Free Republic

Malaria isn’t history. According to the World Health Organization(WHO), malaria kills more than one million people each year. More than 40% of the world’s population is at risk, in areas such as Africa, Central America, Hispaniola, India, the Middle East, Oceania, South America, and Southeast Asia. Children and pregnant women are most at risk. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that malaria is the fourth leading cause of death for children under five years of age worldwide. A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- One of Northern Ireland's most infamous Protestant militants, Michael Stone, forced the province's legislature to be evacuated Friday when he tossed a bag into the building and said it contained a bomb.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend, according to a new U.S. study that found three of four women would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace. The survey, commissioned by U.S. cable television's Oxygen Network that is owned and operated by women, found the technology gender gap has virtually closed with the majority of women snapping up new technology and using it easily.

"In the future, 10 to 15 years from now, every adult in the UK will have a fairly good idea of how much carbon dioxide they emit into the atmosphere, just as they now know roughly how much money they have in their bank account," Mr Booth said. "Customers may decide how his or her CO2 allocation is spent." I will if you will, that's what I say to all stakeholders That could, for instance, mean walking to work for a year to save up carbon credits so as to take a foreign holiday - or reducing the use of...

Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, the bill would require the White House Office of Management and Budget to provide for the "operation of a single updated searchable database website accessible by the public at no cost" that would identify "each entity [e.g., corporations, associations, grantees, contractors and any state or locality] receiving federal funding" during fiscal years 2006 and 2007. The required information would include "an itemized breakdown of each transaction, including funding agency, program source and a description of the purpose of each funding action." By the beginning of 2009, the Web site would include comparable data for fiscal years...

LONGWOOD -- A Milwee Middle School eighth-grader, who last year threatened to blow up a school bus, showed up for class Friday with a pistol in his backpack. However, classmates of Chris Penley, 15, didn't know it was a pellet gun. Neither did a veteran Seminole County deputy sheriff, who made a split-second decision to open fire when Chris pointed the weapon at him, authorities said. The deputy's single shot gravely wounded the boy, who was on life support Friday at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

MIAMI (AP) - Tropical Storm Zeta formed Friday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, another installment in a record-breaking hurricane season that officially ended last month. Zeta, the 27th storm of the season, formed Friday about 1,000 miles south-southwest of the Azores islands, according to an advisory posted on the National Hurricane Center's Web site. It posed no immediate threat to land. The center said it would send out a full advisory later Friday. Tropical storms have winds of at least 39 mph. It was not immediately known if Dec. 30 was the latest date for the formation of a tropical...

MIAMI (AP) - Epsilon strengthened into a record 14th hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday - two days after the 2005 season officially ended. Forecasters said it posed no threat to land. Epsilon had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph at 10 a.m. EST, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Its top sustained winds had been near 65 mph earlier in the day.

Indonesian Christians Terrified After Children Beheaded JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian troops were on high alert Monday, bracing for a new cycle of sectarian violence in a province where machete-wielding assailants beheaded three Christian schoolgirls and seriously wounded a fourth. Religious leaders called on their followers to remain calm and to refrain from revenge attacks, reminding them that investigators have yet to determine who was behind Saturday's grisly murders in Central Sulawesi province. Suspicion has fallen, however, on Islamic militants responsible for a series of attacks on Christians since a peace deal in 2002 ended a bloody conflict that killed...

Gasoline prices are squeezing everybody's wallet. A shortage of crude oil usually gets the blame, but high gas prices often are the result more of a lack of refining capacity. There hasn't been a refinery built in the United States since 1976. There are now 148 refineries in the United States, down from 324 in 1981. One of those 324 was Enid's Champlin Refinery, shut down in 1985. Champlin was among the refineries closed because companies found mothballing facilities to be cheaper than modifying them to meet tougher environmental regulations. Veteran Enid oil man Harold Hamm wants to see that...