Free Republic

OAXACA, Mexico (AFP) - Mexico demanded that protesters in the southern city of Oaxaca immediately lift barricades and evacuate occupied buildings, as federal forces massed for possible action. Some 70,000 Oaxaca teachers and supporters have been on strike in the city for five months demanding higher pay and the resignation of the state governor. A statement from the Mexican interior ministry demanded "the immediate handover of the streets, plazas, public buildings and private property" taken over by protesters. President Vicente Fox ordered federal police to Oaxaca on Saturday after a US cameraman for the Indymedia independent media website and two...

HOUSTON - The panel investigating the loss of the space shuttle Columbia said Thursday that a hole developed in its aluminum skin, allowing superheated gas to flow into the left wing, causing the ship's destruction. "Preliminary analysis by a NASA working group this week indicates that the temperature indications seen in Columbia's left wheel well during entry would require the presence of plasma," the superheated gas that surrounds the shuttle as it enters the atmosphere, the board said in a statement released late Thursday. The statement from the board, led by retired Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., means that engineers...