Free Republic

US Ambassador Robert Ford resigned from his State Department post a month ago, after a long and difficult time as the envoy to Syria. Ford showed great personal courage in his service while Bashar al-Assad instigated attacks on Western embassies and eventually provoked a massive civil war which has turned into a regional threat, thanks to the collapse of his power in large regions of Syria. The collapse of American policy in Syria over the past year was presumed to have prompted Ford’s departure, which he confirms with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview today.This is interesting for more...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and killed a Canadian police officer with the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti on Tuesday, a U.N. official said. The officer was shot on National Route 1 not far from Cite Soleil, a large slum in the capital Port-au-Prince, said Marc Jaquet, a spokesman for the police contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping force. Canada identified the victim as Mark Bourque, and said he was one of 25 police officers who went to Haiti in October as part of the Canadian Special Elections Contingent. The peacekeepers, now numbering nearly 9,000 soldiers and police, were sent...