Free Republic

Tel Aviv - The Israel Defense Forces plans to construct a large training center designed to simulate a Palestinian city to prepare soldiers for urban operations in the territories. The project is expected to cost some NIS 30-40 million. About two-and-a-half years ago, the IDF's Central Command opened a training base that was built in the form of a Palestinian village and that served to ready troops for the present conflict in the territories. Recently, however, the military has discerned a need for larger training centers to prepare troops for a wide range of operational scenarios. The IDF opened a ...

by Allister Heath[1] Republished from the European Journal 9(3): 8-9 (November 2001) The full wrath of the EU is about to be unleashed upon a small British territory the size of London's Hyde Park. As Spain prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the EU on 1 January 2002, it is keener than ever to regain control of Gibraltar, a jutting rock on its Southern coast. Although public opinion remains overwhelmingly favourable to Gibraltar's current status, the Spanish political elite scents victory for the first time in 297 years. Several recent developments in the European Union and on ...

The capital city of Madagascar is largely deserted on a weekday for the first time since national strikes and mass protests began more than a week ago. On Monday more than half a million people crowded into the city to demonstrate, and were told to show their support for the opposition presidential candidate, Marc Ravalomanana by turning Antananarivo into a dead town. While there are some cars in the centre of Antananarivo, the taxis and buses are on strike and the shops shut. The change of tactic by Marc Ravalomanana is risky, but designed to show the government just how ...

DESPITE the debate over America's al-Qa'eda prisoners held in Camp X-Ray - their treatment, their status, what should happen to them, where they are from - there has been little talk about what they will undergo during their time there: interrogation. It is as if we think we know what this means, but do we? How should it best be done and where are the dividing lines between interrogation and ill-treatment, or torture? Given Red Cross supervision - but not only because of that - Camp X-Ray methods are unlikely to follow British military interrogation practice as it evolved through ...

BRITAIN and Spain forged ahead yesterday with talks on sharing sovereignty over Gibraltar, as the Government made clear that the 30,000 people on the Rock would not have the power to veto the negotiations or cancel an agreement. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said "good progress" was made in his meeting with Josep Pique, his Spanish counterpart, and they should reach a "comprehensive agreement" this summer. Mr Straw restated Britain's promise that Gibraltarians would be able to vote in a referendum, but senior Foreign Office sources made clear that a No vote would only suspend the accord, not invalidate it. ...

Non-planned meetings between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and ministers of defence and foreign affairs of Afghanistan Mohammad Qassem Fahim and Dr. Abdullah are underway in Kabul. The meeting is also attended by interior minister Mohammad Yunis Qanuni. The programme of Ivanov's visit did not envisage meetings with ministers of foreign affairs and defence, since both of them were abroad, i.e. Fahim in London and Dr. Abdullah in Washington. However, they returned to Kabul some hours ago and went to meet the Russian Foreign Minister immediately. On opening the meeting Igor Ivanov invited ministers of the leading Afghani departments to ...

AN ELVIS Presley fan has been jailed for viciously beating up his pal in a row over whether his idol was the king of rock 'n' roll. Andrew Baggott, 36, snapped after his friend Peter Ali, 52, "did his head in" by arguing that soul singer Marvin Gaye was better. Baggott denied he had attacked Mr Ali at the victim's flat last summer - breaking almost every bone in his face - but a jury did not believe him and found him guilty of wounding with intent. Prosecutor Elizabeth Pearson said: "Mr Ali suffered fractures to both cheek bones, both ...

You would need a heart of stone not to have been moved by the little Aids-ridden choristers. We sat under a mango tree, before a dancing-space of packed red earth, and what a preposterous delegation we were. There was Mr Rod Liddle, the big white chief of the Today programme, not looking especially kempt. There was Vicky Scott of Unicef, and there was your correspondent, addressed repeatedly by the pleasing title of ‘Mr Honourable Johnson’. And as we sat in our armchairs, as though at some durbar, the choir formed in a semi-circle before us: dozens of tiny children in ...

What should they know of Western civilisation who only Tipton know? Tipton is the town in which two of the young Britons of Pakistani descent, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, who are held in Guantanamo as suspected members of al-Qa’eda, grew up. By common consent, it is the grimmest municipality in the whole of the Black Country, which is itself no aesthete’s paradise, to put it very mildly. In surveys to discover the worst area in Britain to live, Tipton always comes near the top, despite much stiff competition from other places. It is the kind of place that resists ...

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters Health) - It may seem like science fiction, but scientists say they have developed a technology that enables a monkey to move a cursor on a computer screen simply by thinking about it. The breakthrough could someday help totally paralyzed, "locked-in" patients "operate external devices such as a robot arm, or a computer to surf the Internet," explained researcher Daniella Meeker of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Meeker described her team's findings at a recent meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Their work focuses on a section of the primate brain known as ...

A FIREMAN was stabbed to death by a neighbour during a dispute over children playing football at the side of a house, a court was told yesterday. Andy Campbell, 40, died from a single wound to the heart from a kitchen knife pushed through a half-open door by Thomas Richardson. Richardson told police that he, his wife and their two children had been driven mad by the constant thudding of a football against the gable end of their home in Selby, North Yorks. York Crown Court was told that he had asked the youngsters involved to stop "countless times" and ...

A local council wants its workers to pay a £1 fine every time they misuse an apostrophe. Nottingham City Council chiefs say any cash its 14,000 employees put in the 'apostrophe swear box' will go to charity. Council leader Graham Chapman also says he won't authorise any documents that have mistakes. He told the Daily Mail: "People just don't understand how to use the apostrophe any more. "Grammar was not taught in schools for a long time but thankfully it's now coming back." He added: "I went to a drinks reception last night and the sign read, 'Drink's Reception'. You ...

Rioting school pupils in Kenya tried to set their headmaster on fire because they weren't allowed to watch football on TV. They tied him up, poured petrol on him and were trying to set him alight when he was saved by armed police. The pupils were angry they had not been provided with a television to watch the African Nations Cup. Nyabohanse boys' boarding school has now been closed because of the violence. More than 300 pupils, led by a nine year old boy, rioted for two days after authorities refused to put a television in their dining room so ...

A Utah woman has won $270,000 damages against a fundamentalist church which promised her the Second Coming. Kaziah Hancock was told she could meet Jesus in the flesh if she handed over land and water rights to the Salt Lake City church. When he didn't show up, she sued the church for breach of contract, fraud and emotional distress and won the £191,000. Jim Harmston, founder of The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, also promised membership of heaven's elite as well as the chance to meet Jesus on Earth. Ms Hancock ...

Nicholas D. Krystof, longtime China hand and co-author of the book, China Wakes, wrote on January 22 of the growing Chinese nationalism and the issues it poses to the rest of the world and particularly the US. Krystof wrote of the gloating to be read in chat rooms and websites throughout China following Sept. 11 and the role of education and propaganda in creating a class of young Chinese intellectuals with "a chip on their shoulder." One cannot help but notice the fire in every young Chinese student's eyes when discussions turn toward China and its relationship with the rest ...

Zimbabwe is to make youth service training and indoctrination compulsory. The opposition claims it is an attempt to create a private army. State radio says all high school graduates will have to undergo youth training in government centres to instill them with "patriotism" and what it described as an unbiased understanding of the country's history. Because of high unemployment, many youngsters have volunteered to join the national youth service where they are paid, fed, and clothed. After almost 22 years in power, President Robert Mugabe, 77, is making every effort to stay in office ahead of forthcoming presidential elections. His ...

ALMATY, Kazakstan (AP) - The prime minister of the Central Asian nation of Kazakstan resigned Monday, a government spokesman said, a move that will cause the formation of an entire new Cabinet. No further information was immediately available about why Prime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev left his job. Tokayev asked Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev for a diplomatic appointment instead, government spokesman Beybut Isabayev said from the Kazak capital Astana. In November, Tokayev had threatened to step down unless he saw the resignation of top officials he accused of working against the government. The officials resigned and founded a new political movement ...

It seems that Moscow has decided to delay its departure from the Cuban signals intelligence station at Lourdes. In any event, the West European and Latin American media are literally overflowing with reports on the subject. Furthermore, in their opinion the main reason for this decision is a decision of the Pentagon and NATO to set up base almost indefinitely in Central Asia including Kazakhstan. One way or another Russia, like the entire former USSR, remains encircled by a dense ring of military and intelligence-gathering installations belonging to the North Atlantic alliance. And could it be that the Russian military ...

PESHAWAR: Against the backdrop of rumours that Iran is extending military help to a warlord in Herat, the United States has started airlifting troops to the western Afghan province, reliable sources confided to The Frontier Post. Last week, US President George W. Bush accused the Iranian government of quickening and expanding efforts aimed at destabilisation of the nascent US-back Afghan Interim Government (AIG) and threatened the Iranian leaders of dire consequences in case they did not cease their hostilities towards AIG. As if this was not enough, British Prime Minister Tony Blair talked to Iranian President Muhammad Khatami on phone ...

The United States may rejoin Iter, the international consortium to build an experimental fusion reactor. It is just three years since the Americans walked away from the project, complaining about excessive costs and technical issues. President Bush's science advisor and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Marburger III, says the US is now reviewing its position. Iter, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, will be built in the next few years. A decision on its site, thought likely to be Canada or Japan, is expected in 2003. The reactor aims to produce energy in the same way ...