Free Republic

Subject: Terrible Trip......Jxxxx XXXXXXXX From: Jxxxxxxx Date: Monday To: undisclosed recipients: ; I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down to London England for a short vacation and i was mugged at gun point last night,all cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off,It was so scary just happy I still have my life and passport. I've been to the embassy and the Police here thank God they are really helping with a return flight and our fight leaves in few hours from now,but we are only having problems settling our hotel bills before leaving I need you to...

Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s mayor-for-life, has announced that the city will not go ahead with a publicly funded CCT program. A what? “CCT” stands for “Conditional Cash Transfer,” the current fad among anti-poverty campaigners. The name, unusually for social-policy onomastics, clearly describes the program. Cash ($$$$) is transferred (from some funding source, most likely an anagram of PAXTAYERS, to poor people) with conditions (“If you make sure your child attends school regularly, we’ll give you $50 a month”). CCT is not particularly a New York thing; there have been CCTs all over the world since the late 1990s. Nor...

Wachovia bank considers NKorea cash transfer Thu May 17, 3:51 PM ET The US-based Wachovia bank said Thursday it was considering a State Department request to oversee the transfer of frozen funds back to North Korea. The move, if approved, could resolve a long-running financial dispute over 25 million dollars in reportedly tainted funds frozen in an Asian bank that has blocked progress on North Korea's pledge to start shutting down its nuclear program. "Because of our international expertise, we have been asked, on a non-profit basis, by the US State Department to help them process an interbank transfer of...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Lebanon's finance minister on Sunday downplayed the Iraqi Defense Ministry's transfer of $500 million to a Beirut financial institution, saying he would expect such a transfer to be legal if it was made by the Iraqi government. In southern Iraq, the politician demanding a probe into Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan's decision to make the cash transfer said he would not flee his country. Ahmad Chalabi said he was staying despite Shaalan's threat to arrest him and turn him over to Interpol based on an old Jordanian bank fraud conviction.Finance Minister Elias Saba told the private...