Free Republic

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao said here Sunday that the Chinese side is shocked about the case that a Chinese diplomat and a Chinese citizen in Kyrgyzstan were killed on June 29. "The Chinese side strongly condemns such an evil act," Liu said. "We have asked the Kyrgyzstani side to uncover the case as soon as possible and seize and severely punish the murderer," the spokesman said. Liu said the Kyrgyzstani side has expressed deep regret for the sad incident and vowed to spare no efforts to look into the case, crack the case...

      NAUVOO, Ill. — Standing on the spot where early Latter-day Saints finished their temple but never had the chance to enjoy it, President Gordon B. Hinckley told reporters that those who built the first temple here would be present at dedicatory services scheduled later Thursday. Merle Mckinnon, left, Eldon Luck, Debbie Mckinnon and Ovid Luck hug while listening to a news conference Wednesday outside the Nauvoo Temple. The temple is being dedicated today.Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News       Speaking in front of the reconstructed temple steps with a view overlooking the Mississippi River, President Hinckley...

Two-Tiered Morality By BARBARA EHRENREICH HARLOTTESVILLE, Va. Only a person of unblemished virtue can get a job at Wal-Mart — a low-level job, that is, sorting stock, unloading trucks or operating a cash register. A drug test eliminates the chemical miscreants; a detailed "personality test" probes the job applicant's horror of theft and willingness to turn in an erring co-worker. Extreme submissiveness to authority is another desirable trait. When I applied for a job at Wal-Mart in the spring of 2000, I was reprimanded for getting something "wrong" on this test: I had agreed only "strongly" to the proposition, "All...

New(er) RadioFR Chat Server is UP tonight! 020630I've replaced the original chat server and altered the client (the chat window that you see) and I'd like to test it. The new chat window is easier to use and has a couple of new features. It should work on any computer that will do Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Netscape (it's a little slower on Netscape but it does work.) It will also accommodate mIRC, pIRCh, etc., go to the link below for address & port. Be advised that there isn't any identification link between FR names and this system. So far...

Durán, Durán Karen Yourish, New York COURTESY AJC. Khalid Durán thought his book on Islam for Jews would improve relations between the faiths. Instead, it has brought a death threat.Khalid Durán is a marked man. A few weeks ago, Sheikh Abdulmunem Abu Zant, a leader of Jordan's militant Islamic Action Front, charged him with apostasy and called for his death.Durán's crime? Writing a book subtitled "An Introduction to Islam for Jews" that doesn't quite toe the party line.Durán, a German citizen with a PhD in Islamic studies, now living in suburban Washington, is a liberal Muslim scholar who received his...

NABLUS, West Bank, July 1 (Reuters) - The militant Islamic group Hamas has vowed to avenge Israel's killing of one of its top bomb-makers, threatening a new spasm of violence in a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. Israeli special forces killed Muhanad al-Taher and one of his deputies in a raid on a house in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday. Palestinians described Taher as "the Engineer-4," the head of Hamas's military wing in Nablus and a bomb-maker at the top of Israel's most-wanted list. "The assassination will increase Hamas's determination to continue Jihad and resistance," Ismail...

Some new laws taking effect Monday: CRIME: In Idaho, the unlawful killing or injury of a human fetus will be considered a crime of murder, manslaughter or aggravated battery. The law does not outlaw abortions, but critics worry it could eventually be used to limit women's right to have abortions. In South Dakota, anyone convicted of injuring a baby by shaking it will face up to 25 years in prison. SMOKING: Smoking will be banned in most workplaces and enclosed public places in South Dakota, including most restaurants. Virginia will prohibit smoking in public schools at all times, even after...

GARRISON - Activists who want the Indian Point Nuclear Plant shut down, say their leaders aren't doing enough to protect them from possible terrorist attacks. They hoped their complaints would hit home with Governor Pataki. As News 12's Heather Kovar reports, activists rallied near the Governor's Putnam County home. We think it's irresponsible for the Governor to sign off on an evacuation plan that most of the residents in a ten mile radius of the plant believe will not work, said Jonathan Wright, of the Westchester Green Party. They're also concerned the government isn't doing enough to protect the...

<p>MILFORD, Mich. (AP) -- Thousands of unwanted Canada geese are finding a new home in Iowa.</p> <p>The Michigan Department of Natural Resources last week trucked the last of 4,100 of the honking birds to a conservation area 550 miles away, near Chelsea, Iowa. DNR workers took seven truckloads of about 575 each.</p>

U.S. Agrees to Extend Bosnia Mission Sun Jun 30, 7:26 PM ETBy EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States agreed Sunday to keep the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia going for three more days, shortly after vetoing a six-month extension because American peacekeepers did not get immunity from the new International Criminal Court. Photos AP Photo U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte joined in the unanimous vote approving the brief extension to work out the dispute, after earlier going against almost all 14 other members of the powerful council. The 1,500-strong U.N. police training mission in...

Please excuse the Vanity post but the fact that there is NO CNN source for this story is the very reason for this post. I once made note of something that I have called the Asimov Effect. This is named after an observation that young Isaac Asimov made during WWII. When he checked the Periodical Guides at his local library, he noticed that right after the war began, all references to Atomic Energy suddenly ceased since nothing about this was written up in periodicals. Asimov then came to the conclusiion that there was a top secret government project involving atomic...

<p>Is it appropriate for Al Gore to criticize President Bush for his handling of the war on terrorism?</p>

MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box By Thomas C Greene in Washington Posted: 06/30/2002 at 01:05 EST If you caught our recent coverage of the Windows Media Player trio of security holes you may have followed a link to the TechNet download site for a patch, or you might have activated Windows Update. If you did the former (though, oddly, not if you did the latter), you would have been confronted with an End User License Agreement (EULA) stating, most ominously, that: "You agree that in order to protect the integrity of content and...

With the euro surging to two-year highs against the U.S. dollar, the ruble and Central Bank reserves are sliding in value and some panicky Russians are switching to the euro. On the back of scandals swirling around U.S. giants WorldCom and Xerox Corp., the euro peaked at 99.90 cents to the dollar on Friday, its highest level against the U.S. currency since February 2000. A handful of banks, anticipating a further strengthening of the euro, started selling euros last week at rates equal to or higher than the dollar. "The demand for euros has increased dramatically over the past several...

Rights Groups Assail U.S. Efforts to Win Exemption from International Criminal CourtFri Jun 28,11:00 AM ETJim Lobe,OneWorld US United States and international human rights groups are calling on members of the United Nations ( news - web sites) Security ( news - external web site) Council to reject U.S. efforts this week to exempt U.S. citizens and others serving in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs) from the scope of the new International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's first permanent tribunal to prosecute war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity. • Coalition for the International Criminal Court • Amnesty International •...

Civil Strife Gets Underway:Take The Drive. Don't Take a Dive.Veteran's day is an appropriate day for Americans to remember the sacrifices of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty from earlier generations and to pledge themselves to an equal sacrifice in a modern defense of our Freedoms here at home.Veteran's day is an equally appropriate day for all Americans to acknowledge the breadth and depth of the government's arrogance, abuses and usurpations.Veteran's day is an appropriate day for We The People to initiate a formal strategic defense of our Rights against domestic governmental tyranny. It is time to put a collective...

With little fanfare, a Senate committee is swiftly moving ahead on a bill that would bring back the treaty that won't die - the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, an agreement signed in 1997 by Vice President Al Gore that would require hugely expensive reductions in greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), the stuff we exhale, the stuff that makes plants grow. Gore signed the treaty over the opposition of 95 senators, who warned unanimously five months earlier that they would not sign any agreement that excluded developing nations and that would cause "serious harm" to the economy. Kyoto did...

Moscow may ban U.S. poultry meat imports from Aug. 1 if Washington fails to update veterinary certificates to meet Russian safety standards, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said Friday. "No Russian port will accept U.S. poultry shipments from Aug. 1 without the new certificate," the spokesman quoted deputy chief veterinarian Alexander Ponomaryov as saying. "Lamentably, the U.S. side has not yet prepared a specimen of such a certificate." Russia banned imports of U.S. chicken and turkey from March 10 to April 15, citing health concerns. U.S. chicken and turkey imports were worth $640 million in 2001. Russia's decision to announce that...

<p>CAPE TOWN - When the Greater Cape Town morgue started looking for a new superintendent in 2000, police Captain Ricardo Schouten was convinced he would get the job. A medically trained officer skilled in autopsies, he had already been acting superintendent for three years.</p>

RIYADH:A Saudi man detained in Morocco over suspected links with al-Qaeda has admitted meeting the network's leader Osama bin Laden and undergoing military training in Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Sunday. But Zuhair Helal al-Tabaiti, one of three Saudis arrested in Morocco this month, denied having been asked to carry out any military attacks, saying he was only asked to gather intelligence, said the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat. Speaking from his jail in Casablanca through his lawyer, Tabaiti said he met in Afghanistan with Mulla Ahmad Belal, also known as Abdulraheem al-Nasheri, an al-Qaeda activist, who asked him to gather information about...