Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- President Bush Friday authorized the State Department to use up to $20 million to aid Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.</p> <p>The money will come from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund through the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, department spokesman Richard Boucher said.</p>

Quake survivors protest at lack of aid By Robin Gedye (Filed: 26/02/2004) Survivors of an earthquake that killed nearly 600 people in Morocco protested yesterday at the lack of aid. The demonstrators blocked the main road out of the largest affected town, the port of Al Hoceima. "We spent the night under the rain, in the cold," said Ahmed Mnabhi, 26. "We want this to end. We want building materials, bricks, cement and iron to rebuild our homes." Demonstrators on the streets of Al Hoceima Mohamed Benhaddou said grocery shops were closed for fear of looting. "On TV they said...

The British economist Peter Bauer once described foreign aid as "taxing poor people in rich countries and passing it on to rich people in poor countries." The unambiguous failure of foreign aid over the past fifty years proves that Bauer was correct. Instead of stimulating economic growth, foreign aid has bred poverty and corruption. This is especially true of Africa, the world's poorest region. Regrettably, Bauer's message did not reach Brussels, where European bureaucrats seem to be more immune from rational arguments than ever before. That is why the EU demands that even the poorest among the new EU members...

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The United States has approved $395 million in aid to Pakistan, almost half of which will be used to write off debt to Washington, a government minister said on Tuesday. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said under the agreement, Pakistan would repay $200 million to the United States, which would save it about $400 million-$500 million in interest payments over the period of the loan. The rest of the money would mainly be used to improve health and education in Pakistan, he told a news conference. Pakistan has total foreign debt and liabilities $35 billion of...

Aid cut off to millions in North Korea Agencies Monday January 19, 2004 The UN world food programme (WFP) has been forced to cut off food aid to 2.7 million North Korean women and children during the country's harsh winter due to lack of foreign donations, a spokesman for the agency said today. The WFP received new promises of aid from the US, the EU and Australia after warning in December of an impending crisis, but those supplies could take up to three months to arrive, said Gerald Bourke. The food crisis coincides with efforts to arrange new talks on...

   With Turban in Hand: Uncle Sam Goes a-Courtin’January 15, 2004  Does a snake know it’s a snake?  It crawls on its stomach and thinks it’s a queen.  And then...along slithers Maureen Dowd.  In a recent editorial, the diva of the New York Slimes puts forth a worthy foreign policy lesson.  There is no pleasing a snake until you are in its stomach.  With the capture of Saddam, Dowd suffers the chronic cramps of “Osama and Al Qaeda...still lurking and frothing”.  And a Midol-deprived day has her reducing national interest to the President’s fear of his “inner fat boy” while...

Israel's McDonald's Donates Food to Impoverished Israeli, Palestinian ChildrenOne out of three Israeli children suffer from poverty and hunger. By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem-----January 7.....In a public relations move which transcends image and directly hits on substance, an Israeli branch of the McDonald's fast food chain has closed to the public and opened its doors instead to needy children, a statement from McDonald's Israel said Wednesday. It said the firm's Rothschild Boulevard branch in downtown Tel Aviv aims to give a free meal and a Ronald McDonald clown performance to 100,000 Jewish and Arab children from all over...

Dec 30, 10:28 AM (ET) By Parisa Hafezi KERMAN, Iran (Reuters) - President Mohammad Khatami said Tuesday U.S. aid to earthquake victims in Iran, while welcome, would not alter the state of relations between the two arch foes who broke off ties nearly a quarter century ago. "I don't think this incident will change our relations with the United States," Khatami told a news conference in the capital of southeastern Kerman province where officials say up to 50,000 people were killed in a quake that struck Friday. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with the Washington Post...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - For the first time in more than a decade, four American military aircraft landed in Iran Sunday in a gesture between two countries more noted for acrimony than mutual aid. The US, joining dozens of other countries in providing emergency aid after Friday's earthquake, delivered about 120,000 pounds of medical supplies and water to the nation once branded by President Bush as part of the "axis of evil." But it is often at humanity's most trying moments that old foes are brought together in a spirit of cooperation and compassion. "The reception was very warm," said Lt....

<p>BAM, Iran (CNN) --Inspecting extensive earthquake damage in Bam, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised Monday that the ruined historic city will be rebuilt.</p> <p>Three days after a 6.6-magnitude quake struck Friday, authorities said most of the 25,000 discovered bodies from the quake had been buried.</p>

Neda Toloui-Semnani left Iran 22 years ago as a 2-year-old. She grew up in the District, graduated from the University of Maryland and now works for a nonprofit group in the Iranian capital of Tehran. As a result, Toloui-Semnani is closer than most Iranian Americans to the unfolding tragedy in her homeland brought on by Friday's devastating earthquake. "In a strange way, it feels like 9/11 all over again. There are the same feelings of shock and trauma," Toloui-Semnani, 24, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "The difference here is that the numbers are astronomical. Also, there is nobody to...

Two-thirds of Bam residents believed dead in earthquake By News Agencies Iran accepts help from entire world, except Israel International rescue workers hacked desperately through flattened debris for survivors and cemeteries overflowed in Iran's ancient Silk Road city of Bam yesterday. A pre-dawn earthquake razed the historic heart of the fortress city on Friday and killed at least 20,000 people. Rescue officials said the figure could rise to 40,000, or 65-70 percent of Bam's population. Twenty people were pulled from the ruins after being located amid the rubble by sniffer dogs provided by the Iranian army or European donors, the...

Israel Offers Humanitarian Aid to Iranian Earthquake Victims By Joel Leyden Jerusalem...... December 27.......The Israeli Government offered condolences today following the devastating earthquake in Iran, saying it had "no conflict" with the Iranian people, despite its enmity with the Islamic regime. "The Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom, addresses in the name of the Israeli Government and the people of Israel condolences to the Iranian people after the catastrophe," the Foreign Ministry said. International rescue and relief organizations in Iran are now estimating that up to 70,000 people may have perished in the Iranian ancient city of Bam. Iran...

TEHRAN, Dec. 27--A strong earthquake in southeastern Iran killed at least 20,000 people in and around the historic city of Bam early Friday, according to Iranian officials who appealed for international assistance in searching for survivors and recovering the dead. The devastating 6.7-magnitude quake struck at 5:28 a.m. local time (8:58 p.m. Thursday EST), an hour at which almost all of the city's 80,000 residents were in bed on the Muslim day of rest. Officials who surveyed the ancient Silk Road oasis by air estimated that 60 percent of dwellings collapsed, killing thousands almost instantly and injuring as many as...

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush expressed sympathy for Iran on Friday after an earthquake there killed more than 20,000 people and offered support for a country he has deemed part of an "axis of evil." Laura and I heard this morning of the earthquake centered in the city of Bam, Iran," Bush said in a statement from his ranch, where he will spend the New Year's holiday with his wife, Laura, and other family members. "We are greatly saddened by the loss of life, injuries and widespread damage to this ancient city," he said. "I extend my condolences to...

Help! I've got liberal cretins asserting that the US, by far, gave more aid and weapons to Saddam Hussein than any other country, including the Soviet Union. I know this isn't true. I've seen a chart, somewhere, showing the top twenty or so donors/sellers to Iraq, and the US was at number eight or something like that. Can anyone help me out here? I've searched and searched and I can't find this chart, or the article containing it. I call upon the collective memory of Free Republic to help a conservative win an argument! Thanks, and sorry for the vanity.

Clinton was due to land in Oslo Tuesday morning, his arrival delayed from initial reports of Monday night. His first stop was Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's office. The two planned to discuss the new campaign by the Clinton Foundation to fight HIV/AIDS. The foundation is working in several countries to help local health authorities treat HIV/AIDS patients, and also has helped drive down the cost of AIDS medicine in developing countries. Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Norway's foreign aid minister, will also meet with Clinton but claims he's not coming merely to solicit donations to his own foundation. Rather, Frafjord Johnson...

Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he had received assurances from Bush administration officials that they would do all they could to rush aid to California, hard hit by wildfires. After a 20-minute White House meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, the governor-elect told reporters that the fires were the main topic of discussion. "We talked about expediting the funds for the victims and their homes, the homes burned. We talked about homeland security. We had a very positive, very good meeting," Schwarzenegger said. The move star-turned-politician has decided to cut short his two-day tour of the nation's capital to return to...

THE US Senate tied $US1.2 million ($1.71 million) in military aid for Malaysia to religious freedom there in a response to criticism of Jews by its prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. Before money could be spent, the US State Department would have to determine that Malaysia "supports and promotes religious freedoms, including tolerance for people of the Jewish faith". The stipulation could be waived for national security reasons. The restrictions were approved yesterday by voice vote as an amendment to the $US18.1 billion ($25.76 billion) foreign aid bill being considered by the Senate. After the bill's approval, it will have to...

Horrors! Sen. Edward Kennedy has thrown the Washington establishment into turmoil by making the shocking observation that the Bush administration is using U.S. foreign aid to bribe foreign governments to support its occupation of Iraq. “My belief is this money is being shuffled all around to these political leaders in all parts of the world, bribing them to send in troops,” Kennedy said, causing Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to describe the accusation as “disgusting” and “false.” The real reason that everyone is so upset is that Kennedy has spoken the truth. The plain and simple truth is...