Free Republic

This is the first picture of the mother-of-two who has been sentenced to death in Sudan for being a Christian - from inside the prison where she is being held. In an exclusive photo, Meriam Ibrahim puts on a brave face as she holds her newborn baby girl Maya who was born in the jail where she has been locked up for eight months. But behind the smile there is a different story - Meriam's eyes have dark rings under them, her arms are alarmingly thin and her face looks gaunt. Gone is the radiant glow from the day she...

Houston METRO police need your help apprehending a man who is punching people on a rail platform. According to surveillance video, a man walked up to a passenger who had just exited a train onto the platform at Main Street near Preston downtown and punched him in the face. The video then shows the same man punching another man as he gets onto the train from the same platform. METRO Police Chief Victor Rodriguez says he doesn’t think the attacks are related to the so-called “knockout game.” “A review of the tape does not indicate that anybody else is involved,”...

With persecution against Christians increasing in African nations and other places worldwide where Islam is advancing, an American pastor is calling black churches and others to join together to raise voices of opposition. Stephen Broden of the Fair Park Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas is organizing a rally in his city next month under the banner of Americans Against the Persecution of Christians in Muslim Countries. The coalition says it’s “committed to stopping the genocide of Christians in many Muslim countries.” Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/black-pastors-lead-rally-against-persecution-by-muslims/#rXMFfRzHogfZUmxZ.99

In February, the United Nations released a remarkably comprehensive report on North Korea's human rights abuses. The report interviewed 320 people, including a number of survivors from the notorious secret political system, and concluded that the country was committing human rights violations “without any parallel in the contemporary world.” So how did North Korea respond?

Norway's human rights record came in for sharp criticism during a UN hearing on Monday, with Saudi Arabia and Russia weighing in to highlight the country's shortcomings. Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries accused Norway of doing too little to protect its Muslim minority, with Saudi Arabia calling for all criticism of religions or their prophets to be made illegal. Meanwhile, Russia accused the country of allowing extremist groups to "operate freely" and of moving too quickly to separate children from their parents. Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende was in Geneva on Monday to respond to criticisms from no fewer...

At a joint press conference in Malaysia today, Major Garrett asked President Obama about human rights concerns in Malaysia, saying the issues were “up for grabs” in the country. He asked the President why he hadn’t discussed human rights while in Malaysia, and why he hadn’t met with jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. (video here) President Obama said that not meeting with Mr. Anwar was “not indicative of a lack of concern,” and said that “there are a lot of people I don’t meet with.” “I think the Prime Minister is the first to acknowledge that Malaysia’s still got some...

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan confirmed Thursday that three American doctors were killed by an Afghan security guard who opened fire at a Kabul hospital. The shooting at Cure International Hospital in the western part of the Afghan capital was the latest attack on foreign civilians in the city this year. Two others, including an American nurse, were wounded, according to Afghanistan's Health Ministry. "With great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack at CURE Hospital," said a statement posted on the Embassy's Twitter page. "No other information will be released at this time." Afghanistan Minister...

Rand Paul is a pro-life Senator from Kentucky who appears poised to become one of the candidates for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Although he has a strong pro-life voting record, Paul is making comments about abortion that are concerning pro-lifers. randpaul3As LifeNews reported earlier this year, Paul said in an interview that Republicans should agree to disagree on social issues. Now, in a new interview, Paul says he doesn’t anticipate changing the laws on abortion and added that his belief that life begins at conception is a personal and religious one, not a scientific viewpoint.

Dogs and cats, historically, have been people's property like a couch or a toaster. But as they've moved into our houses and our hearts, courts of law have begun to treat them as something more. They can inherit your estate, get an appointed lawyer if your relatives challenge that inheritance and are protected from cruel acts. Your toaster can't do any of that. As these animals inch closer to citizen's rights, the trend is being watched with worried eyes by biomedical researchers who fear judges could extend these rights to lab animals like monkeys and rats, thereby curbing experimentation.

Oliver Stone's recent visit to Venezuela to premiere his Castro/Chavez infomercial "My Friend Hugo" has brought him under fire in social media. Exasperated beyond endurance by the onslaught Stone recently lashed back with (apparently) the most hateful insult his inflamed mind could conjure. You people are: "Similar to the right-wing Florida Cuban exiles who’ve helped keep the US in a dungeon of ignorance!" he raved. For leftists its “right-wing lunatics spreading a dungeon if ignorance!” For normal folks it’s: “people who have actually experienced communism trying to circumvent communist propaganda as disseminated by a media-Hollywood axis—and one not always completely...

EX-MUSLIM ARAB-IRANIAN WOMEN DEMONSTRATE NUDE IN PARIS OVER ISLAMIC OPPRESSION ... We need protests, too bad some of them are headed by the likes of Maryam Namazie. I met her, Maryam Namazia (wearing the Iranian flag), in Stockholm back in 2008, who was a panel guest at Lars Vilks’ screening of his photos and videos at A Day For Freedom of Speech. She’s a full blown commie. I’m glad we weren’t exposed to her ”full monty” at the time, and I could have done without her anti-Israel statements as well.

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China published a report titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013" on Friday. Following is the report's full text: Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013 State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China Foreword The State Department of the United States, which posed as "the world judge of human rights," made arbitrary attacks and irresponsible remarks on the human rights situation in almost 200 countries and regions again in its just-released Country Reports on Human Rights Practices...

What if dictatorships judged the world on human rights? Special Benefits for Tyrants in the UN From the video: What do these four countries have in common? CHINA: China insists that Tibet must never break away from Chinese rule...and proves it's point with violence against it's own. CUBA: Life isn't easy for Cuba's political dissidents. Video illustrates this point. RUSSIA: Russia's new law means that all public demonstrations by sexual minorities are now illegal. SAUDI ARABIA: For now, Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world that doesn't give women the right to drive. So...what do these four countries...

BEIJING - China on Friday responded to the United States criticism and irresponsible remarks of its human rights situation by publishing its own report on the US human rights issues. Posing as "the world judge of human rights," the US government "made arbitrary attacks and irresponsible remarks" on the human rights situation in almost 200 countries and regions again in its just-released reports, the report says. "However, the US carefully concealed and avoided mentioning its own human rights problems," it adds. The report calls the US tapping program, code-named PRISM, which exercises long-term and vast surveillance both at home and...

Kerry Kennedy may agree to a plea deal over driving while drugged charges stemming from a 2012 accident so she can continue her extensive human rights work. Kennedy, 54, is afraid a conviction would bring with it restrictions that would curtail her international travels – she has visited several dozen countries on humanitarian missions. The plea deal was previously discussed between her legal team and prosecutors before being shelved, but her attorneys have brought it back to the table with her trial slated to start Monday, according to the New York Daily News. Lawyers originally tabled the deal while preparing...

A recent report from January, which the media has kept a tight lip on, has exposed the widespread human rights abuses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The report, from the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), charges PA and Hamas for repeated cases of torture, oppression, assaults on freedom of expression and academic freedoms, as well as ignoring court orders. In January alone the report notes ten Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza were killed through "anarchy, lawlessness and misuse of weapons," reports Mosaic Magazine. In the same month, ICHR reports...

Catholic author and journalist John L. Allen, Jr., gave testimony Tuesday before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, on why he believes the “Global War on Christians” is the premier human rights issue of the early 21st century. Allen offered statistics and examples from time spent on the front lines of anti-Christian persecution around the globe. Allen addressed the issue of why he thinks the worldwide persecution of Christians is so often wrapped in silence. “I believe we have a problem with narrative,” noted Allen. “In the West, we are conditioned to think...

Far from backing down on its national ban on homosexual propaganda, the Russian government is going on the offensive, saying the European Union's promotion of homosexuality has led it to ignore real human rights violations, including the growth of ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi groups. Since the bill was signed into law, Russia has been the target of a massive international campaign, spearheaded by the European Union and homosexual campaigners at the EU, to overturn it. A report on human rights to the EU by the Russian government, accuses the EU of “the dissemination of their neo-liberal values as a universal lifestyle...

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has translated and posted to the internet a video of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech from last week, during which he referred to the United States as “Satan.” During the speech, Khamenei claims that the United States is “the greatest violator of human rights in the world” and the crowd responds by chanting, “Death to America!” …

A judge has issued a stunning verdict in a homeschooling case in Germany, ordering that the parents cannot have custody of their children because the family might move to another country and homeschool, posing a “concrete endangerment” to the children. Dirk and Petra Wunderlich’s case made international headlines in August when 20 armed police arrived with a battering ram and forcibly took their four children from their home in Darmstadt, Germany, and enrolled them in public school. As WND reported at the time, the children, ages 7 to 14, were taken into police custody. They were allowed to return home...