Free Republic

You might expect love to hurt, but for one lovesick Dutch man in China it resulted in a hospital trip for exhaustion. Alexander Pieter Cirk, 41, recently flew from Holland to Hunan province in the hope of meeting his online girlfriend, a Chinese woman known only as Zhang. But he ended up spending 10 days waiting at Changsha airport, after she failed to show up. And he has won little sympathy in China.

Published on Feb 29, 2016 ANDERSON COOPER ONE-ONE-ONE FULL INTERVIEW WITH MELANIA TRUMP (2/29/2016)

Revising food-stamp rules affecting undocumented immigrants in Utah may have saved the federal government more than $2 million, an analysis by the state Department of Workforce Services (DWS) shows. Between July and October, 2,724 households with undocumented immigrants lost benefits; 788 of those households saw a decline in financial assistance. That equals an estimated $2.1 million in cost savings, according to the analysis. Food stamps, which help low-income families buy food each month, are available to all eligible U.S. citizens based on household income and family size. A blended household with U.S.-born children and undocumented parents could potentially still qualify...

A man has been arrested in China for allegedly posing as a woman in order to marry men for their money. 18-year-old Wang Mou had reportedly married three men already this year. The Dahe Daily reported that after getting married, Wang subsequently fled with the engagement money. Wand reportedly got into the marriage scam when, in February, a woman who had promised to find him a job instead sold him as a wife. 'She cheated me, but I found a chance to escape then realized I could use the same shortcut to make some money,' Wang said. 'A lot of...

Back on Dec. 4, 2000, a sloe-eyed Nataliya Robertovna Yamayeva arrived in the U.S. wearing a $200 engagement ring from her American fiance. On the surface, "Natasha" Yamayeva was like all other newly minted fiancees, brimming with affection for her future husband. She was also filled with pastel visions of her future life in a Southern town bordering a leafy college campus, where Yamayeva could add to her Russian-earned college degrees in English and French and the couple could raise the child they were expecting.But Yamayeva's new American life would gradually darken. While she blames her husband, their painful misalliance...

...Recently, a couple of our close male friends told us about their experiences with the other major category of online dating scam---the Russian would-be oh-so-loving and devoted girlfriend scam. This one is nearly ubiquitous across the net. Apparently, there's something in the water in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine that produces blond women of surpassing devotion, all of whom are eager to stand by their man... and pretty much any American man will do. Their real goals differ from woman to woman, but there are a few broad categories: --I want to escape my crappy former Soviet Republic, even if it...

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- It took Natasha a day trip to Moscow to find the American husband she had dreamed of. It took the next six years to get out of the nightmare that followed. A music teacher from central Russia, she was one of 200 Russian women who patiently lined up at a Moscow restaurant to meet 10 American men at a gathering hosted by a mail-order bride agency. She spoke no English but immediately caught the eye of one of the men, 16 years her senior. He was handsome and said he wanted the same things she did:...

SYDNEY (AFP) - A leading Australian politician has resigned after it was revealed that he called an opponent's Malaysian wife a "mail order bride", pinched the bottom of one female journalist and propositioned another at an alcohol-fuelled party. New South Wales opposition Liberal Party leader John Brogden told a hastily-called news conference that he regretted his "inappropriate" behaviour and would quit the post that could have seen him become state premier. He denied being drunk at the party thrown for the media by the Australian Hotels Association three weeks ago but admitted drinking six beers to celebrate the recent resignation...

Mexican women flocking to Holland Mexico City, Mexico, Sep. 30 (UPI) -- In the last 12 months, the Dutch embassy in Mexico has granted 450 visas to Mexican women, 300 of whom married Dutch men, Reforma reported Thursday. "Mexico's major export product to Holland is Mexican women," said Jan-Jap van de Velde, the Dutch embassador. "There is much immigration of the 'family' kind ... and we note an considerable increase from Mexico to the Netherlands." In commercial terms, van de Velde said, there is a great potential to export other things from Mexico to Holland, like nopale cactuses, flowers and...