Free Republic

Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colourful history, new research has found. Every schoolboy used to know that at the height of the empire, almost a quarter of the atlas was coloured pink, showing the extent of British rule. But that oft recited fact dramatically understates the remarkable global reach achieved by this country. A new study has found that at various times the British have invaded almost 90 per cent of the countries around the globe. The analysis of the histories of the almost 200 countries in the world found only...

Egyptian authorities fearful of a monopoly on Nile waters received agreement from Khartoum to build an airbase in Sudan, to launch attacks on Ethiopian damming facilities, claims the anonymous media outlet; Wikileaks. Wikileaks has leaked files allegedly from the Texas-based global intelligence company, Stratfor, which quote an anonymous "high-level Egyptian source," claiming the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon said in 2010 his nation would do anything to prevent the secession of South Sudan because of the political implications it will have for Egypt's access to the Nile. The Nile is vital in providing fresh water to the people and agricultural projects...

Herpetologists from the California Academy of Sciences and University of Texas at El Paso discovered a single specimen of the Bururi long-fingered frog (Cardioglossa cyaneospila) during a research expedition to Burundi in December 2011. The frog was last seen by scientists in 1949 and was feared to be extinct after decades of turmoil in the tiny East African nation. For biologists studying the evolution and distribution of life in Africa, Burundi sits at an intriguing geographic crossroads since it borders the vast Congo River Basin, the Great Rift Valley, and the world's second largest freshwater lake, Lake Tanganyika. Many of...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who preached in Tahrir Square 10 days ago, loathes Israel, justifies suicide bombings against its civilians. 1. Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdallah al-Qaradawi is a central figure affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was expelled from Egypt and found refuge in Qatar, operating from there throughout the Muslim world. 2. Many consider him the supreme religious and ideological authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, although he is not officially its leader. (In the past, he refused to accept the title of the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide). He is influential in Egypt and considered one of the most important Sunni...

The armed conflict in Darfur, Sudan, intensified throughout the year, resulting in tens of thousands of newly displaced people, some of whom crossed into neighbouring Chad. Civilians were directly targeted in some attacks by armed groups and by government forces. Parts of Darfur remained inaccessible to humanitarian organizations and the joint UN-African Union (AU) mission in Darfur (UNAMID). Humanitarian workers and UNAMID staff were frequently abducted in Darfur, following a pattern similar to that seen in eastern Chad in recent years. Various mediation efforts during the year produced no tangible results. Repression by the Sudanese authorities continued in Darfur, with...

The Nile supplies almost all of Egypt’s fresh water and three quarters of Sudan’s. Both countries claim historic rights over it but neither controls its sources. For thousands of years Egypt has jealously defended its right to use the Nile’s waters as it pleases. Now, amid warnings of conflict and crop failure, the balance of power is starting to change as other countries make new claims on the water. Last month most of the countries that occupy the Nile’s headwaters signed an agreement granting themselves greater control of the river and removing a colonial-era veto, held by Egypt for more...

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (WBZ) ―Two people have been arrested in connection with a daylong bomb scare on a Greyhound bus in Portsmouth, N.H. John Smolens of Lewiston, Maine was tasered and charged with resisting arrest after police say he refused to obey orders from the SWAT team during the evacuation Thursday. Calvin Segar of Brooklyn, New York was charged with two counts of obstruction for lying to authorities. Both will be arraigned in Portsmouth Friday afternoon. The bomb scare began Thursday morning when a passenger overheard a man speaking a foreign language on a cell phone, police said. The passenger then...

SNIPPET - quote: Standoff in NH city after bus bomb threat By KATHY McCORMACK (AP) – 45 minutes ago PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Authorities remained in a standoff with a man on a Maine-to-New York Greyhound bus Thursday, hours after a passenger called 911 to report an explosive device on board. The other 16 passengers and the driver safely got off the bus, which was parked in downtown Portsmouth, surrounded by a bomb squad and sharpshooters, including one in an armored vehicle.

"Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen vow they will deflect the fighting to Kampala and Bujumbura" Shabelle: SOMALIA SNIPPET: "MOGADISHU (Sh.M. Network) – the Islamist officials of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have Friday talked about yesterday’s shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu and said that they will deflect the fighting in Mogadishu Kampala and Bujumbura." SNIPPET: "The official of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen had threatened to the African Union troops reiterating that they will replace the fighting continuing in Mogadishu to the capital cities of Uganda and Burundi."

A Burundian national suspected to have participated in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi has been arrested in the United States. Lazare Kobagaya, 82, is a naturalised US citizen who was arrested in the State of Kansas after it was found that he had misinformed the authorities there when he applied for citizenship in 2005. Kobagaya, according to an indictment issued by the US Department of Justice, is accused of having spearheaded killings in the former Nyakizu Commune in the Southern Province. Besides having had a role in the Genocide, the Burundian who resided in the former Butare Prefecture during...

BUJUMBURA, March 15 (Reuters) - Burundi has arrested eight people found with human bones suspected of belonging to albinos, a government official said on Sunday. The tiny east African nation and neighbouring Tanzania have been convulsed by a spate of ritual albino murders fuelled by a body parts trade. Witchdoctors tell clients that albino parts will bring them luck in love, life and business. "Before arresting them, we did a search and found human bones in their houses," said Nicodeme Gahimbare, a public prosecutor in the eastern Ruyigi province. "The eight were denounced by two other detained people who have...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is offering to permanently resettle up to 10,000 refugees from a 12-year civil war in the African country of Burundi, the State Department said Tuesday. The refugees would be brought to the United States over the next two years with refugee status, and will be given the option of applying for U.S. citizenship, said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

As amazing as this might sound, pointy hats just don't impress some people: The Bishop of Alabama, Henry N. Parsley, proved he could play games just like many of his fellow bishops. After telling his clergy not to have anything to do with this AMIA Anglican conference at the Sheraton and to stay away (which they did), he then set about arm-twisting the publisher of the Birmingham News, Mr. Victor Hanson, asking him not to cover the AMIA conference -- a request that was denied. They sent reporter Greg Garrison to cover it on two occasions. Parsley’s final act of...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Citing dangers of renewed war between Hutus and Tutsis, a senior U.N. official urged central African leaders Thursday to mete out "justice not revenge" against extremists responsible for a massacre. Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council that threats of retaliatory action by Burundi, Congo and Rwanda following the mass killing of at least 160 refugees at a U.N. camp in Burundi could lead to renewed fighting. "I think there is a real danger of violence, of a spiral of violence," Guehenno said. "We do call on all actors at the moment...

THE WISDOM of the Bush Doctrine becomes clearer with every new international crisis that crops up. A group of Hutus in Burundi massacred 150 Congolese refugees in a camp there on Friday. It was a United Nations camp. The U.N. response? On Sunday the Security Council issued a statement urging the government of Burundi to bring the perpetrators to account. That’ll show ‘em. In Sudan, where innocents are being massacred by the thousands, the U.N. has done shamefully little. Sudan is on the United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights. In its six-week work session this year, the commission, a U.N....

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) - Dozens of attackers raided a U.N. refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death at least 180 people, witnesses and local officials said Saturday. A Burundian Hutu rebel faction claimed responsibility for the attack late Friday near the Congolese border, saying its fighters were in pursuit of Burundian soldiers who fled to the camp from a nearby army position. The assailants screamed war cries as they rushed into the camp and set it ablaze, local official Louis Niyonzima told The Associated Press. The camp sheltered Congolese ethnic Tutsi refugees, known as the Banyamulenge, who...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The UN Security Council late Sunday strongly condemned the massacre of at least 150 refugees from Congo at a UN camp in neighbouring Burundi and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice "without delay." Reflecting the seriousness of the killings, the council met in an emergency session at the request of France to denounce Friday night's attack at the camp in Gatumba. A statement approved by the 15 council members and read by the council president, Russian Ambassador Andrey Denisov, condemned the massacre "with the utmost firmness." A Burundian Hutu rebel group, the National Liberation...

UJUMBURA, Burundi, Aug. 14 (AP) - Dozens of attackers raided a United Nations refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death at least 180 people, witnesses and officials said Saturday. A Burundian Hutu rebel faction, the National Liberation Forces, claimed responsibility for the attack late Friday near the border with Congo, saying that its fighters were pursuing Burundian soldiers who fled to the camp from a nearby military position. The camp sheltered ethnic Tutsi refugees from Congo known as the Banyamulenge, who had fled the fighting in Congo's troubled border province of South Kivu. The attackers screamed war...

GATUMBA, Burundi (AP) - Attackers armed with machetes and automatic weapons raided a U.N. refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death at least 180 men, women and children, U.N. officials said. Burundian Hutu rebels claimed responsibility, insisting the camp for Congolese Tutsi refugees fleeing tribal fighting was a hide-out for Burundi army soldiers and Congolese tribal militiamen. But most of the victims appeared to be women and children. Their charred remains lay among the cooking utensils and the smoldering remnants of their former homes on Saturday.

GATUMBA, Burundi, Aug 14 - Attackers armed with guns and machetes killed at least 153 people in a camp for Tutsi Congolese refugees in western Burundi, the army said on Saturday. The Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL), claimed responsibility for Friday night's attack, saying they were aiming to hit a military target near the camp. Burundi has a military camp about 500 metres from the refugee camp. Some refugees said the attack was planned, citing unsigned leaflets circulated this week urging death to the Banyamulenge -- the term for the mostly Tutsi Congolese refugees.