Free Republic

Attorney General Ken Paxton has returned to work following more than three months of leave after being impeached by the Texas House. He was acquitted on all charges by a majority of state senators, with only two Republicans—Kelly Hancock (North Richland Hills) and Robert Nichols (Jacksonville)—voting to convict. Now, Paxton told Texas Scorecard, he’s excited to continue serving Texans. "It’s been hard to sit on the sidelines for four months and watch things happen and not have the ability to go impact them. That’s what I ran for." He said that ultimately, the blame rests with House Speaker Dade Phelan...

/begin my excerpt U.S. Carrier Kitty Hawk was in 28-hour Standoff with Chinese Submarine Tense battle-ready standoff in Taiwan Strait (Hong Kong=Yonhap News) Chung Juho = U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk (and its battle group) had 28-hour battle-ready standoff with a Chinese submarine and a missile destroyer in Taiwan Strait last November, it has been revealed. This was the first military standoff between U.S. and China since the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996. According to Jan. 16 dispatch by China Times in Taiwan, on Nov. 23 last year, Kitty Hawk battle group was en route to Japan after China...

China lists substandard Wal-Mart, Carrefour goods 1 hour, 8 minutes ago China has published a blacklist of substandard toy jugs and children's shoes sold at Wal-Mart stores and drawing pens from French retailer Carrefour in a quality sweep on children's goods sold at Beijing supermarkets. China has been buffeted by food, drug and other product safety scares in past months. More than 20 million toys made there have been recalled worldwide over the past four months. In response, Beijing has promised to crack down on faulty manufacturers and suppliers, but also said much responsibility lies with foreign regulators and buyers....

Credit squeeze spreads to Norwegian towns By David Ibison in Stockholm Published: November 23 2007 22:19 | Last updated: November 23 2007 22:19 Few people in the remote Norwegian town of Narvik, 200km north of the Arctic Circle where the sun has disappeared until January, were likely to have given a lot of thought to the credit squeeze sweeping the global money markets – that is, until it threatened their wages over Christmas. Narvik, along with three other similarly isolated towns of Hemnes, Rana and Hattfjelldal, has become the latest community to discover just how directly even the most remote...

Japan detains 5 with new fingerprint entry checks Wed Nov 21, 12:59 AM ET Fingerprint checks on foreigners arriving in Japan matched five people to an immigration blacklist on the first day, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday. Biometric scanning of almost all foreigners entering Japan was introduced on Tuesday, sparking anger among long-term residents, businesspeople and human rights campaigners. The five individuals' fingerprints came up on a list containing around 800,000 names including Interpol suspects and people deported from Japan in the past, the ministry said. It refused to give any details of the five people or say which...

Secret journalists report on North November 21, 2007 The grainy video featured old women in clothes that hung from their thin frames scrounging for bottles in a market in Pyongyang that they planned to sell to recyclers. Images like these have been seen before but this footage shown at a press conference in Seoul yesterday is different, according to a Tokyo-based journalist, because it was shot by the first independent reporters to ever work inside North Korea. Ishimaru Jiru, of the Japan-based Asia Press International, said his group is also launching the first-ever magazine to print independent journalism by North...

Chavez, Ahmadinejad to work against US By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago The presidents of Venezuela and Iran boasted Monday that they will defeat U.S. imperialism together, saying the fall of the dollar is a prelude to the end of Washington's global dominance. Hugo Chavez's visit to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran followed a failed weekend attempt by the firebrand duo to push the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States away from trading in the slumping greenback. Their proposal at an OPEC summit was overruled by other cartel members led by Saudi Arabia, a strong U.S. ally. But the...

Fukuda says N Korea will 'disappear' if it doesn't abandon nukes Monday, November 19, 2007 at 11:08 EST WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda warned North Korea in a CNN interview aired Sunday that it will eventually "disappear" unless it abandons its nuclear program. In the interview recorded during his trip to Washington, Fukuda said: "If it hopes to stand on its own as an independent nation, it should abandon its nuclear program." Fukuda urged North Korea to further compromise on the nuclear issue. "As long as it poses a threat to its neighbors, it cannot truly stand on its...

New book on China raises a storm By Richard Bernstein Sunday, November 18, 2007 NEW YORK: Even given the inherent ruthlessness in the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, there was something almost poignant last week about President Pervez Musharraf appearing before the press and practically imploring the United States to understand the reasons for his move. Dictators don't usually do that. They don't go in for a lot of public self-justification in Cuba or China or Burma, although none of those countries are remotely as tied to the United States and dependent on American support as Pakistan is. Still,...

Times OnlineNovember 16, 2007 China pulls out of Iran sanctions meeting (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: the Iranian President has ignored Western demands to stop enriching uranium David Byers China has pulled out of crucial London talks to discuss further sanctions against Iran, raising the prospect of the US, Britain and France going it alone to stop the Islamic Republic's uranium enrichment programme. In what is seen as an indication that China will not risk its economic interests in Iran by supporting extra UN sanctions, it was confirmed that it had called off its attendance at a meeting of officials...

Trade jitters, anti-China sentiment rouse voters By Andrea Hopkins Wed Nov 14, 1:56 PM ET It could be expected that Iraq would play a big role in the 2008 U.S. election campaign. But if recent populist rallies are an indication, another country may be rousing even more anger from voters: China. In all corners of an overflowing convention room this week in the industrial Rust-Belt city of Pittsburgh, voters, union officials and company executives alike railed against unfair trade -- and demanded U.S. politicians do something. "Our government refuses to stand up to the Chinese and make a level playing...

Daily FX Carry Trade Falls Sharply on Risk Aversion Monday November 12, 10:23 am ET By Antonio Sousa, Quantitative Strategies Analyst strategist@dailyfx.com Investors are becoming more risk averse on speculation major banks could announce more write downs tied to subprime home loans, a situation that has been benefiting the Japanese yen and triggering a major sell-off on carry trades. Not surprisingly, during last week, the DailyFX Dynamic Carry Trade Portfolio was down by 540 pips. The biggest loss was taken in the short position we held in the Japanese yen with 415 pips loss. Moreover, since stop losses are activated...

Threatened N.Korea Cracks Down Female Merchants North Korea has banned young women from working in street markets across the country to prevent the rapid spread of street markets, it was known on Thursday. According to a North Korea expert, authorities on Oct. 1 banned women in their 40s or younger from participating in street food market businesses in Pyongyang, and expanded the measure nationwide this month. According to Good Friends, a Seoul-based civic relief organization for North Korea, the measure will be applied to all women under 45 beginning Dec. 1. Authorities are also confiscating all wire telephones that have...

SKorean challenger launches presidential campaign Thu Nov 8, 2:24 AM ET A rightwing former opposition leader Thursday launched his campaign for South Korea's presidency as the main opposition party bitterly denounced him as a traitor. Lee Hoi-Chang, a harsh critic of North Korea, on Wednesday announced his third presidential bid -- throwing the race into confusion by splitting the conservative vote just six weeks before polling day. Lee, a former supreme court judge and graduate of the top high school and university, visited homes of teenagers living alone and disabled elderly people. Aides said the 72-year-old is trying to soften...

N. Korea's cooperation may undercut US intelligence: Washington Post Sat Nov 10, 3:27 AM ET The government of North Korea is providing information that could prove that, contrary to US claims, the communist country never intended to produce highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported on its website Friday. Citing unnamed US and South Korean officials, the newspaper said the evidence is undermining a key US intelligence finding made five years ago and used in public statements by President George W. Bush. The North Korean government has granted US experts access to equipment and documents to make its...

US envoy questioned on disarming N.Korea By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 25, 6:26 PM ET Republicans and Democrats alike criticized the Bush administration on Thursday for its nuclear disarmament accord with North Korea, saying a rush to achieve a foreign policy success could lead to a bad deal. At a House hearing, the lead envoy to six-nation nuclear talks defended a U.S. pledge to take North Korea off a list of countries that sponsor terrorism, despite suspicions the communist nation may be helping Syria develop a nuclear program. But Christopher Hill, an assistant secretary of state, frustrated...

Some won’t fight, some can’t fight in snow: the problems that face Nato There are 38 countries with troops in Afghanistan. Co-ordinating them is not easy, General Dan McNeill tells our correspondent Anthony Loyd A clearly defined mission; troop strengths and structures composed to fit the task; consolidated public will; the generation of mass and precise execution of force: these are some of the principles of war stated as necessary for victory by the greatest military thinkers of our age. They all seem dangerously absent in Afghanistan, where General Dan McNeill commands a disparate force of 40,000 Nato troops drawn...

Turkish Troops Kill 64 Suspected Rebels Near Iraq Border Thursday , October 25, 2007 ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is running out of patience and will not tolerate Kurdish rebels' use of Iraqi soil to launch terrorist attacks, President Abdullah Gul said Thursday. Turkey has threatened to stage an incursion into northern Iraq if Iraqi Kurds and U.S.-led coalition forces do not crack down on Kurdish rebels based there. Turkish troops have killed at least 64 suspects rebels this week, including more than 30 poised to attack a military unit on the border on Tuesday, Turkey's military said Thursday. A pair...

Bread and butter issue: Rising prices may herald the first global food shortage since the 1970s By Jenny Wiggins and Javier Blas in London Published: October 23 2007 19:11 | Last updated: October 23 2007 19:11 When the United Nations held its annual World Food Day last week to publicise the plight of the 854m malnourished people around the world, its warning that there “are still too many hungry people” was a little more anxious than usual.Finding food to feed the hungry is becoming an increasingly difficult task as growing demand for staples such as wheat, corn and rice...