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WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2006 – Five years after military recruiting hit the ceiling after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, recruiting remains solid, with every service meeting its active-duty recruiting goal for the 15th consecutive month. Recruiting and retention statistics for August, just released by the Defense Department, show the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force all meeting or exceeding both their monthly as well as year-to-date recruiting goals for the year. At the same time, retention remains solid across the board, with all services expected to meet their retention goals for the fiscal year, officials said. During August,...

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army general who rhelped set up operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has asserted his right not to incriminate himself in the courts-martial of two soldiers accused of mistreating detainees there, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. The move by Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller is the first time he has indicated he might have information that could implicate him in wrongdoing, the newspaper said, citing military lawyers. Invoking the right does not legally imply guilt it said. It said the action came shortly after the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas...

A federal judge in San Jose refused Wednesday to restrain the California Teachers Association from bolstering its political campaign account by imposing an annual $60 surcharge on its members for the next three years. U.S. District Court Judge James Ware's decision in a case filed by the Virginia-based Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation probably will allow the teachers union to raise and spend upwards of $50 million to contest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election initiatives slated for the Nov. 8 ballot, representatives of both sides in the lawsuit said. "This is fantastic," CTA chief counsel Beverly Tucker said. "We...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An HIV-positive transgender woman from Honduras can stay indefinitely in the United States because she would face physical threats and a lack of medical care if she returned to her native country, a federal judge ruled. Judge Jan D. Latimore ruled Tuesday that Cristina Gomez Ordonez should not be deported, allowing Ordonez, 34, to work in the United States and receive medical treatment. "We are happy that the judge granted withholding ... and acknowledged that our client was going to face a lot of problems if she were returned to Honduras," said Shiu-Ming Cheer of Catholic...

LOS ANGELES - Actor Tom Sizemore was ordered Friday to remain in a live-in drug rehabilitation program until he is sentenced in September for violating his probation on drug charges, his prosecutor said. Sizemore admitted to a series of violations, including falsifying his urine tests by using a prosthetic device and failing to submit to drug testing on eight occasions, said Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney. The actor was nearly a no-show in court, arriving several hours late for Friday's hearing. His attorney, Michael Rovell, said Sizemore had been in the rehabilitation facility since July 11 and requested Thursday that...

Some 30 youths are being held in prison until later this week, following yesterday's seven-minute blocking of the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv. Coincidentally, 40 taxi drivers were arrested today for blocking traffic in a work dispute - but police said they would be released if the strike is ended. Among the most controversial arrests was that of 17-year-old Y.M. of Kibbutz Shaalvim - whom the police held for five hours without informing his family. Ariel, of the Honenu organization, which provides aid to citizens under or facing political arrest, first learned of the story from the boy's friends yesterday...

To avoid "potential harm" to eight people who have joined avowed atheist Michael Newdow in a quest to strike "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, a federal judge agreed Tuesday to allow them to remain anonymous during what is sure to be a closely-watched legal fight over highly-charged issue. Newdow, who filed the lawsuit using pseudonyms for all the plaintiffs except himself, proposed in a motion to keep anonymous the names of the parents and students in Sacramento County and San Joaquin County school districts. Attorneys for the defendants - Congress, the federal government, California, and five school districts...

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's future has been in doubt amid spreading violence and U.S. deaths in Iraq (news - web sites). Whether he would remain in his job was one of the last big question marks about President Bush (news - web sites)'s second-term Cabinet. The issue was decided this week in an Oval Office meeting where Bush asked Rumsfeld to remain and the secretary accepted, a senior administration official said Friday. Rumsfeld's tenure has been marked by unanticipated postwar violence in Iraq and more than 1,250 U.S. deaths, as well as enormous increases in spending on...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union and the United States recommitted themselves to a smooth trans-Atlantic relationship Friday and hoped the second term of President Bush would no longer be marred by nasty political and trade disputes. But French President Jacques Chirac, wary of Washington's global economic and political clout, said it was imperative for Europe to boost its standing so that the world can become "multi-polar." "It is evident that Europe, now more than ever, must strengthen its unity and dynamism when faced with this great world power," Chirac said at the end of a two-day summit. "More...

Nearly four years have elapsed since the Oslo process (1993-2000) between Israelis and Palestinians foundered in bloodshed. Over that period, two U.S. administrations have tried to forge policies that would reduce the violence and point toward a solution to the conflict.It has not been a single-minded pursuit. Since September 11, 2001, the prime focus of Washington has been the management of unprecedented U.S. military interventions in the region, which removed regimes from power in Afghanistan and Iraq. The notion of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the key to regional stability has been replaced by the war on terror and the insistence on...

Red Cross vows to remain in Iraq By Naomi Koppel in Geneva 30 October 2003 The international Red Cross decided to pull out some of its foreign employees from Iraq yesterday because of a suicide bombing at its Baghdad headquarters, but vowed to stay in the country for the sake of the Iraqi people. "We remain committed to our work in Iraq because of the prevailing humanitarian situation," said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Two Iraqi Red Cross employees and as many as 10 other people were killed in the bombing at...

<p>Although his past races earned Gov. Gray Davis a reputation as an aggressive campaigner, his advisers said he'll fight the Oct. 7 recall election with a strategy based on trying to fly above the circus swirling below him.</p> <p>If he is to survive the first recall election in California history, his advisers said, he must also show voters the Republican-led recall will not solve California's problems but merely aggravate them by costing $66 million dollars and possibly leaving a small, fringe group in control of nation's most populous state and the world's fifth-largest economy.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - With less than a week to go before a June 15 deadline for adopting a state budget, the gap between Democrats and Republicans appeared to widen Monday as the state treasurer and GOP Senate leader traded accusations over spending and politics.</p>

'Terrorist' imam free to remain in Britain By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor and Nigel Bunyan (Filed: 30/10/2002) A Pakistani cleric ordered to be deported from Britain as a "danger to national security" has been allowed to stay, despite losing a four-year legal battle that went to the House of Lords. Shafiq ur Rehman Shafiq ur Rehman was told last week that deportation proceedings against him have been dropped even though the Home Office spent hundreds of thousands of pounds fighting the case. No official announcement was made. Mr Rehman, 30, an imam at a mosque in Oldham, will be...