Free Republic

When President Trump sent a Twitter invitation on Friday to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to meet at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas — “just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” — both men had much to gain, and more to lose. If Mr. Kim did not attend, even though his side had seemed intrigued, it would have embarrassed Mr. Trump and opened him up to more criticism for his unpredictable diplomacy. It would also have compounded the dramatic failure of their summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, which Mr. Trump abruptly called off in February. . ....

The pilot's comments were made in a social media chat group used by Nok Air pilots that was later leaked. In it a pilot posted a picture of Yingluck about to board their Nok Air flight over the weekend. One chat member responded with "We have prey on board". Another then added "CFIT". CFIT is an aviation acronym for "controlled flight into terrain", a term used to describe when a pilot unintentionally crashes a plane that has no technical problems. Panthongtae Shinawatra - the son of Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled as premier by a 2006 coup -...

LOS ALAMITOS He had trained for this but no amount of training could fully prepare him for it. This was U.S. Marine Isidro Cervantes' first mission of the kind -- to inform a Yorba Linda father that his only son died fighting for his country. Cervantes played the key words from the incident report over in his head, working to commit them to memory. Explosion. March 24. Killed in Action. Afghanistan. The words needed to come out smoothly and confident, yet compassionate. As he walked to the door he saw the garage open. Inside, a man was crying. Cervantes wanted...

Some 2,500 years ago, a mysterious culture emerged in Nigeria. The Nok people left behind bizarre terracotta statues -- and little else. German archaeologists are now looking for more clues to explain this obscure culture. Half a ton of pottery shards is piled on the tables in Peter Breunig's workroom on the sixth floor of the University of Frankfurt am Main. There are broken pots, other storage vessels, a clay lizard and fragments of clay faces with immense nostrils. The chipped head of a statue depicts an African man with a moustache, a fixed glare and hair piled high up...

There are nights when 1st Sgt. Adam Harrell lies awake dreading his job as a harbinger of death for the Marine Corps. He can picture how a widow's face contorts with grief, how parents cringe and weep when he knocks on the door to tell them of a loved one killed in action. Some run and hide at the sight of his dress blue uniform. Others throw their arms around him, hugging and sobbing. In the face of such sorrow, the 5-foot-11 military man feels suddenly small. "Hands down, it's the hardest thing I've ever done," said Harrell, who works...