Free Republic

Invest in the poor, says world's third wealthiest man By James Hider in Mexico City (Filed: 11/06/2006) The third richest man in the world has stunned his Mexican countrymen by backing the wave of Left-wing sentiment that is sweeping Latin America. The portly and bearded Carlos Slim Helu, 66, is a widower. His wife, Soumaya, died in 2000. He has a personal fortune of more than $30 billion (£16 billion), is forging ties with the Left-leaning governments which have used the gulf between rich and poor to ride to power. Drawing on the resources of his telecom, retail and finance...

Asia-Pacific passes bird flu pandemic test, Australia says Fri Jun 9, 4:02 PM ET SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian officials praised as creative the responses of Asian and Pacific countries to a hypothetical bird flu pandemic which included discouraging kissing and building a factory to make protective masks. The scenario tested involved a new strain of bird flu, dubbed the 'Malacca Straits Flu', reaching pandemic proportions within the region after several infected fishermen were rescued by a passing cruise ship. "The scenario successfully achieved the goal of testing communication responses during the exercise, which lasted 26 hours across eight time zones,"...

Ag secretary says bird flu easily found By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical WriterAP Photo: Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, left, accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, during... WASHINGTON - Scientists have a new test that can tell within four hours if a bird is possibly infected with bird flu — but it still will take about a week to know if that suspect case is really sick with the deadly Asian strain, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday. Bird flu hasn't yet reached North America, but testing of migrating wild birds has begun in an attempt to catch...

Feds Are Intruding, Says Angry La. Lawmaker Tied to BribesBy Renee D. Turner, BET.com Staff Writer Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) Posted May 23, 2006 – Democratic Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, rebutting claims by the FBI that he is on tape accepting a bribe, said Tuesday that he would not step down. "I expect to continue to represent the people who have sent me here," Jefferson told reporters, emphasizing that he will seek re-election in November. The Saturday- through-Sunday search into Jefferson’s D.C. congressional offices was an “outrageous intrusion,” the New Orleans representative said at a news conference. “…There are two...

President Bush says he’ll send the National Guard to the southern border, 24 hours after the announcement the Border Patrol has yet to comment, but News 4 tracked down a former Tucson Sector chief for his opinion of the President’s plan. In a move to reform America ’s current immigration system, President Bush announced the deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard Troops to the U.S. Mexico Border. Bush stated, “The United States is not going to militarize the southern border.” Bush said that the Border Patrol will remain in the lead using support from the troops in roles like...

Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying ProbeBy DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter. The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role in the program. "We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our...

Strikes on Iran too risky, says US general By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 02/05/2006) Military action against Iran would be fraught with risk and would have repercussions across the region, a leading American general conceded. "Any action militarily is very complicated," Lt Gen Victor Renuart, the director of planning for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Daily Telegraph. Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush and Condoleezza Rice in Washington yesterday "And any action by any country will have second-order effects, and that is a strong case to continue the diplomatic process and make it work." His comments are a rare...

UN is like the Twilight Zone, says Bolton (Filed: 01/05/2006) In his first interview with a British newspaper, America's ambassador to the United Nations tells Alec Russell why it is in dire need of reform John Bolton was in his element. America's famously blunt UN ambassador and hundreds of other senior diplomats had just spent almost two hours twiddling their thumbs in a deadlocked meeting awaiting a letter from the secretary general. John Bolton says he is not combative. ‘I am assertive’ Then moments after the document arrived, the session was adjourned as the representatives of the developing world retired...

FDA Statement FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Statement April 20, 2006 Media Inquiries: FDA Press Office, 301-827-6242 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine Claims have been advanced asserting smoked marijuana has a value in treating various medical conditions. Some have argued that herbal marijuana is a safe and effective medication and that it should be made available to people who suffer from a number of ailments upon a doctor's recommendation, even though it is not an approved drug. Marijuana is listed in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the most restrictive schedule. The...

Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says M. ALEXANDER OTTO; The News Tribune Published: April 15th, 2006 01:00 AM Federal health officials at a meeting Friday in Tacoma downplayed the risk bird flu poses to humans, contrasting earlier warnings from the federal government. “There is no evidence it will be the next pandemic,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said of avian flu. There is “no evidence it is evolving in a direction that is becoming more transmissible to people.” Gerberding spoke at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center...

Iran's spies watching us, says Israel By Con Coughlin Defence and Security Editor, on Israel's northern border (Filed: 04/04/2006) Iran has set up a sophisticated intelligence gathering operation in southern Lebanon to identify targets in northern Israel in the event of a military confrontation over its controversial nuclear programme. Senior Israeli military commanders say Iran has spent tens of millions of pounds helping its close ally, Hizbollah, the Shia Muslim militant group that controls southern Lebanon, to set up a network of control towers and monitoring stations along the entire length of Israel's border with south Lebanon. Some of the...

New analysis says global warming boosts hurricanes 19:00 16 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Fred Pearce Renewed claims that global warming is driving the increased number of high-intensity hurricanes across the world were published on Thursday. The new study comes from researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US. In September 2005 – days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans – Peter Webster and Judy Curry claimed that the number of intense hurricanes across the world had almost doubled over the past 35 years, and that this was due to rising sea temperatures. The study was attacked for...

Drug test subject 'looks like elephant man' says girlfriend (Filed: 15/03/2006) The girlfriend of a man fighting for life after taking part in a pharmaceuticals trial has said the drugs he was given have left him looking "like the Elephant Man". Myfanwy Marshall Myfanwy Marshall, 35, said her boyfriend, a 28-year-old British man who had taken part in drug trials before without adverse side effects, felt ill 80 or 90 minutes after being given the drug on Monday. He is now in the intensive care unit at at Northwick Park hospital in north-west London. Five other men were also admitted...

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Paul Kuschel would have been better off naked _ like many of the folks at Sunnier Palms Nudist Park. Instead, he was wearing a pair of nylon shorts Sunday when a generator he was working on backfired and sprayed him with starter fluid, setting him ablaze. "I would have been better off wearing nothing on at all," Kuschel told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. The fire seared his shorts to his backside. "It's a good thing I wasn't wearing a shirt," he said. Kuschel, 43, suffered second-degree and third-degree burns. He was taken to a hospital with...

NORWALK, Ohio - Some of the special-needs children who slept in cage-like beds fitted with alarms had asked for the structures to be built, their adoptive mother testified at a custody hearing. Sharen Gravelle testified Wednesday that she and her husband Michael built bunk beds and attached a wooden playhouse the family called a club house for some of the children's toys. The other children then requested them and the couple felt the brightly painted beds enclosed with wood and wire helped keep them from getting into trouble at night, she said. The couple have pleaded not guilty to several...

Ancient People Followed 'Kelp Highway' to America, Researcher Says Bjorn Carey LiveScience Staff Writer Sun Feb 19, 9:00 PM ET ST. LOUIS—Ancient humans from Asia may have entered the Americas following an ocean highway made of dense kelp. The new finding lends strength to the "coastal migration theory," whereby early maritime populations boated from one island to another, hunting the bountiful amounts of sea creatures that live in kelp forests. This research was presented here Sunday at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science by anthropologist Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon. Today, a nearly continuous "kelp...

Rumsfeld Says Extremists Winning Media WarBy AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld gestures while speaking Friday Feb. 17, 2006 at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft use of the Internet and other modern communications methods that the American government has failed to master, Rumsfeld said Friday. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) NEW YORK - Al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft...

Iran says UK must withdraw troops from Basra Staff and agencies Friday February 17, 2006 The Iranian foreign minister today demanded that Britain pull its troops out of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Speaking during a visit to Lebanon, Manouchehr Mottaki said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran demands the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra." He said UK troops were destabilising the city. The prime minister, Tony Blair, dismissed the comments as an attempt to "divert attention" from international concerns over Iran's stability. Mr Blair today held talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin, at which...

European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says James Owen for National Geographic News December 20, 2005Europeans inherit their looks from Stone Age hunters, new research suggests. Scientists studied ancient skeletons from Scandinavia to North Africa and Greece, comparing ancient and modern facial features. Their analysis suggests modern Europeans are closely related and descended from prehistoric indigenous peoples. Later Neolithic settlers—notably immigrants who introduced farming from the Near East some 7,500 years ago—contributed little to how Europeans look today, the researchers add. The scientists described their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition. The...

BEAVER FALLS, Pa. - A 17-year-old high school student said he was humiliated when a teacher made him sit on the floor during a midterm exam in his ethnicity class _ for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey. The teacher, John Kelly, forced Joshua Vannoy to sit on the floor and take the test Friday _ two days before the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Broncos 34-17 in the AFC championship game. Kelly also made other students throw crumpled up paper at Vannoy, whom he called a "stinking Denver fan," Vannoy told The Associated Press on Monday. Kelly said Vannoy, a junior...