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The deadline for temporary foreign workers to either become permanent residents or leave the country arrived Wednesday, leaving thousands of would-be Canadians scrambling. In 2001, the Conservatives set a deadline of April 1, 2015, for temporary foreign workers in low-skilled jobs who have been in Canada for more than four years to leave. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says that leaves thousands of potential Canadians in jeopardy of deportation as their permanent residency applications are yet to be fully processed. The CFIB is calling for a faster track to residency for foreign workers in low-skilled jobs. "CFIB commended the...

A 16 kilo (35.5 pounds) consignment of cocaine that Mexican drug traffickers recently lost has turned up in an unlikely place -- the United Nations in New York. Police and UN officials Thursday described how two fake UN bags containing the drugs -- which experts said had a street value of about $2 million -- set off a security alert when they were delivered, apparently by accident, to the the global body's headquarters. The bags, which had the UN symbol printed on them, were shipped from Mexico through the DHL delivery company's center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne...

Beneficiaries of your love are beginning to come back around , For I am giving you the words that astound , And although some are resistant as you see , Their rebellion as strange fire has come before me , So vanquish all your foes as Korah for to you my glory has come , They will see my glory surrounding you as priest of my kingdom, And as you raise my sceptor and staff of authority , I shall vanquish your foes as the parting of the Red sea , For as they advance towards you it is me...

The House of Representatives, by a vote of 264-157, today passed the child nutrition bill, which was praised by first lady Michelle Obama as "a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation." The $4.5 billion child nutrition bill would ban greasy food and sugary soft drinks from schools. The legislation – already passed on a bipartisan vote in the Senate -- triggered criticism for its hefty price tag and new nutritional requirements that some say shouldn't come from the federal government.

BERLIN—German police are investigating a bomb from Greece that was delivered Tuesday to the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel, hours after additional package bombs exploded outside foreign embassies in Athens. Also Tuesday, a cargo plane from Athens carrying a suspicious parcel addressed to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made an emergency landing in Italy. German police defused the small bomb, and nobody was injured in any of the incidents Tuesday. Ms. Merkel wasn't in Berlin at the time. . Greek police intercept and destroy three mail bombs including one addressed to French President Sarkozy. Video courtesy of Reuters. .German authorities say...

(and 1,500 a day readmitted for emergency care) More than 500,000 patients every year are readmitted to hospital after apparently being sent home too soon, alarming figures reveal. Labour's waiting-time targets have been blamed for the 50 per cent rise in emergency readmissions of patients within days of them being discharged. Critics said it was a scandal that almost 1,500 a day were apparently being released before they are well enough, harming their recovery.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2006 – Three hundred one soldiers with an Alaska-based unit extended in Iraq will return to the combat zone to serve with their comrades in arms, Army officials announced yesterday. A total of 378 soldiers with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team had returned to Alaska in June and July at the end of their scheduled 12-month tour in Iraq. But before the rest of the 4,000-soldier unit could redeploy, officials halted their return to bolster Iraqi and coalition forces in Baghdad. Now, 301 of those soldiers who made it back to Alaska will return to their...

900 troops sent to fight the Taliban By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent, and George Jones (Filed: 11/07/2006) Nine hundred more troops are to be sent to Afghanistan at the request of commanders fighting an intensified campaign against the Taliban, the Government said yesterday. Despite assurances from commanders last month that the current mission of 3,600 troops in Helmand province was adequate, the number is being increased to 4,500. The first reinforcements will arrive tomorrow. Senior defence chiefs insisted that the move was not the result of the deaths of six soldiers in the past month. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary,...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of a plan costing at least $3.6 billion to alleviate overcrowding in California prisons, is proposing to free up space by contracting with other states to house 5,000 incarcerated illegal immigrants. A detailed outline of the governor's prison agenda, released Friday, also says the corrections department needs to add more than 51,000 beds -- the equivalent of at least 10 large prisons -- during the next 15 years and offers new insights into the stresses put on a 33-prison system that is operating at nearly 200 percent capacity. One new proposal is a...

PHOENIX — Arizona National Guardsmen, including soldiers from Sierra Vista and Huachuca City, are being called up for security duty in Iraq, according to a Guard spokesman. President George W. Bush has federalized the 259th Security Force Company for up to 545 days in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Maj. Gen. David P. Rataczak, adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard. An initial element of 25 soldiers, of the 170 being called up, is scheduled to depart this morning, said Guard spokesman Maj. Paul Aguirre. The remainder of the company is scheduled to...

FORT BLISS, Texas — Since 2003, a Department of Defense joint task force has provided more than 1,600 military members to help federal agencies along Arizona’s border with Mexico, a spokesman for the organization said Thursday. Joint Task Force North, which was established in 2004, from assets previously called Joint Task Force Six, has provided active duty, Reserve and National Guard forces, “Working under the task force, primarily supporting other lead federal agencies, such as the Border Patrol,” Armando Carrasco said. Those who have been detailed to Arizona border areas have worked in the Douglas, Naco, Nogales and Yuma areas,...

The driver of a pickup truck that ran a checkpoint at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on Tuesday headed back to his native Mexico in an ambulance Thursday and may never be prosecuted, Tucson police said. The driver, an illegal entrant, was taken from University Medical Center to a medical facility in Sonora, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Police had no choice but to let him go, Robinson said, because their investigation isn't finished and no criminal charges have been filed against the man. "There are times when people leave the jurisdiction before we can make a...

CAMP TAQADDUM, IRAQ (Mar. 10, 2006) -- In the blink of an eye, a letter can cross the globe and find its way to the hands of a deployed servicemember. With the ease of clicking a mouse, letters of encouragement are arriving in Iraq by the thousands. As deployments continue, the Marine Corps is working at sustaining the morale of its personnel in combat zones. The latest tool in accomplishing this mission is MotoMail, short for Motivational Mail, a system of electronically sending and physically printing letters from home. The system is a free service to all servicemembers, specifically their...

FORT HUACHUCA -- A family on the post was recently affected by a scam via the mail -- a lottery check scam. "All they need is a couple (of victims) to do it, then they're good to go," said Tanja Linton, a spokeswoman for the fort. "There is at least one family that was affected by this, which is of course one family too many." Most people these days don't faltl for these kinds of fraudulent solicitations, she said, but the criminals target victims who may be more naive about modern fraud, Linton said. Such schemes, she said, "get very...

Washington—In a stunning, White House-busting development, Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, has insisted that Karl Rove be marched to Gitmo till he reveals that he’s the source of the leak uncovering CIA agent Valerie Plame. In a letter that is now being circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Michigan Democrat cited recent reports that Rove discussed Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper before she was outed as a CIA agent in July 2003, conclusively linking Rove as the new ‘Deep Throat’ and this case as the Watergate of its day. The Conyer letter urges Bush to require Rove...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

German heavy infantry sent out on exercise By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 06/09/2004) German soldiers are too fat and increasingly unfit for duty and should undergo a rigorous exercise programme, according to the head of the army's medical corps. Adml Karsten Ocker said rising numbers of rank-and-file soldiers were reflecting the "XXL-nation" that Germany as a whole was becoming. "We're facing an epidemic-style increase of the overweight and under-trained," he told today's edition of Spiegel magazine. "The army is being swamped with under-average adolescents unable to perform." Incidents of joint and back injuries among soldiers are rising due to...

<p>When low-income Arizonans report problems with their welfare payments or food stamps, they call a toll-free number provided by the state.</p> <p>A helpful person in India or Mexico answers.</p> <p>Under a seven-year contract totaling $30 million, calls from Arizona go either to an automated answer line, where most questions are resolved without human intervention, or to call centers abroad, where low-wage labor cuts the cost of providing live responses.</p>