Free Republic

Akbar Ganji is the Iranian journalist and dissident who for over a month now has been on hunger strike in Iran’s most infamous prison. Arrested in 2000 and ultimately sentenced to six years in jail for criticizing the regime, most notably in a series of articles he wrote implicating former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the murders of several dissidents and intellectuals, Ganji has become a symbol both inside Iran and out of the Islamic Republic’s techniques of repression and Iranians’ resistance. He published a powerful letter from prison after starting his hunger strike, and is reported to have recently...

TEHRAN (AFP) - The pressure on Iran to free jailed dissident Akbar Ganji is growing with each day of his hunger strike, but the hardline judiciary insists it is not going to release every prisoner just because he goes without food. Ganji, who has been on hunger strike for 35 days, hinted in a recent letter that he is dying. "This flame is going out, but (my) voice will raise others that will be louder," Ganji said in a July 10 letter to "defenders of freedom throughout the world" that caused growing concern among his supporters. Despite alarming reports about...

TEHERAN - Iran’s most prominent jailed dissident, journalist Akbar Ganji, has completed one month of hunger strike and is now demanding his unconditional release, his wife was quoted as saying on Monday. “After 31 days of hunger strike, Ganji has a very good morale and wishes to continue his action,” Massoumeh Shafiie told the semi-official ILNA news agency after meeting her husband in Tehran’s Evin prison. “He is demanding his unconditional release and believes the only way to secure this is by continuing his hunger strike. He says he will only eat when he is unconditionally freed,” she added. Ganji...

Islamic terrorists should learn this: Over the long term, it's simply not possible to stamp out democracy and freedom. They may puff with pride over perceived victories, such as Thursday's London bombings or the announced killing of Egypt's top diplomat in Iraq. But even in the terrorists' own backyard, individuals are taking a stand for liberty and human rights. Sometimes they're voters, such as in Lebanon and Iraq. Akbar Ganji, a political prisoner now in his fourth week of a hunger strike inside Iran's Evin Prison. And sometimes they're political opposition figures who simply refuse to give up. One of...

While watching the news for the past few days, I have seen a commerical for a group called the ONE campaign. The goal of this group is to get the American people to rise up and influence our elected leaders to donat one percent of the US budget to ending poverty, hunger, disease and death in Africa. The ONE foundation is supported by Bill Gates, and has such celebrity backers as Bono,Dikembe Mutombo, Michael W. Smith and Michael Stipe.

Three North Koreans Flee to South Three apparent defectors from North Korea were found on Friday morning, two in the West Sea and one in Gangwon Province, a day after a show of inter-Korean unity marking the fifth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration came to an end in Pyongyang. Police and military officials are investigating how the three crossed the DMZ and whether they intended to defect. Soldiers on Friday patrol the village of Daema in Choelwon County, Gangwon Province where a North Korean defector was discovered earlier that day. Early on Friday morning, a 65-year-old Cheolwon...

More babies, young kids going hungry in US Sat Jun 11, 11:00 PM ET An American butcher. Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese(AFP/File/Stan Honda) BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) - Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese. In 2003, 11.2 percent of families in...

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore has said the environmental movement’s "campaign against biotechnology clearly exposes its intellectual and moral bankruptcy." It shows little regard for truth or the harm its ideologies inflict on poor people. As if to underscore how right Dr. Moore is, Greenpeace activist Farida Akthen recently blasted the Bangladesh agricultural ministry for approving research on one of the most promising of all biotech miracles: golden rice. By adding a daffodil gene to ordinary rice, researchers gave it a golden color and enriched it with beta-carotene, which people can convert to vitamin A. Simply by eating a few ounces...

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore has said the environmental movement’s “campaign against biotechnology clearly exposes its intellectual and moral bankruptcy.” It shows little regard for truth or the harm its ideologies inflict on poor people. As if to underscore how right Dr. Moore is, Greenpeace activist Farida Akthen recently blasted the Bangladesh agricultural ministry for approving research on one of the most promising of all biotech miracles: golden rice. By adding a daffodil gene to ordinary rice, researchers gave it a golden color and enriched it with beta-carotene, which people can convert to vitamin A. Simply by eating a few ounces...

Mugabe admits he needs food aid to rescue Zimbabwe By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 19/05/2005) President Robert Mugabe yesterday abandoned his confident forecasts of a bumper harvest in Zimbabwe and confessed that international food aid was needed to avoid famine. Mr Mugabe, who declared last year that Zimbabweans would be "choked" if aid was "foisted" upon them, climbed down and agreed to meet the head of the United Nations World Food Programme. Mr Mugabe had hailed the 'success' of the land seizures programme Having previously pledged that his seizure of white-owned farms would make Zimbabwe self-sufficient, Mr Mugabe said...

HARARE - The Zimbabwe government is planning to offer former white farms for free to Chinese state-owned firms in a desperate bid to revive the key agricultural sector, ZimOnline has learnt. Details of the planned land-for-investment scheme are still sketchy. But sources said Harare, vigorously pursuing a new "look-East" policy after falling out with the West because of its poor human rights record, was looking for a government to government deal. Officials of state-owned agro-firm, China State Farms Agribusiness Corporation (CSFAC), were expected in Harare "soon" for talks with government officials on the modalities of the proposed farming partnership, according...

They are called "hope queues", but mostly they bring nothing but bitter frustration. They consist of drivers with empty tanks who converge on garages where a rumour has gone around that a petrol tanker may be coming soon. Sometimes queues build up merely on the off-chance that fuel may arrive. The motorists often wait for hours for nothing. The petrol shortage in the Zimbabwean capital reached even more dire levels than normal this week. No tankers came and even diesel, usually more plentiful, dried up. In the last big fuel crisis three years ago, and there have been many short...

President Robert Mugabe's regime has directed national parks officials to kill animals in state-owned conservation areas to feed hungry rural peasants - a move that could wipe out what remains of Zimbabwe's impalas, kudus, giraffes, elephants and other species. The directive is a major blow to efforts by conservationists to try to rehabilitate the wildlife sector which was devastated after Mugabe ordered his supporters to invade and confiscate white-owned farms in 2000. The chaotic farm invasions saw party militants storming into conservation areas - both private and state-owned - to slaughter animals. Unscrupulous South African hunters also joined in the...

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said the country had run out of food, including the national staple maize, and demanded an apology from President Robert Mugabe's government for lying about abundant harvests. "The country has now stocked out. This country has run out of maize, this a fact ... the country has no food," Renson Gasela, MDC's shadow minister of agriculture told a news conference. "No country with a functional government, with no national catastrophe or disaster should ever stock out," he said. Mr Gasela said the government, which last year claimed the country had...

JOHANNESBURG - Fresh from his disputed victory in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections, President Robert Mugabe has turned his sights on the country's wildlife reserves in a bid to feed thousands of famished villagers. Zimbabwe's National Parks have been ordered to work with rural district councils to begin the wholesale slaughter of big game. Parks rangers said they had already shoot 10 elephants in the last week and their meat was barbecued at festivities to mark Zimbabwe's 25 years of independence. The 10 elephants were killed by National Park rangers. Four of the giant animals were reportedly shot in full view of...

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - Every kid knows hanging out with Mom or Dad can be kind of a drag. Kids who want to spend time at the Pheasant Lane Mall on Friday or Saturday nights might not have a choice. In response to recent "disorderly and disruptive" incidents, mall security two weeks ago started distributing fliers outlining the mall's "general code of conduct," according to mall Manager Ginny Szymanski. From 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, mall security guards now stand outside two entrances to make sure anyone under 16 has a parent or someone over 21...

(Dec. 16, 2004)(Boxun Received Burma's News Published by Burma's Chinese) SHAN-EU:London, 15 December, (Asiantribune.com): A joint delegation from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) has returned from a visit to ethnic groups on the Thai-Burmese border with evidence of a campaign of genocide perpetrated by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The report includes first-hand testimonies of forced labour from new Karen and Karenni refugees, as well as details of the situation facing IDPs. It concludes with a brief analysis of the case for genocide and crimes against humanity, and also covers the...

Malnutrition expected to rise1/5/2005 ZIMBABWE FOOD SECURITY UPDATE DECEMBER 2004ALERT STATUS: EMERGENCYSUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONSStaple cereals are increasingly unavailable in most rural areas as the peak hunger season progresses. Maize prices on the parallel markets continue to rise, limiting the ability of deficit households to buy enough food to satisfy their needs. High inflation and the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) monopoly over marketing maize are exacerbating the situation. In most urban centers staple cereals continue to be available. But a smaller proportion of urban households are able to purchase sufficient food due to the continued erosion of real incomes. Food insecure...

ST. LOUIS (KRT) -- Growing up in Atlanta, Lisa Gray didn't know a thing about food stamps. From time to time, the family did visit a food pantry, but to make a contribution, certainly not to pick up food for themselves. She, her mother, father and brother did just fine on her dad's salary as an aerospace engineer. These days, however, Gray, a working mother of three, has joined a rapidly growing number of Americans who over the past four years have come to depend on both food stamps and food pantries. Since 2000, Gray and more than 6 million...

Requests for emergency food and shelter increased in many large U.S. cities this year, but not by as much as in recent years, according to a survey released Tuesday. Requests for food rose by 14 percent, while appeals for shelter increased by 6 percent, said the annual report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, based on surveys of 27 large cities. The numbers have risen every year since the conference began the survey 20 years ago. However, the rate of increase for food requests was the lowest since 1998. The rate of increase for shelter requests was less than half...