Free Republic

A young Australian tourist’s visit to Paris turned into a nightmare after she was gang raped by five men yesterday. Police have described her assailants as being “African type individuals.” Around 5 am on Sunday, July 21, police were called to a kebab shop in the historic 18th Arrondissement, with staff reporting that a severely traumatized woman had sought refuge in the small restaurant. The woman, who Le Journal du Dimanche reports to be 25 years old, told the staff she had been attacked by five men. When attended to, the woman’s dress was reportedly turned “inside out” and she...

The discovery of a ship, missing for five centuries, in a southwest African desert, filled with gold coins, is one of the most thrilling archaeological finds in recent times. The Bom Jesus (The Good Jesus) was a Portuguese vessel that set sail from Lisbon, Portugal on Friday, March 7, 1533. Its fate was unknown until 2008 when its remains were discovered in the desert of Namibia during diamond mining operations near the coast of the African nation. When it sank in a fierce storm, it was on its way to India laden with treasures like gold and copper ingots. Two...

In the lead up to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operation to destroy Hamas and secure the release of over 100 hostages – including 8 Americas – believed to be in and around Rafah, leaders around the world from Joe Biden to the collective leftist leaders of the European Union to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi panicked and ordered Israel to forestall its necessary means to end the war.Why did world leaders clamor for Israel to do nothing?What are they hiding?It turns out they are hiding a lot.Over one million Gazans were said to be sheltering in humanitarian safe areas...

UK studio Foster + Partners is reportedly designing a two-kilometre-high skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which if completed would be the world's tallest building.According to a report in UK architecture magazine Architects' Journal (AJ), the UK studio is designing the megatall skyscraper for a site to the north of the Saudi capital.The AJ reports that the skyscraper will be located near the city's international airport, which is currently being redeveloped by Foster + Partners.Skyscraper would be world's tallest buildingIf built, the skyscraper would become the world's tallest building, being over twice the height of the current record holder, the 828-metre-high...

P. maluti. (Cullen Clark) Planet Earth is home to possibly hundreds of species of magic mushroom that contain the hallucinogen, psilocybin. Systematic fieldwork surveys of the genus, Psilocybe, however, are "entirely lacking" for many regions of the world. Now, a new paper describes two species of magic mushroom in southern Africa that are wholly new to science. That brings the total number of reported Psilocybe mushrooms on the continent from just four to six. One of the species, called Psilocybe maluti, is the first scientifically documented magic mushroom with traditional, spiritual uses in Africa. P. maluti was originally photographed in...

The U.K. has spent millions on a plan to send migrants to live in Africa. It’s now tied up in logistical, political and legal issues.. Two years ago, the British government decided to spend big to outsource a migration problem. To deter migrants seeking asylum from illegally entering the country, it announced a radical plan: Those smuggled on makeshift dinghies to British shores would be sent to Rwanda, a small country in central Africa, where they would remain. The U.K. government handed Rwanda ... $150 million down payment and told it to get ready to host thousands of potential refugees....

A top Namibian court on Friday struck down the African country's colonial-era laws criminalising same-sex relationships, in a victory for the LGBTQ community. The high court in the capital, Windhoek, declared the crimes of "sodomy" and "unnatural sexual offences" as "unconstitutional and invalid" in a ruling hailed by LGBTQ rights groups. "We are not persuaded that in a democratic society such as ours... it is reasonably justifiable to make an activity criminal just because a segment, maybe a majority, of the citizenry consider it to be unacceptable," the judges wrote. ...

The first Kenyan police officers assigned to tackle rampant gang violence in Haiti are leaving Kenya on Tuesday and are set to arrive this week, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. "We hope to see further measurable improvements in security, particularly with respect to access to humanitarian aid and core economic activity," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters Kenya volunteered in July 2023 to lead an international force to tackle violence in the Caribbean nation, where gangs control most of the capital Port-au-Prince and have carried out widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence. SNIP

King Ghezo ruled Dahomey from 1818 to 1858, a period marked by military conquests and the transformation of the region's economy, heavily reliant on the slave trade. The kingdom of Dahomey, with its capital at Abomey, was a dominant power in West Africa, known for its aggressive raids on neighboring regions to capture slaves. These captives were either traded for European goods, forced to work on royal plantations, or sacrificed in elaborate voodoo ceremonies.Local legends claim that several structures within the palace complex in Abomey, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were constructed using a mortar that included the blood...

An international pro-life organization is helping African fathers to assert their traditional role as protectors and providers while rejecting the idea that population control and abortion strengthen families. As Americans celebrate Father’s Day, Emil Hagamu, Human Life International (HLI) Regional Director of English-Speaking Africa, explained in a statement sent to CatholicVote that, in Africa, fathers are traditionally viewed and respected as the head of the family. In his native country of Tanzania, for example, Hagamu said fathers “seek health, prosperity, and peaceful marriages for their families.” One Tanzanian village father and his neighbors, however, ended up adopting the Western ideas...

Scientists say the plant enset, an Ethiopian staple, could be a new superfood and a lifesaver in the face of climate change. The banana-like crop has the potential to feed more than 100 million people in a warming world, according to a new study. The plant is almost unknown outside of Ethiopia, where it is used to make porridge and bread. Research suggests the crop can be grown over a much larger range in Africa.

Shortly after Oct. 7, the president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker, issued a statement on the foundation’s behalf. Walker, who has been lauded by Laurene Powell Jobs as an "optimist," a "realist," and a "prophet who speaks truth to our world’s most troubling demons," announced that the Ford Foundation would bankroll "immediate humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza and the Middle East." "Administered by our colleagues in the Middle East and North Africa regional office," Walker said, "the resources will go to partners in the region to provide life-saving support and other essential needs to the affected Palestinian civilians in...

Names are universal throughout human cultures and across different languages. They form a huge part of our identity and help us communicate with each other, but personal names are considered a uniquely human thing. Now, new research has suggested that wild African elephants could address each other with individual specific calls – the equivalent of a name – with fascinating implications for the evolution of language. The new research analyzed calls from wild elephants in two areas of Kenya: the greater Samburu ecosystem to the north, and the Amboseli National Park to the south. The final dataset contained around 470...

An ancient human ancestor whose name honours Cecil Rhodes should be renamed in an effort to decolonise science, experts have argued. The species homo rhodesiensis, named after Rhodesia – which in turn took the name of the British imperialist – should be called homo bodoensis, scientists say. The reclassification is partly a bid to shed colonial associations – as well bring clarity to a confusing chapter of human evolution.... ...Rhodes was an imperialist, businessman and politician who played a dominant role in southern Africa in the late 19th century, driving the annexation of vast swathes of land. The long-running Rhodes...

The Washington Post is celebrating a man from the African country of Mauritania who is helping more poor Muslim migrants crowd into Cincinnati apartments and houses, straining the town’s resources and apparently breaking occupancy laws. Even this man, who is working to facilitate the flood of illegals into the U.S., says that the federal government is just letting too many people come to the U.S. all at once. The Washington Post is celebrating a man from the African country of Mauritania who is helping more poor Muslim migrants crowd into Cincinnati apartments and houses, straining the town’s resources and apparently...

World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain warned Sunday of the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan. In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” McCain stressed the importance of “safe and unfettered access” for the organization to deliver food to the war-torn country. country. “Sudan has the real possibility of becoming the world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” McCain said. “We cannot get food in — we can barely get food in — we certainly aren’t getting it in at scale, and you see the results of what can happen if people aren’t fed.” McCain noted that the situation is...

DAY OF INFAMY, 2001Agent: FBI could have prevented 9-11Whistleblower claims upper management stymied terror investigations By: Jon Dougherty © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com An FBI special agent says upper managers inside the agency stifled investigations into terrorist organizations that he says could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks. Agent Robert Wright told Fox News in an interview last night that "mismanagement" and "obstruction" at the agency's Chicago field office thwarted his attempts to investigate the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hamas, as well as Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, both operating here in the United States. Wright, who is represented by the Washington,...

President Joe Biden said he would help Africa “build back better” in a second term, if reelected, during an interview on Tuesday. A Time reporter asked Biden, “If you do win in November, Mr. President, with a mandate to continue your approach to foreign policy, what would your goals be in the second term?” Biden said, in addition to building NATO “both politically and economically,” he is “desperately focused on making sure that we deal with the…what they are calling the south now.”

What is at stake in our ability to see the threat plainly? Nothing less than the preservation of our way of life.If you wonder why I—a woman of color, an African, a former Muslim, a former asylum seeker, and an immigrant—look at the antics of today’s anti-Israel, anti-American protesters with such fear and trembling, allow me to explain.I was born in Somalia in 1969. The country had achieved independence nine years before. But less than a month before I was born—on October 21, 1969—a junior member of the brand-new Somali armed forces seized power with the help of the Soviet...

Election Day on May 29 was a tumultuous, wonderful day for South Africa. Thirty years of corruption and ruin under the sole rule of the African National Congress Party came to an end. The ANC, which won 63 percent of the vote in the first democratic election in 1994, and 70 percent in 2004, now only won 40 percent.When the ANC took power in April 1994, South Africa had the strongest economy and the best infrastructure in Africa. We had a plentiful supply of the world’s cheapest electricity and the world’s greatest mineral treasure. The horrible apartheid laws had been...