Free Republic

New Yorkers sue for the right to shimmy Fri Jun 24,12:52 PM ET People dance at a ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. A group of dancers jointly filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that seeks to declare a city ordinance forbidding dancing in clubs without cabaret licenses as unconstitutional.(AFP/File/Stan Honda) NEW YORK (AFP) - Despite living in a city renowned for its vibrant nightlife, a group of New Yorkers have deemed it necessary to embark on a legal battle to win the right to go out dancing. A group of social dancers, dance teachers...

Girls finally getting a chance to learn Saturday, March 26, 2005 ANKARA - Turkish Daily News A total of 1,659 girls living in Þanlýurfa have begun their schooling as part of the “Girls Let's Go to School” campaign, a project that has been ongoing for a year, made possible through the cooperation of the Education Ministry and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Girls between the ages of 10 and 14, whose families were persuaded to send their daughters to school instead of making them work in fields, are now taking courses in specially prepared classrooms. Children are able to...

Oil stocks slide as crude, gas plunge By Lisa Sanders, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 4:21 PM ET Dec. 2, 2004 E-mail it | Print | Discuss | Alert | Reprint | RSS DALLAS (CBS.MW) -- Oil and gas stocks closed broadly lower as crude futures sank Thursday for the second straight session, and natural gas futures plunged more than 8 percent on the latest report out of the Energy Department. The Energy Department said natural gas supplies for the week ended Nov. 19 fell 17 billion cubic feet, not 49 billion as originally reported a week ago. For the week ended...

Bin Laden arrest getting closer: Pakistan interior minister Fri Aug 13, 1:19 AM ET DUBAI (AFP) - Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said that his country's capture of top Al-Qaeda suspects brought Islamabad closer to the arrest of the terror network's chief, Osama bin Laden. Pakistan has already penetrated the network, he said on Thursday. "Undoubtedly, we have received some information and all the arrests at the Al-Qaeda leadership level bring us closer toward reaching the desired objective," Hayat told Al-Arabiya satellite television. Hayat said Pakistan's objective "is not only the arrest of bin Laden and (his number two...

World getting 'literally greener' By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent in Jeju, Korea About a third of the world is still covered with forests... The world seems to have begun to turn greener, in the strictly literal sense, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep). Satellite data show plant growth has been measurably more vigorous over the last 25 years. The news comes in Unep's first Global Environment Outlook Year Book 2003, which highlights trends and problems. The book is being launched at the opening here of Unep's annual council, attended by about 150 delegations. The meeting...

WASHINGTON - The White House and Pentagon (news - web sites) on Monday dismissed allegations that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. forces eager for him to resign and flee into exile. With U.S. military forces already on the ground in the Caribbean nation and more on the way, chief presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said, "It's nonsense, and conspiracy theories do nothing to help the Haitian people move forward to a better more free, more prosperous future." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also vehemently denied that Aristide had been forced out by the United States, and Secretary of...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to borrow $15 billion to deal with the state's budget deficit is getting broad but often reluctant support from many of California's major newspapers.</p> <p>"It's the least damaging way for California to begin to emerge from its fiscal abyss," said the Los Angeles Times in endorsing Proposition 57, the measure on Tuesday's ballot authorizing sale of the bonds.</p>

<p>When you walk into a fast-food restaurant, you know how much you are going to pay - and thanks to government regulations - what you are going to get, down to each and every calorie.</p> <p>But what do you get for your money at the DMV or the Department of Education? You pay taxes at the gas pump, at the checkout stand and out of your paycheck. But do you know where your tax money is going and whether you are getting your money's worth?</p>

The loser's guide to getting lucky By Professor Richard Wiseman University of Hertfordshire Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve? A psychologist says he has discovered the answer. Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me. Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and, over the...

USDA: average consumers eating more cheese than ever WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 — Shredded cheddar or Parmesan adds zest to salads. Soft, gooey mozzarella is a must for pizza. Burgers are blanketed with melting slices of American, Swiss or Monterey Jack. CHEESE IS EVERYWHERE, and consumers are eating more of it than ever before — a trend that has been on the rise since the mid-1940s, the Agriculture Department says. A typical consumer now eats 30 pounds of cheese a year, far more than the 6-pound annual average of 1944. Don Blayney, a department economist, said people are eating more cheese...