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WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2006 – President Bush today kicked off a new national program designed to increase the number of Americans fluent in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindu, Farsi, and other critical-need languages. "We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We'll welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages," Bush said in introducing his National Security Language Initiative at the State Department. Bush addressed university presidents here attending an international educator's conference that's co-sponsored by the State and Education departments. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, and Defense Secretary Donald...

Bush cuts off cash for rebuilding Iraq By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 03/01/2006) The Bush administration has made clear that there will be no more money for rebuilding Iraq when the £10.7 billion originally allocated has been spent. Although many projects have been disappointments, the decision not to ask Congress for more cash in next month's draft budget underlines the consensus that it is time to start winding down the costly commitment to the country. It also highlights how, since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the focus of the reconstruction effort has shifted from electricity, roads...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is again spouting Jew-hatred, and displaying his complete ignorance of history (but what's rationality when expousing genocide?). In October, he urged that Israel be "wiped off the map." Today, he: ...expressed doubt that the Holocaust occurred and suggested Israel be moved to Europe. ... In his own words: "Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "Although we don't...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Dec. 6, 2005)–Task Force Baghdad Soldiers captured 24 terror suspects in the Al Rasheed district during a 12-hour period Dec. 3-4. Launching operations based on tips from Iraqi citizens and intelligence developed over time, Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment conducted three cordon and searches and captured a total of nine individuals. Soldiers from Company A, 184th Inf. detained six individuals in eastern Rasheed Dec. 3 around 11:35 p.m. One of the detainees was a known member of an Al-Qaeda bomb-making cell and another individual is suspected of running safe houses used to smuggle terrorists...

Mon Dec 5, 5:32 AM ET NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's opposition piled pressure on the government in parliament over new charges that the former foreign minister and the ruling Congress party joined a scam to profit from the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq. ADVERTISEMENT Trouble erupted within minutes of parliament assembling as MPs belonging to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jumped to their feet to demand the resignation of ex-foreign minister Natwar Singh, now serving as cabinet minister without portfolio. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the opposition could discuss later the new charges that Singh and the Congress...

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. (Nov. 25, 2005) -- In the fall of 1947, a woman named Diane handcrafted a Raggedy Ann doll and asked her husband, then-Marine Corps Reserve Major William Hendricks, to deliver the doll to an organization that would give it to a needy child on Christmas. When Hendricks told his wife that no organization existed, she suggested that he start one. That year, the project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign, according to the Toys for Tots Web site. Since, each...

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. (Nov. 18, 2005) -- “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. The Marines don't have that problem.” — Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States; 1985 From July 2 through 7, a wave of infantrymen set off on an expedition that consisted of fighting a world enemy, stabilizing and securing a society that yearned for help, and helping to rebuild a nation that was once run by military strongmen led by a dictator. The infantrymen are known as “War Dogs,” 2nd Battalion,...

'Feminised' surgeries put men off seeing GPs By Celia Hall (Filed: 11/11/2005) Men are being put off visiting their GP because doctors' surgeries are "too female" and not open after work, according to a survey. Some of those questioned suggested men-only surgeries should be held in betting shops, pubs or golf clubs because they felt out of place when they visited their GP. They complained that surgeries were "feminised" through the decor and display material. The poll among 300 men by the Men's Health Forum, found that the commonest complaint was over opening hours. Men wanted to be able to...

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 1, 2005) – Multi-National Forces from Task Force Freedom killed two terrorists, wounded three, detained 11 suspected terrorists, and seized weapons caches in northern Iraq Oct. 28-31. Soldiers from Task Force Freedom were engaged with rocket-propelled-grenade and small-arms fire before returning fire and killing two terrorists. The Soldiers searched a vehicle, discovering AK-47s, a machine gun, hand grenades, and ammunition. Soldiers seize three caches Soldiers from the 503rd Military Police seized a cache consisting of rolls of detonation cord, numerous rounds of rocket-propelled grenade and mortar rounds, a mortar tube, an improvised rocket launching...

Four Central Florida middle school students were arrested Monday for allegedly ripping off the clothes off classmates and then snapping photos with their cell phones, according to a Local 6 News report. Investigators said the boys, ages 12, 13 and 14 years old, attacked the girls Friday at Tavares Middle School in Lake County, Fla., in the back of a school bus. The boys then allegedly groped the girls and took pictures of them. Cell phone video allegedly showed one of the girls screaming for help while the boys touch her breasts, according to the report. Police said the attack...

Police: Suspect Tries To Chew Skin Off Fingers To Foil ID Robert Anwar Nicks. LOWER PAXTON, Pa. -- Robert Anwar Nicks. A fugitive wanted on robbery and weapons charges went to great lengths to conceal his identity, including trying to chew off the skin of his own fingers so he couldn't be fingerprinted, Lower Paxton Township police say.Robert Anwar Nicks, 24, ran across an interstate and ditched two handguns, a 9-mm and a .45, and tried to hijack two cars, assaulting one owner, before bystanders and police restrained him Wednesday, police said.Officers spotted Nicks in the 200 block of North...

Helicopter rescue crews from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base - barely back home in Tucson after helping victims of Hurricane Katrina - took off for Texas on Friday to brace for Hurricane Rita. About 75 airmen from D-M's 563rd Rescue Group left for Randolph Air Force Base near San Antonio, along with three HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and two HC-130 Hercules aerial refueling planes. The crews, specially trained to conduct search-and-rescue operations, have spent the last few weeks plucking people off rooftops in New Orleans and other areas stricken by Katrina. Most crew members had just returned to Tucson in...

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Tony Blair 'relished' sending British soldiers off to war By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor (Filed: 18/09/2005) Tony Blair "relished" sending troops to war, according to claims by a former Downing Street aide which the Government tried to suppress. The Prime Minister also railed at "the f***ing Welsh" and made policies minutes before going on television, Lance Price says in his book The Spin Doctor's Diary. Mr Blair prior to sending troops to Iraq in 1998 Mr Price, a former deputy head of Downing Street communications, claims that Mr Blair promised Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, that the Government would...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Wednesday he was misinterpreted and there were a number of ways to "take him out" including kidnapping. "I said our special forces could take him out. Take him out could be a number of things including kidnapping," Robertson said on his "The 700 Club" television program. "There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted," Robertson added. Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988,...

Anyone have an update on Oil for Food related to the Parton documents held up in court? The last article I found was referenced here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1438009/posts July 13 has come and gone. Is anyone following up on this? Sorry in advance if I have broken any rules or if I filled in the wrong box. This is my first post.

By all accounts, Randall Yungerberg became a gasoline theft vigilante this week. But his attempts to exact justice at the St. Paul gas station where he works left him critically injured Wednesday after he tried to stop a customer reportedly leaving without paying. His head injuries came three days after he was arrested on suspicion of taking a hammer to the car of a customer he suspected of not paying. That customer was arrested after Yungerberg, 49, was punched. While experts advise against going after thieves, some people say they understand how the frustration of standing by could lead some...

LONDON (June 17) - An e-mail between a highly paid lawyer and a secretary over a tomato ketchup stain has become the talk of legal circles in London, leaving the sender distinctly red-faced. British media reported with glee the tale of Richard Phillips, who e-mailed the secretary to ask her to pay a four-pound ($7.30) dry-cleaning bill after she accidentally spilled tomato ketchup on his trousers. The secretary, who had just returned to work after her mother died, was so irate she forwarded the e-mail to several colleagues at the firm of Baker & McKenzie, who in turn passed it...

Oil tanker boarded by pirates off Basra By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 17/06/2005) Pirates clutching knives and AK47s boarded a supertanker moored off Basra in the latest of a series of seaborne robberies in the Persian Gulf. In recent weeks there have been a number of audacious attacks on ships waiting to load at the city's overstretched terminals, raising concerns about the safety of oil exports and adding piracy to the area's list of security threats. In the most recent incident, three men boarded the tanker in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The alert was sounded after watchmen...

Israel May Use New Weapon on Settlers Friday, June 10, 2005 JERUSALEM — Israel (search) is considering using an unusual new weapon against Jewish settlers who resist this summer's Gaza Strip (search) evacuation — a device that emits penetrating bursts of sound that leaves targets reeling with dizziness and nausea. Security forces could employ the weapon to overcome resistance without resorting to force, their paramount aim. But experts warn that the effects of prolonged exposure are unknown. The army employed the new device, which it dubbed "The Scream," at a recent violent demonstration by Palestinians (search) and Jewish sympathizers against...