Free Republic

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his opponents have agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal that he said will return him to power four months after a coup shook faith in Latin America's young democracies. The power-sharing agreement reached late Thursday calls for Congress to decide whether to reinstate the leftist Zelaya. While the legislature backed his June 28 ouster, congressional leaders have since said they won't stand in the way of an agreement that ends Honduras' diplomatic isolation and legitimizes presidential elections planned for Nov. 29. Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Shannon said Friday that the two...

CHICAGO (AP) — Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says in a new book that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel wanted his help in arranging to leave the Obama administration after two years to reclaim his seat in Congress. Blagojevich writes in "The Governor" that Emanuel spoke with him about whether it was possible to appoint a "placeholder" to the congressional seat Emanuel was giving up so that he could win back the seat in 2010 and continue his efforts to become speaker some day.

Dennis Ross, who most recently served as a special State Department envoy to Iran, will abruptly be relieved of his duties, sources in Washington told Haaretz. An official announcement is expected in the coming days. The Obama administration will announce that Ross has been reassigned to another position in the White House. In his new post, the former Mideast peace envoy under President Bill Clinton will deal primarily with regional issues related to the peace process

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict of interest policy barring such arrangements. Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to the group Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll, but would also step down from his role...

Take your pick. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger either felt the need for “fresh legs” on the state Park & Recreation Commission or was in the mood for political payback. Whatever his true sentiments, his staff notified his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood on Monday that they were no longer needed as state park commissioners. Shriver, 53, a Democrat and brother of First Lady Maria Shriver, and Eastwood, 77, a Republican and former mayor of Carmel, were first appointed to the advisory commission by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. Three years later, Schwarzenegger reappointed both of them to four-year terms....

Jefferson To Meet With Congressional LawmakersUPDATED: 3:20 pm CDT June 7, 2006 WASHINGTON -- A spokeswoman for Rep. William Jefferson said he will attend a meeting with congressional lawmakers. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked Jefferson to appear before the Democratic Steering Committee on Wednesday afternoon. The committee, which is charged with determining panel assignments, could vote to oust Jefferson from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee while he is under investigation. According to court documents, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson told an FBI informant, that Nigeria's vice president sought up to $500,000 and a stake in a technology venture...

Chief ousted as British troops head for Afghan drug region By Ahmed Rashid in Kabul (Filed: 23/12/2005) Britain has had a feudal chief removed from the region at the heart of Afghanistan's drug trade in an effort to calm the violent region before some 3,000 British troops deploy there next year. Sher Mohammed Akhunzada was removed from office as governor of the south-western province of Helmand, bordering Pakistan, last week. His family, who have governed the province for more than 25 years, has long been suspected of heavy involvement in drug trafficking. The combination of drug and Taliban activity in...

The girl of the Noriega General named with the consulate from Panama in Miami PANAMA - One of the girls of the former strong man of Panama, the Manual General Noriega, was named as diplomat with the consulate from Panama in Miami, announced the minister panaméen Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis. His/her father is imprisoned there since 1990. Sandra Noriega "is a qualified person who has the right to serve her country", affirmed Friday the minister. The father of the diplomat directed Panama of 1981 to 1989, after death in an air crash of the president panaméen Omar Torrijos, father...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The president of the nation's largest pension fund believes he will be ousted from the board after waging a corporate reform movement using its $177 billion investment portfolio as leverage, according to a newspaper report. Sean Harrigan, head of the California Public Employees' Retirement System since 2003, serves on the pension fund's panel as the representative of the state Personnel Board. Harrigan told the Los Angeles Times in Tuesday's editions that he has been told that a majority of his fellow Personnel Board members will vote Wednesday to replace him when his term expires early next year....

Bush energy policy critic ousted as head of climate change panel By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 20 April 2002 The Bush administration was accused of pandering to the oil industry last night after an outspoken critic of America's energy policy was voted out of his job as chairman of the world's premier scientific body on climate change. In a secret ballot held at a meeting in Geneva, the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change elected the India delegate, Rajendra Pachauri, as its chairman. He beat the current chairman, Robert Watson, the US delegate, by 76 votes to 49. Controversy had...