Free Republic

Just crossing the wires in Lebanon's media outlets. 5:10pm Bassil: We announce our resignation from government and we turn to the prime minister to speed up the formation of a new Cabinet.

No one could have imagined that within five years, Lebanon’s young PM would become a slave of his father’s murderers. No one, that is, aside from his father’s murderers. Lebanon is a sad and desperate place. And its disastrous fate is personified today by its prime minister. All who claim to love freedom, democracy, human rights and dignity should take note of Sa'ad Hariri’s fate. They should recognize that his predicament is a testament to their failure to stand up for the ideals they say they champion. All those who say they seek a Middle East that is friendly to...

<p>With a judge's earlier ruling that Chicago Police Officer John Ardelean had been arrested and detained without probable cause, Cook County prosecutors today dropped all charges against him in a crash that killed two people.</p> <p>The 36-year-old officer was charged with drunken driving and reckless homicide after his SUV broadsided a car on Thanksgiving 2007.</p>

China likes to use its generals for diplomatic missions, as the "bad cop" end of a "good cop, bad cop" game. Usually, the Chinese officer will be overheard (by the media) calling for something like nuking Los Angeles (which is about all the meager Chinese ICBM force can manage), or getting ready to take on, and defeat the U.S. Navy, in order to advance Chinese interests. But Chinese diplomats quickly rush in offering less drastic alternatives. The latest gambit has some Chinese officers calling for an arms race, along with unloading some of the 800 billion dollars of U.S. Treasury...

Opinionmakers and migrant advocates in Mexico said Friday that the collapse of U.S. immigration reform plans hurts Mexican workers, U.S. employers and antiterrorism efforts. President Bush's plan to legalize as many as 12-million unlawful immigrants from around the world while fortifying the border failed in the U.S. Senate on Thursday. "This is very bad news for Mexican migrants in the U.S., " said Jorge Bustamante, special rapporteur to the U.N. human rights commission for migrants. "It means the continuation and probably a worsening of the migrants' vulnerable conditions." The Rev. Luis Kendziersky, director of a shelter for migrants in the...