Free Republic

UEBERLINGEN, Germany, Jul 01, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A Russian passenger jet with dozens of people aboard and a two-pilot cargo plane collided late Monday over southern Germany in a fireball that scattered flaming wreckage over a wide area, and all aboard were believed killed, officials said. A Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 from Moscow bound for Barcelona, Spain, and a Boeing 757 from the DHL delivery service were believed to have been flying at an altitude of about 12,000 meters (36,000 feet) when they hit, said Wolfgang Wenzel, a police spokesman in the city of Tuebingen. Uta Otterbein,...

SPOKANE - A federal prosecutor Monday asked a court to review a magistrate's order granting bail to a Spokane Valley man charged with making a biological weapon. Kenneth R. Olsen was to have been released from the Spokane County Jail at 10:30 a.m. Monday, but the motion by Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks automatically stayed the order and barred his release. Hicks asked a U.S. District Court judge to review the order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno, which would have granted Olsen conditional release on a $25,000 appearance bond. Hicks argued Friday that Olsen's release would represent a danger...

<p>Hoping to fulfill the energy giant's biggest ambition to create a nationwide electricity market, former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay played a part in getting President Clinton to propose a power deregulation bill, internal Enron documents show.</p> <p>Mr. Clinton sent the bill to Congress within weeks of receiving a Feb. 20, 1998, letter from Mr. Lay, obtained by The Washington Times, urging him to get personally involved because Congress appeared ready to act on legislation promoting competition and consumer choice in electricity.</p>

Pedophilia's Double Standardby Christopher Hitchens [...] The prohibition against cruelty or violence to infants is quite ancient and very common to all cultures, so that we remember the exceptions—Sparta, for example—very well. It's probably encoded in us in some way; it hardly needs the very memorable condemnation that it receives from Jesus of Nazareth, who is supposed to have said that, rather than perpetrate such a hideous offense, it would be better for the guilty to have a millstone put around their necks and to try and hide their shame in the depths of the sea. Given that, the existence...

Labeled by the White House as "The Inner-City Compassion Rally", President Bush promotes his domestic policy programs during a visit to Cleveland, Ohio, Monday, July 1, 2002. Bush plans a series of day-trips this week to renew his "compassionate conservatism" agenda, beginning in Cleveland where the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld that city's school voucher plan, an education idea championed by the Bush administration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) BUSH: "I'm gonna give ya'll a pile of taxpayer's money this high!"

GOP stalwarts make issue of Carnahan benefits By JOSH FLORY of the Tribune’s staff Published Friday, June 21, 2002 State benefits paid to U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan in connection with her husband’s death have prompted complaints from some Republicans, but her likely challenger in the upcoming election for her Senate seat said the payments aren’t an issue. J. Carnahan M. Carnahan Carnahan, a Democrat, was appointed to the Senate after her husband, former Gov. Mel Carnahan, was elected posthumously in 2000. She must stand for election to retain the seat and will likely face Republican Jim Talent. Carnahan was awarded...

UBERLINGEN, Germany (AP) -- A Russian passenger jet with dozens of people aboard and a two-pilot cargo plane collided late Monday over southern Germany in a fireball that scattered flaming wreckage over a wide area. All those on board both aircraft were believed killed. A Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 from Moscow bound for Barcelona, and the Boeing 757 cargo plane were believed to have been flying at an altitude of about 10,970 metres when they hit, said Wolfgang Wenzel, a police spokesman in the city of Tuebingen. "At such an altitude, it would be a wonder if anyone survived," he said....

WASHINGTON, July 1 — If there is one phrase that best describes the Supreme Court term that ended late last week, it is this: the triumph of William H. Rehnquist. In the term that marked the chief justice's 30th anniversary on the bench, the court moved far toward accomplishing his long-term goals, lowering the barrier between church and state and elevating states' rights through expanding the concept of sovereign immunity.Those two 5-to-4 decisions showed the 77-year-old chief justice to be as indispensable a player as ever in executing a constitutional vision that has engaged him since he graduated first in...

Congress To Postpone Revamping Of FBI, CIA Congress will put off a reorganization of the FBI and CIA to improve the performance of the intelligence community until it establishes a Department of Homeland Security, according to Bush administration and congressional sources. The decision will delay any significant revamping of the nation's intelligence system until at least next year, a marked shift in priorities since the Sept. 11 attacks, which prompted members of Congress to identify serious shortcomings in the FBI and CIA's performance that they said required urgent attention. In a move backed by the White House, Sen. Joseph I....

Just so you won't have to see the postage-stamp-sized version any more....

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Latest: June 26-27, 2002. N=900 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.             . "As you may have heard, a federal appeals court has ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and cannot be recited in public schools because it contains the phrase 'under God.' Do you agree or disagree with the court's decision that the Pledge is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion?"     ALL Demo- crats Repub- licans Indepen- dents       % % % %     Agree 12 16 7 11...

Infiltration across LoC on despite Pak promises: Army The Army on Monday foiled a Pakistan-backed intrusion bid in the Kupwara sector killing two militants and asserted that infiltration across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir was going on in spite of Islamabad's promises to stop it. The infiltration bid, assisted and supported by the Pakistan Army, was foiled by troops deployed in Kupwara sector early this morning, an Army spokesman said. An ambush party in Keran sector, deployed about 400 metres on the Indian side of LoC, detected the movement of terrorists, he said adding that a...

The mother of a Palestinian master bomb-maker killed in an Israeli raid said Monday she felt sympathy for Israeli victims of suicide attacks. The Israelis say bombers her son Mohaned Tahir, 26, sent on their way killed about 120 people. Sitting with her surviving three daughters in their comfortable Nablus apartment, Omaieh Tahir spoke tearfully of her son killed Sunday in an Israeli attack on a Hamas hide-out. She said if she could turn back time, she would advise him to take a different path in life. She said that while in a Palestinian jail for his Hamas activities, he...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration is withdrawing three military observers from East Timor because they were not granted immunity from the new International Criminal Court, the State Department said Monday.</p> <p>The announcement followed a U.S. veto of a renewal of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia Sunday after other members of the Security Council rejected its demand to make peacekeepers immune from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.</p>

Jim Bohannon is interviewing Ann Coulter about her book right now.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon revealed yesterday that he is working with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on a new diplomatic initiative. He told the Likud Knesset faction the initiative would start with a series of measures to ease the burden on the Palestinian population, as US President George W. Bush requested in his Middle East speech last week. Sharon said the moves would be coordinated with Bush, but was purposely vague on the details. "It's important for the initiative to be in our hands," Sharon said. "The time has not yet come to detail the steps...

Bill to end Cuba travel ban introduced WASHINGTON · Embargo opponents in Congress unveiled legislation on Tuesday to lift the ban on travel to Cuba, while releasing a report indicating it would prompt a million American visitors in the first year. The legislation and economic projections represent growing pressure to ease the U.S. embargo, starting with unleashing American tourists. ``There's tremendous pent-up demand by the traveling public to go to Cuba,'' said Ed Sanders of the Center for Sustainable Tourism at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Sanders co-authored the report for The Cuba Policy Foundation, an anti-embargo advocacy group....

They said it would never happen! (Well, at least I said it would never happen!) But miracle of miracles, I have now started my very own web site where my own idiosyncratic views, not to be seen anywhere else (hey--this is the Internet!) can pollute and defile palaeoconservative western chr*stian civilization (by advocating total Biblical inerrancy and the restoration of animal sacrifices). What is this world coming to??? The site is just in its infancy at present with more to come, and I'm having to learn this editing business step-by-step. Please be patient, and forgive any errors and inconsistencies in...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The brother of a well-known political activist has been indicted on voter fraud charges. Ronald Callaway, 46, of Atlantic City, who also goes by the name Jihad Abdullah, is accused of casting more than one ballot in several municipal elections dating back two years. Link to Newsday Story

THE THESSALONIKI-SKOPJE OIL PIPELINE WILL BE INAUGURATED TOMORROW Thessaloniki, 1 July 2002 (16:12 UTC+2) A double inauguration ceremony will be held tomorrow for the Thessaloniki-Skopje oil pipeline. FYROM Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski and Greek Minister of Development Akis Tsochatzopoulos will inaugurate the project at the Hellenic Petroleum installations in Kalochori, Thessaloniki. At the same time, a similar ceremony will take place at the other end of the oil pipeline in Skopje in the presence of Greek Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Yiannis Magriotis. The oil pipeline is a US$100 million investment and links the OKTA oil refineries, which are a Hellenic...