Free Republic

A transgender Mexican who claims he'll be killed in his homeland for dressing like a woman is getting a second shot at refugee status in what may be the first case of its kind in Canada. Jose Arturo Contreras Hernandez, who now lives in Toronto, claims his life is in danger in Mexico because he's a transgender cross-dresser. "He fears danger to return to Mexico because he is a homosexual and likes to dress as a woman," Mr. Justice John O'Keefe said in a Federal Court of Canada decision last month. Hernandez arrived in Canada in 2006 and filed an...

The men of Russia's Arctic city of Murmansk have an unlikely passion - as a woman living there explains: "Many men in Murmansk love escaping to their garages, which are often built far away from the apartment blocks where they live."

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - A motel in northern Mexico is putting steel doors on its rooms to protect guests from kidnappings and shootings in an escalating war between rival drug cartels. Owners of the Rancho El Trueno, or Thunder Ranch, began fortifying the highway motel near Monterrey a year ago but have decided to shield all 35 rooms as drug killings have worsened in the area in recent months. Complete with hot tubs, red imitation-leather beds, mirrored walls and striptease poles, the rooms are shuttered behind steel gates about 1.5 inches (4 cm) thick and some already have steel doors....

OAKLAND -- Oakland city officials today announced two new resolutions condemning recent federal immigration raids and formalizing the city's intention not to cooperate with the U.S. government effort to deport undocumented residents. The resolutions, one by Mayor Ron Dellums and the other by Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, both condemn the recent raids, which included one on Friday at an East Oakland manufacturer. Both resolutions are also an effort to update Oakland's 1986 "City of Refuge" ordinance which only applies to refugees fleeing political violence in Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and South Africa, De La Fuente said. His proposed...

KAMALFAR FREE!... Iranian Dissident Receives Refugee Status in Canada The long ordeal of Zahra Kamalfar and her family in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport - often discussed on this site - is finally over, Pajamas Media has learned. Kamalfar will not be returned to Iran, as Russian authorities were threatening to do, but will receive refugee status in Canada. PJM received a copy of the following mail to Iranian-American filmmaker and activitist Ardeshir Arian from an attorney Zohreh Mizrahi: Dear Ardeshir: I am very pleased to inform you, as promised earlier, that Canada finally issued the refugee status to Zahra and her...

It seems sometimes that there is violence between Christians and Muslims in almost every corner of the world. Sadly, Civil Wars, tribal feuding and other strife creates migrations and refugees seeking safety and freedom. In Israel, ninety refugees from war torn Liberia that have been living in safety there for seventeen years are being told by the United nations that they must return to their African home. These people truly stand out in Israel: they are Muslims, refugees, Liberians and Black Africans of the Mandingo tribe. War torn Liberia has suffered through more than 15 years of Civil War since...

Northern Refuge: White spruce survived last ice age in Alaska Sid Perkins Genetic analysis of white spruce trees at sites across North America suggest that that species endured the harsh climate of Alaska throughout the last ice age, a notion that scientists have debated for decades. ICE AGE SURVIVORS. White spruce trees, common in high-latitude North American forests today, endured in Alaska during the last ice age, a new genetic analysis suggests. Inset shows Alaskan and other sites (red dots) sampled in that study. iStockphoto; (inset) Anderson, et al. Picea glauca, the white spruce, is one of the most common...

Mexico extraditions rise sharplyBy KAREN MAHABIR, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 31 minutes ago MEXICO CITY - Gone are the days when Americans on the lam could look to Mexico as a refuge. Extraditions and deportations have risen sharply as U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials work closely together to bring suspected criminals to justice. Neither leading candidate in Mexico's presidential election Sunday is likely to change that. Felipe Calderon, the conservative candidate for the ruling National Action Party, has promised to increase the flow of extraditions of drug traffickers to the United States. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador —...

Pyongyang's antics catch out Beijing BEIJING - The international flap caused by reports that North Korea is preparing to test-fire its new Taepodong 2 intercontinental ballistic missile has placed China in an unenviable position. Beijing appears to have had no impact on restraining its restive neighbor in this instance, leading the world to wonder just how influential it in fact is, given that it is traditionally viewed as the country with the most hold over North Korea. It could be that Beijing just didn't want to try to push Pyongyang too hard, or simply that there is nothing it can...

House approves oil drilling in Alaska refuge; Prospects in Senate slim.By H. JOSEF HEBERT/Associated Press Writer Published: Friday, May 26, 2006 3:51 AM CDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing the public outcry over $3-a-gallon gasoline and America’s heavy reliance on foreign oil, the House on Thursday voted to open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, knowing the prospects for Senate approval were slim. Drilling proponents argued that the refuge on Alaska’s North Slope would provide 1 million barrels a day of additional domestic oil at peak production and reduce the need for imports. But opponents to developing what environmentalists argue...

JORDANIAN BORDER, Iraq (April 29, 2006) -- Near the Iraqi-Jordanian border, key leaders from the Iraqi Government and the United Nations met to figure out the fate of a growing number of Iraqis of Palestinian heritage who are trying to leave Iraq due to recent violence in Baghdad. The meeting between the two organizations came after more than 200 Iraqi men, women and children took up residence along the border here weeks ago, after being denied passage into Jordan by Jordanian border officials. The Iraqis left Baghdad to escape “violence and persecution” by insurgents, who targeted hundreds of Iraqi families...

Ancient refuge found by workmen The stone-built tunnel leads into the hillside Workmen have unearthed 1,000 years of history on a County Down building site. They have come upon an underground stone-built tunnel in Raholp, where our ancestors might have hidden from the Vikings or from warring neighbours. Archaeologist Ken Neill said that with chambers off from the main tunnel it was a quite complicated souterrain, and probably built by better off farmers. The opening that led to the tunnel - which leads into the hillside - will be sealed and the passage left alone. "It was really somewhere for...

Administration seeks $2.27 million for Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge NASSAWADOX, Va. – The Nature Conservancy today applauded President Bush’s request to fund the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge with $2.27 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund in Fiscal Year 2007. The Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge and much of the surrounding area in southern Northampton County, are widely recognized as globally important habitat for millions of migratory birds. The Nature Conservancy works with the refuge staff, state agencies and private landowners on the Eastern Shore to protect these vital natural areas...

WASHINGTON - The Senate blocked oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge Wednesday, rejecting a measure that had been put into a must-pass defense spending bill in an attempt to garner wider support. Drilling supporters fell four votes short of getting the required 60 votes to avoid a threatened filibuster of the defense measure over the oil drilling issue. Senate leaders were expected to withraw the legislation so it could be reworked without the refuge language. The vote was 56-44.

Shunned by much of society, denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, treated as virtual slaves, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and of a privileged class who enjoy the state's protection, Amerasians (mixed-race) live deplorable lives under the communist regime in Vietnam. Amerasians bore the brunt of the Vietnamese communists’ hatred toward America after their take over of South Vietnam in 1975. Used and abused by the communist officials, beaten at will, debased, raped and forced into prostitution, Amerasians have suffered at the hands of Vietnamese communists. Many Amerasians were rounded up by...

President George W. Bush wants to kill the last wildlife sanctuary in the United States. He is more than happy to sink his claws into it, tear it apart and plunder it for his own uses. Environment? What environment? If it’s got oil, it’s ours. Who cares about some stupid animals? According to a Nov. 4 article on CNN.com, the Senate on Thursday approved a measure that would compel the Department of the Interior “to begin selling oil leases for the coastal plain of the Alaska refuge within two years.” Yes, you heard correctly. The refuge. The place where we...

Teheran 'providing refuge for al-Qaeda terrorists' By Philip Sherwell in Washington (Filed: 06/11/2005) About 25 al-Qaeda leaders, including three of Osama bin Laden's sons, are running terrorist operations from their refuge in Iran rather than languishing under house arrest as the Teheran regime claims, intelligence officials have said. The disclosure comes as Maj-Gen James Dutton, the commander of British forces in south-eastern Iraq, reiterated on Friday that the technology for lethal new rebel bombs was crossing into the country from Iran. A "top-ranking Western secret service agent" has told Cicero magazine that the senior al-Qaeda operatives, who fled across the...

Alaska Refuge Drilling OK'd in Committee By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer 58 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A Senate committee voted Wednesday to include drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge in a massive budget proposal, assuring that drilling opponents won't be able to use the filibuster to thwart oil development there. ADVERTISEMENT The Senate Energy Committee proposal, approved 13-9, calls for the Interior Department to put up for bid by Oct. 1, 2010 two oil leases in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. By making the issue part of a complex budget reconciliation process, supporters will...

A coalition of radical environmental organizations is staging a "March on Washington" to protest a budget bill that would authorize new oil development in a fraction of the 19.6 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). WE NEED TO CRASH THEIR PROTEST ON TUESDAY SEPTERBER 20!!! I've lived in Alaska and I'm very familiar with this issue. These radical environmental organizations lie through their teeth on this issue and then collect million of dollars in donations from their ignorant prey. Increasing domestic production is a no-brainer at this point and these obstuctionist greenie liberals need to be exposed. They have spent...

The Free State Project has won some converts. Also: The lowdown on mercury - in loons and maybe legislators' hair. We're calling a truce this weekend. Today - and today only - there'll be no talk of budget bills, school funding plans or Medicaid reform. We got enough of that last week, and there will be plenty more hot air steaming out of the State House to keep us busy next week. Instead, let's revisit some old friends: the Free Staters. It has been 18 months since the Free State Project chose New Hampshire as its home, with the hopes...

Rage over rising gasoline prices and increased oil imports should be directed at Bill Clinton and Senate Democrats. Had Bill Clinton not vetoed the 1995 budget, oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would now be providing nearly a million barrels per day to American markets--about the same amount we are importing from Saudi Arabia. In every Congress since 1995, Senate Democrats have killed every effort to utilize our own oil reserves. Finally, by the narrowest of votes (51-49), Senate Republicans passed the ANWR resolution which will not be vetoed by President Bush. Still, it will take another decade to...

AUSTWELL - While two sets of twins wintering on islands associated with the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge does not set a record, it is rare. In fact, it's the first time in 40 years the refuge has hosted two sets in one winter. Other new records have been set this winter. At latest count, 216 whooping cranes - including 33 chicks - have arrived to set new records for both the total number as well as the number of chicks. The record topples the one set last year of 194 birds. Twins have made it to the refuge 12 years...

When most people head into retirement, they get a gold watch, a handshake, and a sheet cake. Members of Congress can get much, much more: buildings dedicated to them, special dollops of federal aid to their constituents, a passel of pet projects. Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, in one of the final acts of his 38-year career in Congress, had two federal programs and a wildlife refuge named after him -- and he channeled millions in aid to South Carolina. Retiring Senator John Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, won a 15-year extension of an environmental law that bears...

Pakistan ‘gives Al-Qaeda refuge’ Nicholas Rufford OSAMA BIN LADEN is being given safe haven with the help of Pakistani officials, British security sources believe. Recent intelligence reports coming from remote tribal areas of Pakistan have indicated the Al-Qaeda leader is being given refuge by senior figures in the regional government. America has given Pakistan tens of millions of dollars since the start of the war on terrorism and the hunt for Bin Laden. There is growing impatience in Washington at the failure of the military to capture him. He is believed to be hiding along the mountainous 1,500mile frontier between...

I hope one day to move out of the Socialist Northeast. where would a young man as myself find refuge?

Jesus Christ is calling you ... What Must I Do To Be Saved? Dwight Lyman Moody's Last Sermon in London. Preached in Camberwell Hall, Sunday Evening, July 11th, 1875. Suppose you do not want to hear a sermon (on this last night) so much as you want to know how to be saved. I want, if I can, to answer that question, "What must I do to be saved?" There is no question that can come before us in this world that is so important; and I think that there is not a man in this audience to-night who...

GRANTS TO STATES FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES CONSERVATION FOR RELEASE: February 11, 2004CONTACTS:   Patricia Fisher, 202-208-1459            Don Morgan 703-358-2106       The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is seeking proposalsfrom states and U.S. territories interested in acquiring land or conductingconservation planning for endangered species. Congress has appropriated$71million for fiscal year 2004 to support grants awarded under theCooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund.       "These grant programs are important not only because they fundprojects that protect irreplaceable habitat for threatened and endangeredspecies, but also because they are the building blocks for ensuring strongconservation partnerships...

Dec. 24 — KABUL (Reuters) - Guerrillas from Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia and the al Qaeda network it once sheltered are using Pakistan as a sanctuary, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Wednesday. Speaking at a police graduation ceremony, Zalmay Khalilzad also said senior al Qaeda members including Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar must be brought to justice. "The remnants of extremist Taliban, al Qaeda and Hekmatyar want to take Afghanistan to the bad old days," Khalilzad said. "They use Pakistan as sanctuary." The Taliban and Hekmatyar...

AUSTWELL - Five additional endangered whooping cranes have joined the flock that winters here, breaking the new record of 189 set last week at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and the Matagorda Island National Wildlife Refuge. In his Dec. 17 fly-over, Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, spotted 194 cranes, which is believed to be the highest number of whooping cranes at the Aransas refuge in 100 years. The record before this season was set in the fall of 1999 when 188 birds wintered there. "The new arrivals included one additional family group, bringing...

Intelligence examines cargo flight from Baghdad to Belarus SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COMFriday, April 25, 2003 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has obtained safe haven in Belarus, several intelligence agencies believe. Western intelligence sources said several intelligence agencies in the Middle East and Europe base this assessment on new information about a March 29 flight from Baghdad to Minsk. They said the flight of a chartered cargo plane could have transported Saddam, his sons and much of his family to Belarus. "There's no proof that Saddam was on the plane but we have proof that a plane left on that day...

<p>WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday night endorsed oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, setting up a likely confrontation with the Senate as Congress struggles to produce a comprehensive energy policy.</p> <p>An attempt to strip a House energy bill of a provision that would allow development of the refuge's oil was turned back by a 228-197 vote. Drilling opponents argued more oil could be saved with higher auto fuel economy requirements than the refuge could produce.</p>

<p>SHINERWE MOUNTAIN, Iraq - Along with Baghdad and the oil fields of Kirkuk, a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq could sweep into the slopes and valleys off in the distance in front of Sarkawt Abdullah's hilltop mortar pit.</p> <p>"Those people are from Tora Bora," said the Kurdish fighter, gesturing at bunkers on nearby ridges and recalling the mountain bastion in Afghanistan from which Osama bin Laden and many of his loyalists escaped a U.S.-led siege just over a year ago.</p>

Big-city politician takes aim at leases 7/16/02 By RYAN HARPER Klamath Falls Herald and News A Democratic congressman from Portland planned to introduce legislation today that would limit agriculture on a portion of the lease lands in the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges. Some local interests say the measure could do more harm than good. Earl Blumenauer, who represents Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, is offering an amendment to the Interior appropriations bill that would prevent alfalfa and row crops from being grown on lands whose leases expire this year. It would also prevent chemical use on those...