Free Republic

Marco Rubio’s campaign ended yesterday. He won’t acknowledge it and neither will his hardcore supporters for some days, but he is done. It was one thing when he was running more or less even with Cruz across the South, like he did on Super Tuesday, but Rubio has clearly lost his mojo, finishing behind Kasich in Maine and well behind Cruz in Kentucky and Louisiana. Rubio is running out of gas both metaphorically and physically. This is now a race between Cruz and Trump. I say this as a guy who a couple weeks ago endorse Rubio as the best...

In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan's foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.

TOKYO - Reports of the alleged North Korean nuclear experiment that did, or did not, take place ten days ago had scarcely died down when another bombshell hit the media - Japan may declare China to be the country that most threatens its security. The report in the influential Japanese economic paper Nihon Keizai stated that a committee appointed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would publish a recommendation at the end of the month that the government declare China a potential military threat to Japan. "There is no doubt someone is ignoring facts," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Chuan responded from...

BEIJING (AP) — China on Saturday announced an 11.6 percent hike in military spending for 2004, a bigger increase than last year in an age when the People's Liberation Army is racing to make itself competitive and adapt to a high-tech world. The figures came in a budget report prepared for delivery by Finance Minister Jin Renqing at the National People's Congress, the country's nominal legislature. They were released at a time when the government has publicly prioritized social programs, In his remarks, Jin China said the budget deficit would hold steady after years of annual increases. He also outlined...

North Korea is entitled to launch a pre-emptive strike against the US rather than wait until the American military have finished with Iraq, the North's foreign ministry told the Guardian yesterday. Warning that the current nuclear crisis is worse than that in 1994, when the peninsula stood on the brink of oblivion, a ministry spokesman called on Britain to use its influence with Washington to avert war. "The United States says that after Iraq, we are next", said the deputy director Ri Pyong-gap, "but we have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the US." His...

HANOI, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Two senior US aviation officials are due to visit Vietnam on Monday to discuss the recently-approved Air Services Agreement and its impact on bilateral ties, the US embassy in Vietnam said in a press release on Friday. Deputy Administrator for the US Federal Aviation AdministrationRobert A. Sturgell and Assistant Administrator for International Aviation Douglas E. Lavin will discuss with Vietnamese officials issues including safety and potential for direct flights and code-sharing opportunities, said the embassy. During the visit, Sturgell will also meet with officials at the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, the Ministry of Foreign...

While asserting that the escalating cross-straits rhetoric is ''not alarming,'' Powell said: ''We hope both sides will realize where their interests lie and be careful about what they say.'' Powell, speaking to reporters after escorting Jordan's King Abdullah from the State Department, said he spoke earlier by telephone with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. ''We reaffirmed to the Chinese again today, and will when Premier Wen (Jiabao) is here next week, that we remain totally committed to our 'one-China' policy founded on the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act and we do not support an independence movement and we...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Between 150,000 and 200,000 political prisoners are confined to camps in North Korea, subjected to starvation diets, inhumane conditions and torture, according to a report by a human rights group that collected satellite photographs and accounts from former prisoners. The report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea concerned prison camps known as kwan-li-so. Three generations of family members are sometimes given life terms along with family members charged with political crimes, said David Hawk, a longtime human rights advocate and author of the report who interviewed more than 30 former prisoners and guards....