Free Republic

The Brain Dead American Media missed this veiled threat in Obama's opening statement: "We shouldn’t forget the difference between the ability of our government to collect information online under strict guidelines and for narrow purposes, and the willingness of some other governments to throw their own citizens in prison for what they say online" Tell that to the arab who made a movie and posted it to the Net and who was blamed for creating the Benghazi Attacks ? Tell that to all those who have been surveilled by federal agencies using the NSA databases ? Obama often uses words...

Report: Maine growth modest Conditions are likely to deteriorate in 2008 AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Center for Economic Policy released its annual Labor Day report outlining the status of working Mainers and the state economy. Using 2007 U.S. government data (the most current available), "The State of Working Maine" reveals a picture of modest overall growth in Maine, coupled with limited income gains for typical Maine households. Median household income in Maine saw an increase of some $1,200, rising by 2.7 percent in real terms to $45,888. Though a welcome advance for working Mainers, it is also clear that...

CHINA has said it is investigating the deaths of villagers during an armed protest against a southern power plant, in its first official response to the unrest in which residents say dozens died. Police opened fire after being blockaded by hundreds of demonstrators near Shanwei city in Guangdong province on Tuesday, state media said. "It became dark when the chaotic mob began to throw explosives at the police. Police were forced to open fire in alarm," Xinhua news agency said, quoting a Shanwei government report. "In the chaos, three villagers died, eight were injured with three of them fatally injured."...

Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- Workers and office employees of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are enjoying summer holidays at rest homes together with their families. Nearly twenty reconstructed rest homes in Sokam, Lake Sohung, Onpho, Kuam and other scenic spots have received holiday-makers. The holiday-makers at the Onpho Rest Home in Kyongsong County, North Hamgyong Province, and the Majon Rest Home in Hamhung City, South Hamgyong Province, are playing various kinds of sports games and amusements and swimming and boating in the sea. The Kuam Rest Home in Hwayang-ri, Chongdan County, South Hwanghae Province, has also opened the...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has introduced hamburgers to his reclusive, communist country in a campaign to provide "quality" food to university students, media reported Wednesday. The hamburgers were introduced in 2000 and dubbed "gogigyeopbbang," Korean for "double bread with meat," according to the June 29 edition of the North Korean state-run newspaper Minju Joson. The report was carried by South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Wednesday. Although reports from the isolated country have in recent years mentioned the introduction of the American fast food classic, the latest announcement seems to credit the country's...

<p>May 19 (Bloomberg) -- China stepped up threats of attack against Taiwan a day before President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration, saying it would be willing to forfeit strong U.S. ties, economic growth and the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to quash independence moves by force.</p>

BEIJING - China on Tuesday approved a major ruling on how Hong Kong chooses its leaders, saying the territory must submit proposed political reforms to Beijing for approval, a leading lawmaker said. Tsang Hin-chi, a Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress, said the ruling also left open the possibility of a direct election in 2007 and allowed the current system to stay unchanged. "If the system needs to be changed, it can be changed. But it can also stay the same," Tsang said in remarks carried widely on Hong Kong television and radio. He called the ruling "very...

Pyongyang, March 5 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA today as regards the U.S. renewed smear campaign against the DPRK over the "drug issue". The U.S. State Department in an "annual report on drug control" on March 1 preposterously asserted that the DPRK is considering drug trafficking as a "state policy". This mud-slinging is a product of the U.S. policy of isolating and stifling DPRK. It is no more than a foolish plot to tarnish the image of the dignified DPRK. The DPRK, a state guided by...

Two words -- "never again" -- sum up the most important lesson that civilized men and women were supposed to have learned from the 20th century. It is forbidden to keep silent, forbidden to look the other way, when tyrants embark on genocide and slaughter -- if Auschwitz and Kolyma and the Cambodian killing fields taught us nothing else, they taught us that. Or so, at any rate, we like to tell ourselves. As Samantha Power discovered upon returning to the United States after two years as a war correspondent in Bosnia, the lesson of "never again" is invoked...

Chinese officials say an accident at a natural gas field in southwest China has killed at least 191 people. The official Xinhua news agency says hundreds of others were injured by an explosion and the release of toxic fumes at the Chuandongbei gas field in Chongqing's Kaixian county. Authorities have not said what may have caused Tuesday's blast. Officials say a gas well burst without warning, releasing a high concentration of natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen at least 30 meters into the air. Hospitals in the area are filled with casualties. Authorities evacuated residents within five kilometers of the well....

Florida fruit juices and North Carolina turkey are among products American companies are showing off in Cuba this week as they press to sell more farm products to the communist island. Grouped inside a stand at the International Fair of Havana, which opened Sunday, the 71 American firms from 18 states and Puerto Rico hope their displays will persuade Cuban officials to buy more under an exception in a 42-year U.S. trade embargo. "We're hoping to sell more apples, grapes, pears, and dried fruits," said Miguel Mauricio, president of the Florida Produce, a Tampa, Fla.-based wholesale fruit and vegetable company....