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To: TimF who wrote (95)	11/6/2002 5:24:47 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 7936

Odd News - Workers to Donate Sperm to Pay Plant Debts Wed Nov 6, 7:34 AM ET BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Workers at a Romanian car factory have decided to donate sperm to get the debt-ridden plant out of the red, private television ProTv reported on Tuesday. "Our feasibility study shows that if 1,000 workers donate their sperm for several months, we can get enough funds to pay part of the plant's debts," Ion Cotescu, trade union leader at ARO Campulung, told ProTv. He said the decision came after reports in the local media said a fertility clinic in the western city of Timisoara offered donors the equivalent of $50 a visit. The monthly average wage in Romania is around $150. The ARO Campulung plant, which makes jeep-style four-wheel-drives, has debts put at $20 million. Cotescu told Reuters the sperm donation scheme also amounted to a protest against the government's privatization authority APAPS which had failed to find a strategic investor for the plant. "They always told us to come up with a solution. Now, we have found one that even the best economists have never thought of. I hope APAPS will like it," he said. story.news.yahoo.com _______________________ Politically Correct Coffee Gets Creamed Wed Nov 6, 7:30 AM ET BERKELEY, Calif. (Reuters) - Too little, too latte. story.news.yahoo.com _______________________________________________________ Prostitutes March Against Ban on Soliciting Wed Nov 6, 7:24 AM ET By Lee Yanowitch PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of masked prostitutes marched on the French Senate on Tuesday to protest against a government plan to create the crime of "passive soliciting," which could have them jailed just for standing in the street. "Six months in jail for a smile!" read one banner held up in the crowd of women, many of whom donned Halloween masks or sunglasses and head scarves to hide their identity. The law, part of the conservative government's crime crackdown, would also allow authorities to confiscate the residence permits of foreign prostitutes. More than half of France's 15,000 to 18,000 prostitutes are foreigners, mostly from eastern Europe and France's former African colonies. The bill promises leniency for foreign street-walkers who denounce or testify against their pimps. "How can you expect prostitutes to denounce people who threaten their families? If they are made into criminals, they'll need their pimps more than ever," said Corinne Monnet, of the Lyon-based association Cabiria, which defends the interests of prostitutes. Prostitutes fear the legislation will force them to conduct their activities secretly and quickly, making them more vulnerable to violence and forcing them to accept clients who refuse to use condoms. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping bill has come under fire from human rights groups as dangerous and repressive for giving police new powers to pursue suspects, cracking down on beggars and toughening sentences for teenage offenders. Some of the marchers chanted slogans teasing Sarkozy, such as: "Instead of a ban, let's have some fun." A center-right alliance behind President Jacques Chirac won parliamentary elections in June on pledges to fight crime. Although the bill has yet to be examined by parliament, Sarkozy's crusade has already had an effect. Pamela, a 35-year-old mother of two from Ivory Coast, said the prospect of the tough new law had cut her nightly take from about 150 euros (dollars) down to as low as 20 euros a night. "The clients are afraid," said Pamela, who works out of her small van in the Bois de Vincennes in eastern Paris. She said she also had to put up with traffic police towing the van away two or three times a week. Public prosecutors in the southwestern city of Bordeaux created a legal precedent last month by convicting four clients of prostitutes on charges of "sexual exhibitionism" after they were caught having sex in their cars. Prostitution is legal in France, although current laws make overt soliciting punishable by fine. story.news.yahoo.com

To: TimF who wrote (95)	11/6/2002 5:53:10 PM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7936

Check this out. M Al-Qaida's Yemeni members urged to 'repent' Call from nation's president follows CIA missile attack that killed militant leader, five others By Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press SAN'A, Yemen -- Yemen's president urged al-Qaida members Tuesday to "repent" and renounce violence following the weekend attack in which a U.S. missile fired from a CIA plane killed the terrorist movement's top operative in the country. "We call on everyone from among our countrymen who have been entangled in membership of the al-Qaida organization to repent ... and renounce all means of violence," President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in a statement read by a Cabinet minister on national television. Saleh said that those who "return to the path of righteousness" would be allowed to "return to society as good citizens with rights and obligations." Yemeni analysts believed the statement was not an amnesty but a signal that al-Qaida members who surrender would face trial in Yemen and not be turned over to U.S. authorities. The president, who issued his statement to mark this week's start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, made no attempt to explain the circumstances surrounding Sunday's attack that killed six al-Qaida members, including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi. In Washington, a U.S. official said al-Harethi's car was struck by a Hellfire air-to-ground missile launched from an unmanned Predator aircraft. Al-Harethi had been sought for more than a year as a suspect in the October 2000 bombing attack against the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, which killed 17 U.S. sailors. He was believed to have been Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant in the country. Yemen's cooperation with U.S. authorities in the war against terrorism is a sensitive issue in this Arab country, where al-Qaida is active and the homeland of bin Laden's family. Islamic militancy has been tolerated here as long as it did not threaten government stability, and many in Yemen oppose U.S. support for Israel. A Yemeni Cabinet statement on Tuesday quoted Interior Minister Rashad al-Eleimi as saying "preliminary information" indicates al-Harethi was among the dead. The statement made no mention of the explosion's cause, adding only that al-Eleimi had submitted an official report to the government on the status of the investigation. Yemeni officials appeared surprised by the leaks from the United States, and provincial and federal officials wouldn't openly discuss the reports. Nevertheless, Yemeni officials said privately they had been working closely with the Americans and that Yemeni intelligence began monitoring al-Harethi's movements as soon as his car left his farm in Marib province on the day of the attack. Another official said Yemeni intelligence had been monitoring al-Harethi's farm for months. Tribesmen in Marib province said a Yemeni air force helicopter was hovering above the area moments before the explosion. In Mexico, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh criticized the operation, saying suspected terrorists should be treated according to due process of law. "If the U.S.A. is behind this with Yemen's consent, it is nevertheless a summary execution that violates human rights," Lindh told the Swedish news agency TT. "If the U.S.A. has conducted the attack without Yemen's permission it is even worse. Then it is a question of unauthorized use of force." theargusonline.com And this. af.mil