Free Republic

The Recording Industry Association of America has told Sen. Norm Coleman that it is not going after small violators in its campaign against online music swappers. The RIAA's written assurance was made in response to questions Coleman sent to the group over its tactics, which he has labeled "excessive." Coleman, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, plans to hold hearings on the RIAA's campaign. "RIAA is in no way targeting 'de minimis' users," wrote Cary Sherman, the group's president, in a letter the subcommittee released Monday. "RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual...

Makhoul (Iraq): Fires blazed on the main export pipeline from Iraq's northern oilfields to Turkey on Friday after what residents said were twin bomb attacks aimed at sabotaging deliveries which the US-led coalition is poised to resume. An AFP correspondent saw two separate fires on the pipeline, 15 kilometres from the key refinery town of Baiji, close to the main highway between Baghdad and the northern regional capital Mosul. US military helicopters hovered overhead. Residents questioned by AFP at the nearby Al-Amin coffee shop said the pipeline had been attacked by Iraqis using explosives around 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, the...

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE - Two laptop computers are missing and may have been stolen from the closely guarded headquarters of Gen. Tommy Franks here, federal authorities confirmed Tuesday. Maj. Mike Richmond at the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said his agency is one of those investigating the possible theft of the laptops. A spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Lt. Cdr. Barbara Burfeind, said late Tuesday that she would not comment ``on any ongoing investigation.'' Franks directs the U.S. and coalition forces searching for remaining al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan from the headquarters here of U.S. Central...

Wave of illness aboard Vancouver-bound train brings nausea, vomiting Health Canada officials are investigating after a wave of illness broke out among people aboard a Vancouver-bound VIA Rail train last week. Although VIA Rail officials could not confirm the number of people affected, an American passenger hit by the illness said Sunday that dozens developed nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. "It's the sickest I've ever been," said Antoinette Renshaw, 55, who boarded the VIA Rail Canadian train in Toronto on July 16. She said in an interview Sunday that several hours after departure, rumours began to circulate that crew members were...

A new network of satellites will be used by the European Union to track the movements of refugees and asylum seekers as part of the crackdown on illegal immigration into western Europe. Refugee rights groups were alarmed by the move, claiming that it signalled a further hardening of Europe's borders against refugees and migrants which has been supported by Tony Blair and many other EU leaders. Officials in the European Commission and the European Space Agency are now drawing up detailed plans to extend the use of satellites originally designed for tracking coastal erosion, air pollution and climate change for...

Random checks at airport gates, which have delayed grandmothers in wheelchairs and forced a congressman to drop his pants, do not bolster security, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Monday. ``We should do a better job of identifying people getting on the planes, and [separate] the low-risk to no-risk passengers,'' he said. Since Sept. 11, security officers randomly select passengers to search for weapons. Regular fliers complain that people who obviously are not terrorists must endure sometimes humiliating searches of their carry-on baggage. Some are forced to remove their shoes and have their bodies examined by guards with electronic wands....

Today's security measures don't work very well, says Richard Sullivan, pointing to the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. He's says he's got a better idea: a microchip instead of a green card. Foreigners who pass through customs or immigration could be injected with the chip, allowing officials to monitor their activities better and keep terrorists out. "Man today is more than ever converging with technology," said Sullivan, who is CEO of the Palm Beach-based tech company Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX, 45 cents). "I think the positives overwhelmingly overcome any small negatives. The government is more ...

A flower thought to be extinct until it was discovered on two proposed housing development sites was declared an endangered species Thursday by state officials. The San Fernando Valley spineflower came back from the dead in 1999 when as many as 10,000 of the flowers were found at Newhall Ranch in Los Angeles County and Ahmanson Ranch in neighboring Ventura County. The projects would create a total of more than 25,000 homes. At Thursday's meeting of the state Fish and Game Commission, the flower was declared endangered, and Ahmanson Ranch developers said they plan to set aside 330 acres of ...

ILLEGAL immigrants would be electronically tagged before being released into the community under a proposal gaining widespread support. The Federal Government, with the strong backing of church groups and civil libertarians, will examine e-tags for illegal immigrants. There is pressure to find alternatives to locking up illegal immigrants after 46 men walked away from Sydney's Villawood detention centre in two separate breakouts. Australian Correctional Management, which runs the centre, now faces fines expected to be well in excess of $20,000. ACM, which makes about $400 million a year for its United States-based owners, is also on notice it could lose ...