Free Republic

MND budget proves new cruise missile is in development By Hsu Shao-hsuen STAFF REPORTER Sunday, Sep 02, 2007, Page 1 Next year's budget request submitted by the Ministry of Defense (MND) to the Legislature yesterday officially revealed for the first time that the nation is developing the Hsiung Feng 3, (雄風三型) or Brave Wind 3 anti-ship missile. In addition,the MND's Missile Command's increasing expenditure is being seen as an important indicator that large numbers of cruise missile,code-named Hsiung Feng-IIE ,will start production and deployment next year. Although the defense budget has reached 3 percent of Taiwan's GDP, the military still...

The 2006 midterm elections will be a disaster for the Republican Party -- unless a "cataclysmic event" saves the day. That's the dire warning from political analyst Charlie Cook, who predicts in his "Off to the Races" column that the GOP's expected misfortune will result from a perfect storm of three factors:

The 72-year-old mayor of Waldron (Arkansas) has been charged with patronizing a prostitute and abusing the public trust for allegedly using his official position to obtain sex. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John Riedel said Mayor Troy Anderson was charged Monday in Scott County Circuit Court with four counts of patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor, and two counts of abuse of the public trust, a felony. The allegations involve two women. A state police affidavit says that in one case, Anderson gave a woman with whom he was having sex special treatment on her city water bill and also paid her for...