http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/foreign-news/ en-us Fri, 9 May 2008 20:20:28 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013741/posts PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) - A towering plume of ash from an erupting volcano in Chile's remote Patagonia could collapse back down to devastate the surrounding area, a leading expert warned on Friday. Luis Lara, a geologist and volcano expert with the government's geology and mining agency Sernageomin, says his models show the vast column of ash, which has soared 7.5 miles into the air, at a critical stage. A sudden collapse would shroud vast areas with hot gas, ash and molten rock, killing anything in its way. Authorities have evacuated thousands of people from the immediate vicinity of Chaiten... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013741/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 20:20:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013738/posts KEN Livingstone’s defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson in the elections for the Mayor of Greater London, last week, was the end of an era. It was a development bigger than the city of London or UK with ominous implications for Muslim communities across Europe. Yet few of us in the Muslim media, across the world, so easily carried away with the nonsense of Geert Wilders, paused to reflect on the enormity of what happened. Some events help to understand ourselves. Living all those years in London I never felt it was part of my identity. Yet suffering the... Khaleej Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013738/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 20:16:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013737/posts A SECOND priest has been beaten up in his own churchyard in the space of just eight weeks in London’s East End — this time over an argument about a football. The Rector of St Matthew’s in Bethnal Green, The Rev Kevin Scully, was attacked on Tuesday afternoon by three drunken youths who had returned to take their revenge for a row three days before. He had taken their ball last Saturday after he saw them using a cross on the church as a basketball hoop. He has been taunted with religious and racist abuse in the past, but believes... East London Advertiser http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013737/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 20:13:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013727/posts MEXICO CITY (AFP) — Gunmen assassinated a commander of Mexico City's anti-kidnapping police Friday, the fourth top police authority slain in 10 days here as the toll from a rising organized crime wave hits top brass. One day after acting federal police chief Edgar Millan was brutally murdered, four gunmen in a truck shot and killed anti-kidnapping commander Esteban Robles, authorities said. Robles was rushed to hospital after the attack Friday but did not survive. The violence, believed to be mostly related to the government's stepped up fight against drug trafficking, saw a new grim chapter Thursday in Mexico City... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013727/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 19:46:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013725/posts The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It is controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How? First, the role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex... Asia Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013725/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 19:39:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013711/posts As President Bush enters his final months in office, there are mounting signs of disarray when it comes to current U.S. policy towards Iran and North Korea. The three remaining plausible candidates to succeed him — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain — have yet to explain how thier policies will differ from the current administration. Regarding Iran, for example, senior administration officials are continuously disavowing their own administration's National Intelligence Estimate, produced late last year, which suggested that Iran had halted a critical component of its nuclear weapons program. But the damage to American credibility has already occurred,... The Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013711/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 19:02:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013689/posts BELGRADE, May 9 (Itar-Tass) -- The Serbian government has unanimously approved the oil and gas agreement with Russia and recommended the parliament to ratify it, the government press office said on Friday. The agreement will now be submitted for ratification to the new parliament, as the current parliament is dismissed to order of the national president. A protocol to the Serbian-Russian Intergovernmental Agreement on Oil and Gas Cooperation says that the agreement must be ratified by May 25. Russia has done that, and the delayed ratification in Serbia, which was caused by the breakdown of the ruling coalition, is immaterial.... www.itar-tass.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013689/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 18:22:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013687/posts Two mortar shells fired by Palestinians from northern Gaza Strip land in Kibbutz Kfar Aza Friday evening, killing one man, 48, and injuring three others. Mortars land near house, local community hall. Hamas claims responsibility for attack Shmulik Hadad Published: 05.09.08, 19:14 / Israel News Jimmy Kdoshim, a 48-year-old father of three, was killed in Kibbutz Kfar Aaza Friday evening after a mortar shell fired from Gaza hit his house in the kibbutz. Two mortars fired by Palestinian gunmen landed in the kibbutz, one fell close to the local community hall and the other landed on a house. Three people... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013687/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 18:21:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013655/posts Russia showcased its military might and youthful new president to the world Friday, as heavy tanks and missile launchers rumbled across Red Square in a Victory In a nationally broadcast speech two days after his inauguration, President Dmitry Medvedev avoided the bellicose rhetoric of his mentor and predecessor, Vladimir Putin, who drew parallels between United States and Nazi Germany during last year's parade. However, in his speech marking victory over Adolf Hitler's Germany, the 42-year-old Medvedev said the history of World War II demonstrated that military conflicts are rooted in "irresponsible ambitions which prevail over interests of nations and entire... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013655/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 17:37:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013646/posts When President Bush visits Israel next week, he should offer to bring that ally fully into the U.S. missile defense network - a step that might forestall an Israeli attack on Iran this year. Two of the most strategically minded Members of Congress I know - Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) - have enlisted 63 colleagues to urge the move as Bush prepares to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. Specifically, the bipartisan group is calling on Bush to give Israel the advanced X-band radar system that would enable Israel to knock down Iranian missiles early... RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013646/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 17:21:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013641/posts MEXICO CITY – Mexico's acting federal police chief was shot dead early Thursday outside his home – a brazen attack as drug traffickers increasingly lash back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Edgar Millan Gomez was shot 10 times after opening the door to his Mexico City apartment complex, where at least one gunman was waiting for him before dawn, the Public Safety Department said. Two bodyguards were also wounded. Millan died hours later at a hospital. SNIP Garza urged U.S. lawmakers to approve the Merida Initiative, a US$500 million (euro326 million) proposal that would help fight drug crime... SIGN ON SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013641/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 17:11:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013640/posts <p>Starting late last night and continuing into the morning, Hezbollah and Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) militiamen engaged in street clashes on the major roads of Hamra and Verdun, among other areas of broader Ras Beirut.</p> <p>"We have an SSNP flag right under us. I'm looking at their guys as we speak," noted Dana, a resident of Hamra. "The ones that I can see are holding their guns... they stop cars; like, every time a car passes by, they stop the car. If they like it, they'll let it go. If they don't, they'll make it turn around."</p> YaLibnan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013640/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 17:10:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013628/posts On the Burmese side of the Moei River, the reality of the Burma Army attack was there for all to see. Where just a few weeks before had stood a thriving community with a church, school, houses, and clinic, there was now little more than ashes. The pastor came and sat next to me as we looked at the burned-out ruins of his church: a few charred bamboo pillars and some pews. A beam that once held up the roof now formed a cross, symbol of the people's suffering. In an operation that plays out regularly in eastern Burma, the... Christianity Today http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013628/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 16:48:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013612/posts Doting China Still C.R.'s Sugar Daddy By Gillian Gillers and Leslie Friday Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net lfriday@ticotimes.net The honeymoon is over, but China is still showering Costa Rica with gifts. Since cutting ties with Taiwan last June 6, the Costa Rican government has been reaping the benefits that accompany friendship with the growing economic and political giant. The two nations have swapped secrets and signed a laundry list of accords promising collaboration in areas ranging from technology to free trade, sports to fine arts. A month barely passes without an official diplomatic mission between the two. This week alone,... Tica Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013612/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 16:22:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013610/posts Professors Against the War on Terror by: Bethany Stotts, May 09, 2008 The complaint that the Iraq War is the result of a neoconservative conspiracy to unduly expanded U.S. interests abroad has become popular among professors and antiwar activists, as is the assertion that the War on Terror has undermined American civil liberties and destroyed America’s reputation abroad. A new policy report by Politics professor Ian Lustick, published by the Independent Institute, is no different. However, the University of Pennsylvania professor’s report is unique in that he derives most of his inflammatory material from news outlets, including ABC News, the... Campus Report http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013610/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 16:14:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013596/posts Hezbollah fighters, their guns blazing, seized control of west Beirut on Friday after three days of street battles with pro-government foes pushed Lebanon dangerously close to all-out civil war. The sectarian fighting had eased by early afternoon and the army and police moved across areas now in the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite opposition forces who routed Sunni militants loyal to the Western-backed government. "There are no clashes anymore because no one is standing in the way of the opposition forces," a security official said as convoys of gunmen firing celebratory shots into the air and flashing the victory sign took... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013596/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 15:36:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013589/posts In the poll of Jewish voters (conducted April 1-30), it showed Obama getting 61% of the Jewish vote against John McCain (32%). Yet in the same poll Hillary Clinton beat Obama among Jewish voters 62% - 38%. So obviously Jews are lifelong democrats who would vote for Obama, whom they rejected in the primaries, rather than vote for McCain. Thus, for them, party loyalty is preferable to Israel loyalty. Recently I posted two articles by Yarom Ettinger, former Israeli Ambassador to the US, The Prospects of a Palestinian State and National Interests of the United States and It’s American interests,... ISRAPUNDIT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013589/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 15:16:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013578/posts On Monday, Iran’s Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran would not submit to extensive U.N. inspections of its nuclear program while Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran is a signatory to the NPT, as the global pact is called, and, as such, is not permitted to build or hold nuclear weapons. Israel, which maintains a small arsenal of nukes, has not joined the NPT. Citing “nuclear apartheid,” the Iranian diplomat said The existing double standard shall not be tolerated anymore by non-nuclear-weapon states. Commentary Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013578/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 14:40:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013557/posts MADRID, Spain — Spain formally laid claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded a US$500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes — a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board. AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013557/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 13:41:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013551/posts In his victory speech after the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama said something that is all the more remarkable for how little it has been remarked upon. In defending his stated intent to meet with America's enemies without preconditions, Sen. Obama said: "I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did." That he made this statement, and that it passed without comment by the journalists covering his speech indicates either breathtaking ignorance of history... realclearpolitics.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013551/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 13:23:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013539/posts Italy readying evacuation plan for Lebanon May 9, 2008 ROME (Reuters) - Italy's foreign ministry said on Friday it was preparing an evacuation plan for its nationals in the Lebanese capital Beirut, where Hezbollah fighters and pro-government gunmen have been battling for three days. A ministry spokesman said the plan was not operational yet and would be enforced only if necessary. He said Italians in certain parts of the city were being offered safe shelter if they wanted to leave their homes. "I wouldn't call it at this phase an evacuation. We are ready for that, we are preparing it... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013539/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 12:59:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013534/posts Hizbollah swept through major areas of Beirut in an overnight push that resulted in the deaths of 11 and forced Lebanese MPs out of the capital The Shia group seized control of large areas of Beirut’s Sunni Muslim districts, which are loyal to the US-backed government on Friday. The pro-Western leadership was effectively besieged with top leaders Saad Hariri of the Sunnis and Walid Jumblatt of the Druse sect surrounded in their compounds in Muslim western Beirut. Many MPs were forced to convene an emergency outside the capital. The fighting left the country’s army on the brink of potentially decisive... Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013534/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 12:47:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013531/posts Islamist Forums Teach Mujahideen How to Manufacture and Use Explosives, Weapons, and Poisons By: D. Nagy * Introduction In recent years jihadist organizations have been using the Internet for purposes of indoctrination, propaganda, recruitment, and maintaining morale among the mujahideen. In addition, Internet forums provide venues not only for sharing views, but for exchanging information that serves the operative needs of the mujahideen, such as guidance in guerilla warfare techniques, and information on manufacturing and using explosives, weapons, and poisons. Such information is often posted in special Al-'Udda Wal-I'dad (Equipment and Preparation) [1] sections of numerous jihadist forums, including... MEMRI http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013531/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 12:39:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013529/posts Israel and the Palestinians need to "draw a map and get it done," according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, using language conveying a degree of impatience a week before President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit the region. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Photo: AP [file] Rice, en route to Washington from Israel on Monday, was asked by a reporter on her plane about Bush's April 2004 letter to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, which stated that "in light of new realties on the ground," a full withdrawal to the 1949 Armistice Lines is "unrealistic." Any final-status... Jerusalem Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013529/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 12:34:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013527/posts Ever since the Trojans welcomed the Wooden Horse, full of armed Greeks, into their city, rulers and regimes have unintentionally defeated themselves. But as the last month has made obvious, with the rule of Hamas in Gaza we have something else entirely: not folly, but a strategy designed to inflict self-harm. The clearest, but by no means the only example of this is the fuel crisis that has brought transportation in Gaza to a virtual standstill. Even as it harshly condemned the Israeli "siege" of the Gaza Strip, Hamas acted to exacerbate the problem by repeatedly confiscating fuel trucks and... Jerusalem Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013527/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 12:32:03 GMT