Free Republic

The private-equity tycoon Stephen A. Schwarzman, backed by an array of mostly western blue-chip companies with interests in China, is creating a $300 million scholarship for study in China that he hopes will rival the Rhodes scholarship in prestige and influence. The programme, whose endowment represents one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China, was announced by Mr. Schwarzman in Beijing on Sunday. The Schwarzman Scholars programme will pay all expenses for 200 students each year from around the world for a one-year master’s programme at Tsinghua...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2006 – Rebalancing the types of brigades being added to the National Guard will make that component more effective in its two-fold mission and will contribute to the overall capability of the Army, the secretary of the Army said here today. In a Pentagon press briefing, Francis J. Harvey stressed that the National Guard will not be reduced in size, but will simply have different kinds of units added to it. The initial plan for the transformation of the Guard called for the number of brigade combat teams to be increased from 15 to 34, Harvey said....