Free Republic

A police crackdown on climate protesters in Copenhagen in which more than 960 people were arrested was preplanned and apparently without justification, according to an Australian eyewitness. Simon Sheikh, national director of the progressive Australian lobby group Get Up, watched the crackdown from his apartment - and has exclusive video footage of it. Mr Sheikh said the marchers were peacefully making their way through the bohemian district of Christianshavn on Saturday afternoon when the police moved in. "At a preplanned time they ran with full riot gear straight at women, children and families," Mr Sheikh told AAP. "We were taken...

BEIRUT - As they gear up for a major anti-government protest Monday, Iranian students are besieged by a clampdown in the universities, with a wave of arrests and expulsions. At the same time, authorities are intensifying enforcement of Islamic morals on women's dress and men's hair length as a way to punish political dissent.

The Obama administration today announced a new campaign to get mortgage companies to lower mortgage payments for struggling homeowners – and part of the strategy is some old-fashioned "name and shame." Share To date over 650,000 homeowners have entered into trial modifications under the Treasury Department's housing relief plan – a ratio of about one in five eligible borrowers. But the administration – frustrated with the performance of mortgage companies thus far – will now try to ratchet up the pressure on servicers, especially with 375,000 of these trial modifications set to convert to permanent ones by year's end.

El Salvadoran leaders of the MS-13 gang allegedly put out a contract on the federal agent responsible for a crackdown on its New York factions, the Daily News has learned. The brazen plot to assassinate the unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was revealed in an arrest warrant for reputed gang member Walter (Duke) Torres. Torres tipped authorities to the plan after he and four other MS-13 members were stopped by NYPD detectives for hassling passersby on Northern Blvd. in Queens last month. He told cops he had information to pass on, and was debriefed Oct. 22 at Rikers Island,...

Obama declares swine flu emergency 9 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a "national emergency," the White House said Saturday, as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and over 1,000 deaths.

"Thousands of people have gathered at a mosque in Guinea's capital, Conakry, to identify those killed in Monday's opposition rally against military rule ... Soldiers used live rounds against huge crowds of protesters on Monday ... Eyewitnesses have told human rights groups of soldiers raping women in the streets during the crackdown ..."

Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports. Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said. The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years.

...snip..."The 47-year-old former radio talk show host, who now broadcasts commentary on his Web site, urged his blog readers earlier this month to "take up arms" against Connecticut lawmakers and suggested government officials should "obey the Constitution or die."

Power Struggle Looms in N.Korea The North Korean elite lead insecure lives nowadays. Some members of the Unification and Propaganda Department of the Workers Party, accused of having bungled their South Korea policy, have recently been sent to the Yoduk concentration camp. All North Korean intelligence officers assigned overseas were called back home early this year to undergo questioning by the State Security Department. About 30 percent of them have yet to return to their overseas posts, and those who have returned were emaciated from harsh interrogations, according to sources. Asked what the food situation is like in North Korea,...

Tensions between Egypt and Lebanon’s Hizbollah group have escalated after the Shia movement admitted that one of its members had been smuggling weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian authorities were chasing 10 Lebanese men on Monday, allegedly members of a Hizbollah cell, on the Sinai peninsula, which shares a border with the Gaza Strip, in a crackdown on a group that they claim was planning to attack Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.

Seoul set to crack down on illegal immigration The government will escalate its crackdown on illegal foreigners, with the goal of cutting their numbers in half by 2012, officials said yesterday. It will also overhaul the guest-worker program to better meet the need of local companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises. The labor and justice ministries reported to a presidential committee an array of measures to strengthen law enforcement and enhance public order. President Lee Myung-bak called for measures to stop the inflow of illegal migrants and to better supply much-needed foreign labor to local industries. "The massive presence of...

American made hi-tech goods are being used by Iran controlled companies to produce the deadly roadside bombs used by terrorists in Iraq, according to the US government. According to the Miami Herald, the 13-count indictment was handed down by the Federal Government on Wednesday alleging 16 foreigners and overseas businesses had sold hi-tech "dual use" goods to businesses that were actually "fronts to Iran". The companies were doing "business" building roadside bombs, or IED's. Roadside bombs, or IED's, have killed 1722 troops since the US invaded Iraq in March 2003. "The 16 foreign defendants were charged with conspiracy and violations...

Can't excerpt due to file format (.gif). The story is an article filed from Beijing and "corrected" by the Chinese government. Pretty much dead on. LIFE OF REILLY

The Crackdown to Come By WILLY LAM FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA August 22, 2008 Not only have the Olympics failed to act as a catalyst for political liberalization in China, but the regime's pre-Olympics security buildup looks set to enable the government to crack down as hard as ever on dissent after the Games are over. In line with the time-honored Chinese tradition of "taking revenge after the autumn harvest," police and military authorities are planning major reprisals against a host of troublemakers. Punitive action has begun even before the athletes and the estimated 400,000 foreign tourists leave...

PARIS (AFP) – The Dalai Lama accused China on Wednesday of pursuing a crackdown in Tibet in spite of the Olympic Games, French lawmakers said following talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Asked during a private meeting at the Paris Senate whether China was respecting the "Olympic truce", the Dalai Lama's "answer was very clear: no," said former French justice minister Robert Badinter. "While the Games are taking place, the oppression of the Tibetan people and repression continue," said the opposition lawmaker, who oversaw the abolition of the death penalty in France. The 73-year-old Buddhist leader, who arrived on...

Update on Tibet Demonstrations, 1 August 2008 Friday, 1 August 2008, 3:17 p.m. Dharamshala: Update on Tibet Demonstrations, 1 August 2008 Last updated 4 p.m. (IST) Karze (Ch: Ganzi) County, Karze "TAP", Kham Province (incorporated into the Chinese province of Sichuan) - A series of peaceful protests still being staged by the youth at the county government office On 17 July, Yonten Gyatso, a 19-year-old nun from Dhargye Yetsag Nang village in Karze county, staged a peaceful protest at the county government office. She was severely beaten and arrested by the People's Armed Police (PAP). On 15 July, Kunsang Tsering,...

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...

TRANSLATION FROM ORIGINAL SPANISH (EXERPT):"Bank Remittances from USA to Mexico Down 1.3%"Slowdown in USA and Tightened Immigration Actions [Against Illegals] Are Main Causes During the first six months of the year, Michoacán became the state that had the greater decrease remittances from the USA, said the Bank Of Mexico....

The Bush administration’s latest immigration policy may shut out illegals but could also export jobs, business groups warn... ...Austin Perez, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau, said farmers’ labor costs are “at the breaking point.” They can’t raise wages further without charging more. Enforce Locally, Eat Globally. But shoppers at the grocery store don’t have to buy U.S.-grown fruits or vegetables. They can buy produce from other countries ...The Social Security Administration will send “no match” letters to employers identifying hires using numbers that don’t match the data on file. Employers will now have 90 days to clarify the...

When they torpedoed his immigration-reform bill, congressional Republicans challenged President Bush to enforce the existing laws more vigorously. Now his administration has taken them up on it. In announcements in Washington from the secretaries of homeland security and commerce and reinforced by a White House pronouncement from the elder George Bush’s Kennebunkport vacation home, the administration announced a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration. The crackdown includes the usual remedies — a speedup in construction of the border fence, hiring more Border Patrol agents and stepped-up detentions of apprehended illegals. But it also includes a step the government has shied away...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration announced a new tool Tuesday to freeze financial assets of those who want to destabilize Iraq. President Bush unveiled a new executive order that allows the administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability in Iraq. Bush cited the "unusual and extraordinary threat" to national security and foreign policy of the United States "posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote...

Prince William County [Va.] supervisors have taken immigration enforcement into their own hands — an encouraging example for other jurisdictions that want to crack down on the influx of illegal aliens into their communities. "I'm extremely excited about what Prince William County has done, and I certainly hope that kind of fans the fire of other municipalities across the state — including Culpeper," said Culpeper Town Council member F. Steve Jenkins. Culpeper County is one locality that appears to be taking Prince William County's lead on addressing the cost of illegal aliens.

Britain's terror crackdown By Duncan Gardham, David Millward, and Richard Edwards Last Updated: 2:36am BST 02/07/2007 Cars were banned from approaching airport terminals last night as unprecedented security measures were enforced to combat a suspected al-Qa'eda bombing campaign. The terrorist threat level was at "critical" - its highest - after two car bombs were found in London and a third, potentially devastating, attack was narrowly averted at Glasgow airport. An armed police officer prevents vehicles from approaching too close to Heathrow It has forced police and the Government to take the draconian step of closing off all forecourts at airports....

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed to be delighted when reformist students disrupted his visit to their elite university in December, burning his portrait and shouting "Death to the dictator!" It showed the world that Iranians can protest "with an absolute, total freedom," the hard-line president wrote on his website. But at least eight of Amir Kabir University's leading reformists have been arrested since May, according to their lawyers and activists inside and outside Iran. They are among hundreds rounded up in recent months in a nationwide crackdown on those accused of threatening the Iranian system. Two years after Ahmadinejad's election,...

1989 : Tiananmen Square Massacre Takes Place Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States. In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television...

Gay pride parade ends without start in Moscow with vicious babushkas’ help Front page / Russia / History, traditions 28.05.2007 Source: Pages: 1 Russian gays and lesbians failed to organize a march in support of untraditional sexual orientation in Moscow yesterday. About 40 representatives of sexual minorities gathered near the building of the Moscow City Administration. They were “welcomed” by police units, hundreds of monarchists, radicals and bellicose babushkas. The organizers of the “satanic march” were arrested immediately and taken to nearest police stations. The rest of them were showered with eggs and empty bottles. The Moscow government banned the...

The city has ordered more than 100 adult cabarets, bookstores and other so-called sexually oriented businesses to close down their operations or face criminal and civil penalties, according to warning letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle. City Attorney Arturo Michel's office mailed the certified letters on Thursday, stating that the businesses were violating an ordinance prohibiting them from operating within 1,500 feet of schools, parks, churches and other "sensitive" locations in the city. The cease-and-desist letters mean that employees and owners of the businesses face arrest "soon" if they fail to heed the city's notice, said Capt. Steve Jett, who...

Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade. It is the talk of the town. The latest police crackdown on Islamic dress has angered many Iranians - male, female, young and old. Hundreds of women have been arrested for "bad hijab"

Two days after the harsh words of general Ahmadi Moghadam, the commander of the law enforcement forces about combating women who are not fully observing the Islamic hijab, which was followed by organizing Friday congregational prayers in Tehran and a few other large cities, and news reports in Keyhan and Jomhurie Eslami newspapers, the police launched a campaign to confront young women in Tehran’s 23rd district. These attacks on women come after the law enforcement forces have demonstrated repeated failures in bringing security in Western towns of the country, controlling contraband, and the import and export of illegal goods. Ayatollah...

Two thousand young men in Iran have protested against new clothing curbs, reports say, amid growing discontent about a crackdown on un-Islamic dress. Shiraz university students were angry about new rules banning sleeveless T-shirts, even inside all-male dorms. The protest came as the judiciary head warned police that an excessively ferocious campaign could backfire. Police say they stopped more than 1,300 women for dressing immodestly on the first day of the campaign in Tehran. More than 100 women were arrested on Saturday; half of them had to sign statements promising to improve their clothing, the other half are being referred...

IRAN: University Female Students Rebel Against Veil Tehran, 19 April (AKI) - Female students at Tehran Polytechnic University, where students protested against Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a visit last December crying 'dictator go away' and throwing firecrackers, are staging a major protest against new regulations enabling police as of 21 April to arrest women who do not abide by the Islamic dress code. A group of 700 female students organized a rally on campus and signed a letter to the dean calling the new rules "an offence to the dignity of women" and accusing him of "wanting to extend...