Free Republic

RIVERSIDE, N.J. - Hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters assembled in this small Philadelphia suburb Sunday in response to the community's new attempt to crack down on illegal immigration. About 200 protesters argued against a township ordinance adopted last month that bans the hiring and housing of people who cannot verify they are legal residents. A larger group massed across the street to support the new law. People on both sides of the street waved American flags, but traded hostile remarks. "This can only lead to more separation, more hostility, more hatred, more anger," Marlene Lao-Collins, associate director of the New...

QANA, Lebanon - Israeli missiles crushed several buildings where Lebanese villagers were sleeping Sunday, killing at least 56 people, more than half of them children, in the deadliest attack of the campaign against Hezbollah. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice decided to return early to Washington with her diplomatic mission derailed after Lebanese leaders told her not to come. Lebanon's prime minister said his country would not talk to the Americans about anything but an unconditional cease-fire. Rice, in Jerusalem for talks with Israeli officials, said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life" but stopped short of...

China deaths spark cover-up claim Bilis destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes The number of people killed in a storm that hit southern China last week has risen to more than 500 - more than double the original estimate. Tropical Storm Bilis hit on 14 July, causing massive flooding and forcing three million people from their homes. The government of Hunan province has accused local officials of deliberately playing down the death toll. Meanwhile, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake has hit Yunan province, in the south-west, killing at least 18 people. Some of the victims were crushed in their homes and...

LEXINGTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The crown prince rejects a bevy of beautiful princesses, rebuffing each suitor until falling in love with a prince. The two marry, sealing the union with a kiss, and live happily ever after. That fairy tale about gay marriage has sparked a civil rights debate in Massachusetts, the only U.S. state where gays and lesbians can legally wed, after a teacher read the story to a classroom of seven year olds without warning parents first. A parents' rights group said on Monday it may sue the public school in the affluent suburb of Lexington, about 12...

Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy By Sue Biggin and Andrew Lawler ScienceNOW Daily News 10 April 2006 TRIESTE, ITALY--Italian researchers in Iraq claim to have stumbled upon an important cache of ancient clay tablets in one of the world's oldest cities. But others dispute the claim, and Iraqi authorities say the scientists have been acting illegally. No archaeologist has been given permission to do excavations since the U.S. invasion in March 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein. But last month, Italy's National Research Council announced that it had discovered some 500 rare tablets on the surface of Eridu, a desert site in...

Iran's secret talks with Iraqi militants spark fears of proxy war Harry de Quetteville (Filed: 19/03/2006) Iran held secret talks with Shia militant leaders from Iraq and Lebanon only days before the country's nuclear negotiators threatened America with "harm and pain", independent sources in Teheran have revealed. The Iraqi firebrand cleric, Moqtadr al-Sadr and the chief of the armed Shia group Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, held separate consultations with leading officials in Teheran. Al-Sadr commands thousands of fighters in Iraq, with the power to destabilise further the country and target British and American troops, while Hizbollah's missile-wielding fighters are...

WASHINGTON - The administration defended President Bush's $2.77 trillion budget plan Tuesday against criticism that it would damage education, health care and farm programs in the name of combating budget deficits. Treasury Secretary John Snow, among leadoff witnesses in a series of congressional hearings, said the administration had made the tough choices to fund programs that were working and eliminate those that were not. "This budget represents the president's dedication to fiscal discipline, an efficient federal government and the continuation of a thriving U.S. economy," Snow told the Senate Finance Committee. But critics noted that the deficit for the current...

Ancient furnace sparks archaeological interest A UNIQUE site in the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean and expected to shed more light on ancient copper mining has been uncovered in the Mathiatis area, about 20km south of Nicosia. It consists of the base of a copper smelting furnace with its last charge of slag still in place. The discovery was made by students participating in an educational research programme in cooperation with Inter Community School Cyprus Project 2005, under the direction of Dr Walter Fasnacht. The participants from the staff of the Department of Antiquities were G. Georgiou, archaeologist, and E...

Lesbian Basketball, Season 9 vs. the Indy Chick June 02, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel What’s the difference between the WNBA and Danica Patrick? For one thing, she looks like a woman, and they don’t. Then there’s Title IX—affirmative action for useless women’s sports no-one cares about, like water polo and crew (a/k/a “You Gotta Regatta Lesbiatta”). WNBA players had Title IX to succeed, but are in season nine of extreme failure. Danica Patrick—the rookiette race-car driver who came in forth at Sunday’s Indy 500—didn’t have Title IX. They don’t have it in racing. The IRL only has that amazing non-governmental...

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...

The modest brick house, with its yard full of wilting tulips and rusted old cars, isn't a candidate for the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. But on a spring day in 2002, it was just what Nealie Pitts had in mind. She approached the owner, Rufus T. Matthews, and asked the price. According to court documents, Matthews said the house was selling for $83,000 - but that a deed restriction meant only whites were eligible to buy it. "I was hurt and angry, like he had slapped me in the face," Pitts, who is black, said in an e-mail....

'Sighting' of Tasmanian tiger sparks £1.2m bounty hunt By Anna Gizowska in Sydney (Filed: 03/04/2005) Officially, the last of their kind died out more than half a century ago, their downfall brought about because white settlers believed they had a voracious appetite for sheep. Now the Tasmanian tiger is once again the subject of a manhunt - this time to prove that the species still exists. The Tasmanian tiger was officially declared extinct in 1986 After dramatic claims by a German tourist to have seen one of the mysterious, meat-eating marsupials lurking deep in the Tasmanian wilderness, Australian magazines and...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan is taking disciplinary action against the head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq following an investigation of alleged corruption in the humanitarian program, a senior U.N. official said Thursday. The decision came after a report by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker accused program chief Benon Sevan of unethical conduct and Joseph Stephanides of manipulating an oil-for-food contract, according to Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff. At the time the contract was awarded, Stephanides was chief of the U.N. Sanctions Branch and deputy director of the Security Council Affairs Division in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -  A U.S.-Iraqi raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque — one of the most revered sites for Sunni Muslims spawned a weekend of street battles, assassinations and a rash of bombings that changed Baghdad. The capital, for months a city of unrelenting but sporadic violence, has taken on the look of a battlefield. The chaos has fanned sectarian tension and deepened Sunni distrust of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite installed by the Americans five months ago. It has also heightened the anxiety of the city's 6 million people — already worn down by years of sanctions...

A new state fee that could show up on thousands of local property tax bills this fall is sparking a minirevolt in some quarters. The $70 fee would affect mostly rural property owners in state-designated areas prone to wildfires. The state farm bureau is fighting the fee in court, calling it an unconstitutional tax. The so-called "fire protection benefit fee" would pay for firefighting staff and equipment for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Statewide, it's expected to raise $104 million the first year. More than $3 million will come from Kern property owners, who could see the...

Minister sparks 'Holocaust' storm over Gaza attack By Ohad Gozani in Tel Aviv (Filed: 24/05/2004) Israel's justice minister, Yosef Lapid, touched off a storm at a cabinet meeting yesterday by alluding to the Holocaust in the context of the Israeli army operation in the southern Palestinian town of Rafah. Mr Lapid a Holocaust survivor, condemned the four-day tank and bulldozer incursion as "inhuman and un-Jewish". Local Palestinians carry what they can as they flee Rafah He said he was particularly touched by television pictures of an elderly Palestinian woman picking at the rubble of her destroyed home on her hands...

<p>SACRAMENTO - The growing sense that California is on the verge of an unprecedented political coup attempt has set off a furious behind-the-scenes scramble for the governor's job that could easily devolve into a mud wrestling match before it is all over.</p>

TARRYTOWN — An Arab-American woman who fainted in village court said she suffered an anxiety attack after the judge asked if she were a terrorist. Anissa Khoder has filed a complaint against Tarrytown Village Justice William Crosbie with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. Khoder went to court on Thursday to contest a pair of parking tickets. As she approached the judge's table, she said, Crosbie considered her name out loud and asked if she were a terrorist. She said she was stunned by the implication, but responded with a weak, reflexive smile. "I felt offended, and I kept it...

<p>It'll be a prominent piece of the 2004 state ballot: Do you support a nearly $10 billion bond initiative for a bullet train that promises to zip passengers throughout the state at 220 mph?</p> <p>But more than a year and half before the question of high-speed rail will be put to California voters, the project is at a crossroads.</p>

SPIRITUAL SIGHT By T. Austin-Sparks Seeing The Glory Of Christ As Son Of Man God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son, Whom He appointed Heir of all things, through Whom also He made the worlds (Heb. 1:1-2; A.R.V.).For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere testified, saying, ‘What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the Son of Man, that Thou visitest Him?...