Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is defending the Obama administration's foreign policy against attacks from fellow Republicans.

VATICAN CITY (AP) - African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms—putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts. Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election. "It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official. "We believe God has his own plans. God directs history," he said of the U.S. election. "We pray that it...

HONG KONG (AFP) — An emotional former US secretary of state Colin Powell said Wednesday the presidential election victory of Barack Obama would go a long way toward repairing his country's painful racial divides. "It's a historic day for the United States of America. President-elect Obama is a president for all America," Powell told journalists during a visit to Hong Kong, where he was invited to address a business school awards ceremony. "The American people are responding with great emotion, and with great pride in our system, that we have seen this latest step in reconciliation with respect to our...

WASHINGTON – An emotional Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reveled Wednesday in Barack Obama's election, calling it an "extraordinary step forward" for the nation. A child of the segregated deep South who became the highest-ranking African-American woman ever in American government and was once considered a potential Republican presidential nominee, Rice called the Democratic president-elect "inspirational" and said his victory was proof of America's promise.