Free Republic

This week I was saddened to learn of the death of Ida Nudel, a former activist and leader in the movement to free the Jews of the Soviet Union. It’s important to remember her, and her giant role in the history of the Jewish people. I knew about Ida Nudel as a teen. She was one of the prominent faces of the Soviet Jewry movement. Ida was a Soviet Jewish refusenik (Jews who had asked for permission to be able to leave the USSR and ultimately been refused, bringing with the refusal a stigma of being anti-Soviet and victim of...

N Korea 'develops special noodle' North Korean scientists have developed a new kind of noodle that delays feelings of hunger, a Japan-based pro-Pyongyang newspaper has reported. The noodles were made from corn and soybeans, the Choson Shinbo said. They left people feeling fuller longer and represented a technological breakthrough, the newspaper said. North Korea is dependent on foreign food aid. Last month the UN warned that residents were experiencing their worst food shortages in a decade. But the communist country remains reluctant to allow experts to fully assess the scale of the problem or give them adequate access to deliver...

Eugene, Ore., social service agency salvages airport toiletries The Associated Press   EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Airport discards in the response to a terror plot have turned into balm for the homeless in Eugene. The St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County has started picking up some of the things people have jettisoned for security reasons as they board flights at the Eugene Airport. Charley Harvey, assistant executive director of the charity, dug through trash bags Tuesday and took every bottle of shampoo and shaving cream he could find. The items will be distributed at the organization's First Place...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A Portland worker was rescued after his arm got caught in an industrial noodle mixer. Officials said that the man became ensnared in the machine Tuesday after his sleeve or perhaps his hand got caught on the mixer as the machine was turning. The power of the machine pulled his arm through the mixer and out the bottom, lifting the man into the mixing hopper. A crew of 28 people including 13 firefighters, one chief surgeon and four paramedics were called to help disentangle the man from the mixer. Firefighters worked on tearing and cutting the...

TOKYO (AP) -- It takes tough managers to succeed in Japan's cutthroat instant noodles business, and one company wants to ensure it has the toughest - through ramen noodle boot camp. Newly promoted managers at Nissin Food Products need to survive three days on a tiny, uninhabited island where they will dig their own toilets, make fire from dry leaves, catch their own fish and even carve their chopsticks from local bamboo. The plan is to promote team spirit, perseverance, creativity and an appreciation for the product, said Masanaga Oguchi, spokesman for the Osaka-based ramen noodle maker. "In our daily...