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Indian Special Forces to get Israeli rifles Chandigarh, July 17, 2005, Asit Jolly (Asian Age) The Indian Army’s Special Forces units will over the next few weeks begin receiving Israeli 5.56 mm Tavor assault rifles equipped with UBGLs (under-barrel grenade launchers) as part of a $15-million deal for the close encounter weapons signed nearly three years ago. Sources said the Israel Military Industry-built AR’s, delayed due to "technical problems", have finally been cleared following tests by Indian SF experts in Tel Aviv some months ago. In an earlier $2-million deal, Israel had supplied between 350 to 400 Tavor 21s without...

A decade-long project spearheaded by veterans and naval enthusiasts to bring the battleship USS Iowa to San Francisco's waterfront failed to gain the support of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. After a wrenching debate, supervisors voted 8-3 to reject a resolution urging congressional leaders to fight to bring the 48,000-pound vessel here, citing concerns such as possible costs incurred for maintaining and housing the World War II battleship; the disinclination of taxpayers to support a military monument; and the ongoing discrimination against gay Americans by the armed services. Supporters, including the Historic Ships at Memorial Square, a nonprofit, and...

SAN FRANCISCO — Anti-war activists submitted a ballot measure Monday that would put the city on record as opposing the presence of military recruiters in public high schools and colleges. The nonbinding "College Not Combat" resolution acknowledges that a ban would put schools at risk of losing federal funding. If the measure qualifies for the November ballot and is approved by voters, it would encourage city officials and university administrators to exclude recruiters — even if it means forsaking government dollars — and to create scholarships and training to reduce the military's appeal to youth.

Boxer criticizes Iraq war in SF speech 'Our troops deserve more,' senator says Bay City News Wednesday, July 6, 2005 Sen. Barbara Boxer offered a major foreign policy speech on the war in Iraq before hundreds of her constituents in San Francisco today. The situation in Iraq is spiraling out of control, she said, and the pool of people willing to fight in the insurgency against American troop presence there seems bottomless. She described herself as "distressed, angry and frustrated'' over the continuing unrest in Iraq and the mounting death toll with no apparent end in sight. "Iraq was a...

WASHINGTON, July 5, 2005 – Coalition forces have located the bodies of two U.S. servicemembers who had been missing in Afghanistan's Kunar region since June 28, military officials in Kabul announced today. The servicemembers, part of a special operations team, had been conducting counterterrorism operations in the region. The military said the two servicemembers were taken to the U.S. military hospital at Bagram Air Base, where they were pronounced dead. Another member of the team was located July 4 and airlifted to the Bagram hospital with injuries that officials said are not life-threatening. The whereabouts of one other team member...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The owner of a gay bar accused of racial discrimination agreed Sunday to mediation to settle the dispute. Les Natali, owner of the S.F. Badlands bar in the Castro district, has said all the allegations stem from misperceptions and misunderstandings. The city's Human Rights Commission determined 13 complaints were valid from eight complainants who said they had been barred from patronizing or working at the bar because they are African American. Natali has agreed to allow former mayor Willie Brown and attorney Scott Emblidge to mediate the dispute. Julius Turman, lawyer for the complainants, said Sunday he...

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 3 - One member of a four-man Navy Seal reconnaissance team has been rescued after his group were reported missing in a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan last week, a senior Defense Department official said today.

A dozen antiwar activists from Mendocino County took their tops off in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district Thursday, using what they said was their best weapon to get the public's attention. The topless protest drew gawks and stares from passersby, some of whom couldn't believe what they were seeing. "Whoa, get out your cameras and cover your children's eyes," said the driver of a motorized cable car packed with tourists, as he pulled to a stop in front of Macy's. Members of the au naturale contingent Breasts Not Bombs said the war is indecent, not their nakedness. "Boobies never...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., June 28, 2005 – "Nowhere do citizens directly contribute so much to the training of military forces as you do here.” The speaker, Maj. Gen. James W. Parker, was referring to the citizen volunteers who support the culminating event for Special Forces training, the unconventional warfare exercise known as “Robin Sage.” "To be successful fighting against terrorists takes a different kind of military force with a unique skill set, one schooled in unconventional warfare,” Parker, the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School Commanding General, said, "and each of you directly contributes to the...

Talk of discrimination is heating up in the city by the bay. Last week I blogged on allegations that San Francisco’s homosexual community is guilty of racism against blacks. (Story Here.) Well this past weekend the San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece further expounding on the charges against the advocates of “Tolerance and Diversity” They are among the most maligned groups in society, but when it comes to discrimination, many say, gays can give as good as they get. Read More...Craig DeLuzVisit The Home of Uncommon Sense… www.craigdeluz.com

Sixty years to the day after the signing of the United Nations charter in San Francisco, few, if any, American public officials attended Sunday's anniversary ceremonies.An East Bay corporate leader delivered the keynote address, urging the world body to "learn from some of the practices of global business." David O'Reilly, CEO of San Ramon-based Chevron, the nation's sixth-largest oil refiner, said the United Nations should "reassess themselves in light of changing circumstances" and "lead the world to interdependence." "Today, the United Nations is at a crossroads," O'Reilly said. Kimberly Bakker, Mayor Gavin Newsom's chief of protocol, decorated O'Reilly, a native...

They are among the most maligned groups in society, but when it comes to discrimination, many say, gays can give as good as they get. A city investigation of S.F. Badlands, one of the largest and most popular bars in the heart of the Castro neighborhood, has added evidence to that argument. In April, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission found that the bar discriminated against African American customers and job applicants. That finding, which is vigorously disputed by the bar's owner, is elevating the murmurs of racism in the gay community to a national discussion. National gay media have...

In the Herbst Theater auditorium in San Francisco, delegates from 50 nations sign the United Nations Charter, establishing the world body as a means of saving "succeeding generations from the scourge of war." The Charter was ratified on October 24, and the first U.N. General Assembly met in London on January 10, 1946. Despite the failure of the League of Nations in arbitrating the conflicts that led up to World War II, the Allies as early as 1941 proposed establishing a new international body to maintain peace in the postwar world. The idea of the United Nations began to be...

Washington -- The Bush administration appears ready to help guide the United Nations through an era of reform, even as the president and members of his party voice displeasure -- and at times disgust -- with the international organization. The president will not attend Sunday's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Charter in San Francisco. The White House rejected requests for the president or a high-ranking surrogate and is scheduled to send Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council. President Bush's absence from an international celebration in a city where...

Researchers here want to talk about sex, and not just the naughty bits. Academics, social scientists and policy makers from around the world are gathering this week at San Francisco State University for a conference on human sexuality and the "moral panics" caused by such charged topics as homosexuality, abortion and sex education. And while there's plenty of talk about Hollywood, masturbation and all topics titillating, the premise is that ignorance and intolerance about sex have disastrous consequences - whether it's an inadequate response to AIDS, the stigma suffered by rape survivors or teenagers having unsafe sex. "Better sexuality education...

San Francisco -- The city's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging city and state agencies to penalize a gay nightclub that a city commission said discriminated against blacks. The decision comes a little more than a month after San Francisco's Human Rights Commission found that Les Natali, the owner of a popular gay nightclub called "Badlands," violated local civil rights codes. "The city has taken a strong stand against discrimination," said John Newsome with And Castro For All, the organization that pursued the case. In the resolution, the board urged the city attorney, the California Department...

After a six-month standoff between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bay Area legislators over what to do about the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, the two sides are on the verge of reaching a deal, well-placed sources tell us. In a nutshell: Bay Area lawmakers would keep the design they want -- the "signature" suspension span featuring a single, spire-like tower just east of Yerba Buena Island. But it would come at a cost. Drivers on all the state-owned bridges in the Bay Area -- that's every one but the Golden Gate -- can expect to pay an extra...

Phantoms of the Mountains In Vietnam they were dubbed Ma Rung - "Phantoms of the jungle." Creeping silently through the bush, setting elaborate ambushes or conducting surveillance, Australia's Special Air Service troopers earned the respect even of the enemy. BY RORY CALLINAN But in Afghanistan, Australian special forces were something of a novelty to their US commanders. On one map in the main US command center in Afghanistan, they were denoted by a cut-out picture of Australian celebrity crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin. "It was pretty disheartening, says one trooper. "The way they did use us was very inappropriate.'' From interviews...

Tehran, 10 June (AKI) - The Hollywood actor Sean Penn is in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in his new role as a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. The actor, who won an Oscar for the film "Mystic River", is in the country to follow the June 17 presidential elections for the American daily. Together with an interpreter, the actor was at a Tehran mosque on Friday morning, where he heard the Ayatollah Ahmad Janna ask the faithful to turn out in large numbers to vote in the elections scheduled for next Friday, to "make America angry." Many journalists have...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The San Francisco 49ers are teaming up with the city's Human Rights Commission to improve their diversity and anti-harassment training in response to the release of an offensive video made by the team's former public relations director. The 15-minute film provided anonymously last week to the San Francisco Chronicle features racist jokes, lesbian soft-porn and topless blondes - and even former PR director Kirk Reynolds impersonating San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom officiating at a mock lesbian wedding. "While we believed that we had a good diversity awareness program that reached each and every person in this...