Free Republic

Citing the Heath and Human Services website, a report posted Wednesday at the Freedom Outpost says that under Obamacare, government agents can engage in "home health visits" for those in certain “high-risk” categories. Those categories include: • Families where mom is not yet 21; • Families where someone is a tobacco user; • Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities, and • Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.

AUSTRIA has pushed the European Union to the brink of a diplomatic crisis by refusing to drop its objections to Turkey's bid to become the first predominantly Muslim nation to be a full member of the European Union. The Austrian stonewalling pushed Turkey's 40-year campaign to join the EU close to collapse after emergency talks between EU foreign ministers broke up without agreement just hours before entry negotiations were due to start. Amid frenetic diplomacy and warnings of dire consequences if the EU rejected Turkey, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw chaired fraught negotiations through the night in an attempt to...

THE Bush Administration has intervened in the debate about Turkey’s entry into the EU, warning Brussels of disastrous consequences if Ankara’s membership bid is turned down. Eric Edelman, the Pentagon’s new number three and until recently the US Ambassador to Ankara, said that refusing Turkey’s entry would not just destabilise a strategic region on Europe’s border but also set back efforts to encourage democratic reform across the Muslim world. “In light of everything else that is going on in the wake of 9/11, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and following the bombings in Madrid and London, to say ‘no’ to a...

By Sibel Utku Bila - Agence France-Presse ANKARA - Turkey hinted yesterday that it may shun the start of EU membership talks next week as political tensions rose over the country's place in Europe, leading Britain to warn of a «huge betrayal» if the door was slammed shut on Ankara. Raising the risk of a political showdown, the European Parliament issued a stern warning to Ankara to recognize Cyprus and acknowledge that the Ottomans committed «genocide» against Armenians during World War I, two highly sensitive issues that have already strained ties. The Parliament did, however, endorse the start of talks...