Free Republic

Gangs are as old as America itself and a part of our historical and popular culture. However, fueled by the global nature of the drug trade, gangs are increasingly international operations, with many of the largest and most vicious gangs operating in America hailing from South America. With the infrastructure in place to move and distribute drugs from across the border, the danger exists that they will use their network to, for the right price, traffic terrorists and weapons into the country. For the first time, gangs are presenting a growing threat not only to our personal safety, but to...

Mad cow fears take wide toll Foreign beef bans, uncertain test and court fight unsettle ranchers, industry By Jim Wasserman -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, June 19, 2005 Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here. Facing the crowd at Cattlemen's Livestock Market, auctioneers Max Olvera and Ralph Wade seemingly never saw 4,200 steers and heifers with so much promise, so beautiful and so worth buying. Their flattery knew no bounds on a recent Saturday that linked Northern California ranchers with cattle buyers from the Midwest and Northwest. "Here's some cattle...

UN calls for action to halt Aids Aids is spreading faster than ever, outstripping efforts to contain it, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said. "Last year saw more new infections and Aids-related deaths than ever before," Mr Annan told a conference in New York. Only 12% of people with Aids in underdeveloped countries are getting anti-retroviral drugs, he added. In 2001, the UN set a target date of 2015 to halt the spread of the disease but Mr Annan said better leadership and funding was needed to reach that goal. "The fight against Aids may be the great challenge...

<p>CHICAGO, May 21 — A federal jury has found that a Chicago suburb didn't violate the civil rights of a Muslim group that claims city officials conspired to foil its plans to turn a vacant church into a mosque and school.</p>

Rancho Man Accused of Vandalizing Own House May 10, 2005 RANCHO CORDOVA -- When FOX40 News arrived at his Rancho Cordova house on Pecan Grove Way today, we found him spray painting over his own work. Apparently, the man known as 'Ty', had written phrases like "Ty take care of your own house!", which was directed at neighbors who asked Ty to mow his lawn and paint his house. "He had written Bin Laden Must die and bad men must die, and we consider that a threat," says Randy Housewright of the Home Owner's Association. "Just a joke," says 'Ty'....

Cuba rocks to concert by US band By Stephen Gibbs BBC News, Havana The American band Audioslave is to become the first US rock act to give a free open-air concert to audiences in Communist Cuba. The event, on Friday night, has been given the rare approval of both the Cuban and US governments. The two countries have been ideological foes for more than four decades. The group has been playing at Havana's Anti Imperialist Plaza, which was purpose-built five years ago for mass protests against the US government. It has been echoing to the sound of one of America's...

U.S. prisons swell by nearly 900 inmates per week in 2004 SIOBHAN McDONOUGH Associated Press WASHINGTON - Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week over the span of a year, the nation's prisons and jails held 2.1 million people, or one for every 138 U.S. residents, as of June 30, the government reported Sunday. That's 48,000 more inmates, or 2.3 percent, more than the year before, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The figures compare inmate population from June 30, 2003 to June 30, 2004. The total inmate population has hovered around...

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department — admitting that internal breakdowns delayed its response to a March 14 anthrax scare at the Pentagon and nearby office buildings — is changing how it handles biohazard threats. Military officials said they will quicken reporting of test results from biological sensors around their Arlington, Va., headquarters to no more than 24 hours, and shift away from using contract laboratories. It took three days to get results from a contractor after the March 14 incident.

7th Kimilsungia Festival to Be Held Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- The 7th Kimilsungia Festival will be held in Pyongyang on the occasion of the Day of the Sun (birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung) and the 40th anniversary of its appearance as a flower representing the sun. The festival will mark an important occasion of paying highest tribute to Kim Il Sung who performed immortal exploits for the revolutionary cause of Juche and the human cause of independence and demonstrating before the world the might of single-minded unity in Juche Korea where all the servicepersons and people are...

Arrests Announced In Major Drug Investigation theKCRAchannel.com STOCKTONCalif. - Federal officials Tuesday announced the arrests of eight people in connection with a major drug operating in Stockton. The criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office is nearly 75 pages in length, and describes one of the largest drug rings in the Central Valley, brought down by an investigation that lasted several years. The investigation involved federal agencies, as well as local law enforcement, including the Stockton and Manteca police departments, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department, and the California Highway Patrol. "The people arrested last week are drug dealers,...

March 21 issue - The most fanciful park in Paris, and one of the least known, set among the city's poorest immigrant neighborhoods, is the Buttes Chaumont. A craggy mountain rises out of a taciturn lake, and a narrow path leads across what's called the "Bridge of Suicides." Muslim boys trained there last year for holy war in Iraq. Several were in their teens, born and raised in France, and many knew nothing more about guns and bombs than what they'd seen in movies. Some spoke no Arabic. But they heard the call to jihad that was raised by radical...

SAP, Intel Join Forces on RFID Fri Mar 11, 5:07 PM ET Jay Wrolstad, www.bpm-today.com Business software specialist SAP (NYSE: SAP - news) hopes to take RFID technology to the next level through a partnership with chip giant Intel. The partnership combines the expertise of each company to streamline the deployments of emerging wireless tracking systems. The collaboration will help companies integrate RFID data directly into backend systems through Intel-based servers, desktop machines, notebooks and RFID readers. Intel also will supply technology enabling RFID device management via the SAP NetWeaver platform. Middleware Plus Hardware SAP has a strong selection of...

Firefighters Suspended For Sex At Fire Station Fire Department Says It Is Disappointed POSTED: 5:53 pm PST March 10, 2005 UPDATED: 6:13 pm PST March 10, 2005 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- KCRA 3 has learned that two Sacramento Metro firefighters -- a man and a woman -- have been suspended for having sex in their firehouse. Video Sacramento Metro Fire Station No. 23 Watch Tom DuHain's Report Fire officials said that both firefighters, one of them a department veteran, have already admitted to sexual activity inside Metro Fire Station No. 23 on Greenback Lane within the past 30 days, according to...

Teen Sends Student Semen-Frosted Brownies Wed Mar 9, 9:08 PM ET Add to My Yahoo! Strange News - AP COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A teenager has agreed to admit to three counts of disturbing the peace after anonymously sending semen-frosted brownies to a fellow student. The recipient shared the treat with two other teens, police said. They said the 17-year-old Coeur d'Alene High School student was upset after a prank in which the other student put peanut butter in his cheese sandwich days before. He told a school resource officer that "he hated peanut butter and it made him more...

The former Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, is due to fly to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague after being charged with war crimes. His indictment refers to his role in the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, although the charges have not been made public. Mr Haradinaj, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), says he is an innocent man. He resigned on Tuesday, urging calm in the UN-administered Serbian province dominated by ethnic Albanians. Nato has deployed additional 1,000 troops in the province to bolster the Nato-led Kosovo Protection Force (K-For) mission, amid reports that ethnic Albanians...

FOX40 Three More Arrests In Firebombing Case Associated Press March 7, 2005, 6:27 PM PST SACRAMENTO -- Three more Sierra foothills residents, including two sisters, have been arrested in a Christmas attempted arson tied to a shadowy eco-terrorist organization, authorities said Monday. The incident was the first of three attempted or successful arson attacks on buildings under construction in towns east of Sacramento. Two of the three suspects admitted trying to burn down two homes in an upscale Lincoln housing development, the FBI said. Arrested Monday was Jeremiah Colcleasure, 24. Arrested Friday were sisters Eva Rose Holland, 25, and her...

BAE Systems to buy UDI for $4.2 bln Largest transatlantic defense deal in recent years By Aude Lagorce, MarketWatch Last Update: 3:35 AM ET March 7, 2005 LONDON (MarketWatch) -- BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense contractor, said Monday it has an agreement to buy United Defense Industries, the Bradley tank maker, for $3.97 billion in cash and $218 million in debt assumption. The deal values Arlington, Va.-based United Defense Industries, Inc., (UDI: news, chart, profile) which also makes artillery systems, naval guns and missile launchers, at $75 a share, setting a 29 percent premium to the UDI close Friday at...

Top Stories - washingtonpost.com Saudis Tell Syria To Leave Lebanon 1 hour, 3 minutes ago By Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service BEIRUT, March 3 -- Saudi Arabia's rulers warned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday to begin withdrawing his country's troops from Lebanon or risk damaging relations between their countries, adding a leading Arab voice to a chorus of demands from Washington and European capitals, according to news reports from Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

PARIS (Reuters) - An Islamist group broken up in France in 2002 had been planning an attack on the Eiffel Tower, three suspects arrested last month in Paris have told French investigators. They told the DST domestic intelligence agency that a group affiliated with Chechen rebels had planned attacks on several Paris targets, including the Paris landmark, a judicial source said on Wednesday. However, the projects were at the planning stages and the plans to attack the Eiffel Tower had not been finalised, the source told Reuters. The information came from three Algerians arrested on January 11 -- Khaled Ouazane,...

Air Force grounding some older cargo planes that are flying in Iraq ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — The Air Force said Friday it is grounding 30 of its oldest C-130 cargo planes and putting flight restrictions on 60 others after discovering unexpectedly severe wing cracks. The moves include about a dozen C-130s that have been hauling supplies in Iraq, but that is not expected to have a major impact on the war effort. Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, told a Senate committee Thursday that the planes in Iraq would be replaced by newer ones. Jumper...