Free Republic

Is Israel right to send troops into Gaza?

Does anyone know if there is a memorial to US troops that I can visit while in Hanoi? I know it seems unlikely, but you never know. If not, anyone in Hanoi this month?

SINGAPORE, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Visibility plunged to 50 metres in parts of Borneo island on Saturday and Singapore recorded its highest pollution reading in nearly a decade as fires in Indonesia sent acrid smoke across Southeast Asia. Singapore issued its first haze-related health warning this year. The daily air pollution index hit 128, the National Environment Agency said on its Web site (www.nea.gov.sg). A reading above 100 is rated unhealthy. In Central Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, visibility in some places had plunged to 50 metres (165 ft) governor Agustin Teras Narang told Elshinta radio. Hundreds sought...

KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia has said an emergency meeting of key Muslim countries this week will call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East and discuss a formal United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon. Malaysia is currently the chair of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), whose executive committee will meet in the country's administrative centre of Putrajaya on Thursday. "We want a UN peacekeeping force," Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency. "We will also urge that such a force include the participation of Islamic nations," he...

Do you believe Western press has the right to publish the controversial cartoons on Prophet Mohammad? Yes, it's freedom of the press. No, religious sensitivities should be respected.

For some reason, i can't use wilipedia as a source, but i thought that the entry on wikipedia for the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons is quite comprehensive, even with a image of the original 12 cartoons. FOr those interested, the URLs are below: Main entryImage of cartoons

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian police turned water cannons on Sudanese war refugees and beat them with sticks Friday, brutally clearing out a squatters camp in a city park. At least 10 people were killed, the government said. Hundreds of Sudanese have been living in the park since September to protest the U.N. refugee agency's refusal to consider them for refugee status. They want to be resettled in a third country, such as the United States or Britain, rather than go home after a peace deal ended the 21-year-long civil war in Sudan. In Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations High...

SYDNEY - A suspicious fire at a Sydney church hall early Wednesday and shots fired during a Christmas carol service heightened tensions as Australians braced for more racial violence between whites and ethnic Arabs. Four men were seen near the Uniting Church hall, which is next to an Islamic centre in the multicultural suburb of Auburn, before the fire broke out in the early hours of the morning. "I've been in contact with the police this morning and the police are treating it as suspicious," New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma said. Asked in a television interview if the...

Just heard on CNN, a Spanish MP is trapped in the New Orleans convention Center and managed to call out to friends in Spain... who contacted CNN. Apparently, there are dead bodies in and around convention center and that no central authority exists...

Interesting video. Don't know if anyone is interested. It's very patriotic.

AN Indonesian navy ship has collided with a Malaysian vessel in an oil-rich maritime area claimed by both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, a report said Saturday. The incident off the coast off Borneo island happened Friday morning and involved Malaysia's navy ship KD Rencong and Indonesia's KRI Tedung Naga, the Sinar Harapan evening daily said, quoting an anonymous Indonesian navy officer. The left side of the Indonesian ship's hull was damaged while the Malaysian ship's front was also damaged. "Looking at the circumstances, it is clear that their ship hit ours, not the other way around," the officer told the...

A Labour councillor who stole postal votes in a local council election was jailed for three years and seven months yesterday. Judge Peter Openshaw, who described the system as being "wide open to fraud", said: "The defendant has literally stolen votes." Muhammed Hussain, 61, had arranged the collection of blank ballot papers posted to homes in the ward he was contesting in Blackburn, Lancs, Preston Crown Court was told. Campaigners went from house to house asking voters to hand over papers, saying: "Don't worry we'll take care of them." Hussain pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiring to defraud...

JAKARTA : Indonesia on Monday denied allegations in a Swiss newspaper that tsunami relief funds were diverted to purchase a swanky resident for its ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. Foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said the Le Matin daily had falsely reported that some of the millions of aid dollars raised by people around the world had been used to house the ambassador in palatial style. Indonesia is under intense scrutiny over its handling of tsunami aid with fears that an endemic culture of graft will lead to money being skimmed off by corrupt officials. "The report insinuates...

A teenage criminal who received £567,000 in compensation after falling through a roof while trespassing boasted about his wealth yesterday, saying that he was looking forward to buying "a few houses and a flash car". Carl Murphy, 18, got the payout last week, nine years after being injured in a 40ft fall at a warehouse in Bootle docks, near Liverpool, prompting angry protests from crime victims and politicians.

HONG KONG - WAS he pushed? Or did he choose to go? Speculation was rife about the fate of Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa and what might have prompted his supposed early departure. Chinese sources from the two most important ministry-level bodies handling Hong Kong affairs - the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing and the Central Government's Liaison Office in Hong Kong - were completely in the dark about his reported sudden resignation. A source with the Liaison Office told The Straits Times that his office was 'in complete chaos' upon hearing the news. It...

Is Mr Lee Hsien Loong a closet liberal? That question first cropped up when he delivered the inaugural address as Prime Minister last August, when he stunned a nation used to viewing him as a tough-minded hardliner, by emphasising the need for an open, inclusive society. Then, in his first National Day Rally speech 10 days later, he announced a slew of policy U-turns, including relaxations on public speech restrictions. That gels with a definition of a liberal as someone who favours progress and reform, 'tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition'. In the debate on the...

An unprecedented flash observed by the space shuttle Columbia crew in 2003 over the Indian Ocean may be a new type of transient luminous event, like lightning sprites, but one that is not necessarily caused by a thunderstorm. The discharge was observed less than two weeks before the shuttle was lost during its Earth reentry. The authors describe the discharge as a Transient Ionospheric Glow Emission in Red, or TIGER, event. It was recorded by a video camera in the near-infrared spectrum in the nighttime sky just south of Madagascar on 20 January 2003.

KUALA LUMPUR: Power blackouts hit five Malaysian states on Thursday, sending several cities, including Kuala Lumpur, into semi-darkness. Witnesses reported blackouts in Selangor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang and Johor states. Several parts of the Klang Valley, including Putrajaya, were affected by the power failure which occurred at about 12.30 pm, eye-witnesses said. They added that areas like Damansara, Bangsar, Hulu Klang, Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam in Selangor were hit by the blackout. Power was also down in Kuala Lumpur's 88-storey twin towers...

I was quite keen to get my hands on a copy of "Unfit for Command" by John O'Neill, so I went to my branch of Borders here in Singapore the week it was launched, and not finding it placed an order. They would notify me by post when it would arrive. they said 4-6 weeks. Well, yesterday, having not heard from them, I went down and asked them for an update, and the sales guy said 'out of stock' and that it is NOT GOING TO BE PRINTED anymore. Huh? I was a bit confused. I thought it was No.1...