Free Republic

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday he is "dismayed" by civilian casualties in Gaza and "deeply disturbed" by Israel's strike on a building containing international media outlets, AFP reports. The comments came after 10 members of a family were reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, and another air strike demolished the 13-floor Gaza building housing Al Jazeera and The Associated Press news agency. .....

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—President Barack Obama this week will try to launch a political comeback amid the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and a growing sense of economic foreboding here and across the country among voters who are increasingly questioning their president's skills and priorities. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of 1,000 adults, taken Aug. 27-31, found that 44% of Americans approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president, with more than half, or 51%, disapproving for the first time since his inauguration. Some 73% say the country is headed in the wrong direction, a level of...

LONDON - Governments around the world expressed shock and scorn Thursday at the Iranian president's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map," and several summoned Tehran's envoys in their capitals for a reprimand. However, Israeli calls for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations over the remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were not immediately taken up by other nations. In a speech Wednesday, Ahmadinejad denounced Israel and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks "will wipe this stigma from the face of the Islamic world." Citing the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, the late...

EU voices its dismay over Iran's 'flawed' election By David Blair in Teheran (Filed: 24/02/2004) Iran's clerical establishment faced international criticism yesterday when America and the European Union condemned the country's general election as flawed. The US State Department said it did not meet international standards and EU foreign ministers said a "genuine democratic choice" had been rendered "impossible". The EU voiced "deep regret and disappointment" over an election which saw Iran's hardliners retake control of parliament after the regime banned thousands of reformists from standing. Iran's only link with the West comes through trade talks with the EU. Jack...

<p>SACRAMENTO – Republican Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is shaping his administration with a mix of Democrats and moderate Republicans - dismaying some Republicans who sparked the recall against Gov. Gray Davis and who now see their influence dwindling in the new administration.</p>

PARIS, - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday accused countries like France that want much longer arms inspections in Iraq of being "afraid" to take responsibility for a possible war. In an interview with French public radio France Info, he also said Washington already had United Nations authority under November's resolution 1441 to use force even without a second resolution it was now drafting. France, which has a veto in the Security Council, says it sees no need for a new resolution. "It cannot be a satisfactory solution for inspections just to continue forever because some nations are...