Free Republic

Student gun sales armed N.J. gang, authorities sayAn indictment alleges collegians were used to funnel dozens of weapons from an Ohio store to Newark.By Troy GrahamInquirer Staff Writer   Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have indicted the owner of an Ohio gun store and three members of a violent Newark street gang in the first gun-trafficking case of its kind.The merchant sold guns to intermediaries, all of them students or former students at Wilberforce University, a small private school in Ohio. The students then funneled the guns to the Double ii Bloods street gang, authorities said.The case, which will...

Mugabe rails against colonialist Internet By Lester Haines Posted: 12/12/2003 at 12:10 GMT     Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has stepped up his war against Western "white racist bullies" by accusing Britain of using the Internet to destroy his country. Laughing Bob, addressing the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, asserted that information technology is dominated "by a few countries in the selfish interests of those countries which are in quest of global dominance and hegemony", the Daily Telegraph reports. He singled out Britain, the US and Canada as attempting to "challenge our sovereignty through hostile and...

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LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) -- Here is the text of the letter Roy Disney sent to the Walt Disney Co. (DIS: news, chart, profile) board of directors on Sunday. See full story on his resignation. Mr. Michael D. Eisner, ChairmanThe Walt Disney Company500 South Buena Vista StreetBurbank, CA 91521Dear Michael,It is with deep sadness and regret that I send you this letter of resignation from the Walt Disney Company, both as Chairman of the Feature Animation Division and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.You well know that you and I have had serious differences of opinion about the...

Pamela Anderson is a Sunday school teacher Pamela Anderson has revealed that she's now working as a Sunday school teacher.The one-time Playboy centrefold, 36, says her faith in God has helped her cope with bad times in her life.Speaking on BBC1's The Hand Of God, to be screened on December 2, she said: "I'm teaching at my sons' Sunday school. It's reading the Bible, getting out jelly beans and setting the kids a good example."She added: "There have been bad times and good times and I have had religion to get me through. I think it's important as I've...

AL-QAEDA: The group's name again comes up. Experts see new organization, old violence. By Dave Montgomery and Warren P. Strobel INQUIRER FOREIGN STAFF RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - With al-Qaeda being linked to three devastating attacks in Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the last two weeks, the group appears to be leaving a new signature as an increasingly decentralized and unpredictable terrorist network that appears harder to fight.Experts and diplomats said the recent resurgence of al-Qaeda violence also showed that Osama bin Laden's 14-year-old terrorist fraternity was as lethal as ever, despite the U.S.-led war on terrorism. The organization essentially...

Reality show looks for porn stars of tomorrowBy Anthony BreznicanAssociated Press A new "reality" TV show asks the question: "Can You Be a Pornstar?"Mary Carey, the porn actress who ran for California governor in the recent recall election, is among the hosts, joining fellow adult-film stars Tabitha Stevens and Ginger Lynn.Silhouette Productions announced plans this week to shoot seven one-hour shows, and to start telecasting on In Demand Networks and other pay-per-view channels on Jan. 8.A group of 28 women will compete for a one-year contract with a major adult-video distributor and a cash prize of $100,000."It's going to...

Cosmo Says No to Sex A cheerleader of the sexual revolution has second thoughts. | 27 October 2003A few weeks ago, a chirpy researcher from a London morning show asked me to appear on a TV debate about sex, along with an older, married couple who attend “swingers parties,” a teenage twit who notoriously stripped off her shirt in public in Rhodes, Greece and was rightly arrested, and Lorraine Candy, the editor of British Cosmopolitan. My role was to “even out the debate”—in other words, to be a rabidly right-wing, “no sex, please, we’re conservative” voice, and thus discredit the...

Qadhafi: Arab nationalism is deadbySaturday 04 October 2003 10:33 PM GMT  Qadhafi has long championed women's rights in the Arab world Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi gave a hard-hitting speech against fellow-Arab countries, declaring Arab nationalism dead and gone forever. “The times of Arab nationalism and unity are gone forever,” Qadhafi told an audience of women on Saturday at Syrte, east of Tripoli, AFP reported. “These ideas which mobilised the masses are only a worthless currency.”The once champion of both Arab nationalism and Pan-Africanism also called on the People's Congresses, the centre of the country's political system, to permit Libya to...

<p>WASHINGTON - On Aug. 20, 2001, Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a man who would soon be named a minister of the Saudi government and put in charge of its two holy mosques, arrived in the United States to meet with some of this country's most influential fundamentalist Sunni Muslim leaders.</p>

Bali suspect's final defence A key suspect on trial in connection with the Bali nightclub bombings last October has been giving his final defence statement. Ali Imron, the youngest of three brothers charged with the Bali attack, is accused of helping to put together the largest bomb, which exploded in a van outside the Sari nightclub. More than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed in the attack. INDONESIA'S TERROR TRIALS Amrozi Sentenced to death on 7 August Convicted of providing the van and bombs used in the attacks Imam Samudra Sentenced to death on 10 September Convicted of...

Issue 11.09 - September 2003The New Diamond AgeArmed with inexpensive, mass-produced gems, two startups are launching an assault on the De Beers cartel.Next up: the computing industry.By Joshua DavisAron Weingarten brings the yellow diamond up to the stainless steel jeweler's loupe he holds against his eye. We are in Antwerp, Belgium, in Weingarten's marbled and gilded living room on the edge of the city's gem district, the center of the diamond universe. Nearly 80 percent of the world's rough and polished diamonds move through the hands of Belgian gem traders like Weingarten, a dealer who wears the thick beard...

Editorial 7/21/03By Mortimer B. Zuckerman • Editor-in-ChiefA Kremlin conversationThroughout Russian History, It Has been personal power that has made things happen. Or not. Today that power is centered on President Vladimir Putin. In a recent 2-hour-and-45-minute meeting with him at the Kremlin, it was clear to me that his power has been compounded by his persona, captured in a popular joke making the rounds in Moscow: A reader asks a gardening columnist, "Can you recommend an effective way to protect fruits and vegetables from birds?" Sure, the columnist replies: "A life-size portrait of Vladimir Putin. Displayed prominently, the birds will...

Three years for one-legged robberA one-legged robber who left his artificial limb behind at the scene of a crime has been jailed for three years.Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London heard Eric Gardner, 41, left the damning evidence following a struggle with a shopkeeper after grabbing his cash takings.Undaunted at losing his prosthetic limb, he hopped his way into a getaway car and left Ghanshyam Patel, 56, behind clutching the false leg.Gardner, of Pinley Gardens, Dagenham, Essex, admitted robbery. Mr Patel, who runs a family newsagents in Oxlow Lane, Dagenham, was targeted as he made his way to bank his...

8 Jun 2003 08:18:02 GMTPakistan president urges unconditional U.S. aid By Kevin Krolicki LOS ANGELES, June 27 (Reuters) - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Friday urged the U.S. Congress to approve a proposed $3-billion aid package for his nation without attaching conditions for its use. Musharraf said Pakistan intended to use much of the five-year aid package proposed this week by President George W. Bush to invest in areas such as education and health care and could be trusted not to divert funds for a military buildup against its nuclear-armed rival India. "Whatever aid one gets, I have told...

 Social-services advocates usually make two arguments against the idea of promoting marriage among poor single-parent families. First, they charge, poor urban communities, where such families disproportionately reside, suffer from a chronic shortage of “marriageable” males—the men are usually young, feckless, and hostile to the idea of marriage. Even those who are potential “husband” material in such communities are chronically unemployed, making so little money that they wouldn’t raise the economic status of the mothers of their children even if they were to marry them. Second, the advocates say, marriages entered into because of a pregnancy or birth are likely to...

Mayor Street's brother, T. Milton Street Sr., has been given a contract worth more than $1 million a year for equipment maintenance at Philadelphia International Airport.He also has been given a trained staff to perform the work. And he won't be held financially responsible for the work or how it gets done day by day.That was the agreement reached between the city managers of the airport and a private firm, Philadelphia Airport Services, that hired Milton Street and that will set the former street vendor up in business.The work contracted to Street was formerly done by Philadelphia Airport Services. Fourteen...

Tom Ferrick Jr. | If race comes 1st, poison followsBy Tom Ferrick Jr.Inquirer ColumnistIt seems the Jews are getting an unfair share of city contracts in Philadelphia.So went the lament of Hanford Jones, an official in the Minority Business Enterprise Council, at an interdepartmental meeting in April.Jones, citing a variety of projects under way around town, complained out loud about the lack of minority participation.Some present at the meeting recall Jones saying that "Jew lawyers and Jew architects" were all getting the work. Others recall him saying "Jewish lawyers and Jewish architects."Either way, we get the point.As my colleague Tom...

<p>HARARE, Zimbabwe --A court hearing for Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is charged with treason, has been postponed until Monday, state prosecution lawyers say.</p> <p>Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested and charged with treason Friday for statements at rallies and meetings gatherings he conducted nationwide, his attorney said.</p>

Jordan court convicts Japanese journalist By Sana AbdallahFrom the International DeskPublished 6/1/2003 7:28 AM AMMAN, Jordan, June 1 (UPI) -- Jordan's State Security Court Sunday convicted a Japanese journalist of "unintentional manslaughter" for carrying a leftover cluster bomb from the Iraq war that led to the death of an airport security guard last month.The court initially sentenced Hiroki Gomi to a three-year prison term, but immediately commuted it to 18 months because the guard's family had dropped charges and because the journalist "is a foreigner."The three-man tribunal, including two military judges and one civilian, also convicted Gomi, 36, of possession...