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A recent Washington Times report said: On June 24, two figher-7 planes of the Chinese Air Force soared to the sky and, in the international airspace near the Chinese (mainland) coast on the northern part of Taiwan, close intercepted a US EP-3 reconnaissance plane driven by propeller, both sides flew parallel for several minutes, the two planes were only 50 meters apart at the closest distance. The report said this was the closest "encounter" of the two military planes since the crash between the Chinese fighter and the US EP-3 reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea in April last...

July 2— MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A pro-Pakistan militant group battling Indian rule in disputed Kashmir said on Tuesday it had set up a "death squad" to eliminate Indian-held Kashmir's chief minister, his son and top aides. "Our prime target is puppet chief minister Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah and ministers of his government," Ghulam Rasool, Pakistan-based chief of the radical Jamiat-e-Mujahideen (JM) group told Reuters.JM is one of the two rebel groups India banned in April under its controversial anti-terror laws and is also a member of the main anti-India United Jihad Council (UJC) guerrilla alliance.Omar Abdullah...

Got change for a dollar? How about four quarters? George Washington is with us either way, his face a sober constant in our basic daily doings. America's most familiar countenance is left as tips, plugged into parking meters, seen in all the right and wrong places. But his essence is still elusive. As another Fourth of July flames out, Rediscovering George Washington takes another look at the great man's long-ago life. Born in 1732. Died in 1799. His 67 years were some of the best-spent ever. Now we spend him. Rediscovering George Washington Grade: A- 8:30 p.m. CST Thursday, PBS...

...Lahore, 1947, Independence & The Partition I regret to say that 1947 was the darkest period of my life. We were told that murdering the non-Muslims, seducing their wives, burning their properties, was an act of Jihad, that is Holy War. And Jihad is the most sacred duty of a Muslim because it guarantees him a safe passage to paradise where no fewer than 72 houris, that is the most beautiful virgins, and pearl-like boys wait for him. Such a reward is a great temptation! It was during the first week of August, 1947, when l was an accounts clerk...

<p>SACRAMENTO -- The Assembly handed automakers a major defeat Monday, passing - by a single vote - a bill to make California the first state to target auto emissions in the fight against global warming.</p> <p>The 41-30 vote approved Senate amendments to the bill, sending it to Gov. Gray Davis, who earlier this year said he was "committed to do the best we can to get the bill on my desk," although he stopped short of a formal endorsement.</p>

Jul 2, 2002 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- Iraq is using new mobile missile launchers against British and United States planes that monitor "no-fly" zones in the north and south of Iraq, the specialist Jane's Intelligence Review (JIR) reports in its July edition. According to Jane's, the weapons system comprised two S-125 Neva missiles capable of being fired from a truck. "By mounting the missiles on mobile launchers the Iraqis have complicated US and UK efforts to monitor Iraqi's air defenses," Jane's indicated. The S-125s originally supplied by the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s were static missiles fired...

London, July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Fifty people were arrested overnight in seven European countries after a yearlong investigation into a pedophile ring that traded child pornography over the Internet, the U.K.'s Sky News and the BBC reported. The U.K.'s London-based National High-Tech Crime Unit coordinated the investigation by 12 police agencies in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere in Europe into the so-called Shadowz Brotherhood. Thirty-one of the arrests in ``Operation Twins'' were made in Germany, with the rest in the U.K., Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, Reuters reported. The ring used the latest data-encryption techniques to swap photographs...

CAIRO, July 2 (AFP) - A UN agency has found that Arab countries score the "lowest freedom" rating in the world, seriously handicapping development in the 22-member Arab League, in a report released here Tuesday. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) said that lack of women's empowerment in the region and deficiences in the education sector were the two other main factors slowing down development. Using a "freedom index ..., the extent of freedom in Arab countries, compared to the rest of the world, shows that out of the seven regions of the world Arab countries had the lowest freedom score...

Last time I checked, it was Muslims who attacked this country on September 11 killing thousands of Americans. I predicted then to my friends that we were about to descend into the equivalent of the Looking Glass: there would be a frenzy by our cultural and political establishment to cozy up to Muslims in this country in a perverse effort to ‘prove’ we still love them; to prove we aren’t racist; to prove we aren’t anti-Muslim. Somehow the pathetic proving would rest with the victims as we swim in false guilt and political correctness inflicted on us by the...

John Ford missing for key Senate business; 'family emergency' cited By Richard Locker locker@gomemphis.com July 2, 2002 NASHVILLE - Where is Sen. John Ford? The Memphis Democrat left the Senate Sunday afternoon after he voted for an income tax-sales tax bill that won Senate approval but did not return while all 32 of his colleagues struggled on for another eight hours to pass an appropriations bill. Ford was not present to vote at 11:32 p.m. Sunday on the appropriations bill - the key document required by the Tennessee Constitution that determines how taxpayer money is spent. It was the legislature's...

Voyeur gets women to bare breasts for satellite....... (Filed: 28/06/2002) Four women have contacted police after being persuaded to stand topless in their windows or balconies so that a satellite could give them a mammogram. The women, aged between 19 and 45, living in the Algarve, southern Portugal, were all contacted by telephone by a woman claiming to be a doctor. She told them that a revolutionary method had been developed of conducting breast examinations by satellite. They were told that the consultation would be free if they followed instructions by stripping to the waist and standing in view of...

Why does the popular culture - including the movie industry - place such a powerful premium on downplaying the obvious connection between international terrorism and fanatical Islam? Just 10 days before the government announced the detention of Jose Padilla (also known as Abdullah Al Muhajir) on charges of plotting a "dirty bomb" explosion on American soil, Hollywood unleashed Bad Company, its second thriller in two weeks about nuclear terrorism in the United States. But in that Anthony Hopkins-Chris Rock box-office dud - as in its high-profile predecessor, The Sum of All Fears - Islamic extremists bear no responsibility for the...

WASHINGTON, Jul 02, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission derided as "wholly inadequate and incomplete" a sworn statement by WorldCom Inc. explaining how it came to inflate earnings by nearly $4 billion. The criticism from Harvey Pitt - unusually blunt for an SEC chairman - came Monday as WorldCom, already facing civil fraud charges and believed to be on the brink of bankruptcy, told the agency it is investigating possible new accounting problems with its reserve accounts. The statement, which the SEC had demanded from the embattled telecommunications company, "demonstrates a...

Groups affiliated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement yesterday called upon all Palestinian organizations, including the Islamic movements, to attack Zionist and American targets everywhere in response to US efforts "to remove the legitimate leadership of the Palestinian people." Fatah's military wing, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement yesterday in which it threatened "to strike at Zionist and American interests and installations" in Israel and throughout the world if the United States maintains its opposition to Arafat. The statement warned US President George W. Bush that it will return to the type of fedayeen operations that prevailed in...

Prayers requested during week of 6/23/02 Prayers Requested for Sally's Concerns HusbandPrayer request for AKA Elena and familyPrayers for Freeper father_elijah on mission work where Sudanese churches were bombedContinued Prayers for mini_teacup and family for safe return of BillyUpdate on foster child--Continued PrayersPrayers for ImAMightyRighty's father-in-lawUpdate on Ann, home from the hospital, continued prayersPrayer request for rwfromkansas' motherPrayer request for those affected by fires in ArizonaContinued prayers for foster childPraise report on friend and prayers for foreverfree's mother and pastorPrayers for gwmoore and familyPrayer request for those affected by bus accident in TexasPrayer request from LeeMcCoy for resolution to two...

London (CNSNews.com) - The pilot of a Russian passenger jet failed to immediately respond to air traffic control instructions, resulting in a mid-air collision over southern Germany that killed at least 70 people, officials said Tuesday. Most of the dead were children and teenagers traveling to Spain. Their flight collided with a Boeing 757 cargo plane owned by DHL Worldwide Express late Monday. More than 40 children were traveling from their homes in the southern Ural mountains to a United Nations-sponsored festival in Barcelona. The BBC reported the party had flown into Moscow over the weekend but missed their...

Deadwood reopens; fire keeps Lead residents out By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer DEADWOOD -- The historic city of Deadwood reopened at 8 p.m. Monday after a wildfire forced its total evacuation Saturday afternoon. Residents of Lead, many of whom evacuated Sunday afternoon, were not allowed to go home due to concerns that the Grizzly Gulch Fire could once again threaten neighbors in the south part of town. "We really just need room to move," Lead Mayor Tom Nelson said, explaining that firefighters were more worried about their ability to respond quickly than about structures burning. "If the winds shift,...

In the ongoing struggle between the Powell soft-liners and the Rumsfeld-Cheney-Wolfowitz hardliners in the Bush administration, a small outrage has taken place in the realm of the Department of State. Stephen Schwartz, one of the most prominent commentators on the war against terrorism, and particularly on the role of the Saudis, has been dismissed from his post as an editorial writer, assigned to the new Middle East radio network at The Voice of America.Readers of FrontPage are undoubtedly familiar with Schwartz’s work, some of which has appeared on these very pages. His articles have also appeared in such distinguished...

<p>Not a lot was accomplished in state government yesterday. More than half of the state employees stayed home in an unprecedented partial shutdown, and the General Assembly took no action on any tax or budget measures to resolve the impasse that led to the shutdown.</p>

I receive much e-mail daily inquiring as to how to find old Marine Corps buddies, Marine relatives, etc. Well, many will tell you to use this or that search engine, sign this or that Guestbook, post to Marine messageboards, etc. All of the above are fine, but, in my opinion and experience, the best way to find old friends, perhaps in addition to the above, is to put up your own website and they will find YOU!!! Once you have your own visible presence (your website) on the WWW, those who knew you and/or may be searching for you, and...