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A French newspaper has reproduced a set of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have caused outrage in the Muslim world. France Soir said it had published the cartoons to show that "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society. Their original publication in a Danish paper last September has led to boycotts and protests against Denmark in several Arab nations. Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet Muhammad or Allah. Under the headline "Yes, we have the right to caricature God", the paper ran a front page cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on...

One of four Swedish peacekeepers wounded in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan has died of his injuries, the Swedish military said late on Friday. The four Swedish troops, two of whom were said to be seriously injured in Friday's explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif, were from the NATO-led ISAF, which was set up in 2001, and were part of a British provincial reconstruction team. "Shortly after midnight local time (2100 Stockholm time) ISAF's military hospital in Kabul announced that one of the two seriously injured Swedes had died," the statement said. "The soldier was seriously injured in a bomb attack in...

Swedish submarine stays hidden to Americans Despite two months of searching, the American navy still have problems locating the Swedish submarine 'Gotland' in a series of cat-and-mouse games in American waters. Now also the Canadian and Australian navies will practice finding Swedish subs. This was recently given the green light by the Swedish government according to 'Blekinge Läns Tidning' [Swedish newspaper]The US has since this summer rented 'HMS Gotland' with two crews. The submarine is to stay for a year, but the contract can be extended because of the problems in locating it. This, in turn, pleasures Kockums [the...

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 27 - Science teachers at the high school in Dover repeatedly resisted the school board's efforts to force them to teach creationism on equal footing with evolution in biology class, according to a former teacher who is among those challenging the board in a landmark trial. The conflict in Dover grew so heated that in public meetings board members called opponents "atheists," threatened to fire the science teachers and invoked Jesus' crucifixion as a reason to change the curriculum, two witnesses testified on Tuesday. "We would repeatedly tell them, 'We're not going to balance evolution with creationism....

Scientists at the Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico have accelerated a small plate from zero to 76,000 mph in less than a second. The speed of the thrust was a new record for Sandia's "Z Machine" - not only the fastest gun in the West, but in the world too. The Z Machine is now able to propel small plates at 34 kilometers a second, faster than the 30 kilometers per second that Earth travels through space in its orbit about the Sun. That's 50 times faster than a rifle bullet, and three times the velocity needed to...

Sweden "best brand in the world" Sweden has topped the rankings in an international survey of the top nation brands. People around the world see the Swedish government as the most trustworthy administration in the world, the Swedish people as the world's most hospitable, and think of Sweden as the best place in the world to live and work. The findings were made in the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index, a survey of 10,000 consumers in ten countries. They were asked for their impressions of the United States, Britain, Sweden, China, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Russia and Turkey. The report's author,...

Evolution hearings end with harsh words By DAVID KLEPPER The Kansas City Star TOPEKA — The state Board of Education's hearings on the teaching of evolution ended today with name calling and accusations from both sides. And it became increasingly clear that the board's three-member subcommittee, which called for the hearings, favors a proposal calling for criticism of evolution to be allowed in the science curriculum. The board members accused mainstream science groups, who have boycotted the hearings, of being too afraid to stand up to questions about evolution. Several times, board members shook their heads and smirked as the...

Evolution on trial again This week sees the 80th anniversary of the trial of John Scopes, teacher, for breaking the newly-passed Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in the state of Tennessee. Conceived as a PR stunt to put the town of Dayton, TN on the map, it succeeded in making a laughingstock of the state, which found Scopes guilty in a trial that garnered enormous publicity. 80 years later, scientists have identified DNA as the medium in which heredity is passed on, constructed a map of the entire human genome and can routinely manipulate genetic information in...

Odds for Nobel Peace Prize winner (Centrebet) Competitor Win HAVEL, Vaclav 5.00 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY/ELBARADEI, Mohamed 6.00 COOPERATIVE THREAT REDUCTION/LUGAR, Richard/NUNN, Sam 7.00 BLIX, Hans 9.00 VANUNU, Mordechai 11.00 PAYA, Oswaldo 12.00 JOHN PAUL II 13.00 YANYONG, Jiang 15.00 SALVATION ARMY 17.00 BRAHIMI, Lakhdar 21.00 DADDACH, Mohamed 21.00 TESFAGIORGIS, Paulos 21.00 EUROPEAN UNION 26.00 BONO 34.00 INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT 34.00 JINGSHENG, Wei 34.00 KOVALYEV, Sergei 34.00 TREATMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN/ACHMAT, Zackie 34.00 AGHAJARI, Hashem 51.00 COMMUNITY OF SANT' EGIDIO 51.00 LULA DA SILVA, Luiz Inacio 51.00 MOTHERS IN BLACK 51.00 QUE, Nguyen Dan 51.00 RYAN, George 51.00 TIANANMEN MOTHERS 51.00...

Norway may snub Lockheed, buy Gripen fighters OSLO, April 28 (Reuters) - Norway is looking at the Anglo-Swedish Gripen combat jet to replace its U.S.-built F-16s because of disappointment over a lack of sub-contracts in developing a new U.S. fighter, a senior parliamentarian said on Wednesday. Faced with a choice between continued loyalty to the United States as a NATO ally or switching to European partners, Norway has taken a stake in development of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) but is also looking at the Eurofighter jet.

Ambassador wrecks suicide bomber exhibit in Sweden By JPOST.COM STAFF In what the avant garde might call a transgressive work of performance art, Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, wrecked Friday an exhibit in Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities depicting a Palestinian suicide bomber. Located in the museum's courtyard, "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" depicted a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the Maxim restaurant suicide bomber who killed 21 patrons and staff as well as herself on October 4. Her photograph was placed on a little boat floating in a basin filled with water dyed red. The ambassador was...

Bring Halliburton Home Cancel the contracts. Ditch the deals. Rip up the rules. Those are a few suggestions for slogans that could help unify the growing movement against the occupation of Iraq. So far, activist debates have focused on whether the demand should be for a complete withdrawal of troops, or for the United States to cede power to the United Nations. But the "Troops Out" debate overlooks an important fact. If every last soldier pulled out of the Gulf tomorrow and a sovereign government came to power, Iraq would still be occupied: by laws written in the interest of...

Three Israelis killed at Neztarim settlement in Gaza Strip Three Israelis - two women and a man - were killed and two others were wounded in an infiltration by at least one Palestinian who infiltrated the Gaza Strip settlement of Netzarim at around 4:20 A.M. Friday. The wounded, a man with moderate wounds and a woman in serious condition, were airlifted to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment. Military officials said the infiltrator or infiltrators crossed the exterior fence and opened fire. The settlement itself was not breached, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Three Israelis were...

Country rank Country CPI 2003 score Surveys used Standard deviation High-low range 1 Finland 9.7 8 0.3 9.2 - 10.0 2 Iceland 9.6 7 0.3 9.2 - 10.0 3 Denmark 9.5 9 0.4 8.8 - 9.9 New Zealand 9.5 8 0.2 9.2 - 9.6 5 Singapore 9.4 12 0.1 9.2 - 9.5 6 Sweden 9.3 11 0.2 8.8 - 9.6 7 Netherlands 8.9 9 0.3 8.5 - 9.3 8 Australia 8.8 12 0.9 6.7 - 9.5 Norway 8.8 8 0.5 8.0 - 9.3 Switzerland 8.8 9 0.8 6.9 - 9.4 11 Canada 8.7 12 0.9 6.5 - 9.4 Luxembourg...

Investing in Mothers is Vital to Survival and Well-Being of Children, 2003 Mothers' Index RevealsFourth Annual Index Ranks 117 Countries Where Mothers and Children Fare Best and Worst: Sweden tops list, Niger ranks last, U.S. is 11th Washington, DC (Tuesday, May 6, 2003) – As Congress debates funding levels for overseas humanitarian assistance for FY 2004, the fourth annual Mothers' Index released just days before Mother's Day by Save the Children, a global development and relief organization, underscores the value of investing in mothers. The Index ranks the status of mothers' well-being in 117 countries, and reveals that where...

So who really did save Private Jessica?From Richard Lloyd Parry in al-NasiriyahDoctor claims that soldiers terrorised unarmed staff THE rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, which inspired America during one of the most difficult periods of the war, was not the heroic Hollywood story told by the US military, but a staged operation that terrified patients and victimised the doctors who had struggled to save her life, according to Iraqi witnesses. Doctors at al-Nasiriyah general hospital said that the airborne assault had met no resistance and was carried out a day after all the Iraqi forces and Baath leadership had...

Foto: MATS STRAND Could you have done more, Hans Blix? "Yes, I could have got tougher with the Iraqis" Foto: MATS STRAND Facts Name: Hans Blix.Job: Chief UN Weapons Inspector until June. Education: Law studies, Associate Professor in International LawCareer: Expert for and later Head of the Swedish Foreign Office (Utrikesdepartementet - UD) from 1962, undersecretary of state at UD 1976, Foreign Minister 1978-79, Director General of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in Vienna 1981-97. Has also been part of the UN General Assembly and the leader for the second line of policy leading up to the referendum on...

WASHINGTON -- To hear some Bush administration officials tell it, the reconstruction of Iraq will largely pay for itself, thanks to a postwar gusher of petroleum revenue. "The one thing that is certain is Iraq is a wealthy nation," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said. A look at the national balance sheet tells a different story.

You've perhaps already seen the "read my lips" video with Bush and Blair singing together, but here you'll find the full collection of videos. The origin is a pseudo-intellectual culture program produced by Swedish public service TV, but although its leftist flavour many conservatives have found the videos quite enjoyable. Please note that the following videos are in Swedish, and thus not suitable for the average freeper: Lars-Tommy och Svennis I mitt kvarter Dalai Lama och Göran Persson Stalin Read my lips videos(Real Player req.) // Freeper@Sweden

Bedouin feel the squeeze as Israel resettles the Negev desert Thousands displaced from ancient homeland Chris McGreal in Tel Al-MilehThursday February 27, 2003The Guardian The Israeli government has an offer for Jabir Abu Kaf. It will recognise a small patch of parched land as his own, provided he agrees to get off it and sell it to the state. Otherwise, Mr Abu Kaf will continue to be classified as a squatter in the desert his family roamed for generations, and to live in perpetual fear of being "civilised". It is no idle threat. To reinforce the tenuous nature of life...