Free Republic

The United Nations will explore options with Israel's new government for a return to negotiations on creating a Palestinian state within a reasonable timeframe, the body’s new envoy said Tuesday, according to AFP. Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special Middle East coordinator, told the Security Council that "the coming period will be critical to the future of the peace process." Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been comatose since a major American push for a final deal ended in failure in April 2014. UN efforts to revive the peace process were effectively on hold in recent months...

EL PASO - A Defense Department plan to pull 450 National Guard troops away from inspection duties along the border is sparking an outcry among critics who fear it will lower the nation's defenses against terrorism.Some of the Guard troops have been on the job for more than 10 years and were trained to identify suspicious vehicles with hidden compartments that could conceal weapons. Under a plan approved in February by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the new customs agency will hire inspectors and train them to replace the Guard troops. "This proposal would pull out the National Guard...

Senior partners of Arthur Andersen LLP held a nationwide closed-circuit video conference Thursday to chart a survival strategy for the embattled accounting firm under federal criminal indictment for obstruction of justice in the Enron Corp. scandal. The firm's 1,700 U.S. partners are choosing a new chief executive officer to replace Joseph Berardino, who resigned Tuesday, and a restructuring plan that could merge Andersen's foreign offices with its rivals. Asahi & Co., Andersen's Japanese partner, Wednesday said it would join KPMG International. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu reportedly is interested in acquiring Andersen's tax consulting business. The Financial Times reported Thursday that Andersen...