Free Republic

WASHINGTON - John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney prepared to tell conservatives. "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," Romney will say at the Conservative Political...

"A federal judge in San Francisco ordered an indefinite delay yesterday of a central measure of the Bush administration’s new strategy to curb illegal immigration."

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Spanish-language newscaster who had an affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has received a two-month suspension for violating conflict-of-interest policies, her network said Thursday. Mirthala Salinas was having the relationship with Villaraigosa when she announced the news of his separation from his wife of 20 years on local Telemundo station KVEA, Channel 52. Salinas was suspended without pay. The findings of Telemundo's three-week investigation were reported on its national newscast Thursday. "Her reading of copy during newscasts ... regarding the Mayors separation from his wife was a flagrant violation of these guidelines," Telemundo network president Don...

INDIA'S Supreme Court today suspended all legal proceedings against Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, who is facing obscenity charges for not resisting a public kiss by Hollywood star Richard Gere. Shetty, winner of the British reality television show Celebrity Big Brother, made headlines last month when Gere twirled her in his arms, arched her over and kissed her several times on the cheek at an anti-AIDS show in New Delhi. A lawyer filed a complaint in a lower court, describing the kiss as an obscene act under Indian laws.Reprieve ... an Indian Court has for the time being suspended all legal...

SEOUL (AFP) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has suspended operations in North Korea following US claims that its funds were being diverted to prop up the communist regime. In January the US delegate to the UN Mark Wallace charged that North Korea had, since 1998 and with the complicity of UNDP, "systematically perverted" the aid programme "for the benefit of the Kim Jong Il regime, rather than the people of North Korea." The UNDP said in a statement seen Monday on its website: "As of March 1, 2007, UNDP has no choice but to suspend its operations in...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lawyers for the state and groups that opposed Ohio's voter identification rules claimed victory Wednesday in a settlement that suspends the law for absentee voters and clarifies and expands it for voting in person. The agreement clears up confusion in key areas and allows more citizens to vote, said Subodh Chandra, one of the lawyers who filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law. The plaintiffs, including the Service Employees International Union and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, had argued that county elections boards were disenfranchising voters by inconsistently applying the law. "We have never contended...

S Korea suspends North food aid Pyongyang tested seven missiles South Korea is to suspend food aid to the North because of its controversial missile tests, reports said. Shipments of rice and fertiliser would be shelved until the missile "problem" was resolved, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a top official as saying. The move came as Japan presented the UN Security Council with a binding draft resolution calling for sanctions against North Korea. Pyongyang has threatened more launches if it is subjected to foreign pressure. The resolution, which urges North Korea to immediately stop developing, deploying and testing ballistic...

WASHINGTON - Security concerns have caused the government to suspend plans for an ambitious program to check every domestic airline passenger's name against government watch lists. Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley told the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday that he has directed that the program's information technology system "go through a comprehensive audit." Hawley did not say whether any security flaws or breaches had been discovered. "We don't believe any passenger information has been compromised," Amy von Walter, spokeswoman for TSA, told reporters. The program called Secure Flight has been troubled from the start. It is strongly opposed by civil...

UNITED NATIONS - In a widening scandal over contracts, the United Nations announced Friday that it has suspended a subsidiary of the world's largest catering company as a U.N. supplier until the outcome of an investigation into alleged contract irregularities. The suspension is the latest blow to U.N. contracting which in recent months has seen the arrest of two Russians by the FBI for alleged money laundering. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Eurest Support Services, or ESS, has been barred from seeking new U.N. contracts until completion of a U.N. investigation into allegations that it "improperly obtained" internal U.N. information...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Citing uncertainty prompted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, California health officials suspended a program on Friday that had begun providing patients who smoke marijuana for medicinal reasons with state-issued identification cards. State Health Director Sandra Shewry has asked the state Attorney General's office to review the court ruling to determine whether the ID program would put patients and state employees at risk of federal prosecution. "I am concerned about unintended potential consequences of issuing medical marijuana ID cards that could affect medical marijuana users, their families and staff of the California Department of Health...

AFA suspends Ford boycott for six months Following a meeting with a group of Ford dealers on June 5, AFA has suspended its boycott of Ford Motor Company until December 1, 2005. In the meeting, the dealers asked for time to see if the concerns raised by AFA in their boycott announcement could be addressed by them in cooperation with officials from Ford Motor Company. AFA felt that the dealers were making a good faith effort and agreed to accept their request. Therefore, the suspension request was accepted by AFA. During the remaining period AFA will work with the dealers...

El Al suspends all Turkey flights El Al says is trying to find alternative flights for stranded passengers Israeli airline El Al has suspended all its flights to Turkey in a row over security in Istanbul. The suspension, which started on Thursday, has left air passengers stranded in both Turkey and Israel. The dispute follows weeks of growing tension between the two countries' governments, after Turkey's prime minister criticised Israel's treatment of Palestinians. But the row is thought to be unrelated to Thursday's bomb attacks in Turkey. The flights were halted after reports that the number of Israeli guards permitted...

Japan Suspends All U.S. Poultry Imports TOKYO - Japan has temporarily suspended all imports of American poultry after U.S. agriculture officials confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a chicken farm in Delaware, the government said Sunday. Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said Tokyo took the "precautionary measure" against Japan's fourth-biggest poultry supplier to prevent the spread of avian influenza. Tokyo, which had already banned poultry imports from the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Connecticut due to a bird flu outbreak last year, was trying to confirm details of the latest cases, Kamei told reporters. He did not say how...

US suspends official travel to Lebanon October 06 2003 at 02:48PM Washington - The United States on Monday barred diplomats from official travel to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and overland access to neighbouring Syria due to uncertain security conditions after Israel's strike in Damascus. The American embassy in Beirut said the restrictions, which include a ban on travel to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, would remain in place until at least Thursday pending a review of security conditions in the area. "Due to October 5 events in Syria, the US embassy in Beirut has suspended for 72 hours official travel to...

Senate Votes to Hold Stock Dividends Tax By MARY DALRYMPLE, AP Tax Writer WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to suspend taxes on stock dividends for three years, restoring the centerpiece of President Bush's economic plan in a package of tax cuts that is still half the size he wanted. "It would encourage investment, it would encourage jobs, it would encourage growth," Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., said just before Vice President Dick Cheney cast the tie-breaking ballot in the 51-50 vote to abolish dividend taxes in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The taxes would be restored in 2007. Sen. Max...

Wednesday, 22 January, 2003, 13:36 GMTVenezuela suspends currency markets Firms are operating in a hostile environment Venezuela's will close its currency markets for five days in an attempt to stem capital flight. The country's currency, the bolivar, has lost almost a quarter of its value since the start of the year, while the economy has been crippled by a seven-week opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez. And as the political and financial turmoil increases, more multinational firms are fleeing Venezuela. Microsoft is the latest firm to close its two Venezuelan offices, while Ford Motors has told its employees to leave...

The state Department of Corrections suspended formal satanic services by inmates at one Kentucky prison yesterday until officials can research and develop a statewide policy.Inmates at Green River Correctional Complex, a medium-security prison in Central City, have been allowed since earlier this summer to hold weekly satanic services as part of the official religious services calendar, said Lisa Carnahan, a spokes-woman for the state Department of Corrections.The state suspended the services after the Herald-Leader inquired about the issue this week.Inmates in at least two of the state's other 14 prisons -- Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex at West Liberty and the...