Free Republic

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday the United States has a moral duty to condemn China's rights abuses but she urged U.S. athletes not to risk angering the "ruthless" Chinese government, a day before the opening of the Beijing Olympics. Pelosi, speaking at a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing, said the International Olympic Committee "turns a blind eye" to Beijing's rights violations. Rights groups have long criticized the IOC for awarding the Games to China, citing its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups, which the United States has deemed genocide. China denies allegations of...

he study, which links “eradicating extremism” to the “emancipation” of Uyghur women and improvement of “gender quality and reproductive health,” comes amidst several reports the Chinese government has forcibly sterilized several women in Xinjiang province. In an effort to cut Uyghur birth rates, the Chinese Communist Party has also been accuse of forcing abortions and birth control on the female population in the Chinese province. .....

SNIPPET: "Renewed violence struck China's restive Xinjiang province when seven people were killed and fourteen wounded in a suspected bomb attack today, local officials said. The explosion took place on a three wheeled vehicle in Aksu city and the local officials blamed the blast on "criminal gangs", an abbreviation used by authorities for Muslim separatists." SNIPPET: "Xinjiang has been beset by ethnic conflict and separatist violence for the past few years and last summer witnessed bloody clashes between the Uighurs, the largely Muslim ethnic group and the majority Han Chinese settlers which left 197 people dead." SNIPPET: "The provincial Governor...

Three suspected Al Qaeda members were arrested Thursday morning in what Norwegian and U.S. officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans in New York and England. The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year. Two of the men were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, according to Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's Police Security Service. She declined to give further details of the locations. Kristiansen said one of the men was a 39-year-old Norwegian of Uighur origin, who had lived in Norway since 1999. The other suspects...