Free Republic

"Now what he needs is shock therapy to gain the heart of his people," Mr. Davutoglu said in an interview as he campaigned in his hometown, Konya, for a Parliament seat in next month's elections. "As early as possible." Asked what would happen if Mr. Assad failed to bring dramatic reform, Mr. Davutoglu replied, "We don't know. That's why we say shock therapy." Turkey has emerged in just a few short years as the most dynamic country in the region, with newfound political influence and a booming economic stake in the Middle East. But it faces a growing challenge in...

Street clashes mar voting at polling stations in areas with large Kurdish populations, as Kurdish party urges boycottTurks approved sweeping changes to their military-era constitution Sunday — a referendum hailed by the government as a leap toward full democracy in line with its troubled bid to join the European Union. With 99 per cent of the vote counted, 58 per cent had cast ballots in favor of the constitutional amendments, state-run TRT television said. About 42 per cent voted “no,” heeding opposition claims that the reforms would shackle the independence of the courts. The referendum on 26 amendments to...

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is warning that Western countries must increase their defense budgets in order to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire" that could be as deadly as Hitler's Third Reich. Speaking at a global security conference in Munich on Saturday, the U.S. defense chief said that Islamic radicals "seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent. "They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire," he added....