Free Republic

Durban - KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo has issued an ultimatum to striking doctors, calling on them to return to work on Friday or face the music. Addressing the media in Durban on Friday, Dhlomo said notices had been sent to all hospitals calling on all striking doctors, dentists and pharmacists to resume their duties no later than 08:00. The department was also preparing a court interdict to force the striking health professionals to end the strike, he said. “We as the department of health are designated as an essential service provider and therefore find the action of these...

Letter from Zimbabwe sent in by John Winter I reckon that these are the last days of TKM and ZPF. The darkest hour is always before dawn. We are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next........I mean they are actually ploughing down brick and mortar houses and one family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK47's and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was 'too close to the airport', so we are feeling extremely insecure right...

Islamist militants took almost full control of Mogadishu on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia's capital, a witness reported. The Ethiopian forces pulled out their last remaining bases in the city late Wednesday after two years propping up Somalia's transitional government. Forces from different Islamist groups -- including the hard-line al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- immediately seized every base the Ethiopians abandoned. "The city is almost under Islamist rule," said a local journalist who did not want his name revealed. "You can hear different names of the Islamist groups...

Ethiopian Troops Begin Withdrawal From Somalia Article By SARAH CHILDRESS NAIROBI, Kenya -- Ethiopian forces began a planned withdrawal from Somalia Tuesday, threatening a power vacuum in the war-torn nation, but also robbing extremists in the country of a rallying cry that they had used against the country's more moderate leadership. The move comes at a time of heightened internal turmoil in Somalia, which has been without an effective government for years. Parliament is preparing to elect a new leader on Jan. 26, after President Abdullahi Yusuf resigned last month. Mr. Yusuf had failed to maintain control or stability in...

Zuma and the death-penalty referendum A High Court Justice in Botswana — nothing to do with the genius who was the first to be evicted from the Big Brother Africa house — has sentenced Michael Molefe of Soweto and a citizen of Botswana to be hanged for the murder of two Zimbabweans seven years ago. The reports of the dramatic courtroom scenes and the effect that it has on the families of the convicted pair bring home how drastic a step this measure is. Trauma for them now to match the suffering of the families of the Zimbabweans seven years...

Cosatu urges free Zimbabwe elections Sapa Published:Mar 07, 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zimbabwe should have free and fair elections, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said today. "We are saying to Robert Mugabe the day has come for him to respect the SADC’s protocols. We demand free and fair elections, no more vote rigging," said Cosatu’s Siphiwe Mgcina. Mgcina was addressing about 300 protesters who had gathered outside the Union Buildings. The protesters were expected later to march to the Zimbabwean, as well as, Kenyan and Swazi high commissions. Among other things, the group was demanding the return of all...

Ohio critical for McCain to win war-weary voters By John King CNN Washington Bureau EVANDALE, Ohio (CNN) -- John Dyer remembers being unable to sleep. For Sen. John McCain, Ohio could be a critical proving ground in his effort to win war-weary voters. "I woke up at 4 in the morning and walked around the neighborhood. Part of my mind was just torn with anger. I wanted to go to Iraq and find those people who had done this and kill them," he said. Two and a half years have passed since the knock on Dyer's door. The Marine flag...

Perhaps I am late to the party. Just got done reading this book. It struck home with me, since I used to be a tin can sailor myself. Before reading it, I never knew that the Yamato and Musashi could toss a 3,200 lb. shell a distance of 26 miles. That was the sort of thing we drilled for all the time. I'm glad that we never had to face it in battle. I was lucky enough to be in Clinton's Navy.

This is a video of an Australian sub sinking an torpeding an unmanned Aussie frigate. the link

Serbia: US 'culprit' in Kosovo violence By DUSAN STOJANOVIC and SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writers Sat Feb 23, 4:23 PM ET KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Serbia's hard-line leaders on Saturday called the U.S. "the main culprit" in the violence that has broken out since Kosovo declared independence. Several thousand Serbs chanting "Kosovo is Serbia!" and "Russia, Vladimir Putin!" protested peacefully in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, the sixth day of demonstrations against Kosovo's break with Serbia. Russia backs Serbia's fierce resistance to Kosovo's secession. On Thursday night, protesters in the Serbian capital Belgrade set fire to the U.S....

South Africa: No White Journalists At Zuma Address Business Day (Johannesburg) 22 February 2008 Posted to the web 22 February 2008 Hajra Omarjee Johannesburg AN INVITATION to African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma to address a function exclusively for black journalists today has become a public relations nightmare for the organisers. The ANC defended the move yesterday, saying that while the party was multiracial it respected the Forum for Black Journalists' "constitutional right" to organise along racial lines, and would not dictate to them. The forum, formed in 1996, relaunches in Johannesburg today. Zuma was invited as a guest...

Shia militia chief extends Iraq ceasefire Deborah Haynes of The Times, in Baghdad, and Times Online A pivotal ceasefire by thousands of Shia militiamen in Iraq was extended today for another six months, in a welcome boost for the US military and Iraqi Government. Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shia cleric, commanded his al-Mahdi Army militia to retain the fighting freeze, which he first ordered in August and was due to expire on February 29. The news was dampened this morning, however, by confirmation today that a US marine had been killed in a battle with gunmen in western Iraq's...

Life of the party: Obama's supporters rock Reunion Arena 12:00 AM CST on Thursday, February 21, 2008 Sha-zam! Barack Obama puts on a really great shindig – this crowd was juiced! It wasn't just the hollering section of sign wavers clustered down front for the cameras, but up in the rafters where I was, in the lumpy old Reunion Arena folding seats. *snip* They wanted to be in the same room with the man and to echo his themes – hope, change, unity, sticking it to the fat cats – generalities that his opponents have criticized as lacking "substance." The...

Musharraf: The impeachment factor By Kamran Rehmat In the next 24 hours, some contours of the next Pakistani government both at the centre and the country's four provinces will begin to take shape. As expected, the polls threw up a divided mandate that relegated embattled president Pervez Musharraf's allies to the sidelines but Pakistanis are hoping that the top gainers — the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — will look beyond the short term lure of power. Indeed, together they have the strength — with likely help from the supporting leftwing Awami National Party (ANP)...

This is what 2 million pounds worth of plastic surgery can do for you.

Hillary's campaign is obviously foundering. Only a victory in the March 4 primaries can save her. More to the point, if she wins on March 4, in Ohio and Texas, it will force a brokered Democrat Convention, and this would be the thing to throw the party into turmoil. A Hillary win in Pennsylvania on April 22 will help even more. Also on March 4 is Rhode Island and Vermont. A brokered convention is the thing that can rip the Democrat Party apart. The Obama-maniacs would lose faith, realizing that they've been screwed, and Republicans can benefit. Then, many of...

Just saying.

Mayor Compares Threat of Global Warming to Terrorism By BENNY AVNI Staff Reporter of the Sun February 12, 2008 UNITED NATIONS — While he acknowledged that scientists are unable to predict its consequences, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday compared the scourge of global warming to the threat of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Although it is a "long-term" fight, he said, reducing gas emissions may save the life of "everybody" on the planet, the same way that fighting terrorism and its proliferation saves lives in shorter terms. Addressing a U.N. climate change conference, the mayor also announced a...

I wouldn't vote for this guy in a million years, but dang if he isn't inspirational. He's like a revival preacher. No wonder that the useful idiots vote for him. This guy is a friggin gold mine. He's an ambassador for.... well, for something. He gives the best political speeches I've heard in my whole life. Even better than Reagan. Of course I'd vote for Reagan a million times before I'd ever think about voting for Obama, but... this guy is good. Don't underestimate him.

And Obama Wept February 07, 2008 9:43 AM Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand. It's as if Tom Daschle descended from on high saying, "Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat." Obama supporter Kathleen Geier writes that she's "getting increasingly weirded out by some of Obama's supporters. On listservs I'm on, some people who should know better – hard-bitten, not-so-young...