Free Republic

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested a prominent Internet dissident for violating his probation terms, a rights group said, as the country steps up a pre-Olympic crackdown on dissent to ensure the Games go smoothly. Du Daobin, from the central province of Hebei, was given a suspended sentence for subversion in 2004 having been detained by police in Wuhan for posting online essays in support of fellow dissident, Liu Di. Du was then released into house arrest, Reporters Without Borders said in an emailed statement, but was arrested this week having been accused of posting articles on overseas websites...

Chinese impose blackout over new Tibetan monk deaths Jane Macartney in Beijing Two monks at a monastery in western China were killed in a clash with paramilitary police last weekend, three Tibetan sources have told The Times. The monks, at a monastery in western Sichuan province, which borders Tibet, were killed in a clash on July 12. For monks of what are popularly known as the “red hat” sects, the date marks one of the most auspicious festivals of the year. It is the first report of the lethal use of gunfire against Tibetan protesters demanding the return of the...

N.J. Councilman Starts Crusade Against Saggy PantsPaterson Politician Is Sick And Tired Of The Look And If He Has It His Way, Indecency Fines Will Soon Follow Reporting Christine Sloan Jul 15, 2008 8:08 pm US/Eastern PATERSON, N.J. (CBS) ― Instead of "stick 'em up," it will be more like "pull 'em up" now that fashion police in New Jersey have started a crackdown on baggy pants. It's happening in Paterson, where city officials want to put the kibosh on this form of fashion. Bart Johnson says wearing his pants low in a fashion statement, but one councilman is saying...

Prince William County, Virgina's crackdown on illegals - one year later. From the Washington Post. Gotta love this first part. It seems not all people fully appreciate the great multi-cultural influences that diversity brings to a neighborhood. The family that planted corn in the front yard of their $500,000 home is gone from Carrie Oliver's street. So are the neighbors who drilled holes into the trees to string up a hammock. Oliver's list goes on: The loud music. The beer bottles. The littered diapers. All gone. When she and her husband, Ron, went for walks in their Manassas area neighborhood,...

A new report released on Sunday, exactly two months ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, details the current Chinese Government’s crackdown on unregistered Christians, including the funding of a campaign to eradicate house churches throughout China. The report, entitled “China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games”, by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and China Aid Association, provides information on different tactics used by the government to restrict the religious freedom of Christians. CAA said that in May, two independent sources reported that the Chinese Central Government was providing funding to the Ministry of Public Security...

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – Business at Pedro Vargas' store, Club Video Mexico, has slid so steeply that only eight people walked through the door one day last month. One thing he has been selling, however, are one-way bus tickets from northern Virginia to Texas and Mexico. Soon he'll be getting his own ticket out of town – seeking a friendlier and more lucrative place to do business. “The last few months have been very, very bad for us,” said Vargas, who plans to move this summer from Prince William County, about 25 miles southwest of Washington, to Utah, where he recently...

April 6, 2008 China struggles to quell Tibet rebels Michael Sheridan, Far East Correspondent A PICTURE is emerging of desperate and prolonged Tibetan resistance despite the huge scale of China’s military operation across the mountainous region that one ancient poet called “a place where snow lions dance”. The Chinese press focused yesterday on a campaign to whip up resentment against the foreign media as reports outside China spoke of at least eight unarmed Tibetans shot dead by paramilitary police. Scraps of evidence collected by exiles, campaigners, military analysts and daring witnesses inside Tibet all point to the conclusion that China...

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday he planned to launch more security crackdowns like the one in Basra against "criminal gangs" in Baghdad. Addressing a news conference, he singled out Sadr City and Shula — two Mahdi Army militia strongholds in Baghdad — as likely targets in the future crackdowns, saying they were under the sway of "criminal gangs." Al-Maliki did not mention by name the Mahdi Army militia, which is led by radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr City and Shula are militia strongholds and any attack by government troops there is likely to trigger a backlash...

HOUSTON - Mayra Figueroa — a naturalized U.S. citizen, community organizer and licensed driver — had no reason to fear being arrested, no need to worry about deported. Then she was pulled over by a Houston police officer, who told her he found it suspicious that a Latina was driving a late-model car. The first thing the officer requested? Figueroa's Social Security card, as proof of citizenship. Until now, few local police and sheriff's departments wanted any part of enforcing federal civil immigration laws. They had their hands full with local crime — and needed witnesses and victims to work...

NKorean women demonstrate against crackdown: aid group Wed Mar 26, 4:01 AM ET Thousands of North Korean women staged a rare street protest early this month against a government crackdown on illegal market vendors, an aid group said Wednesday, amid worsening food shortages. The protest was reported on March 4 in Chongjin, a port city in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, said the South Korean group Good Friends, which works in North Korea. More than 10,000 women rallied in several markets in the city, demanding the government either resume suspended food rations or allow them to keep open their...

CHENGDU, China - China attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Sunday for her recent meeting with the Dalai Lama, accusing her and other "human rights police" of double standards and ignoring the truth about the unrest in Tibet.(snip) The Chinese government has sought to portray itself and Chinese businesses as the victims of the riots.(snip) The violence has turned into a public relations disaster for China ahead of the August Olympics, which it had been hoping to use to bolster its international image. The Chinese government over the weekend was trying to give its own version of the events while clamping...

An off-duty Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early Tuesday pleaded with Hales Corners police to let him continue driving home, saying, "You can't do this to one of your own," the incident report says. Sheriff's Deputy Christopher P. Conell, a 12-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was pulled over by a Hales Corners police officer about 12:50 a.m. at W. Grange Ave. and S. 110th St. after the officer observed Conell's car drift across the center line on W. Grange Ave. three times, according to the incident report. Conell, 34, failed multiple field sobriety tests...

Governor Tim Pawlenty Monday unveiled his newest plan to slow illegal immigration into Minnesota, which will include a citizenship test for new state workers. "We can't have a system, a secure system of identity and drivers licenses and other things, that is rampant with fraud," the Governor said flanked by law enforcement officers and Republican lawmakers. The plan features computerized drivers license photo cross checks to guard against multiple persons sharing the same legal names and identities. "Either in terms of the current drivers license, former drivers license version, social security cards that turn out to be fraudulent and there's...

ANNAPOLIS — Anne Arundel County has taken the lead in Maryland on cracking down on illegal aliens. County Executive John R. Leopold, a Republican, has already required Anne Arundel agencies to check the documents of contract workers and is now working with federal immigration officials. "I think the issue nationally is obviously a priority issue for many Americans," he said this week. "We want to discourage illegal immigration and encourage legal immigration." Mr. Leopold has pulled funding in the county budget for social programs to illegal aliens and will put together a plan that helps employers verify citizenship. Federal immigration...

Iran Cracks Down on 'Vices' November 13, 2007 Scripps Howard News Service Dale McFeatters Apparently the Iranian people were starting to enjoy themselves a little too much to suit the ruling clerics. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a police crackdown on “social vices.” So the police have been seizing satellite dishes and raiding private parties in search of alcohol and unapproved videos and CDs and other trappings of Western decadence. The repressive hand of the ayatollahs has fallen especially hard on Iranian women who are enjoined from wearing “inappropriate” makeup and wearing clothes that show any part of the...

NAPLES, Fla. - Republican Fred Thompson said Tuesday the government should yank federal dollars from cities and states that don't report illegal immigrants. In his first major policy proposal, Thompson challenged presidential rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney by criticizing "sanctuary cities" where city workers are barred from reporting suspected illegal immigrants who enroll their children in school or seek hospital treatment. "Taxpayer money should not be provided to illegal immigrants," Thompson said at a round-table discussion that included Collier County, Fla., sheriff Don Hunter. Thompson has argued his rivals are soft on illegal immigration because Giuliani, as New York...

Iranian Security Chief Signals Crackdown October 20, 2007 Los Angeles Times Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi TEHRAN -- The head of Iran's law enforcement agency warned Friday of a renewed crackdown on Iranians who adhere to Western cultural ways. Esmail Ahmadi-Moghadam, chief of Iran's security forces, said pressure on "thugs and gangs" over the last six months had proved successful, and told Iranians to expect tougher enforcement of the Islamic Republic's moral codes. In the near future, he told worshipers before Friday prayers in the capital, security officials would crack down on vendors selling Western CDs and movies, small-time drug...

Human beings are conditioned to do what they get rewarded for. The Burmese government seems to understand this well. They get power and unlimited perks when they shoot any people that step in their way. Hence; the guns go blazing. As several thousand Buddhist Monks lay dead, and the bodies are being loaded onto trucks and dumped in the jungle, the UN has sent a special envoy to chat with the fascists. This should make for scintillating conversation. The UN has arrived to negotiate on behalf of an aggrieved party that has been slaughtered in detail. Perhaps the UN can...

Iran Steps Up Crackdown Against "Immoral' Activity September 10, 2007 AFP Khaleej Times Online TEHERAN -- Iran is pressing on with one of its toughest moral crackdowns in years, warning tens of thousands of women over slack dress, targeting “immoral” cafes and seizing illegal satellite receivers, local media reported on Monday. The Iranian police launched the crackdown in April in a self-declared drive to “elevate security in society” that encompassed arrests of thugs, raids on underground parties and street checks of improperly dressed individuals. Reza Zarei, commander of police in Teheran province, said that since the drive began police in...