Free Republic

For 20 years, Tamazrat Ousame had to clean, cook and even bear children for her masters. One day she managed to escape, but hundreds of others are still enslaved in Niger.Maradi, southern Niger. Soldiers supposed to protect foreign journalists are dozing on plastic chairs in the shade in front of the hotel. Besides the hotel entrance, an old man on a woobly wooden table is arranging his souvenirs for sale: Colorful pearl necklaces, bronze giraffes and knitted handbags. An old rusty metal necklace is lying nearby. It was used as a necklace to hold slaves, the old man says with...

DEBORA PATTA CBS January 15, 2015 "It's As If The World Has Forgotten Us" JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- #BringBackOurGirls. Remember that hashtag? The social media campaign that accompanied global outrage over Boko Haram's abduction of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls on the eve of their final exams went viral almost instantly. That was nine months ago. The girls have not been seen since and it appears the world is suffering from what one commentator called "collective amnesia." But for the people of Nigeria, there is no such thing as the luxury of forgetting and moving on. Hardly a week goes...

The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it. Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement....

Three suicide bombings by girls aged as young as 10 suggest that Nigeria's Boko Haram has employed a new tactic of forcing abducted children to blow themselves up, according to experts. The Islamist sect has been carrying out almost daily killings and kidnappings across northeast Nigeria in a campaign of violence now in its sixth year. Deadly attacks on Saturday and Sunday were carried out by three young female suicide bombers. These came just days after a week-long killing spree by Boko Haram, in which the group torched at least 10 towns leaving around 2,000 people unaccounted for. It is...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify a woman they say was kidnapped. Authorities said the unidentifed woman walked into a business in the 5600 block of York Boulevard in the early morning hours of December 20, 2014. Witnesses said the woman had just gotten out of a gray or silver SUV. The woman ordered a coffee and began texting or emailing someone using her cell phone. Around 5:55 a.m., the woman left the business wearing her black coat and walked toward Avenue 56. Less than a minute later, the...

DAKAR, Senegal — A girl perhaps no more than 10 years old detonated powerful explosives concealed under her veil at a crowded northern Nigeria market on Saturday, killing as many as 20 people and wounding many more. The blast inflicted devastating damage on shoppers at the Monday Market in Maiduguri, the shopping hub in a city that is at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency. The explosion, witnessed by dozens of people, represented a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber. The terrorist group has increasingly employed women as suicide...

Thursday was inauguration day in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez — who has dominated Venezuelan politics one way or another for 14 years — was again sworn in as President. Only this time, the authoritarian populist could not take the oath in person. He departed for cancer surgery in Cuba on Dec. 10, 2012, and has not been seen in public since. This latest surgery is his fourth round of treatment in Cuba. Few expect Chavez to serve out this next six-year presidential term.

Long after he vanished in Iran, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson reappeared in a video and a series of photographs sent to his family over the past year, transforming a mysterious disappearance into a hostage standoff with an unknown kidnapper, The Associated Press has learned.

The National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau (NSCCTBCTB) issued on Thursday a serious warning against travelling to the Sinai Peninsula, and called on Israelis vacationing in the area to leave immediately. "From information at our disposal, it arises that terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and additional elements are actively planning to perpetrate terrorist attacks, especially abductions, against Israeli tourists in Sinai in the immediate term," the NSCCTB's warning said. "The NSCCTB reiterates its call to all Israelis in Sinai to leave the area immediately and return home. The families of Israelis in Sinai are requested to contact them and update...

Residents demand an immediate probe into the raid by US-led foreign forces that resulted in abduction of several local figures in Balkh Province. No information is available on the fate of the abductees. The governor of Balkh has condemned the move, calling it brutal. Governor Atta Mohammad Noor said such unauthorized operations by foreign forces will only lead to the Afghan people losing their trust in the government. Local officials say an investigation will be launched into the incident. Witnesses said two NATO reconnaissance aircraft and nine helicopters hovered over the area, terrifying residents. The foreign soldiers then stormed the...

"The cow is the most comical-looking creature in the world, and the notion that the Earth is being visited by UFOs is the craziest idea I have ever heard. Now there's a gift that combines the crazy and comical cow with the silly and ridiculous idea of of UFO abductions:"

May 22) -- Raymond Hewlett, a fugitive British pedophile, is under suspicion in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, according to reports Friday in the British media. The London Evening Standard reports that Hewlett is being treated for throat cancer at a hospital in Germany and may be extradited to England, where he is wanted for questioning in sex attacks stretching back to the 1970s.

Most abductees report being taken into spaceships from their homes or from their automobiles while driving. Once in the ship, "the atmosphere may be dank, cool, and occasionally even foul-smelling" (p. 36). Their abductors typically "appear as tall or short luminous entities that may be translucent, or at least not altogether solid. Reptilian creatures have been seen....But by far the most common entity observed are the small ‘grays,’ humanoid beings three to four feet in height....Gender difference is not determined so much anatomically as by an intuitive feeling that abductees find difficult to put into words" (p. 37). (A sketch...

Most abductees report being taken into spaceships from their homes or from their automobiles while driving. Once in the ship, "the atmosphere may be dank, cool, and occasionally even foul-smelling" (p. 36). Their abductors typically "appear as tall or short luminous entities that may be translucent, or at least not altogether solid. Reptilian creatures have been seen....But by far the most common entity observed are the small ‘grays,’ humanoid beings three to four feet in height....Gender difference is not determined so much anatomically as by an intuitive feeling that abductees find difficult to put into words" (p. 37). (A sketch...

This week is the anniversary of the tragic day in 1963 [11/22/63, 35 years ago today] when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on the streets of Dallas. Looking back, we can see that Kennedy's death marked a turning point, when the political consensus of the time gave way to the confrontational politics that we associate with the 1960s. The upheavals that followed -- along with the bitter partisanship that disfigured political life in the last third of the century, and whose echoes we still hear today -- can be traced back to that day in Dallas. The terrorist attack of...

*The question was sure to come up during press interviews for the upcoming "X-Files" movie. Rapper Xzibit, who plays an FBI agent in the film, was asked if he believes in the existence of other life forms in the universe. "I don't believe in aliens," the 33-year-old tells People magazine. "I don't think aliens or ghosts like black people. We never get abducted; our houses never get haunted. It always happens in rural areas, where no ethnic people live. The day I see somebody from South Central Los Angeles say, 'Man, I got abducted yesterday,' then I'll believe it." "The...

Two top nuclear scientists of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) are currently in Taliban custody. The two were working at PAEC’s facility in North West Frontier Province. Zee News investigations reveal that the two scientists were kidnapped about six months ago. To avoid international embarrassment Pakistan Government has kept this information under wraps. According to information available with Zee News, nuclear scientists have been kidnapped by Taliban at the behest of Al-Qaeda.

An Italian priest, Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped at gunpoint in the southern Philippines last month, has been freed. The news was announced by the Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, and coincides with the 87th birthday of Father Bossi's mother. Fourteen government soldiers were killed last week as they searched for the priest. The Philippine army blamed their deaths on Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. Father Bossi, who plans to meet with his parishioners before heading back to Italy to see his family, said his captors treated him "with respect." "I never had the sensation that they wanted to kill...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces said on Thursday they had killed more than 23 Sunni and Shi'ite fighters in two operations in Iraq and captured two al Qaeda-linked militants suspected of links to the abduction of three U.S. soldiers. ... U.S. forces said they killed 12 militants in a four-day operation against Sunni Arab fighters north of Baghdad and 11 in an overnight raid against Shi'ite militants in the south. The two men captured were described as linked to the abduction of three U.S. soldiers in May, which triggered a massive manhunt in palm groves south of Baghdad during the...

Abductions follow exchange for Italian KABUL, Afghanistan, April 7 (UPI) -- A string of kidnappings have occurred in Afghanistan following last month's exchange of five Taliban prisoners for an abducted Italian journalist. At least 13 Afghans and two French aid workers have been kidnapped in three incidents in the past two weeks, the Los Angeles Times said Saturday. The Taliban is holding at least 10 of the hostages and will free some of them only if more jailed Taliban are released. Critics of the deal that set Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo free March 19 -- after his driver had been...