Free Republic

On paper, the pitch was simple: A green energy company backed by $217 million in U.S. government loans would convert one of Africa’s poorest countries into the world’s first biomass-driven economy. But the plan to help Liberia collapsed amid questionable business decisions and oversight. The company, Buchanan Renewables, dismissed 600 workers and left the country amid complaints of workplace injuries, environmental harm and, at times, sexual abuse. Backing the company at every stage was the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a federal agency with a global mandate but low profile. The agency approves more than $3 billion a year in financing,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Kurdish president backed his Shiite allies Wednesday by openly supporting a militia that Sunni Arab leaders have accused of killing members of their minority. Clashes in Baghdad and other attacks around Iraq killed at least eight people as the Sunni-dominated insurgency pressed on with its campaign against the Shiite-led government. The bloody wave of violence that broke out after the April 28 announcement of Iraq's new Shiite and Kurdish dominated government has killed more than 874 people. During the spree, more than 10 Sunni and Shiite clerics have been killed in apparent tit-for-tat slayings that raised...

Another couple of letters from my friend's son. Words in brackets are mine. - Swordmaker Salome-Ma-LA-ka (Peace be unto you). The Date is now 11 May 2005, and I find myself writing you once again. I know . "WOW, two letters in less than 4 months, he must be bored" (Not that that is a bad thing, except if you are on the receiving end of my mundane letters... (grin). My newly assembled Team has now been on several large raid/ strike operations with the famous Wolf Brigade and in three raids, and have netted over 156 suspected insurgents. For...