) that that we support the...

<p>Judge denies demanding the protesters' removal in the latest controversy in a medical marijuana case.</p> <p>Questions have been raised about whether federal and local police violated the constitutional rights of protesters near the Sacramento federal courthouse by forcing them to disperse.</p>

THE HAGUE: Three far-right and centre-right parties have reached a deal paving the way for a new government in the Netherlands, more than six weeks after an election overshadowed by the murder of flamboyant populist politician Pim Fortuyn. The Liberal Party (VVD), Fortuyn's far-right Pim Fortuyn List (LFP) and the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA) will present the deal to Parliament on July 4. The future coalition government is expected to incorporate some of Mr Fortuyn's tough proposals on stemming immigration and asylum seekers in the traditionally liberal country. Last month, the three parties agreed that immigrants would not be allowed...

Thomas Jefferson is famous for his advocacy of a free press, and particularly for his insistence that newspapers were an essential safeguard to liberty. "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate to choose the latter."Jefferson believed that, if the nation ever headed in the wrong direction, a free press would give the public the information it needed to bring about enlightened change.But as much as Jefferson valued newspapers, he knew that a corrupt press was worse than useless. He was immensely frustrated with the...