Free Republic

April 11, 2008 India fears a macabre turn to protests as China ‘foils terror plot’ Indian police say that they are ready for the possibility that Tibetans will set themselves on fire in front of world’s media Rhys Blakely and Jane Macartney Thousands of anti-Chinese demonstrators took to the streets of Delhi yesterday, foreshadowing the reception the Olympic torch is likely to receive when it reaches India next week. Demonstrators carried placards accusing China of cultural genocide in Tibet, and 154 shrouded effigies, which they said represented compatriots killed in a crackdown in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Chinese authorities claim...

Tehran, Iran, May 09 – A young man set himself on fire outside Iran’s Presidential Offices, the press office of Tehran’s Medical Emergency Centre said on Tuesday. The incident occurred at 14:11 on Sunday outside the public relations headquarters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the centre said. The man, who was not identified by name, was immediately rushed to a burns unit of a local Tehran hospital by ambulance. He has suffered 80 percent burns and is in critical condition. Suicide among youths in Iran has reached an alarming rate in recent years. Many young people with no hope of...

We've got some real challenges facing us. FR was established to fight against government corruption, overstepping, and abuse and to fight for a return to the limited constitutional government as envisioned and set forth by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and other founding documents. One of the biggest cases of government corruption, overstepping and abuse that I know of is its disgraceful headlong slide into a socialist hell. Our founders never intended for abortion to be the law of the land. And they never intended the Supreme Court to be a legislative body. They...

Americans celebrate Christmas in many different ways but in Bakersfield, California, an apparent secular fanatic observed the holiday by dousing himself with flammable liquid and setting himself ablaze. According to press reports, he meant to show his passionate objection to Thursday night’s decision by the Kern High School Board of Trustees to change the name of the winter break to “Christmas vacation” and the spring break to “Easter Vacation.” The protester (the headline proclaimed, “Name Change Sparks Protest”) first set fire to a Christmas tree and several flags, then lit himself to express his displeasure at the Board’s decision. Fire...

Posted on Wed, Aug. 25, 2004 Man Burns Marine Van After GI Son's Death Associated Press HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - A man set fire to a Marine Corps van and suffered severe burns Wednesday after he was told his Marine son had been killed in Iraq, police said. Marines went to the house in Hollywood to tell the parents of a 20-year-old private first class that their son died Tuesday in Najaf, police said in a statement. The man, whose name was not immediately released, then walked out of the house with a torch and what appeared to be a container...

Even with equality, Afghan women still must escape By Hamida Ghafour in Herat (Filed: 14/03/2004) Lalbibi was lying on a rusty bed in the hallway of the Herat hospital, the flies fighting for control of the woollen blanket her mother had pulled over her face to hide the streaks of red and white burn marks. Two weeks earlier, Lalbibi had poured half a can of paraffin on her body and lit a match. "She did this to herself because of family problems," explained her mother, Khomari, as she tried to stroke Lalbibi's forehead. "I think that she did it because...

<p>ST. PAUL - A Hastings boy is recovering from third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body after setting himself on fire to imitate stunts from "Jackass: The Movie."</p> <p>"He is going to live," his mother told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "He was on life support for about six days. He will be in the hospital a minimum of two months. He has already had three major surgeries, and I don't know how many more he'll have."</p>

TEHRAN, Feb 23 (AFP) - Five Iranian girls from different villages around the southern city of Shiraz burned themselves to death last week because their families refused to let them work, the conservative daily Jomhoury-e-Eslami reported on Sunday. All the girls, aged between 14 and 23, died in hospital after setting themselves alight, the paper said, quoting a social worker as saying they were suffering from cultural and economic deprivation. Iranian women in the smaller towns and villages where age-old social and religious customs are stronger enjoy less freedom than those in the larger cities. Half the population is aged...