Free Republic

China aims spy network at trade secrets in Europe By Damien McElroy (Filed: 03/07/2005) 'Defector' reveals Beijing's plan to use espionage to achieve its objective of commercial dominance A network of Chinese industrial spies has been established across Europe as the Communist government's intelligence agencies shift their resources and attention from traditional Cold War espionage towards new forms of subterfuge aimed at achieving global commercial dominance. The extent of the spying was laid bare after a leading Chinese agent "defected" in Belgium. The agent, who has worked in European universities and companies for more than 10 years, has given the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The 3,300-year-old world of King Tut has returned to the United States in an exhibition that hopes to rival the 1970s tour of ancient Egyptian artifacts that became a cultural phenomenon. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" opens to the public Thursday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and advance ticket sales to see the Boy King's exhibit hit 250,000. "This town loves youth," said Terry Garcia, executive vice president at the National Geographic Society, a co-sponsor of the exhibit. "It also loves a comeback. This is the greatest comeback tour in...

I constantly hear liberals decry the policies of George W. Bush, using catch phrases like “out of the mainstream” and “dangerously irresponsible” to describe them. Apparently, if you repeat something often enough, using the same carefully crafted terminology, and applying to it with the same condescending tone each time, it magically becomes the truth... at least in the minds of leftists. And, of course, the primary policy target of left-wingers in Congress remains the war in Iraq, even though nearly all of them supported it initially. As recent polls show support for the war waning, liberals all over the country...

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - By giving pedophiles and at-risk offenders a phone-in resource center, Stop It Now! is trying to change the public perception and approach to dealing with child sexual abuse. It's a mission the group has been on since it was started 13 years ago — trying to shift the focus of child sexual abuse from solely a criminal justice matter to a public health problem. The group's tactics are gaining a growing audience. Stop It Now! will be part of a child abuse prevention advisory committee being organized by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, according...

This past week, the charlatans in the Senate of the United States managed to once again delay the confirmation of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations. President Bush needs to listen to these imprudent senators and learn from his past mistakes. The Senate led by socialist Democrats and grandstanding Republicans who want attention, is only trying to help the president set the ship of state on a proper course to "follow" for the future. Your Democrat Party firmly believes that the United States needs to stop its aimless and reckless wondering and let others lead the way. The...

New York's junior senator yesterday was sharper in her criticism of the Palestinian Authority than Israel's Likud prime minister at the annual policy conference for America's largest pro-Israel lobby. Before thousands of activists of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, criticized Palestinian textbooks and other materials that "infect" young minds with anti-Semitism. "Using children as pawns in a political process is tantamount to child abuse," she said to cheers from activists. "And we must say it has to end now." By contrast, the main speaker at the conclusion of the Aipac conference, Prime...

Today, rioting broke out throughout Washington DC as enraged Americans protested the alleged desecration of the holy Bible by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen Muslims. The unsubstantiated report of the Bible desecration, was initially aired by Al Jazeera two days ago, then quickly disseminated by the American MSM. Anti-Middle East protests are spreading throughout the city and government officials fear that the rioting will soon extend to other American cities. Thousands of fanatical Americans descended on Middle East embassies where flags were burned and Molotov cocktails were hurled. Major damage was done to virtually every Middle East embassy. Capital City police...

A statement posted by the purported deputy of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi, very possibly may have completely redefined the War on Terror. It was such a slip of the tongue that one has to wonder whether or not Abu will be allowed to keep his after Abu Musab al Zarqawi gets his hands on him. Unintentional or not, the statement revealed the underlying motives of the Islamic terrorists’ full-blown jihad today. Al Iraqi’s statement, which was posted on a website sympathetic to radical Islamic terrorists, was intended as a public statement of support for Zarqawi and his...

I find it hard to say this as a conservative, but the current Republican position on judicial filibusters is not in the long-term best interest of either the party, or our nation. And, unfortunately, our conservative leaders and pundits are demonstrating an almost incomprehensible myopia by advocating a procedural change that would prevent such a practice in the future. With those sentiments out of the closet, I can foresee e-mail messages flooding my inbox in much the same way as Obi-Wan Kenobi felt a shift in the force when Princess Leia’s home planet of Alderaan was destroyed by the Empire’s...

SAN BERNARDINO - In the immigration battle being waged at the border, a local network of largely Latino activists is taking a new tack to counter volunteers who are monitoring the border for illegal crossings. On May 1, the National Alliance for Human Rights will try to "close the border' by persuading those intending to cross over legally from Agua Prieta, Mexico, to Douglas, Ariz., not to do so for several hours. The strategy "is a notice' to Minuteman project volunteers, who have recently announced their plans to extend their Arizona-border monitoring project for several additional months and to other...

By Daniel Scarpinato ARIZONA DAILY STAR The state's high-stakes AIMS test has been criticized for many reasons - its format, its execution, its grading scale. But a trio of prominent locals is arguing the test's real problem is a violation of human rights, a notion state education officials aren't taking seriously. The Tucsonans say AIMS breaks a rule in the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights, which reads: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." In a letter to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne last month, the...

Spring Breakers are not easily offended, but even they will admit some behavior crosses the line. "We saw two people actually having sex in the sand," said Nat Gale from Hartford, Conn. "Their friends were all around them. Everyone was trying not to look but they were looking." Because nobody complained to authorities, it's questionable whether the couple could have been convicted of committing a lewd and lascivious act. Florida courts have ruled that an unsuspecting member of the public must be offended before somebody can be convicted of the crime. State Sen. Mike Fasano and State Rep. John Legg,...

LAS VEGAS -- The maker of Tasers is launching a major high-stakes campaign to market its new model to consumers despite scores of fatalities and injuries linked to the police Taser, including the death of a man in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood last week. Taser International, which has made its name in law enforcement and the military, envisions a future in which millions of average citizens protect their homes and communities with the stun guns instead of firearms. Tasers fire two wires tipped with electric barbs, delivering a shock that painfully and briefly paralyzes a person. The new consumer model has...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The campaign committee that spent $35 million last year backing California's novel $3 billion stem cell initiative plans to use its considerable fund-raising prowess to fight a federal bill seeking to ban all forms of human cloning. Robert Klein II, the wealthy Palo Alto housing developer who chaired the campaign, said the organization intends to raise $1 million to fight Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and his anti-cloning allies in the Senate. A Brownback spokesman declined comment. Brownback is sponsoring legislation that would ban the cloning of human embryos for any reason, including medical research. Such a...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

WASHINGTON - While pledging to help President Bush (news - web sites) promote anti-abortion judges to the federal bench, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) is struggling to maintain his proudly cultivated image as an independent thinker and sometime maverick. To salvage the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairmanship he's in line to get in January, the Pennsylvania Republican has been promising to support anti-abortion nominees even though he favors abortion rights. Specter's elevation to the panel's chairmanship after 24 years in the Senate was put in doubt two weeks ago when he told reporters that judges who...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) wants to increase American energy production and reduce American reliance on foreign oil with a $20 billion fund to finance research and development of alternative and renewable fuels. "That's what I want to talk about today — how to make our country stronger and safer by working together to build an energy-independent America," Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday. The fund would promote energy sources like natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy generated from corn, soybeans and other crops, the campaign said. "America will...

<p>State budgets could be passed more easily, with only a 55% vote. But so could tax increases.</p> <p>SACRAMENTO – Every summer, it's the singular drama that consumes the state Capitol: For weeks and even months, lawmakers haggle, dicker and struggle toward a two-thirds majority needed to pass a budget.</p>

Black lawyer's book aims to counter bias in courts By LOU MICHEL News Staff Reporter 1/11/2004 John V. Elmore has had a front-row seat in the criminal justice system since the late 1970s - first as a state trooper, then as a prosecutor in Manhattan and Buffalo, and for the last 15 years as a defense lawyer. Those experiences have taught him that African-Americans need to take certain precautions to receive fair treatment in court. "There are lots of trials where African-Americans are tried in front of all-white juries, and they don't get a fair shake," said Elmore, a 47-year-old...

<p>Many archaeologists say this fourth century synagogue in Capernaum, a fishing village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, stands on the site of a synagogue where Jesus worshipped and preached.</p> <p>Many Christians were upset when Israeli antiquities experts recently declared a first century inscription bearing Jesus’s name a fake, seemingly depriving them of the earliest archaeological proof of Jesus’s existence.</p>