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President Bush defended American generosity Wednesday, even as his administration figures out how to pay for more help beyond the $35 million it has already promised to tsunami victims in Asia. In his first remarks since the weekend disaster that so far has killed more than 76,000, Bush - like some in his administration previously - took umbrage at a U.N. official's suggestion that the world's richest nations were "stingy," and indicated much more is expected to be spent to help the victims. "Well, I felt like the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed," Bush said...

CLASSIC CLINTONFormer President Bill Clinton was advised not to speak with the BBC about the tsunami tragedy by several staffers, according to one knowledgeable source. Clinton was told to coordinate with the White House and the Bush Administration, but chose not to. "He just went and did his own thing," says a former staffer. "There haven't been many times when he has wanted to make a public appearance like this, but given the world attention and the criticism of Bush, he couldn't help himself. Classic Clinton." The Bush Administration has been taking a public relations pummeling from the press for...

President Bush assembled a four-nation coalition to organize humanitarian relief for Asia and made clear Wednesday the United States will help bankroll long-term rebuilding in the region leveled by a massive earthquake and tsunamis. U.S. officials braced for the death toll to exceed 100,000. From airlifts of rice and water purifiers to the deployment of an entire Marine expeditionary force, the United States marshaled resources across the globe to augment its initial $35 million aid package and make sure the hardest hit locations got the short-term help they requested.

INDIA has turned down foreign aid for victims of the tsunami that has killed tens of thousands of people across Asians, because it has "adequate resources", a government official said today. India had been flooded with generous offers of aid, the official said. "In fact, all friendly nations have offered help, but we feel we do have the resources to handle the situation," he said. "If at a later stage we feel we need assistance we will not hesitate to ask. "Right now we not only have adequate resources but have gone out and mounted a huge relief effort for...

It amazes me that people somehow think that because Bush didn't "speak in person" or rush to the White House that somehow he's "insensitive" to the tragedy in Southeast Asia. Its simply an logical leap with no foundation. "Although U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland yesterday withdrew his earlier comment, domestic criticism of Bush continued to rise. Skeptics said the initial aid sums -- as well as Bush's decision at first to remain cloistered on his Texas ranch for the Christmas holiday rather than speak in person about the tragedy -- showed scant appreciation for the magnitude of suffering and...

Aid workers tending to the ravaged islands and coastlines of southern Asia say a big concern is an outbreak of malaria and other waterborne diseases.... Which reminds us of a just-out World Health Organization report anticipating a shortage in a key antimalarial drug.... This news about treatments wouldn't be so devastating but for the fact that the international groups in charge still can't get malaria prevention under control. And that's the real tragedy. A blight that has been all but eliminated in the West, malaria still claims between one million and two million lives every year in the underdeveloped world....

Israeli aid teams returned Wednesday from brief visits to Thailand and Sri Lanka after local authorities said that their assistance was not required. Israel's army on Tuesday canceled plans to send a 150-member team to aid in recovery efforts in Sri Lanka due to opposition from the Asian country, Israeli officials said. The medical delegation -- including 60 soldiers -- was set to leave Tuesday, but Sri Lanka's army protested the military composition of the relief team, Israeli security officials said.

Annual NGO summit concluded at the United Nations in New York on October 6, 2004. Here, no one seems to question the fundamental concept of NGO and how it often plays the role of quasi bureaucracy un-intentionally legitimizing corrupt leaders, oppressive governments, and imperialist structure. A majority of these volunteer organizations focus on very specific issues, such as child education, literacy development, rural healthcare, empowering women, affordable technologies for rural areas and so on. Diligent and disciplined in implementing their plans, they are excellent examples of volunteerism and personal sacrifice. But, why do these great people shy away from probing...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell responded to criticism from a U.N. official Tuesday, saying the United States is "not stingy" when it comes to providing aid to countries in distress. On Monday, Jan Egeland, under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief for the U.N., criticized the United States and other countries, saying the amount of foreign aid they gave was "stingy."

U.S. Vows to Do More to Help Asia Victims By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled Tuesday at a United Nations official's suggestion the United States has been "stingy," saying the administration expects to follow its initial $15 million Asian earthquake aid package with billions more dollars. "The United States has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world," Powell said when asked about the comments Monday by Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief. Initially, the U.S. government pledged $15 million and dispatched...

The UN has gone beyond the realm of effrontery. They've gone past being criminal, they've gone past being hypocritical, they've flown past the limits of churlish and ungrateful. There should be a picture of the UN coat-of-arms in the dictionary next to the word "nauseating." The latest pile of vomitous to spew from the world's foremost unelected deliberative busybodies came from Jan Egeland who may not be a leading expert on taxation policy, but must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. He offered us the following insights regarding our tax plicies and our generosity to the victims...

The magnitude of human suffering caused by the 26 December South Asian Tsunami Disaster is only now becoming apparent. Tens of thousands are dead, entire communities have been washed out to sea with all souls, already crumbling drainage systems have been swamped, drinkable water sources have been contaminated, and housing has been destroyed on a massive scale. The need of the victims of this nightmare for medical supplies, fuel, food, water, and dry goods is immense, and will only grow in scope. It is our duty to help in this time of crisis. Funds are the immediate need. To this...

The global Red Cross issued an emergency appeal for immediate aid to hundreds of thousands of people stricken by tsunamis that pummelled coastal communities in southern Asia on Sunday. The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were among the countries for which aid was earmarked. It said it was seeking an initial and immediate 7.5 million Swiss francs ($6.5 million) and said about half a million people were affected in Sri Lanka alone, but that reliable information was still very hard to come by across the region.

Yasser Arafat died last month. This month, his death is prompting plans for a foreign aid bounty of $500 million to $1 billion a year for the Palestinian Arabs.That's the scoop Steven Weisman published in the New York Times on December 17. He revealed that Western, Arab, and other governments plan to add a 50% to 100% bonus to the $1 billion a year they already direct to 3.5 million Palestinian Arabs in the territories, contingent upon a crackdown on terrorist groups and the holding of credible elections in January 2005.(Asked about Mr. Weisman's report, White House spokesman Scott McClellan...

The Palestinian Authority will ask donor countries at a meeting in Oslo for about $4 billion over three years to stave off an economic crisis, Palestinian officials in Ramallah said yesterday. The two-day conference opens tomorrow. They said the Palestinian Authority would seek the money to finance infrastructure projects including air and sea ports, to help with the 2005 budget and to create jobs. "We need $1.3 to $1.4 billion a year," Economy Minister Maher al-Masri said. "We will present our plan to the donor countries and then discussions will start. They will decide how to respond to our plan...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

British aid workers are expelled from Sudan By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 30/11/2004) The Sudanese government ordered senior members of Oxfam and Save the Children to leave the country yesterday, accusing them of backing rebels in the war-torn region of Darfur. The action against the two British-based aid agencies, which are helping hundreds of thousands of refugees, followed a report by Save the Children of a government air raid on one of its feeding centres, and critical press statements issued by Oxfam. Save the Children is a large distributor of food in Darfur Sudan pledged three weeks ago to...

Republicans in threat to block overseas aid By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 27/11/2004) Republicans in the United States Congress have moved to block hundreds of millions of pounds in economic aid to foreign nations, unless they agree to shield American personnel and troops from any possible prosecution by the International Criminal Court. The economic threat was slipped, almost unnoticed, into a giant, £200 billion spending bill for 2005. Republicans are concerned that American personnel or even political leaders might find themselves dragged into politically motivated prosecutions before the ICC, an international court established by treaty in 1998 to hear...

Do the media give aid and comfort to terrorists by giving their violence maximum exposure and impact at times while sanitizing the perpetrators and tainting their victims at others? It is standard procedure for many media outlets to describe the perpetrators of terrorist acts - the premeditated slaughter of civilians - with a range of euphemisms, "militants" being the most common. Thus, The New York Times can headline a report on the killing of a hostage as "Iraq Militants Said to Behead a Truck Driver From Bulgaria." Similarly, terrorists killed in a military strike can be described in another as...

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush should do more to ease the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, the biggest alliance of U.S.-based international aid groups said on Tuesday.. InterAction, which represents more than 160 U.S. non-governmental organizations, said it was imperative the U.S. government do even more to support an African Union (AU) peacekeeping effort in Darfur in western Sudan. "Steps beyond those presently contemplated will have to be undertaken to relieve the dying and suffering," InterAction president Mary McClymont wrote in a letter to the president. "Without adequate security and funding, a viable relief effort...