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After opponent's no-show, Shuler walks out of House debate TIM WHITMIRE Associated Press ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Frustrated by Rep. Charles Taylor's failure to show up in person, Democratic challenger Heath Shuler walked out of a debate Friday afternoon that was the only face-to-face meeting scheduled between the two candidates during their fiercely contested campaign. Taylor called into the debate on WWNC-AM from a radio station in Hendersonville, about 30 miles south of Asheville, which radio host Matt Mittan said violated rules agreed to beforehand by both campaigns. After both candidates offered an opening statement, Shuler said, "It's unfortunate Mr. Taylor...

BREVARD, N.C. - Amid hopeful talk of the future, Rep. Charles Taylor (news, bio, voting record) and Russia's ambassador to the United States welcomed 20 Russian college students to western North Carolina to study business. The young Russians, participating in a yearlong program at area colleges that is partially funded with federal money, sang a karaoke version of the Beatles' "Let It Be" and a Russian folk song last month. They even pulled Taylor and Ambassador Yuri Ushakov into an impromptu dance. "It offers as much to United States students as it does to Russian students," said the Republican lawmaker,...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In the mountains of western North Carolina, former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler talks about illegal immigration and the Iraq war as he tries to oust Republican Rep. Charles Taylor in one of the more competitive House races. Thousands of miles away, in San Diego, Jason Woodmansee fears a crucial issue is being overlooked. "From an objective, quantitative viewpoint, Shuler was a terrible NFL quarterback," Woodmansee writes on his blog, http://www.StopShuler.com. "He completely failed at the one thing he was trained to do out of college, and yet was paid millions of dollars. The last thing we need...

Excerpt - THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a war crimes trial on charges accusing him in the death, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa. An airport official said Taylor's U.N.-chartered plane landed after a direct flight from Sierra Leone, where he had been in detention since March 29. Two police vans and five motorcycle outriders were waiting on the tarmac at a small commercial airport south of The Hague. ~ snip ~

I haven’t written my regular column for a long time, but my excuse is rock solid. I’ve been too busy to write Three absolutely extraordinary things happened in the last week – well, stretch that – a week and a half. One I’ll save for another column, because it deserves its own space and details need to be filled in. The others are election night on 2 May, and 4 - 8 May, which was spent in Bermuda. Start, of course, with politics. Going into the Republican primary against eight-term incumbent, Charles Taylor, I knew my own campaign was limited....

Lawmaker's Flight 93 stance may be last straw By Robin Acton TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, May 7, 2006 ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Western North Carolina voters have supported U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor for 16 years, despite loan scandals at his bank, his acceptance of questionable campaign donations and his financial ties to Russia. In Pennsylvania, Taylor is know as the congressman who for two years blocked federal funding for a memorial to those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Somerset County. And that position hasn't gone over very well with some in his 11th Congressional...

Former University of Tennessee and NFL quarterback Heath Shuler won a congressional Democratic primary Tuesday in North Carolina. Shuler notched 77 percent to beat Michael Morgan, with 62 percent of votes tallied. He'll face Republican incumbent Charles Taylor, representing the 11th District, who handled opponent John Armor by taking 81 percent of the votes tallied. Shuler is expected to give Taylor, a veteran representative criticized for his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a strong run on the general ballot. Taylor, however, has survived a number of Democratic challenges during his 16-year tenure. "This is the year," Shuler said Tuesday...

This is the Fifth and Final - for now - Report on the Campaign for the 11th District in NC. The eight-term Congressman, Charles Taylor, has defeated me for the nomination of the Republican Party. However, Mr. Taylor's career as a Member of Congress is now over. That paradoxical conclusion is not a matter of my opinion. It is based on observations of lifelong residents in western Carolina who've been active in politics most of their adult lives. Consider the parameters of this race: Charles Taylor is a long term incumbent who worked his way up the ladder to a...

Dear Chancellor John Bardo, I have a bone to pick with you. So does the US Constitution. And so do those who believe that universities should be open communities, allowing a diverse views to be expressed – in academic language. My public declaration of my candidacy for Congress from the 11th District here in Western Carolina was on 3 March. I’d contacted the Director of the Fine and Performing Arts Center at your university, Western Carolina, about using that Center for my first press conference. I offered to pay full rate for the use of the facilities. I had several...

Taylor 'looked like whipped dog' as justice caught up By Hans Nichols in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Filed: 02/04/2006) Slumped and sombre, Charles Taylor uttered not a single word as he sat in the United Nations helicopter that spirited him from Liberia, where he once ruled, to neighbouring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of committing war crimes. "He looked like a whipped dog. A look of total defeat," said a UN official, one of 16 passengers on the flight that brought Taylor to the tribunal he has eluded for three years. Charles Taylor in Freetown "You look at someone that...

Every Member of Congress, and every candidate for Congress, is required to file Reports with the House Ethics Committee on their financial holdings and transactions. Apparently, few people take a serious look at these after they are filed. The Reports filed by incumbent 11th District Representative, Charles Taylor, for the last seven years (the ones available on-line) show five errors in excess of $1 million each, plus one unexplained item for about $20 million. These Reports are filed with the Clerk of the House but they “will be reviewed by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct [the House Ethics...

ALARM - Charles Taylor arrived to Monrovia and transferred in a helicopter MONROVIA - former bast president Charles Taylor, expelled Wednesday of Nigeria, arrived at the Roberts airport of Monrovia on board an apparatus of the Nigerian presidency and was immediately led in a helicopter of the United Nations, noted a correspondent of AFP.

Taylor Taken to Liberia to Face Charges By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press Writer Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who vanished in Nigeria after authorities reluctantly agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal, was arrested trying to cross the border into Cameroon, Nigerian police said Wednesday. He then was flown back to Liberia. Taylor was captured Tuesday night by security forces in the far northeastern border town of Gamboru, in Borno State, nearly 600 miles from the villa in southern Calabar from which he reportedly disappeared Monday night, Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement. President Olusegun Obasanjo,...

AP News Alert ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian police say they have arrested Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.

Wanted tyrant of Liberia vanishes from Nigerian haven By David Blair, Africa Correspondent and Katharine Houreld in Lagos (Filed: 29/03/2006) The Nigerian government was accused of allowing Charles Taylor, Africa's most notorious fallen tyrant, to escape justice after he vanished from his grace-and-favour residence yesterday. Taylor, 58, the former Liberian dictator, had been living in the city of Calabar despite being the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant and an indictment on 17 counts of war crimes. Charles Taylor took refuge in Nigeria when he was deposed The Baptist lay preacher, who devastated Liberia and led a brutal rebel army...

ABUJA, Nigeria — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans, officials said today. The announcement of Taylor's disappearance came the day before Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo was to meet with President Bush at the White House. That visit was supposed to occur on a high note after Obasanjo resolved two issues of concern to his U.S. allies — Monday's release of kidnapped American oil workers and last week's deal to hand over...

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday agreed to surrender the exiled former Liberian president and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor to the government of his homeland. Taylor is accused of masterminding a policy of murder, torture, pillage and rape in Liberia and its neighbour Sierra Leone, where international prosecutors have lodged a 17-count indictment alleging crimes against humanity. In August 2003, in a bid to bring an end to 14 years of civil war in Liberia, Obasanjo invited him to step down as president, leave his besieged capital Monrovia and accept political asylum in Nigeria. But the Nigerian leader...

Folks, Two of my campaign appearances since the 1st Report are unique and deserve mention here. One was with a group of left-wing Democrats, who refer to themselves as "progressives." The invited me to see if I would dare join them, for two hours of pointed questions. I accepted, and the comments posted on the Internet as a result made it clear that they intend to see me defeated, come November. But they also included comments that I am "honest" and a "man of obvious integrity." When even your political opponents speak of you that way, that is a very...

An Open Letter to the Press in Western Carolina From: John Armor, Candidate for Congress, 11th District Date: 16 March 2006 re: certain comments by Deborah Potter on behalf of Congressman Charles Taylor Ladies and Gentlemen, Below is an exact and complete copy of an e-mail that Charles Taylor's Press Secretary, Deborah Potter, sent to Don Yelton, a friend of mine. (For those who don't know me, I'm a lawyer and author who lives in Macon County, and I'm running against Taylor in the Republican primary.) The Potter e-mail refers to me as "Armor and his bunch of left-wing radicals...

The US is stepping up its anti-terrorist efforts in west Africa amid continuing controversy over alleged links between al-Qaeda and the smuggling of Sierra Leonean diamonds through Liberia. Washington has begun looking more closely at terrorist financing in a region where the US military is increasingly active in efforts to disrupt terrorist networks, according to government officials and a leading Congressman. A US Congressional panel on the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks concluded this month there was "no persuasive evidence" that al-Qaeda funded itself through trafficking in diamonds from African states experiencing civil wars. But a US government official covering...