Free Republic

CNN on Thursday released a group photo of the staff of a North Korean restaurant in Ningbo, China who made headlines by defecting en masse to South Korea last month. Family members of three of the workers who defected made the photo public on Wednesday, apparently under pressure from North Korean propaganda authorities. "I curse and condemn the South Korean puppet forces who allured and abducted our daughters," one of them said. "When I think of that I lie awake frightened and cannot sleep... Those South Korean puppet criminals, I want to tear them to pieces!" Intelligence authorities here declined...

Entire Eritrean national football team has gone missing after failing to board a flight home following a match in Kenya. Only the squad's coach and one other official arrived back in Eritrea after the team was knocked out in the quarter finals of the CECAFA tournament for east and central Africa. The Eritrean national football team pose for a group photo before the start of the match against Tanzania, at the Nyayo National stadium in Nairobi The twelve players are believed to be hiding somewhere in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where there are tens of thousands who have fled Eritrea's...

<p>POWDER SPRINGS -- A lawyer for a woman killed along with her two daughters in Cobb County says the family fled Kenya in 2001 because she feared the girls would have to undergo female circumcision.</p> <p>Immigration attorney Charles H. Kuck said that Jane Kuria left Kenya in January 2001 after the death of her husband and the destruction of their home. Kuck said that according to her political asylum application, the couple was targeted in Kenya because of their opposition to female genital mutilation.</p>

Britain is such a soft touch that even Americans are coming here to claim asylum and sponge off the state. The incredible revelation comes from immigration whistleblower Rory Clarke. And yesterday the Government was forced to admit figures that backed him up. Disgusted Rory, 34, contacted The Sun to expose the true depth of the asylum shambles. He said: Britain is seen as such a soft touch that poor people from countries such as America are even coming here now. A couple of years ago I met two black guys from the States who were over here because they thought...

/begin my translationN. Korea: Nine N. Korean Defectors to U.S. Since '97 [Yonhap News 2005-10-07 23:48] (Seoul, Yonhap News) Kim Nam-kwon = It is now revealed that there are 9 N. Korean defectors in total, who escaped N. Korea and took political asylum in U.S..  Assemblyman Kwon Young-seh, a lawmaker of (opposition) Hannara Party, citing documents submitted to National Assembly by National Intelligence Service(NIS: S. Korean intelligence agency) during a closed-door session of (annual) congressional audit , disclosed, "From '97 up to this year, 27 N. Koreans applied for a political asylum, of whom 18 had their application rejected, and only...

+++HAARETZ MAGAZINE 29 Sept. '05 :"The Burrowers" By Shlomi Eldar [IMRA Note, By Dr. Joseph Lerner: Shlomi Eldar omits one support of the tunnel builders -- volunteers who oppose bulldozing of dwellings crucial to tunnel excavation and operation. These "morality"- oriented individuals and organizations pointedly denounced the bulldozing of such structures as a high level of evil, but are silent regarding all that goes on in the tunnels and their wealthy entrepeneurs.] QUOTES FROM TEXT: "with the Palestinian Authority in charge of one side of Philadelphia... suspicion will lead at most to a few days' interrogation and detention" "When ......

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. government agreed to pay $87,500 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Kenyan refugee who was denied political asylum in the United States. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, which handled the woman's case, said it it is the first time an arriving refugee has received a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the government of negligence. Rosebell Munyua, 35, claimed the government was negligent because it sent her back to Kenya, even though she said she told immigration officials she would be killed. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the settlement, filed Wednesday in federal...

A spokesman for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said this morning the congressman's office was trying to help a Las Vegas family of figure skaters slated to be deported Thursday to their native Russia. Professional figure skaters Anna Petrachenkova and Vladimir Khatin, and their son, 11-year-old Timofey, sought political asylum in the United States, saying they had been threatened and extorted by corrupt local officials and police in their Russian hometown. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their claim and the family was notified in February by the Homeland Security Department to be ready for deportation at 8:30 a.m....

WASHINGTON - A 15-year-old Iraqi girl who came to America for medical treatment is seeking political asylum, claiming persecution at home because her family cooperated with the U.S. military. The petition, under review by Citizenship and Immigration Services, seeks reprieve for the girl and her mother, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation against other family members still in Baghdad. Several of them have been shot at and one was killed, according to the petition. The case, which is expected to be decided Tuesday, is believed to be among the first U.S. instances of an Iraqi seeking...

CAIRO, March 24 (UPI) -- Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo Monday and, as expected, condemned U.S. aggression on Iraq and called on coalition forces to cease their strikes and pull out. "We call on all forces to withdraw from Iraq and put an end to this attack," said Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa at the news conference following the meeting. The final statement also called on Arab states to "refrain from participating" in any attack. As in the last summit early this month, the wording was vague enough so as not to include a direct attack on countries such...