Free Republic

At exactly 5 p.m. on March 13, 2007, just as I was preparing to leave my cubicle in Washington for the day, I got a phone call from the journalist Jonathan Landay of McClatchy Newspapers. To this day, I remember his exact words. 'One of your congressman’s constituents is being held in an Ethiopian intelligence service prison, and I think your former employer is neck-deep in this.' The congressman was Rush Holt, then a Democratic representative from New Jersey, for whom I worked for 10 years starting in 2004. The constituent was Amir Mohamed Meshal of Tinton Falls, N.J., who...

Ethiopia has blocked social media sites across the country after questions from end-of-year university exams were posted online last month, sparking a national scandal. The online leak of national of the exam papers, which many have called an embarrassment for the government, forced the tests to be postponed. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viber have been inaccessible in the Horn of Africa's most populous country since Saturday morning, and will continue to be so until the national school examinations are concluded on Wednesday, according to government officials. A government spokesman said the ban was aimed at stopping students taking university entrance...

The researchers trace the fossil record, which illustrates a timeline placing multiple species overlapping in time and geographic space. Their insights spur further questions about how these early human ancestors were related and shared resources... The 1974 discovery of Australopithecus afarensis, which lived from 3.8 to 2.9 million years ago, was a major milestone in paleoanthropology that pushed the record of hominins earlier than 3 million years ago and demonstrated the antiquity of human-like walking. Scientists have long argued that there was only one pre-human species at any given time before 3 million years ago that gave rise to another...

A little known Swedish-Canadian oil and mining conglomerate human rights groups have repeatedly charged produces “blood minerals” is among the Clinton Foundation’s biggest donors, thanks to a ($100 million pledge) in 2007, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.“Blood minerals” are related to “blood diamonds,” which are allegedly mined in war zones or sold as commodities to help finance political insurgencies or despotic warlords. When the Vancouver, Canada-based Lundin Group gave its $100 million commitment to the “Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative,” the company had long been cutting deals with warlords, Marxist rebels, military strongmen and dictatorships in the...

South Africa’s reputation as top gun when it comes to air power in the southern African region could be shot down by Angola and its powerful new Russian fighters. The west African country is set to take delivery of the first tranche of Sukhoi Su-30K fighters in the next six months and will have 12 in service by the end of next year. Gauteng Afrikaans daily Beeld approached military analyst Helmoed Heitman, retired SAAF and Indian Air Force pilot colonel Rama Iyer and a former officer commanding 2 Squadron for their views on how the SA Air Force’s (SAAF) Gripens...

in the savannah of Alatash National Park, the lion sleeps tonight. This remote part of north-west Ethiopia was considered a possible habitat for lions, but it is seldom visited by people. Now an expedition by the University of Oxford’s Conservation Research Unit has discovered that lions are indeed alive and well in the park – a rare extension of their known range. “During my professional career I have had to revise the lion distribution map many times,” says Hans Bauer, who led the expedition. “I have deleted one population after the other. This is the first and probably the last...

South Sudan's civil war began on the night of December 15, 2013, when a firefight erupted between soldiers serving in the presidential garrison in the capital city, Juba. "Between" is an important word. The battle pitted soldiers from the Dinka tribe (largest in South Sudan) against soldiers in the Nuer tribe (second largest). The government, led by president Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and the rebels, led by Riek Machar, a Nuer, agreed to their first ceasefire on December 31. Fire and combat, however, never ceased. Instead, it spread. Every ceasefire and peace declaration since has failed to hold. Poor communication...

On November 28, the fearless Ethiopian will make a flying debut and marry his fiance Seble Bekele the moment he lands. This will be his second attempt after he first taxied to a runway 40 kilometers but a broken propeller ruined his chance of flying. However, Asmelash Zeferu is all set with a new engine that doubles his power to 78 horsepower and has even sought professional advice for flying. Flying has always been a dream for Zeferu, since childhood he wanted to become a pilot but he had to meet with disappointment when he got to know he did...

Jursidiction is when My Spirit overwhelms the rulers,thrones and principalities with the heavenlies and you shall always find this in worship and praise for it causes an immediate setback and hedge of Holy Fire for My Seraphim guard My Glory and such is the worship of My Children to their KING ! Job 1:6-10 6 Now there was a day when the sons (the angels) of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and accuser) also came among them. 7 And the Lord said to Satan, From where did you come? Then Satan answered the...

An Israeli man was violently attacked by a Sudanese national aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa last week. In the incident last Thursday, the Muslim attacker reportedly took a metal tray, grabbed the Jewish victim's head and hit him repeatedly while shouting "Death to the Jews!" The Israeli Foreign Ministry told Arutz Sheva that Ethiopian police arrested the attacker as soon as the plane landed, and have extended him remand in custody. .....

A flake of limestone (ostracon) inscribed with an ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC turns out to be the world's oldest known abecedary. The words have been arranged according to their initial sounds, and the order followed here is one that is still known today. This discovery by Ben Haring (Leiden University) with funding from Free Competition Humanities has been published in the October issue of the 'Journal of Near Eastern Studies'. The order is not the ABC of modern western alphabets, but Halaham (HLHM), the order known from the Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Arabian and Classical Ethiopian...

In Mota cave, located in the Gamo highlands of Ethiopia, a group of NSF-supported researchers excavation a rock cairn. They discovered under it a burial site containing the remains of a 4,500-year skeleton. Credit: Kathryn and John Arthur ================================================================================================================= Three years ago, a group of researchers found a cave in Ethiopia with a secret: it held the 4,500-year-old remains of a man, with his head resting on a rock pillow, his hands folded under his face, and stone flake tools surrounding him. The team named the man "Bayira," which means "firstborn" in the Gamo language, a common name in the...

Scientists say they have extracted ancient DNA from the skull of a man buried in the highlands of Ethiopia 4,500 years ago that supports the theory that Eurasian farmers migrated into Africa some 3,000 years ago. This Stone Age resettlement had previously been theorized, but the rare find allowed scientists to see what DNA looked like well before the time the migration would have taken place. A comparison with modern populations around the world allowed them to see that the migrants left their genetic mark in the furthest corners of Africa. "This is the first ancient human genome found in...

Twenty-four years ago, Israel, acting alone, rescued 14,325 Ethiopian Jewish refugees via Operation Solomon. These Jews were being threatened by Eritrean and Tigean rebels because of their religion and the general destabilization of the country. Once the decision was made, and with the overt help of the American government and President George H.W. Bush, an airlift was instituted whereby all these refugees were rescued within a time period of 36 hours. These new immigrants, who were of a different color, had different customs, and were culturally unlike any other Israelis, were greeted with open arms. They were assisted economically, educationally,...

(snip) Why Minneapolis? Authorities say it's linked to Minneapolis-St. Paul's large Somali community. According to The New York Times, estimates peg the local Somali population, which Minneapolis touts as the largest in the US, at roughly 30,000 people. Reports have described violent extremism as bubbling up within the local Somali community going back years, especially as a result of the 2006 conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia. At the time, much of the terrorism-recruitment issue centered on al-Shabab, the Somali-based group that would later become an Al Qaeda affiliate. The office of Minnesota's US attorney, Andrew Luger, said Wednesday that groups...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — President Obama asserted on Tuesday that he could win a third term if allowed by the Constitution, but said he was looking forward to life after the presidency, when he will be able to take a walk and spend more time with his family. As he wrapped up what may be his final trip to Africa while in office, Mr. Obama took aim at some of the continent’s gerontocracy and called on long-entrenched leaders to step down, declaring that “nobody should be president for life.” But it led to an off-the-cuff riff about his own improved...

Archeologist explains link between bones found in Ethiopia, Texas Lucy's bones on display at Houston museum By Pamela LeBlancAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFSaturday, December 22, 2007 One roamed the forests of East Africa 3.2 million years ago. The other lived in Central Texas more than 9,500 years ago. What's the connection between two skeletons found a world apart? That was the question on a recent visit to Houston, where the famous older skeleton is on display. Though not complete, Lucy does have enough pieces, especially skull bones, for scientists to predict her measurements. This model at the Houston Museum of Natural Science shows...

US President Barack Obama has told the BBC he will continue to deliver his "blunt message" to African leaders about gay rights and discrimination."I am not a fan of discrimination and bullying of anybody on the basis of race... religion... sexual orientation or gender," he said. Mr Obama is on his way to visit his ancestral home of Kenya and he will also go to Ethiopia. He said the trip showed US commitment to fighting terror in East Africa. In the wide-ranging interview with the BBC's North America editor Jon Sopel before he left Washington, President Obama also said: â—¾His...

Rabbi Capers Funnye to be the first American head of the Black Hebrew Israelites since 1999. America has elected its first "Black Chief Rabbi," the International Israelite Board of Rabbis (IIBR) announced - and he is a cousin of First Lady Michelle Obama. Rabbi Capers Funnye, a Chicago-based convert to Judaism, is the first person to hold the position since Chief Rabbi Levi ben Levy died in 1999. "Rabbi Funnye’s work with Black Jews in the United States and Africa made him uniquely qualified for this position," the IIBR said. "His goal as Chief Rabbi is to build closer ties...

Adolf Hitler started World War II by attacking Poland on September 1, 1939. Nazi Germany moved only after it had already remilitarized the Rhineland, absorbed Austria and dismantled Czechoslovakia. Before the outbreak of the war, Hitler's new Third Reich had created the largest German-speaking nation in European history. Well before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese government had redrawn the map of Asia and the Pacific. Japan had occupied or annexed Indochina, Korea, Manchuria and Taiwan, in addition to swaths of coastal China. Attacking Hawaii, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia was merely the logical 1941 follow-up...