Free Republic

Republic of Korea: For the record. Pak Ku'n-hye (Park Geun-hye) of the New Frontier Party won South Korea's presidential election on 19 December, media reported. She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee and the first woman elected to be president of the Republic of Korea. That should confound the North! North Korea-Iran: According to a Japanese news service, an Iranian lawmaker told the service that North Korea informed Iran in October of its plan to launch a satellite. The head of an Iranian parliamentary delegation to North Korea, Hamid Reza Taraghi, revealed talks took place mid-October with the North's delegates...

But look on the bright side, at least it wasn’t Sudan, Syria or Saudi Arabia. I’m coming around to the opinion that we should do everything possible to keep the UN Human Rights Council around. Not only is it the greatest source of irony since fish in a blacksmith shop, but it’s also a living reminder that the United Nations is to human rights as an exploding train is to transportation safety. The UN Human Rights Council met today in Geneva and elected Mauritania as its Vice-President and Rapporteur for the next year, the second highest position at the world’s...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Alabama Men Arrested on Terrorism Charges U.S. Attorney’s Office December 11, 2012 Southern District of Alabama MOBILE, AL—U.S. Attorney Kenyen R. Brown of the Southern District of Alabama and Stephen E. Richardson, Special Agent in Charge of the Mobile Division of the FBI, announced that Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, 25, and Randy Wilson, also known as Rasheed Wilson, 25, both U.S. citizens living in Mobile, were arrested today on terrorism charges filed in the Southern District of Alabama. A criminal complaint signed on December 10, 2012, charges Abukhdair and Wilson with conspiring to...

On August 23, 2011 the FBI arrested Imam Abu Taubah aka Marcus Dwayne Robertson. The charge was possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, Case Number: 6:11-mj-1380 Attached to Imam Abu Robertson’s case is a Notice of Intent To Use Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Information (FISA). The U.S. Government’s intention to use its FISA powers signals probable cause to charge Imam “Taubah” Robertson “the target of such search is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power”. The facts presented in these filed charges leads this reporter to suspect an element of foreign intrigue may be...

Small teams of special operations forces arrived at American embassies throughout North Africa in the months before militants launched the fiery attack that killed the U.S. ambassador in Libya. The soldiers' mission: Set up a network that could quickly strike a terrorist target or rescue a hostage. But the teams had yet to do much counterterrorism work in Libya, though the White House signed off a year ago on the plan to build the new military task force in the region and the advance teams had been there for six months, according to three U.S. counterterror officials and a former...

Syria will be suspended from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday for its violent suppression of a 17-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, a diplomat said on Monday ahead of an emergency OIC summit in Mecca. "The resolution regarding the suspension of the Syrian membership in the OIC is not facing obstacles ... It will be approved," said the diplomat, speaking on the sidelines of a preliminary foreign ministers meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He said the decision was likely to be formally announced at the end of the second day of the summit, which was called by Saudi...

Israeli official: By blocking Israel's involvement in NATO events, Turkey also keeping 6 other regional countries from taking part. Turkey’s opposition to Israeli participation in NATO events blocks the inclusion of six other regional countries, something irritating other NATO states and increasingly becoming a contentious issue inside the alliance, Israeli diplomatic officials said Monday. According to the officials, the issue was raised last week at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. The officials denied Turkish media reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blocked Israel’s participation in the NATO summit in Chicago at the end of May, saying...

As a member of Mauritania's slave-owning class, Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane could have had anything he wanted as a present for his circumcision ceremony: a toy, money, a camel, or, as his brother would choose, a bicycle. But the 7-year-old wanted something more sinister. He chose Yebawa Ould Keihel, a young boy with skin the color of coal. At that moment, Abdel became a slave master. It's an experience that's common here in Mauritania, a vast country in West Africa's Sahara Desert where activists and the United Nations estimate 10% to 20% of people are enslaved -- usually dark-skinned people...

Mauritanian authorities acting with French help arrested Muammar Gaddafi's former chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, as he entered the West African country on a false passport, officials said on Saturday. Senussi, who for decades before the late dictator's fall inspired fear and hatred in ordinary Libyans, is sought by the Hague-based International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity. The whereabouts of Senussi, the last major figure at large from Gaddafi's regime, had been unclear for months.

The AU wants Africa to manufacture and export finished products to its trading partners rather than just selling them the raw materials as it does now. She cited China, India, the EU and US and other rising stars in trade with the continent, including Turkey and Latin America, and said the AU had held talks on the new breed of partnerships with some of them. The AU also wants Africa to have a veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council, and a place at the G20 negotiating table, Ali said. The peace and security that have eluded Africa for decades...

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

Despite repeated attempts to abolish slavery in Mauritania and the criminalization of its practice in 2007, the practice is still commonplace and particularly affects the Haratin, the vast majority of whom continue to live as slaves. Even when freed, slaves often continue to work for their former ‘masters’ due to psychological and economic dependence that has been established through years of enslavement. Discrimination is a significant factor in the difficulties facing freed Haratin in finding work; the few who are able to secure employment have been limited to providing manual labour in markets, airports and water ports. The UNPO –...

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called for closer ties with China on Monday during a visit to the Asian country, the official AMI news agency reported. "The Mauritanian government wants more infrastructure and bigger involvement of the CTCE company in Mauritania's development," the agency quoted the president as saying, referring to the China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group. Ould Abdel Aziz arrived in the central city of Hefei late Sunday accompanied by several members of his government and on Monday visited the CTCE. New China news agency said he was the guest of honour at a Chinese-Arab economic and trade...

The violent conflict in Libya has turned the neighbouring Sahel desert into a powder keg, regional powers said yesterday in Algiers, as former leader Muammar Gaddafi's arsenal risks being snapped up by al- Qaeda's local franchise... Algeria and other Libyan neighbours have expressed fears that the ousted Libyan leader's arsenal and remaining loyalists would be scattered across the Sahel, an 8- million-square-kilometre desert area south of the Sahara. Mr Bazoum said half a ton of Semtex explosive was seized in Niger in June, and warned that there might have been more, as well as surface- to-air missiles... French, American and...

Mauritania is at "high risk" of terrorist attacks, according to a recently published report from a British risk consultancy. The 2011 Terrorism Risk Index, published August 3rd by Maplecroft, placed Mauritania in the second highest category, grouped together with Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, among others. According to the study, the countries are "less risky but still dangerous". Mauritania was deemed only at "medium risk" of terror attacks in last year's survey. Maplecroft categorised countries according to their vulnerability to terrorist attacks. They examined the extent of terrorism's penetration in terms of planning, threats, fatalities and bombings across 197...

An Al-Qaeda leader of Algerian nationality was among 20 militants killed in southern Mauritania during a clash with military forces.Mauritanian forces on Tuesday reportedly responded to an attack on a military base in Bassiknou on the border with Mali by launching a counter-offensive against forces from The Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM the terror network's North African branch. The firefight lasted around 45 minutes and afterward Mauritanian forces chased the militants into Mali. Ten insurgents were captured during the standoff.

The Mauritanian army said it had destroyed a camp in neighbouring Mali Friday night that was sheltering militants linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Al Qaeda ’s North African offshoot carries out armed attacks from bases in Mali. AFP - The Mauritanian army has "completely destroyed" an Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb camp in neighbouring Mali in an assault that left four soldiers wounded, a security source said. Friday's attack in the forest region of Wagadou in western Mali involved air strikes and was staged in the evening, the Mauritanian source told AFP, adding that the "terrorists" struck...

Algeria on Wednesday called for an inclusive dialogue in Libya with the participation of all Libyan parties to reach a peaceful settlement of the crisis. Speaking at a press conference in the capital Algiers, Abdelkader Messahel, Algerian Delegate Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs, said his country is in contact with all concerned parties in Libya, and aims to help end the crisis in the neighboring country in a peaceful way. Messahel said Algeria supports the African Union (AU) roadmap for solving the conflict, which calls for political dialogue between different parties in Libya, necessary political reforms, and more effective...

Four members of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Anti-slavery Movement (IRA, Mauritania branch), were on Thursday detained briefly for questioning. Sources close to the organization told PANA that the brief detention followed an argument with a group of young supporters of the governing party. They are, however, to present themselves to the prosecution on Sunday, according to the chairman of the movement, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid. The leader of the anti-slavery movement denounced the government's attempt to intimidate and harass members of his movement.

Army chiefs from Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria are on alert as the crisis in nearby Libya deteriorates, placing the entire region at risk, a military source said on Saturday. Speaking after a meeting Friday between the four army heads, a Malian officer who attended said: "The situation in Libya is of great concern. There is a risk of destabilising the entire region." The meeting was to reinforce the fight against insecurity in a region threatened by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). "Moreover, because of the Libyan crisis, the security situation in the Sahel has deteriorated, so it is...