Free Republic

BEND, Ore. - Public displays of affection are against the rules at Sky View Middle School in Bend, and 14-year-old Cazz Altomare found that out the hard way. She got detention earlier this year after hugging her boyfriend in the hallway as he headed to lunch and she went to gym class. Her mother, Leslee Swanson was infuriated by the punishment — in fact, when she went to pick her daughter up from detention, she gave her a good, hard hug. "I'm trying to understand what's wrong with a hug," said Swanson, 42. But administrators said such policies are standard-issue...

TOKYO — Yukio Edano, chief of the Constitution Research Committee of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, proposed Sunday to deploy Self-Defense Forces troops to the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea to avoid invasion by other countries. "The Senkaku Islands are effectively controlled by Japan. I believe the SDF should be stationed there so other countries will not be able to invade them," he told a TV news show. The Senkakus, about 400 kilometers west of Okinawa Prefecture's capital Naha, are controlled by Japan and also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Tokyo governor to visit southern islets amid dispute with China Tokyo's governor plans to visit a rocky outcrop south of the Japanese capital next month amid questions from China about the validity of Japan's claim of sovereignty over the islets and the surrounding seas. China says Okinotorishima, a pair of islets about 1,730 kilometers (1,070 miles) southwest of Tokyo, are only rocks _ not an island governed by rules of sovereignty _ and therefore can't be used by Japan to extend its economic zone while preventing Beijing from exploiting natural resources in the surrounding Pacific Ocean area. Governor Shintaro Ishihara...

China website highlights early DPRK-China tensions China-NK relations by Michael Rank If you're a Great Leader it can feel a little uncomfortable having another Great Leader on your doorstep, and a very interesting report in Chinese highlights intense rivalry between Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung in the 1950s and 60s. This short report says North Korea took part in “underground activities” against China's Korean minority after the Korean war in order to instill in them a “fatherland concept and ideology of the leader”, telling them their fatherland was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and their leader was General Kim...

Chinese government officials and shoemakers will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday, March 23, to find a solution to a crisis that was sparked earlier this month when Russian customs officials seized a shipment of Chinese shoes worth millions of dollars, reports Asia Times Online. The seizure took place on March 12 during an armed police raid at a warehouse in a wholesale market in Moscow. More than 100 containers of shoes worth $9.7 million were taken from Chinese merchants who were accused of smuggling the goods into Russia. The shoes were owned by about 20 export companies from China’s...

Rattled by China's development of the Chunxiao gas field in the East China Sea, the government is setting up a task force to ensure Japan's vast ocean interests are protected. The task force comprising officials from various ministries and agencies will be in place this month and operate with a focus on Okinotorishima island, Japan's southernmost point. Located more than 1,600 kilometers south of the capital, the island is part of the Ogasawara chain and comes under the jurisdiction of Tokyo. Actually, the island is two tiny islets: but its location gives Japan a huge advantage. The exclusive economic zone...

TOKYO - In a sign of deepening popular and political animosity between China and Japan, Tokyo took formal possession this week of a tiny archipelago in the Pacific waters south of Japan. In the early morning of Feb. 9, Tokyo informed Beijing's embassy here that the Senkaku Islands would be administered by the Japanese coast guard. The unexpectedly bold action by Tokyo received little attention here. But it is seen as a "serious chess move," says one diplomat, in a region where power relations are being redefined, and where tensions over energy, borders, military buildups, and ethnic rivalries are palpable....

SACRAMENTO - The state Assembly has agreed to pay $49,000 to a former aide to Rebecca Cohn who accused the Democratic legislator from Campbell of creating an uncomfortable, sexually charged work environment. In all, the Assembly will have paid Cohn's former press secretary, Erika Weaver-Taylor, $119,000 in taxpayer funds to stay home from work for 10 months. The settlement, made public Friday, ends a yearlong investigation by a key legislative committee. But it does not end the public dispute. The legal resolution allowed Cohn and Weaver-Taylor to speak out for the first time in months about the allegations. Cohn called...

The Governor of the State of Cojedes announced yesterday that on Saturday they will begin the “intervention” of the Hato El Charcote farm, owned by British company Vestey, under the decree issued by that Governor in mid-December. The concept of “intervention” does not exist in Venezuelan jurisprudence, so that it is unclear exactly what it means. According to the Governor: “The intervention will be performed with all of the machinery of the State to establish the first beachhead of the “Free land and Men Mission…With the aid of all of the Armed Forces and police forces and the authorities of...

Five Hunters Killed in Wisconsin Dispute BIRCHWOOD, Wis. — A deer hunter shot and killed five people and injured three others in northwestern Wisconsin following a dispute about a tree stand during the hunt's opening weekend, authorities said.The 36-year-old alleged gunman, who lives in the Minneapolis area, was arrested Sunday afternoon, Sawyer County (search) sheriff's officials said. Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no additional details.The incident began when two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County when they saw the suspect in one of...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The presiding judge of the San Diego Superior Court recused all 124 judges on the bench from hearing a lawsuit attempting to block write-in candidate Councilwoman Donna Frye from becoming mayor. Judge John Einhorn said he made the decision Wednesday because one of Frye's election rivals, incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy, was a judge for 15 years before he was elected mayor in 2000. Several judges have contributed to Murphy's campaigns, and Einhorn wanted to avoid any appearance of favoritism. Einhorn arranged with California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George to have the case heard by Charles...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Setting up a likely court battle, one of two Southern California tribes accused by the state of illegally operating machines that look and feel like slot machines on Wednesday refused to remove them from its casino floor. Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, said the tribe will sue Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration if it attempts to restrict the tribe from operating the machines. He said they are permitted under the current gambling agreements. "The governor's office will have to realize they're in error and back off or we're continue to fight...

Dispute over classification of new species of prehistoric 'human' The World Today - Thursday, 28 October , 2004 12:22:00 Reporter: Alison Caldwell ELEANOR HALL: The discovery of the dwarf humans or hobbits, as we just heard one the scientists calling them, has generated enormous interest and excitement among anthropologists around the world. But not all of them agree with the Australian scientists that this is a new species of human. Jeffrey Schwartz, who is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh in the Untied States, says while the discovery is extraordinary, the creature is more like an ape than...

Several Detroit leaders are encouraging minorities to vote this November, and warning they will not put up with voter intimidation. State democratic leaders claim opponents are going out of their way to intimidate minorities. So they’re rallying thousands of volunteers to help monitor poll booths on Election Day. Detroit’s former mayor Dennis Archer says fair elections in the US send a powerful message overseas. Former Mayor Dennis Archer explained, "We have an obligation here if we want to promote democracy around the world to demonstrate democracy by allowing people to vote free of intimidation." The chairman of the State Democratic...

CHESTERTON, Ind. (AP) - Two top Munchkins won't be taking the Yellow Brick Road to Chesterton's annual Oz Festival this month because of a contract dispute. Jerry Maren, who played the Lollipop Kid in "The Wizard of Oz," and Karl Slover, who played the First Trumpeter in the 1939 musical, have been regular attendees at past festivals in the town about 15 miles east of Gary. But the two former Munchkins were "disinvited" this year following a flap over their agent's request that organizers pay his travel expenses, said Karen Spallina, president of Lakeshore Festival and Events. Two other former...

Lights go out across France in privatisation dispute Jon Henley in Paris Wednesday June 16, 2004 The Guardian (UK) Six French cities were plunged into darkness and several leading government figures had their power supply cut yesterday when the trade union CGT led a national day of action against plans to partly privatise the state electricity utility, EDF. Both Nicolas Sarkozy, the finance minister and the communist-linked CGT, supported by three other unions, said they would not back down as parliament debated the privatisation bill and more than 6,000 power workers took to the streets in Paris alone. Bernard Thibault,...

NEW YORK (AFP) - A liberal radio start-up touted as a counterweight to right-wing talk radio has been yanked from the airwaves in two of its top markets amid an acrimonious billing dispute, according to network representatives. The broadcaster that rents air time to Air America in Los Angeles and Chicago pulled the plug on the network in those two cities Wednesday, just two weeks after its much-ballyhooed launch. Executives with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc., which owns Air America affiliates WNTD-950 AM in Chicago and KBLA-1580 AM in Los Angeles, claims Air America bounced checks and fell behind on its...

FORT WORTH - It was a teen-age prank that got out of hand. One minute, Martha Alcaraz was being awakened by her 17-year-old daughter and told that someone was throwing rocks at the girl's window. The next, she was staring through a car windshield at the female teen-age culprits, demanding that they get out. She wanted them to clean up the toilet paper that streamed from her trees, the paintballs and eggs that coated her front door, the obscene chalk drawings on the sidewalk and front porch. And she wanted their names. "I was telling them, 'Just get out of...

China, Korea Dispute Ancient Kingdom By SANG-HUN CHOE Associated Press Writer January 31, 2004, 9:40 PM EST SEOUL, South Korea -- The ancient kingdom of Koguryo, famed for its mighty castles and horseback warriors, has sprung back to life in a "war of history" between South Korea and China that carries alarming modern-day implications. The dispute has raised diplomatic hackles and symbolizes what many say are rival geopolitical designs on Northeast Asia, a region rich in conflict and currently riled over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. The wrangling could also influence the way future borders are drawn between two of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - North Korean officials told an American expert on Korea that they see no urgency in ending the impasse over its nuclear weapons programs because delays will give the country more time to expand its nuclear arsenal. Charles Pritchard, a former State Department official, met with the North Koreans last week as part of a private visit that included a trip with American colleagues to the country's main nuclear site at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang. Pritchard said he was told by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan: "Time is not on the U.S. side. Lapses of...