Free Republic

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa, Feb. 12, 2010 – Australia is already one of America’s strongest allies, and Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III will visit the nation to see how the alliance can become even stronger. Lynn will meet with Australian leaders in Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra to discuss the scope and shape of U.S.-Australian military cooperation. “Australia is a critical ally that is supporting the effort in Afghanistan in important ways, and we think we can work with them on future threats like cybersecurity,” Lynn said during an interview aboard a military aircraft. Tomorrow, Lynn will speak about...

BOGOTA – In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in this drug-producing country, a deal that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory — alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America. Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his opponents have agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal that he said will return him to power four months after a coup shook faith in Latin America's young democracies. The power-sharing agreement reached late Thursday calls for Congress to decide whether to reinstate the leftist Zelaya. While the legislature backed his June 28 ouster, congressional leaders have since said they won't stand in the way of an agreement that ends Honduras' diplomatic isolation and legitimizes presidential elections planned for Nov. 29. Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Shannon said Friday that the two...

The Bush administration plans to sign a nuclear-cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday,according to officials involved in the negotiations,despite concerns in Congress. The pact, one of the administration's final foreign-policy acts, could help the U.A.E. become the first Arab nation to develop a nuclear-power industry as early as 2017, said these officials. The Bush administration has championed the agreement as a model for promoting peaceful nuclear energy,while guarding against weapons proliferation. Still, some U.S. lawmakers are seeking to block the U.A.E. deal over fears it could fuel a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East at a time...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2008 – With fewer than 40 days left in office, President George W. Bush signed a security pact in Baghdad yesterday, putting an end in sight for the Iraq war after nearly six years of fighting. “The war is not over yet,” Bush said, “[but] it is decisively on its way to being won.” During a surprise farewell visit to Baghdad yesterday, Bush met with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a signing ceremony, affirming the two landmark agreements to withdraw U.S. troops and formalizing a long-term relationship between the two countries. “[The agreements] cement a...

OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada's prime minister said Thursday he hoped to work with US president-elect Barack Obama on a North American deal to curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. "It's almost essential for Canada to manage this problem in cooperation with the United States because we share the same economy, we share the same continent," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters. "And we need a partner in the matters of the environment if we want to make real progress." The United States, said Harper, has not embraced an "aggressive" environmental agenda, but Obama was set to redouble US...

BRUSSELS (AFP) – European Union leaders fought growing pressure Thursday to roll back their climate change plans, standing by their targets and timetable for the package as the financial crisis bites. After Italy and Poland brandished the threat of a veto if their reservations were not taken into account, Germany, Europe's largest economy, also voiced concerns over the ambitious environmental plans. "I can confirm that the objectives remain the same, the calendar remains the same, now it's up to (us) to find solutions for those countries that expressed concerns," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. "The climate package is so important...

President Bush on Saturday used the visit of Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe to urge Congress to pass a free trade agreement with the South American country. In remarks to reporters alongside Uribe at the White House Rose Garden, Bush said it is vital that Congress considers the trade pact before adjourning. “It is a statement of friendship, it's a statement of common values. And if this agreement were not to pass it would embolden the voices of populism in the neighborhood, to the detriment of a government which has been very strong in dealing with human rights and human dignity...

Massachusetts High School Faces Pregnancy Boom Thursday, June 19, 2008 A Massachusetts high school is facing a pregnancy boom with 17 girls entering summer vacation expecting babies in what some have called a pregnancy pact. Officials at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Mass., are investigating whether half of the teens made a pact to get pregnant during the school year, Time.com reported. Officials said that beginning last fall a large group of girls started asking the school clinic for pregnancy tests, the site said. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," principal Joseph Sullivan...

Negotiations between Washington and Baghdad over a new security pact are turning into a political crisis in Baghdad. The talks are intended to establish the legal conditions under which U.S. troops will remain in Iraq after their UN mandate expires at the end this year. Not a great deal is known publicly about the details of the negotiations over the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Washington and the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. That is because both sides are keeping their negotiating stances secret -- precisely to avoid the slowdown of a larger public debate. But the strategy...

Officials from Alabama, Florida and Georgia signed a confidentiality agreement in January that includes two private utilities and prohibits the parties from disclosing to the public details of the ongoing negotiations over water rights in the region. A Florida seafood industry group says the secrecy deal is illegal and is asking the state's open government commission to throw it out. ``It just fuels suspicion on the part of people down here whose livelihoods depend on this,'' Kevin Begos, executive director of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force, said Tuesday. The task force obtained a copy of the agreement...

President Bush asked the Senate to swiftly approve an agreement ratified by more than 70 nations to fight the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in sports. In a statement Thursday, the White House said the agreement's principles are already reflected in U.S. law and policy. "Ratifying the convention will solidify our nation's place as a leader in the worldwide effort to rid athletics of cheating through chemistry," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a written statement. U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said he appreciated Bush's support. "This convention is emblematic of the commitment our government...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States, the world's great space powers, celebrated the eve of the first satellite launch 50 years ago with a pact to use Russian technology on NASA missions to seek water on the moon and Mars. NASA administrator Michael Griffin signed the cooperation deal with his Russian counterpart at a ceremony on Wednesday at the U.S. embassy residence in Moscow attended by cosmonauts and astronauts and featuring a recorded greeting from space. Both sides avoided mention of superpower rivalry during the Cold War and recent clashes over U.S. "Star Wars"-style missile defense plans to...

CANBERRA and Tokyo are negotiating a defence and security agreement that will open the way for Japanese troops to train on Australian soil. The co-operation pact will bring a new dimension to Australia's relations with its biggest trading partner, providing for joint military exercises, regular meetings between foreign and defence ministers, exchanges of officials and closer work on regional challenges such as North Korean nuclear proliferation. It will be Japan's first bilateral security agreement, other than the US-Japan alliance, which remains the linchpin of the Japanese defence arrangements. Both Canberra and Washington have been pushing the previously reluctant Japanese Government...

FORT HUACHUCA — A federal judge has approved a lawsuit settlement in which the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will renegotiate a biological opinion. “Fort Huachuca’s proactive decision to re-initiate consultation was instrumental in the Center for Biological Diversity and the Army agreeing to settle the lawsuit involving activities at Fort Huachuca and the impact of these activities on the San Pedro River basin,” post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said Tuesday. Jeff Humphrey, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Phoenix, said the settlement was signed Friday by U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson, who is assigned to...

• ‘Will not wait’ for federal government to act • To share research, information The state of California and the government of Great Britain have signed an agreement to collaborate on clean energy and ways to fight climate change. "California will not wait for our federal government to take strong action on global warming," says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a written statement following a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the chief executive officers of more than a dozen California-based companies Monday. "Today, we are taking an unprecedented step by signing an agreement between California and the United...

This week Iran presented the US with the ultimate challenge and Washington must now make a decision. Is it fighting to win? Since the September 11 jihadist attacks on the US mainland, President George W. Bush has stated repeatedly that the greatest threat to global security is the specter of rogue regimes and terror groups acquiring weapons of mass destruction. At his January 2002 State of the Union address, the president declared that the regimes of Iran, North Korea and Iraq comprised an axis of evil and a central goal — indeed the most crucial goal — of the US-led...

Not meant to scare, rather to serve as a wake-up call. This Monday Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that part of Ukraine's Soviet-era nuclear arsenal may well have found its way to Iran. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainians agreed to transfer the Soviet nuclear arsenal that remained in Ukraine after independence to Russia. According to Novaya Gazeta, some 250 nuclear warheads never made it to Russia and are thought to have been sent to Iran instead. The report further noted that the warheads in question will remain operational until 2010. ............................ Iran's recent financial maneuverings also...

Syria has agreed to store Iran's nuclear material, and Iran will grant asylum to Syrian officials implicated in the murder of former Lebanese PM Rafik Harriri, according to Jane's Defence Weekly. Another aspect of the agreement that directly affects Israel is that Syria committed itself to continue to supply the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah terror group with weapons, ammunition and other equipment. Hizbullah currently has 15,000 missiles and rockets that it received from Iran deployed on Lebanon’s border with Israel. Also affecting the Jewish State is an Iranian commitment to supply Syria with the technology necessary to produce weapons of mass destruction...

Latin America: A weekend march by 5,000 Bolivians in favor of a free trade pact with the U.S. got little attention. But it was a clear signal to step up commerce in a troubled region we often don't know what to do about. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. The prospect of a growing free-trade movement, coming from humble factory workers, is startling. It surprised even other Bolivians who often hear anti-free trade rhetoric. After all, just about the only thing we ever hear about Bolivia is that a far-leftist, Evo Morales, leads in the presidential polls for...