Free Republic

Our planet is just five years away from climate change catastrophe - but can still be saved, according to a new report. Planet is five years from disasterThe World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns governments have until 2012 to "plant the seeds of change" and make positive moves to limit carbon emissions. If they fail to do so, the WWF's Vision For 2050 warns "generations to come will have to live with the compromises and hardships caused by their inability to act". "We have a small window of time in which we can plant the seeds of change, and...

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The Cannes film festival reached its halfway point on Monday, although bleary-eyed journalists and PR teams seemed to wish it was closer to the end. Following are some snippets from on and around the Croisette, Cannes' palm-lined waterfront. AL GORE "CARBON NEUTRAL" A representative affiliated with "An Inconvenient Truth", a film about global warming involving former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has stressed that the movie and Gore's tour to promote it are "carbon neutral". Last week, Gore and his team were seen driving the 500 metres or so from a hotel to the Cannes festival...

The row over the imminent release of the Da Vinci Code film grew today when star Tom Hanks hit out at its Catholic critics. Cardinals, speaking with the authorisation of the Vatican, have called for the Hollywood version of Dan Brown's bestselling novel to be boycotted. They say the theme of the film - that Jesus Christ had children with Mary Magdalene and that hardline Catholic movement Opus Dei covered up his secret life - is highly blasphemous. But Oscar-winner Hanks said objectors to The Da Vinci Code are taking the film too seriously, telling the Evening Standard: "We always...

For some students at the New School, in Manhattan, their institution and conservative politicians go together as well as Swiss cheese and peanut butter. Bob Kerrey, the institution’s president and a former Democratic governor and senator from Nebraska, announced this spring that U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and past and possibly future presidential candidate, would be the commencement speaker at the New School. Kerrey said the senator’s acceptance “is a big honor for our graduates and their families.” But hundreds of students, staff and faculty members at the institution of about 9,000 students have signed paper and online...

LONDON - Oil company BP PLC said Tuesday its profit fell 15 percent in the first quarter as a drop in oil and gas output, a Texas refinery shutdown and higher taxes offset gains from soaring world oil prices. BP, the world's second-largest oil company by market capitalization, posted a first-quarter net profit of $5.6 billion, down from $6.6 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 23 percent to $67.1 billion, largely thanks to higher oil prices, with North Sea Brent contracts — a key crude benchmark — rising by 30 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period...

BEEVILLE — Texans don't like to be messed with, especially in this rugged South Texas county not far from some of the state's major independence battlefields. So, it was only a matter of time before Bee County Judge Jimmy Martinez said someone had to stand up to tackle a national epidemic striking at the heart — and pockets — of local residents: Rising gas prices. This week, Bee County became the first in the state, possibly the country, to pass a resolution asking motorists to boycott fuel pumps beginning Monday. County elected officials said they would ask others in the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq Photos broadcast Tuesday showed a blindfolded German woman being led away by armed captors in the latest kidnapping of a Westerner in Iraq. Six Iranian pilgrims, meanwhile, were abducted by gunmen north of Baghdad. Separately, the aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams confirmed that four people from the group had been taken hostage Saturday and that Norman Kember, a 74-year-old Briton, was among them. The U.S. Embassy has confirmed an American is missing in Iraq _ presumably one of the aid workers. The four activists were shown in an insurgent video broadcast on Arab television Tuesday, with a previously...

MIRAMAR – A student was shot in the chest aboard a school bus Tuesday morning and police are searching for a teenage girl reported to be armed with a gun. Officials locked down two nearby schools – Perry Elementary and Perry Middle – on the possibility the armed teen could be headed to that area. The shooting occurred around 7:20 a.m. on a southbound school bus near Southwest 38 Street and between Rose and Woodscape drives, which is located east of Florida's Turnpike. Police said two students, both teenage girls, had argued and fought a day earlier and said the...

OTTAWA — The beleaguered Liberal government will promise significant cuts to personal income taxes and a sprinkling of corporate tax reductions today in a pre-election mini-budget that offers something for everyone. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will promise to lighten the tax burden on Canadians, reiterate an earlier plan to cut billions from corporate taxes and introduce other business tax changes as part of a broader plan to boost the economy, sources say. ‘‘There will be real specifics in terms of tax cuts … some approaches will be novel,’’ a government source told The Canadian Press. Tax relief — particularly aimed...

Tubbataha Marine Park, Philippines — We ran aground on a coral reef we were trying to protect. Our ship Rainbow Warrior was in the Philippines, documenting the potential impacts of global warming on coral reefs in a World Heritage site. We were operating with a government chart which claimed to be up to date, but showed us to be 1.5 miles away from the reef we hit around 7am local time. “This incident is very regrettable. Within minutes after it happened, we called up the marine park ranger station to inform them about the accident,” said Red Constantino of Greenpeace...

World running out of time for oil alternatives Aug 18 9:45 AM US/Eastern By Anna Mudeva PETTEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - The world could run out of time to develop cleaner alternatives to oil and other fossil fuels before depletion drives prices through the roof, a leading Dutch energy researcher said on Thursday. Ton Hoff, manager of the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, said it could take decades to make alternatives affordable to the point where they can be used widely, although high oil prices were already stimulating such research. "If we run out of fossil fuels -- by the...

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Climber Ed Viesturs reached the summit of Nepal's towering Mount Annapurna on Thursday, becoming the first American to scale all the world's tallest peaks, reports from the mountain said. Viesturs, 44, of Bainbridge Island, Wash., reached the 26,540-foot summit in the afternoon, which was the last of the world's 14 peaks that are higher than 26,240 feet in height. He has become the 12th mountaineer to achieve the feat. The first was Italian Reinhold Messner. According to the Web site www.firstandbest.msn.com, which sponsored and followed his trip, Viesturs reached the summit with Finnish climber Veikka Gustafsson. The...

Cause of Man's Toothache? A 4-Inch Nail By ERIN GARTNER Associated Press Writer LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) -- A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth: a four-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier. A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, on Jan. 6 while working in Breckenridge, a ski resort town in the central Colorado mountains. The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, but Lawler didn't realize a second nail had shot through his mouth, said his sister,...

WASHINGTON -- On the evening of Oct. 14, a young Marine spokesman near Fallujah appeared on CNN and made a dramatic announcement. "Troops crossed the line of departure," 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert declared, using a common military expression signaling the start of a major campaign. "It's going to be a long night." CNN, which had been alerted to expect a major news development, reported that the long-awaited offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah had begun. In fact, the Fallujah offensive would not kick off for another three weeks. Gilbert's carefully worded announcement was an elaborate psychological operation --...

Violence and boycotts could yet stop promised Iraqi elections going ahead on time, Arab ministers said, despite Baghdad's confident assertion the landmark vote would be held on January 30. Iraq had somewhat upstaged a major international conference in Egypt on its future by announcing the date for the first post-Saddam Hussein elections a day before the meeting opened. But not everyone was impressed by its confidence. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, hosting the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh said the meeting would be deciding whether the vote could be held on time, adding that "the...

Spanish back down By MARK IRWIN SPANISH football chiefs finally caved in under international pressure last night to condemn the sickening racist taunts hurled at England’s black players in Madrid. After at first refusing to even admit England’s players were subjected to a brutal tirade of abuse, Spain’s top brass were forced into a climbdown when FIFA launched an investigation. Spain coach Luis Aragones, who clashed with Ashley Cole, refused to comment on the incidents. Several of Spain’s newspapers had accused English journalists of fuelling the storm before the match by asking Aragones to explain his ‘black s**t’ attack on...

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 18 November 2004 0205 hrs Soccer: English FA lodges protest over abuse of black players in Spain LONDON : The Football Association has written to UEFA and FIFA to complain about racist abuse suffered by England's black players in an under-21 international against Spain in Madrid on Tuesday night. Strikers Carlton Cole and Darren Bent were subjected to monkey chants during the first half and Chelsea defender Glen Johnson received the same treatment after coming on as a second half substitute. "This was abuse of a clearly racist nature targetted at all the...

Kevin Sites, NBC Reporter Who Photographed Marine Shooting, An Active War Correspondent POSTED: 10:39 am EST November 17, 2004 NEW YORK -- Video of a U.S. Marine shooting a wounded man in Fallujah was captured by an Internet Age journalist who often reports and photographs war stories, then posts his impressions on his own weblog. Kevin Sites, a freelancer who works part time for NBC News, was being kept under wraps by the network Tuesday as the investigation into the shooting continued. The youthful, long-haired Sites has worked for NBC, CNN and ABC News and has covered war zones in...

By Colin Randall in Paris (Filed: 16/11/2004) Britain and France have a "turbulent love affair" President Jacques Chirac said last night ahead of his two-day official visit to London later this week. He stressed his "friendship and esteem" for Tony Blair despite their differences on issues including Iraq and, even more sharply in the past, European Union agricultural policy. Jacques Chirac: aims for third term He said that if Saddam Hussein achieved one great victory, it was in creating a rift between western allies. "Britain took one position, which it considered reasonable, and France took another," he told British journalists...

November 12, 2004 THE MARINES Black Flags Are Deadly Signals as Cornered Rebels Fight Back By DEXTER FILKINS ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 11 - The stars began to glimmer through a wan yellow-gray sunset over Falluja on Thursday evening. The floury dust in the air and a skyline of broken minarets and smashed buildings combined for the only genuine postcard image this country has to offer for now. Sitting on a third-story roof, Staff Sgt. Eric Brown, his lip bleeding, peered through the scope of his rifle into the haze. Moments before, a lone bullet had whizzed past his face and...