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President Barack Obama is pledging new U.S. help for other nations struggling to address global warming, as heads of state from around the world converge for a major summit on climate change. Obama will use his speech at a U.N. summit Tuesday to announce plans to sign an executive order requiring the U.S. government to take climate change into account when it spends money overseas to help poorer countries, the White House said. The U.S. will also offer vulnerable communities abroad new tools to address the effects of climate change through science and technology. The measures join a host of...

Burgers via call center? Jack in the Box in Charlotte North Carolina testing process of outsourcing fast-food orders. That crackling voice taking your order at a fast-food drive-through may come from a lot farther away than the restaurant: Try Texas, or even overseas. San Diego-based Jack in the Box has tested outsourced drive-through order-taking since mid-2008 at seven of its 30 Charlotte-area restaurants. Spokeswoman Kathleen Anthony declined to specify the locations, though workers at the Cotswold restaurant in Charlotte recently said their restaurant uses the system. The technology is intended to improve speed, accuracy and service, freeing up restaurant employees...

The agreement signed last year by the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs was explicit: For $5 million, Norway’s partner in Washington would push top officials at the White House, at the Treasury Department and in Congress to double spending on a United States foreign aid program. But the recipient of the cash was not one of the many Beltway lobbying firms that work every year on behalf of foreign governments. It was the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit research organization, or think tank, one of many such groups in Washington that lawmakers, government officials and the news media have...

In late November 2012, while Matteo Renzi was making an ill-fated bid for leadership of the Italian centre-left, a young MP from his Democratic Party (PD) piped up on Twitter to remark: "OK, Renzi has quite a lot to learn about foreign policy … He won't make the pass mark, I fear #thirdgrade." When he won the PD primaries the following winter, Renzi – canny as ever – hired his sharp-tongued critic as the party's spokesperson on Europe and international affairs. Once prime minister, he ushered her into the top job at Italy's foreign office. Now, the shoe is firmly...

What would happen if Americans learned that Barack Obama is not just an individual with a history of radical, anti-American associations, but an illegal President and an unindicted felon? http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-establishments-fear-of-the-truth-empowers-obama?f=must_reads

Western countries are using aid to Africa as a smokescreen to hide the "sustained looting" of the continent as it loses nearly $60bn a year through tax evasion, climate change mitigation, and the flight of profits earned by foreign multinational companies, a group of NGOs has claimed. Although sub-Saharan Africa receives $134bn each year in loans, foreign investment and development aid, research released on Tuesday by a group of UK and Africa-based NGOs suggests that $192bn leaves the region, leaving a $58bn shortfall.

If you haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on in Murrieta, California, you need to know that what’s about to go down is bigger than the Cliven Bundy vs. the fed showdown. It’s bigger than pretty much any federal government vs. American citizen showdown fight we’ve seen since Barack Obama took office.

CARACAS- Venezuela´s foreign minister on Monday rebuked his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, for criticizing the handling of street protests and reiterated accusations Washington wants to topple the socialist government. In the U.S. government´s strongest comments since demonstrations began in February, Kerry said last week that Venezuela´s government had shown "total failure" of good faith in now-suspended talks to stem the unrest. In Venezuela´s worst violence in a decade, 42 people have died during months of daily protests demanding President Nicolas Maduro´s departure and solutions to economic hardships.

WASHINGTON — Confronting critics of his foreign policy, President Barack Obama will soon outline a strategy for his final years in office that aims to avoid overreach as the second of the two wars he inherited comes to a close. (snip)Criticism over Obama has only mounted over the past year following Obama’s decision to pull back a military strike in Syria and his inability to stop Russia from annexing territory from Ukraine. A White House official said Obama would specifically address both situations, as well as the status of ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. The president is also expected to...

Gov. Chris Christie’s foreign policy speech Sunday night is facing some criticism at home — from a fellow Republican. State Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren), one of the most conservative New Jersey lawmakers, said Christie’s vision for America’s role in the world is unsustainable. “During his speech yesterday, Governor Christie advocated for an aggressive, interventionist foreign policy,” Doherty wrote in an email to the Star-Ledger. “He sounds like a Woodrow Wilson progressive who is out of step with the views of the American people.”

NEW DELHI (AP) — Opposition leader Narendra Modi won India's election by a landslide Friday, according to preliminary results that showed his party easily driving out the long-dominant Congress party in the most commanding election victory India has seen in more than a quarter century.

Critics say the project's underlying objective is to convert non-Muslim children to Islam by bringing proselytizing messages into public schools under the guise of promoting multiculturalism and fighting "Islamophobia." The group recently ran an advertisement promising to pay 250 Czech korunas ($13 dollars) to any student aged 15 to 18 years who would attend a two hour presentation about Islam. More recently, Muslims in the Czech Republic have tried to ban a book they say is Islamophobic, and have filed a ten-page criminal complaint against its formerly-Muslim author. The Czech government has approved a new project aimed at promoting Islam...

The Foreign Ministry's workers union has called for a general strike Sunday as part of an ongoing labor dispute. All 103 of Israel's embassies, consulates, and diplomatic delegations across the world will be closed, including the ministry's headquarters in Jerusalem. The workers union added that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will not be able to enter his office. The Foreign Ministry's employees have been engaged in a struggle to improve their working conditions for more than a year, and the struggle has led them to lock horns with the Finance Ministry, whom they claim refuses to acknowledge diplomats' rights and improve...

In one photograph captioned 'sweetest guys' a woman stands alongside a soldier armed with a gun In another a mother smiles intently for the camera with her two children while posing next to an armed guard The pictures have appeared on the photo sharing network Instagram Ukraine has put its military on high alert and appealed for international help By TARA BRADY PUBLISHED: 03:26 GMT, 3 March 2014 | UPDATED: 17:15 GMT, 3 March 2014 439 shares 191View comments People in Crimea have been captured taking selfies with Russian masked gunmen as Ukraine is on the brink of war. In...

Obama truly is not like us; his beliefs are utterly alien to our political tradition. That is why this administration violates all the rules. It is not an accident. It is simply who they are. The act of sending the bust of Churchill back to Britain signaled Obama's hatred for the Anglo-American political tradition, including the US Constitution. In Russia, Putin has introduced a 14% flat tax, and is boosting traditional morality. Only Obama still harbors that old post-colonial rage against white imperialists, which is why he can't tell the difference between murderous terror gangs and democratic revolutions.

John Kerry invoked his Vietnam War service to push back against an Israeli cabinet member who criticized his recent comments on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. During a security conference in Munich last weekend, Kerry suggested that if his Israeli-Palestinian peace effort fails, there could be serious consequences for Israel.

About a year ago, I posted a thread asking for recommendations for good republican memoirs. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2981964/posts Since then I've complied quite a reading list. Going on the recommendations that were given to me(which I'm pretty grateful for), I got a few Richard Nixon books(No more Vietnams, The real war, Leaders) George Bush and Dick Cheney's books and others. I'm still to get through the last two, but I've finished reading through No more Vietnams and currently getting through the other Nixon books. But No more Vietnams really quite impressed me by how well detailed and informative it was and this...

Two days ago, the Paulding County Republican Examiner (reported) on a new Obama scandal that was emerging over the weekend that the Obama campaign was accepting illegal overseas donations and that the report would be released by an unnamed tax payer watch group. This morning, the non-partisan group, (Government Accountability Institute) (GAI) released its 108 page report, the first ever analysis of election campaign donations issues called, “America the Vulnerable: Are Foreign and Fraudulent Online Campaign Contributions Influencing U.S. Elections?” raises indications the Obama campaign has potentially violated federal election law by failing to prevent the use of fraudulent or...

  Update: it was inevitable. Israel has apologized:  Barak Ravid@BarakRavid Follow BREAKING: Israel MoD Yaalon apologizes for his statements against SecState Kerry 1:28 PM - 14 Jan 2014   Just when you thought US foreign policy under John Kerry couldn't plumb new lows, here comes Israel, mocking... John Kerry.   Richard Engel        ✔ @RichardEngel Follow Yaalon quoted by "Yediot Aharonot" saying: only thing that could "save" #Israel is for Kerry to win Nobel Peace Prize and "leave us alone." But it wasn't Israel's mocking of Kerry that was embarrassing: after Syria, Israel is hardly a big fan of Hillary's replacement who...

The deadly suicide attacks in Volgograd forced Vladimir Putin to make changes to his traditional New Year address, with the Russian President promising to wage “a confident, tough and consistent” war on terror until total victory. “The inhumane terrorist acts in Volgograd” were among the biggest challenges Russia faced in 2013, the Putin said in his address to the nation, broadcast minutes before the New Year. “In the time of challenges Russia always stood united and solid,” he stressed. At least 34 people have lost their lives and over 80 injured in two suicide blasts in Russia’s southern city of...