Free Republic

A Texas state representative is accusing a Las Vegas-based Honorary Consul of Lebanon of providing private air travel for Texas Democrat lawmakers who fled the Lone Star State to block an imminent vote on Republican-crafted Election Integrity legislation. “A coalition of members of the Texas state House boarded private planes purportedly owned by Philippe Khalil Ziade, a Lebanese-American entrepreneur and honorary consul of Lebanon in Nevada, according to Texas State Representative Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park),” reports Kenny Webster of KPRC Radio. “Ziade is the founder and chairman of Las Vegas based Growth Holdings and is highly engaged in Lebanese politics...

In a move likely to further strain relations between the United States and Venezuela, the State Department on Sunday said that it had ordered a Venezuelan diplomat based in Miami to leave the country.

The United States has ordered the expulsion of Venezuela’s consul general in Miami, AFP reported on Sunday. The expulsion comes amid reports linking the diplomat to an alleged Iranian plot to target sensitive U.S. facilities with cyber attacks. According to the report, the Venezuelan embassy in Washington was notified on Friday that Livia Acosta Noguera, the consul general in Miami, had been declared persona non grata and had until Tuesday to leave the country...

Paraguay named an undocumented U.S. immigrant to run its consulate in New York, discovering his illegal status only when the man returned home to get his diplomatic papers and was denied a U.S. visa. Paraguay's foreign ministry acknowledged Wednesday that it was a mistake to name Augusto Noguera as the consulate's "first official," but said President Fernando Lugo annulled the decision as soon as he was informed of the U.S. Embassy's visa denial. Vice Foreign Minister Manuel Maria Caceres told The Associated Press that the decision to name Noguera as a diplomat on Sept. 21 was made in good faith...

/begin my translation A N. Korean Diplomat Found Dead in Shenyang (Disappeared since Oct.) Choi Yushik in Beijing 2009/11/13 Authorities looking into various possibilities A consul at N. Korean Consulate in Shenyang, China, was recently found dead in the city, raising tension among the diplomatic circles in China. A source on N. Korea in Beijing said on Nov. 12, "A consul in charge of economic affairs at N. Korean Consulate in Shenyang was found dead on Oct. 30. Chinese authorities are investigating." The consul went missing in early October, which prompted rumors. One version said he may have escaped to...

Job opportunities declining, perceived anti-immigrant sentiment named causes Many Mexicans increasingly feel unwelcome in Colorado because of a perceived anti-immigrant sentiment, and some are looking back home for opportunities as the economy here sours, Denver’s Mexican consul general says. “What I’ve found is that in our communities,with few exceptions, there’s a sense that the state is not friendly toward immigrants, that they don’t feel welcomed and that they encounter this feeling of, ‘I don’t like you but I need you,”’ Eduardo Arnal said during a recent interview in Spanish. Arnal said that in his travels around Colorado people tell him...

<p>German lawmakers embarrass their envoy in S.F. Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross Sunday, August 24, 2008 They came. They shopped. And they embarrassed the hell out of us.</p> <p>That was the reaction of the German consul general in San Francisco, Rolf Schütte, to a group of lawmakers from his homeland who recently traipsed through the city, leaving a lot of bad feelings in their wake after using a racial slur and choosing sightseeing and shopping over meetings with their U.S. counterparts.</p>

Swiss Consul to St. Petersburg Madeleine Lüthy is coming to the city Tobolsk in the first decade of August in the framework of creation of Romanovs` Royal Family tourist route in Russia.

BAGHDAD, April 10 (Reuters) - A Pakistani diplomat has gone missing in Baghdad, Iraqi police said on Sunday. They said the man had failed to return from prayers at a mosque near his home on Saturday. Scores of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year, some by insurgent groups with political demands and others by criminals seeking a ransom. An Egyptian diplomat was seized by insurgents on his way home from prayers last year but was freed a few days later.

Frédéric Desagneaux, consul general of France for San Francisco, is not happy with the light being shown on his country’s involvement with U.N. corruption in Iraq. Poor thing. Yesterday, the independent committee investigating corruption in the U.N.’s “oil-for-food” program for Iraq made public the names of 3,545 companies that sold goods to Saddam. Also published were the names of 248 companies which received Iraqi oil under the program. Through oil-for-food, Saddam stole “$10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.” Leave it to the U.N. to pull off one of the biggest scandals in world history. Evidence is emerging...

The Polish Consul in Mongolia, having escaped a fire, walked for 3 days over 160 kilometers in Mongolia's steppe. The press-attache for Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Boguslav Maevsky, informed journalists that the consul and his driver were found Friday evening in the area of Sumber. They are healthy and feel fine. The Polish consulate, Mongolian army and police, as well as rescue crews working in the region for the American oil company SOCO all took part in the search efforts. On Friday, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had informed the media of the loss of Polish consulate representatives in...

Consuls from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Mexico say they're uniting forces to improve the quality of life for Hispanic immigrants in California. The consuls announced a plan Wednesday to work with U.S. officials and community groups to provide joint education and legal assistance in areas of health, immigration and labor rights... "The question is not, 'what do the countries gain from uniting?', it's 'what do we stand to lose by not doing it?'" Guatemalan Consul Fernando Castillo said before signing the agreement in Los Angeles' Olvera Plaza, where the city was founded by Spanish settlers more...

More than 91,000 Spanish-language textbooks were donated to schools in Colorado and Wyoming on Friday by the Consul General of Mexico. This is the largest donation of textbooks since the Consul General started the practice more than five years ago, said spokesman Mario Hernandez. The textbooks are geared toward elementary-age students and cover nearly every subject. There are also books that contain information about every state in Mexico, Hernandez said. The books will help Spanish and non-Spanish speakers expand their Spanish vocabulary. It also helps expand knowledge of Mexico, Hernandez said.

AMMAN, November 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Consul Les Hickman has been "relieved of his responsibilities" amid an investigation into embezzlement involving a visa scam at the U.S. embassy in Amman, diplomatic sources said Wednesday, November 27. The probe - the first of its kind in Jordan - is focusing on "large sums of money" paid by individuals for visas to the United States, which has restricted the entry of foreigners following last year's attacks, the sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Hickman, consular chief and first secretary at the U.S. embassy in Amman since July 2000, will be...