Free Republic

More than 74 migrant men have been living in a cramped basement below a furniture store in South Richmond Hill, Queens — where beds are so in-demand that only half can sleep there at one time, city officials said Tuesday. Fire prevention inspectors discovered the illegal subterranean boarding house Monday when they were called to 132-03 Liberty Ave. to investigate reports about a large collection of e-bike batteries, according to the FDNY. That’s when they found 40 migrants sleeping in the building’s basement — and realized that the true number of inhabitants was actually twice that. “A further probe revealed...

A SEBEGALESE Muslim cleric deported from Italy as a danger to state security was quoted today as telling a pan-Arab newspaper that he had met three times with Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The cleric, Abdel Qadir Mamour, told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview by telephone from Dakar, Senegal, that he had the meetings with bin Laden in Sudan from 1993 to 1996. Mamour said bin Laden had provided money to finance his trading in diamonds between Africa and Belgium, but did not say how much money was involved or if bin Laden was...

DAKAR, Oct 25 (AFP) - Senegal said it would restore diplomatic ties with China, becoming the latest west African country to ditch relations with Taiwan in favor of mighty Beijing. A government statement, released after a Beijing trip by Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, hailed the "important decision to renew diplomatic relations with China" and said both countries would soon exchange ambassadors. A joint statement published in the Chinese capital and reported by the state news agency Xinhua said the re-establishment of ties after the hiatus "conformed to the interests and aspirations of the two countries." China had severed its...