Free Republic

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Raymon Holmberg didn't know his new sedan came equipped with the long arm of the law. The dealer hadn't bothered to mention the "black box," a computer chip that stores information on speed and seat belt use. "When I bought my car," he said, "I didn't realize I was also buying a highway patrolman to sit in the back seat." Holmberg, a state senator, believes his privacy was violated and is taking aim at black boxes. Lawmakers in 10 other states are also hoping to regulate black boxes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, whose unpopular leadership spawned massive pro-democracy demonstrations, has resigned for personal reasons, local newspapers reported on Wednesday. The reports come just weeks after Tung was publicly reprimanded by Chinese President Hu Jintao for his poor performance over the past seven years. Asked to confirm if Tung had stepped down, a government spokesman said: "We don't comment on speculative reports". Citing unidentified sources, most reports said Tung's right hand man, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, would be made acting chief executive after Tung's departure. Tung, a businessman with little political experience,...

Tysabri Suspended From The MarketFebruary 28, 2005 Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation have just announced the voluntary suspension of Tysabri from the market and from all clinical trials due to safety concerns. Tysabri was approved for marketing in November 2004. According to the company press release, "This decision is based on very recent reports of two serious adverse events that have occurred in patients treated with TYSABRI in combination with AVONEX® (Interferon beta-1a) in clinical trials. These events involve one fatal, confirmed case and one suspected case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and frequently fatal, demyelinating disease of...

“So there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that those stickers were purposefully placed over the manufacturer’s identifying plates in order to keep their origin a secret." An acquaintance returned from early voting in Manassas, Virginia, quite irate. The stakes are high in this highly unusual once in a lifetime presidential election. As she was waiting for her registration paperwork to be processed, she studied carefully the rear of each of the voting machines that were about three feet from her. She wanted to find out the name of the manufacturer of the machines being used.

George Soros failed in a bid to overturn an insider-trading conviction at France's highest appeals tribunal, but vowed to pursue an appeal....... The Court of Cassation, the tribunal of last resort in France, yesterday upheld a March 2005 judgment that Soros violated the law when he bought Societe Generale SA shares in 1988 with knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target. The Hungary-born financier....has been fighting the case for 17 years, will appeal......The verdict came as the 75-year-old former financier turned his attention from his investing career to political and charitable activities.

Rainier close to death March 28, 2005 PRINCE Rainier of Monaco was reported close to death last night and is being kept breathing by a life-support machine. He has been in intensive care for three weeks with an acute lung infection. As talk grew that Prince Rainier died on Saturday, French President Jacques Chirac was preparing to dash back from an official trip to Japan. Although Monaco is an independent principality, it forms an enclave in the south of France and its relationship with its larger neighbour is a crucial one.

Law: President Obama's nominee for State Department legal adviser could be a future Supreme Court pick. He believes U.S. law should be based on foreign precedent, and even Shariah law could find a home here.We have commented many times on the opinion of a number of U.S. Supreme Court justices that American jurists should include foreign law and precedent in their decisions. In several prominent cases, this has already happened. In a speech in South Africa, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the March 2005 Roper v. Simmons decision, in which a 5-4 majority ruled against executing murderers who were 17...

ATLANTA (AP) — Armed with a handheld video camera, a Georgia university student drove with a friend in April 2005 to Washington, D.C., and captured scenes of the Capitol, the Pentagon and other locations. Investigators say Syed Haris Ahmed, now 24, wasn't a tourist but a wannabe terrorist who wanted to send the videos of potential terror targets to an overseas contact. He was attending the Georgia Institute of Technology at the time. The charges, along with an allegation that Ahmed went to Pakistan and tried to join a terrorism group a few months later, are central to a federal...

ATLANTA - Two U.S. citizens accused of plotting to attack civilian and government targets shot "casing videos" of Washington landmarks that were found on a terrorism suspect's computer in Britain and met with suspects in a Canadian terrorism case, an FBI agent testified Monday. Agent Mark Richards testified that the videos of the U.S. Capitol and other Washington landmarks taken by Syed Ahmed and Ehsanul Sadequee were found on a computer belonging to Younis Tsouli, a Moroccan-born man who pleaded guilty in Britain in July to inciting others to commit acts of terrorism. Richards also said Ahmed and Sadequee, during...

Two Atlanta-area men met with Islamic extremists in Toronto, where they discussed "strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike," according to an FBI affidavit made public Friday. Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee -- U.S. citizens from the Atlanta area -- met with at least three other targets of FBI terrorism investigations during a trip to Toronto last month, according to the affidavit. The affidavit said the men discussed attacks against oil refineries and military bases. They also planned to travel to Pakistan for military training at a terrorist camp, which authorities said the 21-year-old...

WASHINGTON — An accident that occurred as a decades-old nuclear warhead was being dismantled at the government's Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, could have caused the device to detonate, a nonprofit organization charged Thursday. The Project on Government Oversight said the "near miss" event, which led the Energy Department to fine the plant's operator $110,000, was due partly to requirements that technicians at the plant work up to 72 hours per week. The Pantex plant, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, is the country's only factory for assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons. The organization said it was told by unidentified...

Satellite images confirm completion of heavy water plant BEFORE (2001) AFTER (2004) WASHINGTON — Iran has virtually completed a heavy water plant designed to produce plutonium, a key element in nuclear weapons. A U.S. institute has released satellite images that point to the near completion of the Iranian heavy water plant at Arak. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said the plant would contain a nuclear reactor that could eventually produce plutonium for one atomic bomb per year. "Adjacent to the reactor construction site [in Arak] is the heavy water production plant, which is almost completed and is...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of a federal felony was sentenced to more than three years in prison Thursday as part of a bribery and fraud investigation that previously resulted in the conviction of a California congressman. Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who as executive director held the CIA's No. 3 rank from 2004 to 2006, had asked the judge to spare him jail time, citing his covert work on behalf of the country over two decades at the CIA, including a supervisory stint in Iraq after the Sept. 11 attacks. But U.S. District Judge James Cacheris sentenced...

U.S. Ambassador Cancels Meeting with MDP Chairman SEOUL, March 7 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill called off a meeting with the chairman of the country's minor opposition Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) Monday, saying it was not the right time, party officials said. The cancellation came just one hour before the U.S. diplomat was to meet Hahn Hwa-kap at 2 p.m. at the MDP's headquarters in downtown Seoul, according to the party officials.

Hillary Clinton and Senators Plan Own Trip to Pyongyang: Sources SEOUL, March 7 (Yonhap) -- Hillary Clinton and four other U.S. senators are working to arrange their own trip to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, sources here said Monday. "U.S. senators such as Hillary Clinton and Chuck Hagel have always been interested in North Korean issues," said Lee Young-tak, a secretary to the chairman of the minor opposition Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), Han Hwa-kap. The MDP chairman also heads the Asian side of the Asia-U.S. Network, a forum of lawmakers from both continents, and has...

Ankara The government is close to making its decision on a Washington proposal to use the southern air base of Incirlik as a cargo hub for U.S. forces operating in the region, said a deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). A decision on the issue will be made very soon. I cannot tell you when exactly since I am not in the government but it will be very soon, Murat Mercan, AKP's deputy chairman told a meeting in Washington, called, "Can the U.S.-Turkish Relationship be Repaired" Other attendees of the event, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute,...

Soros Shadow Party Stalks DeLayBy Richard PoeFrontPageMagazine.com | April 12, 2005 On the day that Terri Schiavo died — victim of a court order condemning the brain-damaged woman to death by thirst and starvation — Representative Tom DeLay of Texas did what few politicians have the courage to do these days. He spoke his mind."This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most," DeLay told Fox News on March 31. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior." DeLay’s strong language worried some Republicans. They pointed...

As Israel considers allowing Egypt to control the critical Philadelphi corridor along Israel’s border, startling revelations about Egyptian chemical weapons proliferation are coming to light. Egypt secretly helped former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his chemical weapons program, according to a CIA report. The report, authored by the CIA’s Iraq Survey Group, says that Egypt sent specialists to Iraq in the 1980s to help him manufacture poison gas. Iraq later used the gas against Iranian citizens as well as Iraqi Kurds. The report says that the Iraqi government paid Egypt $12 million, "in return for assistance with production and storage...

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - Hunter S. Thompson's body was found in a chair in the kitchen in front of his typewriter with the word "counselor" typed in the center of the page, according to sheriff's reports. The word was typed on stationery from the Fourth Amendment Foundation, which was started to defend victims of unwarranted search and seizure, according to reports released Tuesday. It was not immediately known what, if any, significance the word had to the founder of "gonzo" journalism or to his family. Juan Thompson found his father dead Feb. 20 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the...

"In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars."  U.S. government "Summary of Evidence" for an Iraqi member of al Qaeda detained at Guantanamo Bay, CubaFOR MANY, the debate over the former Iraqi regime's ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network ended a year ago with the release of the 9/11 Commission report. Media outlets seized on a carefully worded summary that the commission had found no evidence "indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or...