In an open letter to the mayor of the southwestern city of Katowice, the former anti-regime activists said that the staunchly anti-communist Reagan had been a "symbol of liberty," the Polish news agency PAP reported.
As a result, they said, he deserved to become the centrepiece of the city's Freedom Square, replacing a monument to the Soviet troops who drove out the occupying Nazis in 1945.
They also said that they wanted the site to be rebaptised "Ronald Reagan Freedom Square."
City hall spokesman Waldemar Bojarun said that Katowice's councillors would consider the issue.
Bojarun said that he had "enormous respect" for Reagan.
However, he said, the proposal could cost an estimated 500,000 zlotys (128,000 euros, 168,000 dollars) and the city had "other pressing needs."
There are already separate plans to erect a statue in memory of Reagan in the centre of the Polish capital, Warsaw, which would be paid-for from private funds.
Reagan, who dubbed the Soviet Union an "evil empire," is widely credited by Poles with having driven communism to the wall. http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/09/070209181018.i9acjrf8.html
Mortar attacks in a residential area and on a hotel in the Somali capital killed five people and injured 10 on Saturday, witnesses said, a day after a previously unknown pro-Islamist group warned it would step up violence. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=4f0dbc94-4952-40c7-818d-3d0e47b22f19&k=66762
To many Somalis, history is repeating itself. They feel that the United States has once again invaded their country, albeit with a proxy force from Ethiopia, occupying most of the south and central part of it; has bombed members of the former government as they fled last Monday, then has followed that up with helicopter-gunship attacks as well as AC-130 aerial assaults on a daily basis since. After that, they say, Washington deployed American commandos to hunt down remnants of Islamic hard-liners, both from the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower offshore, and across the land border from Kenya in the south.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16583705/site/newsweek/from/RSS/
ELIZABETH JACKSON: In Jerusalem dozens of people have been left injured after Israeli riot police and Palestinian demonstrators clashed at one of Islam's holiest sites, the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of Muslim men who were throwing stones while scores of worshippers remained holed up inside the mosque.
The protest was sparked by an Israeli decision to start archaeological work near the mosque, which has been a focal point of violence over decades.
Middle East Correspondent David Hardaker was at the scene of the riot and filed this report.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1844641.htm
A former leading UDA man has been found hanged at a football playing field in Belfast, it has emerged. Mark Barr, who has been linked with Johnny Adair's C Company and was once charged in connection with the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, was found hanging at Forthriver Road on Wednesday morning.
A spokesman for the PSNI said that no crime was suspected. http://www.politics.ie/news_index.php?topic_id=16932
One of the DUPs' 'founding fathers' has resigned in protest over the prospect of power-sharing with Sinn Fein, it was revealed last night.
George McConnell (pictured), a party branch chairman for more than 20 years, said he would not even vote for the DUP in the March 7 election.
And a second veteran member, councillor Jack McKee, also said he would not back his former party at the polls.
The Larne man who resigned from the party following the St Andrews Agreement, said: "I don't just feel like not voting - I will not be voting."
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/article2256529.ece
A recent Mori poll found that 62% in the UK believe science and evidence provide the best understanding of the universe, rather than religion, and also that human nature, not religious teachings, give us an understanding of right and wrong.
In Northern Ireland, the 2001 census indicates that 14% now say that they have no religion, while a new French opinion poll indicates that the number of openly declared atheists is 31%, compared with 23% in 1994.
Atheists are still regularly demonised in the media. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/letters/article2256788.ece