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POPSSmog Rule: Aussies Can Pull Out Of Games Beijing has been cloaked in pollution for the past month and pollution levels have been at their highest in the past week - ironically ever since the authorities introduced strict new measures to try and improve the air quality. These include shutting down polluting industries nearby and introducing an odds and evens system for car users. Meanwhile, the Greek modern pentathlon association has filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport contesting the right of Australian modern pentathlete Angie Darby to compete in the Olympics. This is the last final appeal in a saga that has been going for a month, but Darby will not be allowed to come to Beijing until her status is confirmed.
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POPSHe will run, we will win Based on the team’s findings, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, has ruled that Pistorius is eligible to participate in International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) sanctioned competitions. If he qualifies for the 2008 Beijing games, Pistorius would be the first disabled athlete ever to run against able-bodied athletes in an Olympic event.
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POPSHealth Net ordered to pay $9 million after canceling cancer patient's policy What did Health Net and its Chief Executive Jay Gellert learn from this? Did they learn that they should cooperate with our effort to see that everyone would have health care without being exposed to financial hardship? No. What they learned is that they need to improve the process through which they cancel the policies of individuals who do need health care. They learned that it is in the interests of Health Net's financial well-being to avoid criminal conduct when they cancel those policies. In spite of the findings of the arbitration, what they did not learn is that they have an obligation to the well-being of those they insure.
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POPSReligious courts already in use in England Jewish litigation is more varied, but a typical dispute might relate to a partnership, a Jewish school, a Jewish charity or a transaction between two businessmen. The court can hear cases concerning quite large companies, but they must always be privately owned, in that both parties must be Jewish in order to accept the authority of the Beth Din. The service provided by the Beth Din is best described as binding civil arbitration, and they do not seek to replace the state's civil courts. "If one side does not accept the authority of the Beth Din, concerning divorce or any dispute, we cannot act", David Frei clarifies. "And in the case of divorce, the parties must still obtain a civil divorce alongside the religious one."
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POPSWhen Rape is OK: Female Contractors in Iraq
Women like -- as you may remember -- Jamie Leigh Jones, 23, a former employee of military contractor KBR who has been unable to get her charges of gang rape heard in court; women like Mary Beth Kineston, who was fired after complained about harassment and groping incidents. "I felt safer on the convoys with the Army than I ever did working for KBR," Kineston told the Times. "At least if you got in trouble on a convoy, you could radio the Army and they would come and help you out. But when I complained to KBR, they didn't do anything. I still have nightmares. They changed my life forever, and they got away with it." Jones testified in Congress in December -- and yesterday -- in order to draw attention to such cases and urge lawmakers to change regulations governing private arbitration. Emboldened by Jones, more women have begun to step forward, talking about mysteriously disappearing complaints and about being given, for their grievances, an 800 number and a pat on the head.
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POPSCourts Freeze $12 Billion Venezuela Assets In Exxon Row Exxon filed for arbitration in September. It has not specified how much it wants for the 41.7 percent stake in the Cerro Negro project, but it has said its remaining net book investment in the project was about $750 million at the time the assets were expropriated. ConocoPhillips spokesman William Tanner said the company "continues to discuss an amicable resolution regarding the assets that were expropriated in Venezuela." Definitely not good news for President Hugo Chavez, with the socialists' economy in turmoil
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POPS One World Order And The Law Of The Sea Treaty
Reject Law Of The Sea Reagan did, so should we http://www.rejectlost.org/ What if I were to tell you that at this very moment in the halls of the Senate, legislation is being considered that will govern 70 percent of the earth's surface, threaten the very sovereignty of our country and, worse, without the efforts of a select few, would have become law years ago? What if I added that our enemies are waiting in the wings for us to make this historic blunder by accepting legislation that effectively cedes our autonomy to international organizations such as the United Nations? If you are of the small percentage of Americans who has heard of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or simply the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), I congratulate you on being ahead of the curve. If you have not heard of LOST, you soon will, as we are gearing up in the Senate for a fight against one of the most far-reaching international challenges to American sovereignty we have ever faced.
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POPS Surrender U.S. Sovereignty To Foreign Governments Under LOST Treaty The U.N.-crafted document specifies that amendments to the treaty can be adopted -- and therefore enforced -- without the consent of any signatory. Yet our Constitution requires that two-thirds of our Senate concur in any treaty. Do 67 members of this Senate now want to surrender that authority to foreign governments? LOST also opens the door to a long-sought U.N. goal: the redistribution of wealth by taxing Americans. The International Seabed Authority, a bloated, multinational bureaucracy headquartered in Jamaica, has the mandate to distribute revenues and "other economic benefits" on the basis of "equitable sharing criteria, taking into account the interests and needs of developing states." In addition to acting as a global IRS, the ISA also decides which companies from which nations will develop mineral resources on the seabed.
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POPSBrazil Stands Up to Bolivia The money quote is this one by the Bolivian president: "From the moment we base ourselves in legality and respect for property, and by fulfilling agreements, there will never be problems. I am convinced of that," That is a significant change of tune from the one he was singing a few months ago when he sent troops into the Petrobras plants. A Brazilian I talked to yesterday is of the opinion that this new-found backbone on the part of Brazil is due to Lula's recent chumminess with Bush. Time will tell.