Free Republic

After questioning the value of general mask-wearing early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided the practice was so demonstrably effective that it should be legally mandated even for 2-year-olds. A new review of the evidence suggests the CDC had it right the first time. That review, published by the Cochrane Library, an authoritative collection of scientific databases, analyzed 18 randomized controlled trials that aimed to measure the impact of surgical masks or N95 respirators on the transmission of respiratory viruses. It found that wearing a mask in public places “probably makes little or no...

South Texas region draws third big investment in a weekNEW YORK (MarketWatch) — China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Norway’s Statoil ASA announced separate deals, both valued at more than $2 billion, to develop the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas. Statoil said Monday it would team up with Canada-based Talisman Energy Inc. to buy acreage in the Eagle Ford shale. Statoil and Talisman formed a joint venture to purchase assets from Enduring Resources LLC for $1.33 billion. Statoil will also pay $180 million for additional acreage. Statoil’s share of the two transactions will cost $843 million. Late Sunday, Cnooc...

In the terrible Cultural War afflicting the contemporary world, the most effective and destructive weapons are not bullets or bombs but rather ideas, concepts and words that attack traditions and institutions. Indeed, the most intense struggle now facing the nation is one of beliefs, ideas and convictions.  Bombs may kill, wreak havoc and terrify consciences. However, they only influence man from the outside in an indirect and not always effective way. A proof of this is the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Instead of causing the panic and discouragement the terrorists might have hoped for, the attacks stirred...

The rainy season has started in Sudan. The water that will be pouring down in the western region of Darfur will make roads impassable and cut off refugees from any access to food. The United States Agency for International Development, the largest food donor to Sudan, fears hundreds of thousands of people will die over the next nine months. This is no ordinary famine, but part of the Sudanese regime's campaign against the African tribes in Darfur, a "strategy of systematic and deliberate starvation," according to a United Nations report -- a report that was initially suppressed so as not...

<p>Exactly 10 years ago, the world stood by as a genocidal rampage by ethnic Hutus against ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda claimed as many as 800,000 lives. Now something similar may be unfolding in western Sudan, a region even more remote from the world's gaze. Will humanity bestir itself to act, or will history repeat itself?</p>

Talisman Energy challenges Sudan human rights lawsuit Canada’s Talisman Energy continues to be subject to a lawsuit brought by the Presbyterian Church of Sudan and three individual plaintiffs regarding charges of the company’s alliance with the National Islamic Front Government of Sudan and its campaign against non-Muslims. The complaint alleges that Talisman knowingly participated in the government's campaign against non-Islamic population residing in the vicinity of the company’s oil exploration, extraction and transportation infrastructure. In March 2003, Talisman completed a deal to sell its interest in Sudan’s Greater Nile Oil Project to India’s ONGC Videsh for $1.2 billion. The...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Talisman Energy, the Canadian oil company operating in war-torn Sudan, asked the Khartoum government in 1999 to remove villagers from the vicinity of its oil properties, according to what is claimed to be a Sudanese government document, a report said Friday. The Financial Times newspaper said the directive, which ordered the armed forces to "conduct cleaning up operations" in all villages in the area, is dated May 7, 1999, two days before the Khartoum regime launched one of the largest military offensives of the brutal 20-year civil war. The document will be considered by a New...