Free Republic

BAGHDAD -- As the country of Iraq moves from a heavy reliance on military security towards self-reliance and an everyday presence of civil security, the National Police will provide a paramilitary presence skilled in bridging the gap between the military and police services. A new plan by Iraq’s Ministry of Interior is designed to facilitate the transition. The use of paramilitary forces is common to many countries. Known in France as Gendarmerie and in Italy as Caribinieri, these forces have been widely used in peacekeeping operations throughout the world. These types of forces were used in Haiti during the rebellion...

With a stylish exterior of metallic blue and gray, the device looks like a personal digital assistant but slightly larger. Julius Mendalis, 84, a lawyer for the company that makes Arizona Iced Tea, paid $795 for this gadget, and he loves it, though he is not a man of technology, rarely uses computers and does not surf the Web. It is helping him read again. The Quicklook, an amalgamation of a tiny digital video camera and a four-inch liquid-crystal display screen, acts as an electronic magnifying glass, enlarging the text of a newspaper or a legal brief to an inch...