Free Republic

Pressure mounted on Sen. Tom McClintock to withdraw from the gubernatorial race Tuesday as Sen. Minority Leader Jim Brulte endorsed rival Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Brulte joined other GOP leaders in voicing fears that McClintock and Schwarzenegger will split the Republican vote and ensure victory for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. The endorsement dealt a blow to McClintock, especially since Brulte has long been a supporter. Brulte co-chaired McClintock's campaign for state controller last year and raised significant amounts of money for him. But Brulte noted that McClintock continues to place third in statewide polls. A survey released last week by...

In the clearest sign yet that the Republican Party is coalescing behind actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, three influential party leaders Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure on state Sen. Tom McClintock to abandon his bid to be governor. The state's ranking Republican, Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, said McClintock's candidacy threatens to put another Democrat in the governor's office. The man who bankrolled the recall petition drive, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, pointedly called on McClintock to drop out of the race. And the former head of the party, a fellow conservative, is asking county chairs to endorse the more moderate Schwarzenegger...

MIAMI -- A group of Florida Republican state representatives is warning President Bush that he could lose their support for the 2004 election if he fails to adopt a tougher Cuba policy. The Cuban-American leaders drafted a letter to be mailed Monday asking the administration to revise its current migration policy, indict Fidel Castro for the 1996 shoot down of two planes by Cuban fighter jets, ensure that TV Marti is viewed by people in Cuba and increase aid to dissidents on the island. ``We feel it is our responsibility as Republican elected officials to inform you that unless substantial...

17 March – The United Kingdom, United States and Spain today announced they will not pursue a vote in the Security Council on a draft resolution presenting an ultimatum to Iraq and said they reserved the right to take their own steps to secure that country’s disarmament. MORE TO FOLLOW

US ready to withdraw South Korea troops By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 07 March 2003 Despite the worsening confrontation with North Korea, Washington is considering pulling some or all of its 37,000 troops away from the South's border, and perhaps out of the Korean peninsula altogether. At a question-and-answer session with Pentagon employees yesterday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said Washington's existing force deployments in Europe and Korea were a Cold War relic. He added that the South Korean economy was "25 to 35 times" as large as that of the reclusive Communist north, meaning that Seoul had "all...

Kuwaitis withdraw capital from US By Jack Fairweather in Kuwait (Filed: 01/01/2003) Kuwaitis, faced with the threat of war against Iraq, are withdrawing hundreds of millions of dollars from America to invest at home. Kuwait's stock market has soared by more than 30 per cent in the past year, and last month alone around $90 million (£60 million) was removed from investment projects in America. The reason, according to one Kuwaiti investor, is simple: "People in Kuwait are looking at what happened to America on September 11, and all the threats of further terrorism, and have reached the decision that...

Should Israel Withdraw? Is Anti-Israel Violence 'Terrorism?'

MADRID, April 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The European Union (EU), on Tuesday, demanded that Israel suspend its military operations and immediately withdraw its forces from the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah. The demand was included in a document adopted by the foreign ministers of the EU at the end of the 5th Euro-Mediterranean Conference which concluded in the Spanish city of Valencia, in theeast part of the Iberian country. The EU asked Israel to respect and guarantee the personal security and liberty of movement of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and find a peaceful solution to the Israeli siege of the...

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (IslamOnline & news Agencies) - The U.N. Security Council is to resume debate Tuesday, April 9, on an Arab request for another resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, as Israeli tanks pulled out of two towns. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, rebuffed the request late Monday, saying it was "time for leadership on the ground and in the region. We do not need any more resolutions, we need full implementation of the existing ones." He was speaking Monday, April 8, in a public debate, the council's fifth meeting since...