Free Republic

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6a09af64-18a7-11e4-a51a-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz397k1epX7 The growing threat to France’s mainstream political leaders posed by Marine Le Pen, head of France’s far-right National Front, has been underscored by an opinion poll putting her in the lead for the first time in the race for the next presidential election. The charismatic Ms Le Pen has overtaken former centre-right president Nicolas Sarkozy in voting intentions if the first...

The Obama administration's new policies on Guantanamo Bay prison and the treatment of detainees makes it more likely a terrorist attack against the United States will succeed, former Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday. In an interview with Politico, the former vice president issued a stringent defense of the Bush administration's record on the war on terror, and said he worries the President Obama has already made the country more vulnerable. “When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are...

Bowing to President Bush, the Democratic-controlled Congress grudgingly approved fresh billions for the Iraq war Thursday night, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew his earlier veto.

The White House said Bush would veto the bill on his return to the White House and then go before television cameras at 6:10 p.m. EDT, just before the evening news shows, to make a statement, coincidentally on the fourth anniversary of his so-called Mission Accomplished speech.

A fire broke out at an ammunition depot at a U.S. base in southeast Baghdad on Tuesday night, setting off a series of explosions, the U.S. military said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Veteran CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, who received the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media at the University of South Dakota, says the United States has never needed a vigorous free press more than now. "I cannot remember a time when it's been more challenging for journalists," said Schieffer, 69, who has covered Washington for more than 30 years and hosts the CBS interview show "Face the Nation."

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Monday that Democrats shouldn't shy away from pointing out Republican failures on national security. "If anything is shown by the British uncovering the plot on the airliners, it's simple -- we are not protected," Biden said. Biden, who has said he is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, was in Iowa to campaign for Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, who is in a heated re-election campaign in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District. Biden said the report of a bipartisan commission named to review the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is an example of...

Pyongyang, April 10 (KCNA) -- Jalaleddin Namini Mianji, Iranian ambassador to the DPRK, gave a reception last evening on the occasion of the Day of the Sun and the 11th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il's election as chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The ambassador in a speech said that President Kim Il Sung made great contributions to the growth of the non-aligned movement and the realization of the human cause of independence. Noting that his country supports the government and people of the DPRK in their struggle against imperialism and for...