Free Republic

Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills is scrambling to stem political damage from revelations five weeks before the election that her administration was teaching students in an online curriculum that “MAGA” is racist. Both in Tuesday’s debate and in her campaign advertising, the vulnerable Democrat has attempted to fend off allegations about education improprieties from her Republican opponent, former Gov. Paul LePage.

The US government is rushing to evacuate Americans from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan as officials warned the deadly strain's spread is picking up speed. A charter flight is scheduled to fly from the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday. The US consulate in Wuhan began reaching out to all Americans registered as living in the city - of which there are said to be roughly 1,000 - last week to offer them a seat on the plane. The State Department warned that the single flight will have 'limited capacity' to transport private US...

WASHINGTON – The fuse that could ignite an explosion of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan is burning so fast that the Obama administration is scrambling to keep pace. As Pakistan's army finally opened a belated offensive against the advance of extremist Taliban fighters, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his key security ministers huddled Wednesday with their Afghan and U.S. counterparts in all-day meetings in Washington. Afghan President Hamid Karzai started the day on a solemn note, acknowledging Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's expressions of regret for the deaths of dozens of Afghan civilians killed during Monday's battle...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani officials struggled Monday to salvage a peace deal meant to contain militants near the Afghan border and urged tribal elders to halt violence surging across the northwest. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, long insisted the 10-month-old accord was key to ending extremism in the tribal region, although U.S. officials complained it provided the Taliban and al-Qaida with a safe haven. Pro-Taliban militants in the lawless North Waziristan region renounced the agreement amid weekend bombings and suicide attacks that killed more than 70 people across the northwest, most of them policemen and soldiers. The violence has added...

Japan Scrambles Fighters 30 Times to Repel Chinese Wednesday, November 09, 2005 TOKYO — Japanese fighter jets have been scrambled 30 times to turn away Chinese planes approaching Japan's airspace in the last six months, more than twice the 13 times in the same period last year, officials said Wednesday. The increased defensive posture reflects the growing tensions between Japan and China, which are squabbling over interpretations of their wartime past, undersea gas deposits, and ownership of East China Sea islands. An Air Self Defense Force spokesman said Japan's fighter jets had scrambled 30 times in response to what were...