Free Republic

Your daily routine -- switching on a light, cooking a meal, driving down the street -- would generate less greenhouse gases under a first-of-its-kind regional strategy to curb global warming unveiled Wednesday at the state Capitol in Salem. The strategy emerged from the Western Climate Initiative, an alliance of Western states -- including Oregon and Washington -- and Canadian provinces trying to jump ahead of any federal move to regulate greenhouse gases. Large utility companies and factory owners would feel the effects first, followed by fuel distributors, as they face limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. Individual Oregonians would not...

CIA director Michael Hayden said today al-Qaeda was training operatives who "look western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks. General Hayden said the terror network over the past 18 months has established a safe haven in tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan where they are preparing militants for attacks against the West. "They are bringing operatives into that region for training - operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport near Washington DC) with you," Gen Hayden told NBC television. The new...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A huge survey of the world's Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence. The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism. It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington. "Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): 'It is time...

The London Daily Mail reports this week that one in four Britons don't believe Prime Minister Winston Churchill actually existed. They suspect he is a mythical character, rather than a historical one. Likewise, they think historical figures such as Florence Nightingale, Sir Walter Raleigh, Mahatma Gandhi and Cleopatra were also fictional personalities created for literature or films.

PHOENIX - Six western states and two Canadian provinces announced a regional goal Wednesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The Western Climate Initiative includes Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington and the provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba. The group wants emissions cut by 15 percent over 2005 levels within 13 years. Governors of the most of the states created the WCI in February, pledging to work together to significantly reduce emissions, partly by designing a market-based system such as a cap-and-trade program planned by California. "The regional goal reflects the combined impact of the individual...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces eyeing a joint carbon trading market are hoping to resolve differences over issues such as how emissions are calculated. Representatives of the six U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Western Climate Initiative began three days of meetings in Vancouver on Thursday. Two provinces and two states that are thinking of joining the group are also expected to attend. British Columbia Environment Minister Barry Penner hopes the meeting will help narrow down the options the group will consider as it struggles to set regional greenhouse gas reduction goals...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wildfires raged on Sunday across the western United States as firefighters scrambled to prevent flames from spreading across rugged terrain thick with tinder turned bone-dry by scorching hot weather. Some of the intense blazes forced hasty evacuations of rural homes and recreational areas and officials temporarily shut highways and railways in some fire zones. California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana each reported wildfires of varying severity amid a heat wave blanketing the western United States. Fanned by high winds, a fire in Utah had grown into a massive blaze of more...

A wildfire burned into a wilderness area of Los Padres National Forest on Saturday, threatening some campgrounds and showing no sign of slowing down as it moved through tinder-dry chaparral in Santa Barbara County. The fire was heading east and threatened some campgrounds and the historic Manzana schoolhouse, a century-old wooden building, fire spokesman Andy Yamamoto said. The fire was burning in a steep, remote area in brush and oak woodlands that had not seen flames for some 40 years, Yamamoto said. More than 1,200 firefighters were on the line, battling flames by hand or with bulldozers and aided by...

And why not? John Wayne was born Marion Morrison 100 years ago last month in the dreaded Midwest, before his family moved to a California that had yet to see the "golden days" of left-wing infiltration. He played football at USC before a surfing injury caused him to lose his scholarship and he soon found work as a Hollywood stuntman before stardom found him. He was incredibly handsome in youth and despite his large and rangy frame, had a lithesome quality to his bearing, even late in life. It is a cliche used in reference to many actors that women...

EUGENE, Ore. - A federal judge sentenced two women to prison Thursday for their roles in arson fires around the West that caused more than $40 million in damage over a five-year period. Suzanne Savoie and Kendall Tankersley were the fifth and sixth of 10 radical environmentalists to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Eugene after they pleaded guilty to arson and conspiracy. All were members of an underground cell of the Earth Liberation Front known as "The Family." U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sentenced Savoie to four years and three months in federal prison. In order to recognize...

Zimbabwe to chair major UN body Mr Chidyausiku says the row is a storm in a teacup Zimbabwe has been elected to head the UN's commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) despite strong objections from Western diplomats. They had said Zimbabwe was unsuitable because of its human rights record and economic problems. It is suffering food shortages and rampant inflation. But Zimbabwe has dismissed such criticism, calling it an insult. The country was chosen by other African nations. The CSD post rotates every year between the world's regions. Travel ban Zimbabwe was elected to lead the commission by a 26-21 secret...

Source: University of Maryland, College Park Released: Mon 16-Apr-2007, 16:30 ET “Bird Flu” Genome Study Shows New Strains, Western Spread A team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1, that confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or “reassorted,” to create a new strain. The arrows represent the movement of the H5N1 virus into the three distinct regions represented in the genome study. The green, pink and yellow arrows depict the...

Tony Blair's decision to withdraw 1,600 troops from Iraq is understandable. The prime minister had to make a difficult decision about where to allocate Britain's scarce resources, and he decided, reasonably enough, that the top priority was to send reinforcements to Afghanistan, where 5,500 British troops are struggling to hold back a Taliban onslaught. The tragedy is that he had to rob Peter to pay Paul because Britain can't maintain 7,000 troops in Iraq and 7,000 in Afghanistan. Those are hardly huge numbers for a country of 60 million with the fifth-largest national economy in the world. Yet even as...

Laddies need ladies: apply Western Isles By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent Last Updated: 1:35am GMT 08/02/2007 A remote chain of islands issued an urgent appeal for women yesterday. A study in the Western Isles revealed that more women than men were escaping to the mainland. Research found that the number of child-bearing women there could fall by almost 25 per cent over the next 12 years. It also revealed that more than 70 per cent of those moving to the islands were male. More than 26,000 people live on the principal islands of Lewis, Harris, Benbecula, North Uist, South Uist...

Anyone who has been keeping up with British opinion since the July 7 bombings will have noticed that "multiculturalism" is under sharp attack. Multiculturalism preaches that we should allow and encourage immigrants and their children to maintain and celebrate their own culture apart from the national culture. Society should be not a melting pot but, in the phrase of former New York Mayor David Dinkins, "a gorgeous mosaic." That mosaic, of course, looked less gorgeous as people surveyed the work of the British-born-and-raised bombers

Table of Contents Authors’ Foreword PrologueDramatis Personae The SceneThe Dialogue The so-called “Cartesian Split” What is “all that there is?” Pure, blind chance? First reality and second realities What is knowledge? Does science “have it in” for God? Is Intelligent Design science? What is matter? What lies at the beginning of “all that there is?” Aristotle’s Four Causes What is “randomness?” First Adam, Second Adam Is science “killing the soul?” The Public Square: a “values-neutral zone?” What is science? What is the universe? What is life? What is reality? Endnotes Appendix Nuts and Bolts Numbers Big and Small Combinatorics,...

I wanted to share a link to our web site for a new action Western feature motion picture nearing completion. This is an "indie" movie being made by folks who are just in love with Western movies and wanted to make one ourselves. It is based upon a true story.It is being shot in state-of-the-art high definition digital video. This movie has been shot completely within the United States over this summer and fall, in Idaho, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota.You can watch a two-minute trailer of scenes from the movie at our site.www.thehayfieldmovie.com

Westerners sometimes assume that Europe and North America are always on the side of the angels when it comes to religious freedom, so that the “reciprocity” question dear to Pope Benedict XVI is largely a matter of bringing the Islamic world up to Western standards of tolerance and liberty. In fact, however, the reciprocity question can be complicated in the West too, in a way that certainly doesn’t escape the attention of Muslim eyes. The rubber hits the road in places such as the blue collar neighborhood of Cornigliano in the Italian port city of Genoa, where plans by Italian...

Kremlin 'bullying' leaves western energy companies furious By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 23/09/2006) In the past few years, mention of Vladimir Putin at the dinner table of some western leaders could have brought on a case of indigestion. In the past week, though, the Russian president has been causing ulcers. Sakhalin Energy extracts oil and gas from one of the world's most inhospitable regions On Monday, Russia suspended an environmental permit for an oil and gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The international community has watched with queasiness as democracy in...

OBITUARY 'Pavarotti of the Plains' Don Walser dead at 72 Late-blooming musician sang and yodeled his way to country heights in early 1990s. There's never been a more special relationship between a musician and his fans in Austin than when rotund National Guardsman Don Walser started over in the music business in 1990 at the now-defunct Henry's Bar on Burnet Road. His improbable rise and signing to Sire Records, the label of Madonna and the Ramones, at age 64 was the feelgood story of the Austin music scene. Dubbed "the Pavarotti of the Plains" for his clear, powerful tenor, Walser...

BAGHDAD, Sep. 4, 2006 – Two Longbow Apache helicopters provided air-to-ground support to American soldiers by blasting enemy vehicles during action in western Baghdad yesterday, U.S. officials reported. The flight of choppers from Multinational Division Baghdad’s Combat Aviation Brigade teamed up to assist U.S. ground forces from the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The combined effort resulted in one terrorist killed, four captured and two terrorist’s vehicles destroyed, officials said. The Apache crews were conducting a combat air patrol mission when they received the call to assist. At about 4:45 p.m., the pilots noticed two abandoned vehicles...

Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) If this western isnt your cup of tea, then on channel 7 is Pearl Harbor. Or on channel 13 (PBS) is the britcom "Keeping Up Appearances", followed by another britcom called "As Time Goes By". After that, still on PBS, will be the Doris Day movie, "The Glass Bottom Boat" at 9pm (EST)

Just as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted publicly that Israel's offensive against his terrorist army was taking its toll, some Muslims poured into their streets to stomp on Israeli and U.S. flags. U.N. diplomats and Western appeasers are busily trying to back Israel into an indefensible corner. But how would Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi stand on the current conflict? Gandhi called terrorists "murderers." MLK recognized the Jewish "religious and cultural commitment to justice." Just yesterday, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah: ...for the first time since fighting began 22 days ago, offered Thursday to stop rocket attacks on northern Israel in...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2006 – The Brazilian military today assumed leadership of the Inter-American Defense Board, the military advisory board to the Organization of American States. Brazilian Brig. Gen. Jorge Armando Ribeiro (right), incoming chairman of the Inter-American Defense Board, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, and U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Keith M. Huber, outgoing chairman of the IADB, stand at attention during the IADB transfer of authority ceremony in Washington, D.C., July 20. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In a ceremony at OAS headquarters here, Brazilian Brig. Gen. Jorge Armando Ribeiro...

Iraq’s western border becoming more secure by Norris Jones Gulf Region Central District US Army Corps of Engineers (GRD Photos) Al Asad, Iraq -- Iraq’s western border with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia will now be more secure thanks to a continuous line of outposts that will be completed this month.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Central District (GRC) was responsible for overseeing that work which included 23 border forts overlooking nearly 600 kilometers of Iraq’s remote western frontier. The final fort, Border Fort 32, located along the Saudi Arabian border, was recently completed. Each of those castle-like,...

ROME (Reuters) - Police arrested two officials from Italy's military intelligence agency on Wednesday and a judge issued arrest warrants for four Americans over the alleged CIA kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in 2003, officials said. Three of the Americans were alleged CIA agents and the fourth worked at the U.S. military air base in Aviano, northern Italy, a statement from the Milan prosecutor's office said. It said Marco Mancini, director of a division of the Sismi military intelligence agency, and another Sismi official, had been arrested. The new arrests and the warrants relate to the abduction of Hassan Mustafa...

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid died not in a gunbattle with soldiers but in a suicide pact, according to a new play based on police archives from the Bolivian mining town where the legendary American outlaws met their end.

The poll found that 63% of all Britons had a favourable opinion of Muslims, down slightly from 67% in 2004 . . . Attitudes in Britain were more positive than in the US, Germany and Spain (where the popularity of Muslims has plummeted to 29%), and about the same as in France. Less than a third of British non-Muslims said they viewed Muslims as violent, significantly fewer than non-Muslims in Spain (60%), Germany (52%), the US (45%) and France (41%) . . . only 32% of Muslims in Britain had a favourable opinion of Jews, compared with 71% of French...

President George W Bush told Europeans yesterday it was "absurd" to regard the United States as the greatest threat to world peace, as he concluded an EU-US summit overshadowed by disputes on Guantanamo Bay and trans-Atlantic trade barriers. A visibly annoyed Mr Bush was responding to a journalist's question about opinion polls, asking why most Europeans believe the United States is a greater menace than Iran or North Korea. "It's absurd, is my statement," Mr Bush snapped, taking the microphone ahead of the president of the European Commission in his haste to answer the question. "We'll defend ourselves, but we...

Western states must work together to reduce greenhouse gasses in the fight against global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Sunday at the annual meeting of the Western Governors' Association. "We are long past the time when we can just talk about this problem," said the Republican, who is running for re-election. "We must take action." Schwarzenegger pointed to California's work to try to reduce emissions by 33 percent by 2020. "In California, we now have a booming economy and are taking care of the environment, so it can be done," Schwarzenegger told the governors at the three-day conference. Schwarzenegger...

FORT HUACHUCA — America’s history has been defined and shaped by what happened in the Old West. Part of that record was due to the achievement of black soldiers who help protect settlements in places such as Southern Arizona, Tom Stoney said Wednesday during the monthly luncheon hosted by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee. And part of the story of the Buffalo Soldiers legacy needs to be saved, Stoney said to nearly 90 people. That can be done by ensuring the World War II black officers club on the post remains, he told nearly...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran and the United States had a rare moment of agreement Tuesday, using similar language to describe "positive steps" toward an accord on a package of incentives aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. Diplomats said the incentives include a previously undisclosed offer of some U.S. nuclear technology on top of European help in building light-water nuclear reactors. Other incentives include allowing Iran to buy spare airplane parts and support for joining the World Trade Organization. Tehran is under intense international pressure to accept the deal in exchange for putting on hold a uranium enrichment program...

Writing in that fateful year, 1939, T.S. Eliot, intellectual and Christian, admonished his contemporaries who had placed their faith in the triumph of democracy. Democracy is not enough, Eliot wrote. ''As political philosophy derives its sanction from ethics, and ethics from the truth of religion, it is only by returning to the eternal source of truth that we can hope for any social organization which will not, to its ultimate destruction, ignore some essential aspect of reality. ''The term 'democracy,' as I have said again and again, does not contain enough positive content to stand alone against the forces you...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2006 – In a historic move, the U.S. is giving up its claim on the chairman position of the Inter-American Defense Board, the military advisory board to the Organization of American States. This change is coming about because in March, the OAS, the premiere political organization for the Western hemisphere, decided to officially recognize the IADB as part of its organization after more than 60 years, said Army Maj. Gen. Keith M. Huber, IADB chairman. The IADB, an international committee of defense officials, was created at a 1942 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Huber said....

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Friends and family members said aloha to their submariners as the Pearl Harbor-based nuclear-powered attack submarine USS La Jolla (SSN 701) departed her homeport May 16, for a six-month Western Pacific deployment. According to Cmdr. Pete Hildreth, La Jolla’s commanding officer, the crew is set to do their job. “The crew has been working hard since October to get ready for deployment,” said Hildreth. “The crew has worked hard on training for the upcoming missions, and now they’re looking forward to going out and doing what they’re trained to do.” Hildreth said his role is...

LONDON, May 16 (IranMania) - Iran is working to obtain long-range missiles which could threaten the whole of Europe, the former head of Israel's military intelligence said, AFP reported. "Iran already has surface-to-surface missiles capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads with a 1,500 (930 miles) kilometer range but it will in the future have missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers, which will threaten the whole of Europe," Aharon Zeevi told a conference in Tel Aviv. Iranian President Mahmoud "Ahmadinejad is promising the end of history in two or three years' time and I suggest that we believe him,"...

President Bush points out a member of the audience alongside Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) at the American Jewish Committee's Centennial dinner in Washington, May 4, 2006. REUTERS/Jason Reed NEW YORK (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Thursday for a united front to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, with no repeat of the European disunity that preceded the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. European powers were split in the months ahead of the invasion, with Britain, Italy and Spain lining up behind U.S. President George W. Bush, while France and Germany refused to support the war....

'Russia has left the western orbit' Missile deals with the 'axis of evil' are just the latest sign that Moscow is sick of kowtowing to the US and Europe, writes Tom Parfitt Thursday April 27, 2006 Moscow could be on the verge of clinching an arms deal with Syria or Iran that would send the US and Israel into pop-eyed rage. A few days ago a Russian arms manufacturer let slip at an arms fair in Kuala Lumpur that his state-run weapons design bureau was close to sealing a foreign sale of Iskander-E missiles. The destination of the hardware was...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran has received a first shipment of missiles from North Korea that are capable of reaching Europe, Israel's military intelligence chief was quoted on Thursday as saying. Known in the West as BM-25s, the Russian-designed missiles have a range of around 2,500 km (1,500 miles), giving them a longer reach than the Iranian-made Shihab-4 missiles which are capable of hitting Israel. The intelligence chief, Major-General Amos Yadlin, was quoted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper as saying in a lecture on Wednesday that some BM-25s had arrived in Iran. The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where...

In reacting to the Islamists' ongoing cartoon Jihad, most commentators have focused on the issue of free speech. This is natural, and necessary, since eradication of free speech is the most immediate risk; and certainly without free speech there can be no defending other values. Nevertheless it is also vital to take a step back and to view the events as part of a larger pattern, a pattern which poses a grave threat to our core Western values and system of government -- and to their primary consequence and beneficiary: the free individual. To see why, and to appreciate what...

UBAYDI, Iraq (March 27, 2006) -- Iraqi soldiers have taken their first steps toward functioning entirely on their own In this remote region of northwestern Iraq. More than 100 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division conducted their first self-sustaining operation to quell insurgents in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province March 23. The uniformed Iraqi men conducted a “cordon and knock” in this town of 5,000, providing perimeter security and searching house-to-house for signs of insurgent activity. They also interacted with the local populace, with minimal supervision from the unit’s Military Transition Team - Coalition servicemembers assigned...

PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII (NNS) -- The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Tucson (SSN 770) departed on a Western Pacific deployment from its homeport of Pearl Harbor March 21. According to Cmdr. James Pitts, Tucson’s commanding officer, the crew prepared by conducting standard pre-deployment upkeep and maintenance. “In the last few months we went through a fairly sizable maintenance period. We needed to make sure the equipment is up to standards for deployment,” said Pitts. “We also held routine and operational training to help us support the nation and [U.S.] 7th Fleet’s mission.” He said overall, the crew handled the maintenance and...

AKASHAT, Iraq (Feb. 28, 2006) -- In the battle to win the confidence and trust of the Iraqi people, Marines from 6th Civil Affairs Group guide the way. Once a city has been swept free of insurgents by coalition forces, these Marines are charged with providing aid to Iraqis to improve their quality of life and help them rebuild. Cpl. Michael C. Kissiah, Jr., of Charlotte, N.C., has come to the forefront to provide aid to the thousands who reside inside this city, located in western Al Anbar Province. The 24-year-old’s duties routinely take him to this city to deliver...

The scandal with the publication of Prophet Muhammad caricatures in European newspapers has outlined a few rather interesting details. First of all, the world has become open as the West wanted it to be. Secondly, the multi-cultural aspect of Europe has become more than just obvious. The scandal with the cartoons is a very important lesson that Russia needs to learn.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2006 – U.S. forces in western Anbar province have made great progress in the fight against insurgents and efforts to secure the Iraq-Syria border, a U.S. commander in the area said today. U.S. Marines recently took an important step in making the area more prohibitive to insurgents by enclosing the city of Rutbah in berms and establishing entry-control points, Marine Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Regimental Combat Team 2, said at a news conference. Rutbah, which sits astride two major supply routes, was the object of Operation Western Shield, Davis said. "This town had the unfortunate occurrence...

Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister, "says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy," according to the BBC, in a story about the Mohammed caricatures. The Beeb claims that Abdullah is "promoting a moderate form of Islam," but his anti-democratic actions prove otherwise. Au contraire, Mr. Abdullah, it is your seething, Muslim masses that are the cause of this "chasm." Again, the BBC: As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at Western cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. ... "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy...

Some of my leftist friends have one thing in common with the Muslims now sacking foreign embassies: a fundamental lack of understanding as to how democracy works, and how precious it is. The leftists have grown up knowing nothing but freedom and opulence, and take things like the Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers, and Constitution for granted (if they have even read these hallowed documents). The Muslim radicals (Islamists) are throwing lit jugs full of gasoline at Danish embassies because they have known nothing except Big Brother (One Newspaper, One Nation, One Religion, One World), and do not even know...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Feb. 5, 2006) -- Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, returned to the dust-blown streets and runways of Al Asad, Iraq, Feb. 5, replacing MAG-26 as the primary facilitator of aviation support in their area of responsibility. Nearly one year had passed since MAG-26, 2nd MAW, took the reigns from their West Coast counterpart MAG-16. During those months, the East Coast group supported Army, Navy and Marine aviation squadrons performing hundreds of various missions in support of Multinational and Iraqi ground forces. MAG-16 will act as the higher headquarters and serve as a foundation for...

RAMADI, Iraq (Feb. 1, 2006) -- Shortly after completing his basic training and Marine infantry training, Pvt. Ariel Inclan was told he would be deployed to Iraq. Since his arrival here to Al Anbar’s provincial capital in August 2005, Iraq has proven to be everything he expected it to be. From combat to the concrete block and stucco homes lining dirt roads, most of his preconceived notions about Iraq have proven true. “I had a certain feeling about what Iraq would be like,” Inclan said. “And if I had to describe it, this would be it.” For the last four...

'Western media biased against Arabs' Julia Day in Qatar Wednesday February 1, 2006 Western media are biased against Arabs, parrot government views and have a negative influence on western understanding of the region, a conference organised by satellite channel al-Jazeera heard today. In a debate on whether world media build bridges or creates divisions, delegates were told that western media - and the US media in particular - need to concentrate on press freedom more than Arabic media and must radically overhaul their coverage of Arabic issues. Criticism of western media came from both western and Arab journalists and academics....