Free Republic

Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes regularly speaks about her hardscrabble background—a childhood in poverty, her struggle to get through school, and her two marriages before meeting Gov. John Kitzhaber, to whom she is now engaged. On Wednesday, WW published a story about the private consulting work Hayes, 47, has performed while first lady. In the story, we reported Hayes had actually been married and divorced three times. That’s a small detail that might seem otherwise unremarkable. In 1997, King County, Wash., marriage records show, Hayes married a teenage Ethiopian immigrant 11 years younger than her. Obtaining residency or citizenship for...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes admitted she had a third marriage to an Ethiopian man to help him get his citizenship, and said Gov. John Kitzhaber had no idea about this event in her life until Wednesday afternoon. At a press conference Thursday, Hayes, 46, apologized to “John, the person I love above all others.” She said she needs to take some “personal time to reflect and look at my relationship with John.” Kitzhaber, 67, and Hayes announced their engagement earlier this summer. A Willamette Week story questions whether the marriage to the Ethiopian man...

A fire station was quarantined and a police station evacuated Friday evening after a man claiming to be from Africa showed up at the Baton Rouge Police precinct on Highland Road ill. Police said, given the current situation with Ebola across the globe and the events in Texas, they decided to take precautionary measures. The measures included calling medical responders, HAZMAT and evacuating the police station between downtown and LSU. Officers said they were concerned because the man was obviously ill, a spokesperson said. The fire station near the North Gates of LSU was closed Friday night and fire fighters...

Meskel Square Intersection Never complain about traffic again. Here's a day in the life of one of the most ridiculous intersections in the world - Meskel Square, Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia.

It's not just the comic - but in reality tragic - waste of public money from both the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Legal Aid system. It's also the umpteenth confirmation that the money given to Third World countries as foreign aid helps local tyrants to better oppress their people. And it's one of those very people now who is saying it not only in words but also in actions, so convinced he is of it as to be prepared to sue Britain. "Ethiopian farmer gets legal aid... To sue us for sending aid to Ethiopia: Case...

Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated. Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians. "These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes. "Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated." According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques...

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved "disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks", including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favor, 1 against (the United States) with 17...

Meanwhile In Ethiopia Goat riding man for a change.

“WHAT?” I thought. “Where is this?!” And so began my research into the fantastic rock-cut underground churches in Lalibela. In the twelfth century, King Lalibela, a member of the Zagwe dynasty which had seized the throne of Ethiopia around 1000 A.D., sought support from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. To garner support, he commissioned a series of twelve extraordinary churches in the small town of Roha (now renamed Lalibela). He hoped to create a New Jerusalem, a pilgrimage site for Christians who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Secretary of State John Kerry, stopping in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to visit with U.S. Embassy staff, implied that religious tenets created more than 1000 years ago were inappropriate for modern society. Kerry said: "This is a time here in Africa where there are a number of different cross-currents of modernity that are coming together to make things even more challenging. Some people believe that people ought to be able to only do what they say they ought to do, or to believe what they say they ought to believe, or live by their interpretation of something that was written...

Russia has cut a deal with Sudan to deliver a dozen advanced MiG-29 Fulcrum jet fighters to the war-torn country. The deal, announced Christmas Day in Moscow, also includes 14 MiG-29 jets for Yemen. The transfer of fourth-generation MiG-29 Fulcrums to Sudan has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and is certain to alter any possible U.S. plans for air strikes at known terrorist bases inside the African nation. Sudan was cited as one of a limited number of nations with direct links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The U.S. State Department also listed Sudan as one of a few hostile ...

Ethiopia's bold decision to pay for a huge dam itself has overturned generations of Egyptian control over the Nile's waters, and may help transform one of the world's poorest countries into a regional hydropower hub. By spurning an offer from Cairo for help financing the project, Addis Ababa has ensured it controls the construction of the Renaissance Dam on a Nile tributary. The electricity it will generate - enough to power a giant rich-world city like New York - can be exported across a power-hungry region. But the decision to fund the huge project itself also carries the risk of...

Posting from The Independent prohibited so click HERE for the full article.

Ethiopia's lawmakers are set to pass a bill that puts homosexuality on a list of offenses considered "non-pardonable" under the country's amnesty law, a measure that continues a trend of anti-gay legislation across Africa. The bill, endorsed last week by Ethiopia's Cabinet, is widely expected to pass when lawmakers put it to a vote next week. Homosexuality is criminalized in 38 African countries, about 70 percent of the continent, according to Amnesty International. Uganda and Nigeria have recently strengthened criminal penalties against homosexuals. In Ethiopia, same-sex acts are illegal and punishable by up to 15 years in prison. A 25-year...

Three more Ethiopians killed by Saudi police. The killing of Ethiopians continues in Saudi Arabia Three more Ethiopians killed in Saudi Arabia Three more Ethiopians have been killed in Saudi Arabia. Thousands of Ethiopians are leaving the middle east country after scores have been killed in the past few days. Hundreds more injured and women are being raped in front of their families. It is astounding and mind boggling the international community is so silent about this shameful actions of the Saudis. "The act of killing innocent civilians is uncalled for, we condemn that," Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - The Douala-Djibouti CorridorPosted By Jerome Vitenberg On February 6, 2014 @ 12:15 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 1 Comment The current French involvement in the Central African Republic, which follows in the footsteps of its ongoing “Operation Serval” in Mali, has led many to wonder about President Francois Hollande’s goals in his African campaigns.In recent months, the CAR’s ex-Séléka Muslim rebel fighters, bolstered by Sudanese and Chadian mercenaries, have waged a campaign of murder, rape and pillage against the country’s 80% Christian-majority population. With the government in disarray, Christians have organized defensive “anti-balaka” (“anti-machete”)...

At 5:00pm Pacific Time, Ethiopian Flight 702, a Boeing 767-300 was flying over Sudan when it started squawking 7500. The transponder code, is supposed to indicate a “hijacking.” (snip) The flight, operating from Addis Abba to Rome has been confirmed by Rome Airport not to have arrived yet. As of now, it is over France, but has recently taken a steep northeast heading. Based on flight tracking, it appears the plane is headed to Geneva. Emergency crews are standing by.

The queen of Sheba was once one of the most powerful leaders in the world but there are few clues left anywhere about this woman who ruled a rich and powerful nation somewhere in Africa -- perhaps, as some archeologists maintain, in what is now southwest Nigeria. Now, in what may be the site of her last home and gravesite, a University of Toronto professor is trying to unearth the queen's story -- partially told in the Old Testament -- as well as honouring her in the form of a new Nigerian museum and interpretive centre. "Each year both Muslim...

Donald Duck will be getting a new voice in Arabic -- Egyptian voice artist Wael Mansour was fired by the Walt Disney Company over his ranting on Twitter last August, in which he expressed his virulent hatred of Israel and earnest desires for the Jewish state's destruction. Mansour's tweet read "I truly wish #Israel is demolished, I hate Zionism, I have so much hate inside me with every child they murder or land they seize!" He added "I don’t know why insulting #Israel & #Zionism is ‘Anti-Semitic’?! They are just a bunch of Polish/ Ethiopian immigrants roughly 70 years old."...

South Sudan: Cease-Fire SignedBy South Sudan News StaffNAIROBI, Kenya — January 23 … The government of South Sudan was pleased to announce that rebels loyal to the country’s ousted former vice president signed a cease-fire agreement today. The cease-fire ends more than a month of fighting that displaced thousands of people. Under the agreement, signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, both sides in the conflict promised to lay down their weapons. But they have also said that a cessation of hostilities would be a temporary measure, short of a formal peace agreement, and that negotiations would have to continue....