Free Republic

Caracas, Venezuela Population: 3.2 million Murder rate: 130 per 100,000 residents (official) . . . The numbers also don’t count those who died while “resisting arrest,” suggesting that Caracas’s cops—already known for their brutality against student protesters—might be cooking the books. Cape Town, South Africa Population: 3.5 million Murder rate: 62 per 100,000 inhabitants According to the South African Police Service, most of the Cape Town area’s violent crimes happen between people who know one another, including a horrific case last year in which four males doused a female friend in gasoline and lit her on fire. New Orleans, United...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

South Africa: Cape Town on high alert as Thabo Mbeki deploys troops to quell violence Last Updated: 8:31PM BST 21/05/2008 President Thabo Mbeki tonight ordered troops into South Africa’s troubled townships as violence against black migrant workers spread across the country, threatening the city of Cape Town. Attacks on migrant workers erupted around Johannesburg over the weekend, forcing foreigners to return to their neighboring countries. Violence flared against foreigners in the provinces of KwaZulu-Nataland and Mpumalanga and police in Cape Town were put on high alert. Mr Mbeki, who has been criticised for his lack of leadership during a week...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A plane carrying more than 100 people made an emergency landing in South Africa after an engine fell off during takeoff from Cape Town on Wednesday, officials said. No injuries were reported. The Nationwide airline plane, bound for Johannesburg, touched down safely after the airport's fire and rescue services rushed to clear debris from the runway. The right engine of the Boeing 737 "separated from the wing. The aircraft continued to climb out," the airline said in a statement. One of the passengers, Pretoria businesswoman Ronel Derman, told the South African Press Association that...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Political rivals have hurled chairs at her, called her a racist, even accused her of undermining South Africa's plans to host the World Cup in 2010. But what really angers Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille is that after six bruising months in office, she may soon lose her job in what she calls, with characteristic bluntness, "a crude power grab" by the African National Congress. At stake, says Zille, 55, is not just Cape Town but the future of South Africa's 12-year-old democracy. For Zille is not just the mayor of one of the country's...

An elderly woman has been killed in South Africa in a bush fire raging out of control on Cape Town's landmark Table Mountain. The flames are being fanned by strong winds. Thick smoke has engulfed the centre of the city as the fire spreads rapidly across the lower slopes. Firefighters are struggling to contain the blaze and a number of hikers are trapped on nearby Signal Hill.

The security alerts in the US and the UK have also reverberated in South Africa because Pakistani police have raised the possibility that al-Qaida supporters were planning terrorist attacks in Pretoria and Johannesburg. Two South Africans of Asian descent were arrested during the 12-hour gun battle with Pakistani police in the eastern city of Gujrat that led to the capture of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Gujrat's police chief, Raja Munawar Hussainl, alleged yesterday that the two South Africans - Zoubair Ismail, 20, an Islamic student, and...

Cape Town priest to lecture on Islam in Rome February 06 2003 at 10:50AM By Tasneem Abrahams A Cape Town Catholic priest, who is an expert in Islam, has been called to the Vatican in Rome to teach at the Pontifical College for Arabic and Islamic studies. Father Christopher Clohessy, priest at St Anthony of Padua church in Kraaifontein, will also study for his doctorate at the college. He has a Master's degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies, obtained from the college in 2001. He has also studied in Cairo. Since his return to South Africa he has been...

With unprecedented numbers of foreign tourists set to flock to Cape Town during the festive season and the Cricket World Cup, scenario planner Clem Sunter says the city would be wise to step up vigilance to pre-empt a possible Bali-type attack here. He urged a high level of alertness at places frequented by tourists, such as the Table Mountain cableway and Cape Point, saying that he Bali bombing had shown that places attracting Western tourists were vulnerable. Sunter is the co-author of The Mind Of A Fox, in which - six months before the September 11 attacks - he said...

This year on April 6 marked the founding of Cape Town. On that day in 1652 Jan van Riebeeck led colonists to found what would become Cape Town. For Afrikaners this was akin to our Pilgrim Father’s establishing a colony in 1620. Remembering, let alone celebrating, Dutch settlement in South Africa has been tossed into the memory hole. The grand scheme of the Dutch East India Company was for Cape Town to be a supply link to aid the main chance: trade with the Spice Islands [today’s Indonesia]. The role of citrus in preventing scurvy was known and the farmers,...