(Clearwisdom.net) Five high-ranking Chinese officials have been indicted in Spain for genocide and torture of Falun Gong practitioners.

In a groundbreaking case, following a two-year investigation, a Spanish judge has accepted charges of genocide and torture in a case filed against five high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for their role in the persecution of Falun Gong.

This is the first time that a court has recognized the campaign against the group as legally fitting the definition of genocide. If the defendants were in Spain, the court could call them before the judge for a hearing.

“This historic decision by a Spanish judge means that Chinese Communist Party leaders responsible for brutal crimes are now one step closer to being brought to justice,” said Carlos Iglesias, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

Between 2003 and 2007 fifteen victims of persecution filed criminal complaints against each of the five CCP officials under a Spanish law that enables individuals or their lawyers to initiate private prosecutions (acciones populares). Four complaints were combined into one case, the facts of which a judge from Spain’s National Court (Audiencia Nacional) has been investigating since 2006; the fifth was added later.

On Nov. 11, Iglesias received a letter from the National Court saying the charges of genocide and torture had been accepted.

Among the accused is ex-leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin. Jiang is widely acknowledged as the initiator and primary driver behind the campaign launched in 1999 to “eradicate” Falun Gong. According to Chinese regime statistics at the time, an estimated 70 to 100 million people were practicing the discipline that combines slow-moving exercises and spiritual teachings.

In order to implement Jiang’s decision to wipe out the group, the country’s state-run media, security apparatus, and network of “re-education through labor camps” were mobilized in full force. Since then, experts estimate that hundred of thousands, possibly millions, of practitioners have been sent to labor camps, prisons, and thought reform classes.

Human rights groups and Western media reports have documented the systematic use of torture to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith. According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, over 3,000 practitioners are documented to have been killed, many due to torture, since 1999.

“The perpetrators of the genocide and torture will be confronted with two trials,” Iglesias said. “One of justice in front of the courts, and another, judgment in front of history, for having committed the biggest of all atrocities: the persecution of millions of persons whose only intention is to improve their ethical, moral, and spiritual qualities, following universal values.”

Also facing charges of genocide and torture in the Spanish case is Luo Gan, former head of the 610 Office, an extrajudicial agency set up to lead and coordinate the campaign against Falun Gong. Chinese human rights lawyers have compared the 610 Office to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo in its operations, brutality, and extraordinary authority.

The other three accused are Bo Xilai, current Party Secretary for Chongqing and former Minister of Commerce; Jia Qinglin, the fourth-highest member of the Party hierarchy; and Wu Guanzheng, head of an internal Party disciplinary committee. The charges against the three are based on their alleged proactive advancement of the anti-Falun Gong campaign during their time as top officials in Liaoning, Beijing, and Shandong respectively.

According to evidence presented before the court, Jia had reportedly given speeches urging lower officials to persecute Falun Gong and commended security units for their "success" in the "fight" against the spiritual practice. In 2002, he made the campaign one of Beijing's top five priorities.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning article from 2000 by the Wall Street Journal’s Ian Johnson documents how financial punishments and political pressure imposed by Wu on his subordinates led Weifang city authorities to torture—and sometimes kill—local residents who practiced Falun Gong.

Judge Moreno has spent two years investigating the case, following a Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional) ruling from June 2006 that ordered Spanish courts to accept the case based on a law enabling them to exercise universal jurisdiction. This legal principle allows domestic courts to hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity regardless of where they occur and the nationality of the defendant.

Evidence considered by the judge during the investigation process included written testimonies from fifteen Falun Gong practitioners and oral testimonies from seven. The judge also relied on reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Law Foundation, and the U.N. Commission of Human Rights to reach his decision, Iglesias said.

 

Name: Cao Shuangmei (曹双梅)
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: Lingshi County, Shanxi Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: July 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Second Ward of Shanxi Province Women's Prison (山西省女子监狱二队)
City: Jinzhong
Province: Shanxi
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, beatings, imprisonment, torture, forced-feedings, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Shanxi Province) When Ms. Cao Shuangmei went to Jiexiu City to pass out truth clarifying materials in the summer of 2003, she was arrested, her home was ransacked, and she was detained. After going on a hunger strike for seven days to protest her imprisonment, the police released her.

One month later, the police arrested Ms. Cao again, without cause, and severely tortured her. To protest her imprisonment, she went on a hunger strike for more than twelve days. Fearing that Ms. Cao was on the verge of becoming critically ill, the police released her. Five to six months later, the police went to her home to arrest her once again, but she managed to escape.

Around January 20, 2008, eighteen days before the 2008 Chinese New Year, a group of officers from the Jirxiu County Police Department (under Jiexiu City) arrested Ms. Cao at her home. The police detained her for close to six months without informing her family.

Lei Runxiang, warden of the Second Ward at Shanxi Province Women's Prison, encouraged inmates to brutally beat Ms. Cao in her cell, eventually causing her untimely death in July 2009. In order to cover up their crime, the prison authorities lied to her family, saying that she had died due to a sudden heart attack. In addition, they suspended all visitation rights to the prison for a month and interrogated all detained Falun Gong practitioners.

 

Wikipedia

 

Name: Cao Shuangmei (曹双梅)
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: Lingshi County, Shanxi Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: July 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Second Ward of Shanxi Province Women's Prison (山西省女子监狱二队)
City: Jinzhong
Province: Shanxi
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, beatings, imprisonment, torture, forced-feedings, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Shanxi Province) When Ms. Cao Shuangmei went to Jiexiu City to pass out truth clarifying materials in the summer of 2003, she was arrested, her home was ransacked, and she was detained. After going on a hunger strike for seven days to protest her imprisonment, the police released her.

One month later, the police arrested Ms. Cao again, without cause, and severely tortured her. To protest her imprisonment, she went on a hunger strike for more than twelve days. Fearing that Ms. Cao was on the verge of becoming critically ill, the police released her. Five to six months later, the police went to her home to arrest her once again, but she managed to escape.

Around January 20, 2008, eighteen days before the 2008 Chinese New Year, a group of officers from the Jirxiu County Police Department (under Jiexiu City) arrested Ms. Cao at her home. The police detained her for close to six months without informing her family.

Lei Runxiang, warden of the Second Ward at Shanxi Province Women's Prison, encouraged inmates to brutally beat Ms. Cao in her cell, eventually causing her untimely death in July 2009. In order to cover up their crime, the prison authorities lied to her family, saying that she had died due to a sudden heart attack. In addition, they suspended all visitation rights to the prison for a month and interrogated all detained Falun Gong practitioners.

 

 

 

Name: Yang Qing (杨青)
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Address: Lingbei Town, Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Medical Ph.D Student in Jilin University
Date of Death: October 10, 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 19, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Chaoyang City Forced Labor Camp (朝阳教养院迫害)
City: Lingyuan
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, detention

(Clearwisdom.net) On May 13, 2001, officers from the Mohudian Police Station arrested Mr. Yang Qing when he was passing out Falun Gong informational fliers. They detained him for six months in the Lingyuan City Detention Center. In November 2001 they took him to the Chaoyang City Forced Labor Camp. He was released on June 10, 2002.

Just 70 days later, officer Li Xinhai from the Lingbei Town Police Station arrested him again, on August 19, 2002, when he was working at a construction field. He was sentenced to two years of forced labor a few days later and again taken to the Chaoyang City Forced Labor Camp.

Mr. Yang was released in June 2004. The camp ordered him to report to the Lingbei Town Police Station upon returning home, but he did not go. He was very depressed. Before the May 28, 2009 Duanwu Festival (lunar May 5), he began feeling some discomfort. He visited doctors on July 13, 2009, when he was not feeling good and was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer. He died on October 10, 2009.

 

 

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Liaoning Province)

Mr. Huang Lizhong

Mr. Huang Lizhong was arrested on February 25, 2008 at his home. He was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Lianshan District Court, and in September 2008 he was taken to Panjin City Prison According to sources, office head Liu Xinyuan led Fifth Ward guards to electrically shock and hang up practitioners in April. Starting from April 16, 2009, Liu Xinyuan used practitioners doing the exercises as an excuse to brutally beat and shock them with electric batons. They shocked Huang Lizhong and two other practitioners every day. From April 17-19, 2009 Mr. Huang and six other practitioners were taken to the strict control ward to be tortured. On April 20, 2009, Mr. Huang was severely shocked with electric batons by guard Wang Jianjun, and his internal organs were damaged.

At around 2 p.m. on October 20, 2009, Mr. Huang was helped by a prisoner to reach the visitation room. Mrs. Huang could not recognize him. His face looked very dry, he was as thin as a skeleton, his teeth were deformed, he had no energy to talk, and his whole body shivered. In only five months, a perfectly healthy 47-year-old person's physical condition was wrecked.

Mrs. Huang wanted to ask for more details, but the guards stopped her. Mr. Huang told her that he could not hear sometimes due to the severe electric baton shocks. The visitation only lasted 20 minutes as Mr. Huang was very weak and hardly had energy to talk, and kept shivering. She finally knew the true reason for not letting her visit was to cover up the fact that the guards had almost killed Mr. Huang with electric baton shocks.

Only five days later, at 9:30 p.m. on October 25, 2009, the prison authorities notified Mrs. Huang that Mr. Huang Lizhong had died in custody.

The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold as a mail-order kit through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. Today the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that led to the microcomputer revolution of the next few years: The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC.

 

 

Altair 8800b computer front panel.

 

By Ye Linghui

(Clearwisdom.net) Toronto, Canada- The first book that depicts organ removal from living Falun Gong practitioners in China- Bloody Harvest, The killing of Falun Gong for their organs- has recently been published. David Matas, one of the book's authors and a human rights lawyer as well, held a book signing event on November 15, 2009 in Toronto. Matas said that more people need to take action to stop the illegal organ removals in China.

David Matas signs books for his readers at the book signing

David Matas shares his experience in the investigations of organ removals from living Falun Gong practitioners

In March 2006, "Annie," a former staff member at the Sujiatun Hospital, affirmed that her neurosurgeon ex-husband extracted corneas from over 2000 practitioners in the hospital for two years, from 2003 to 2005. Other doctors simultaneously took their livers, kidneys and other organs while practitioners were still alive, and the bodies were immediately cremated to destroy all evidence. Matas and David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific, subsequently accepted an invitation by the CIPFG to investigate the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) crime of illegal organ removals.

Matas said that they accepted the CIPFG invitation without taking any money and he was not given any information or direction. He said that he accepted the invitation because it was an accusation that people were cremated after their organs were removed and there were no survivors.

On July 6, 2006, David Kilgour and David Matas published their two-month investigation report, affirming large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners in China for profit. They believe such an atrocity is widely spread in China and is continuing.

At the book signing, Matas also shared his investigation records described in his book with the readers. It was the phone recordings of the investigators calling hospitals in China, pretending to be customers who needed organ transplants.

Many readers asked Matas that why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suppresses Falun Gong and why Chinese Consulates overseas try so hard to stop practitioners from exposing the facts of the persecution. Matas answered every question.

So far Matas and Kilgour have published three reports on their investigations. According to Matas, the market for organ transplants in China has shifted to domestic customers instead of foreign visitors. The number of organ transplants in China remains the same but the number of death sentences decreased. This indicates that more and more organs are being extracted from Falun Gong practitioners.

Matas told the press that he hopes the publication of his book will raise the public's attention on this issue and more people will take action to stop it from happening. Matas and Kilgour will tour the world to promote the book and to discuss human rights issues.

Being an international human rights lawyer, Matas said that it is his responsibility to stop such a large-scale ongoing violation of human rights.

Mr. Matas was appointed a member of the Order of Canada on December 30, 2008. It is the highest civilian honor awarded in Canada. On November 13, 2009, the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced the appointments of Matas the board of directors of the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy). Rights & Democracy is a non-partisan organization created by Canada's Parliament in 1988. It is to encourage and support the universal values of human rights and the promotion of democratic institutions and practices around the world.

(wikipedia)

Leptis Magna, also known as Lectis Magna (or Lepcis Magna as it is sometimes spelled), also called Lpqy or Neapolis, was a prominent city of the Roman Empire. Its ruins are located in Al Khums, Libya, 130 km east of Tripoli, on the coast where the Wadi Lebda meets the sea. The site is one of the most spectacular and unspoiled Roman ruins in the Mediterranean.

Market place

History

The city appears to have been founded by Phoenician colonists sometime around 1100 BC, although it did not achieve prominence until Carthage became a major power in the Mediterranean Sea in the 4th century BC. It nominally remained part of Carthage's dominions until the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC and then became part of the Roman Republic, although from about 200 BC onward, it was for all intents and purposes an independent city.

Severan Basilica

In 439, Leptis Magna and the rest of the cities of Tripolitania fell under the control of the Vandals when their king, Gaiseric, captured Carthage from the Romans and made it his capital. Unfortunately for the future of Leptis Magna, Gaiseric ordered the city's walls demolished so as to dissuade its people from rebelling against Vandal rule. The people of Leptis and the Vandals both paid a heavy price for this in 523 when a group of Berber raiders sacked the city.

Theatre

Belisarius recaptured Leptis Magna in the name of Rome ten years later, and in 534, he destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals. Leptis became a provincial capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (see Byzantine Empire) but never recovered from the destruction wreaked upon it by the Berbers. It was the site of a massacre of Berber chiefs by the Roman authorities in 543.^[1] By the time of the Arab conquest of Tripolitania in the 650s, the city was abandoned except for a Byzantine garrison force.

Today, the site of Leptis Magna is the site of some of the most impressive ruins of the Roman period.

 

Name: Tang Haihua (唐海花)
Gender: Female
Age: 53
Address: Xinhui Town, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Occupation: Medical PhD Student at Jilin University
Date of Death: Before October 9, 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 5, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Aohan Prefecture Detention Center (敖汉旗看守所)
City: Chifeng
Province: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Persecution Suffered: Illegal Sentencing, Imprisonment, Torture, Home Ransacked, Detention

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) On July 1, 2007, Public Security agent Gong Chuanxing of Aohan Prefecture and several others set out to follow Falun Dafa practitioners. They ransacked Ms. Tang Haihua's home and lied to her son so that they could take their Falun Dafa materials. On July 6, 2007, they arrested Ms. Tang and other practitioners, detained them in the Aohan Prefecture Detention Center, and did not allow their families to visit.

At the beginning of January 2008, Ms. Tang and three other practitioners were each sentenced to three years in prison. They were taken to the Hohhot City Women's Prison in March 2008. There is no information on when or why Ms. Tang was taken back to the detention center or if she was ever accepted by the prison.

At 8:00 p.m. on October 9, 2009, her family received a notice saying that she was dying. They rushed to the Aohan Prefecture Detention Center. Upon entering the women's cell, they saw Ms. Tang's body, which was frozen hard in the freezer.

The detention center officials did not allow her family to inquire about the cause of her death, and they even threatened them, saying, "There is no discussion. Her body must be cremated!" Her family was not allowed to go near her body. The center called for transport from the crematory to take her body away and told her family that they had to pay for it.

Ms. Tang's family had to stand three feet away as the detention center personnel put clothes on her. Although they could not examine her closely, they still saw that her head, back, and chest were covered with purple bruises. Her wrist seemed to be fractured, and she had no shoes on.

An analysis of salt levels in breads, cereals, tomato ketchups, sauces and soups found that in every category the best option was a supermarket own-brand, while the worst offenders were more likely to be major brands such as Kellogg's and Baxters.

The study found that of all sugared cornflakes, Kellogg's Cornflakes had the most salt while Tesco Value Cornflakes had the least. At Tesco's online, a 750g packet of Kellogg's costs £2.26 – 30p per 100g – compared with 14p per 100g for the supermarket's value range.

When it came to white bread the highest levels were in Brace's bread followed by Kingsmill Everyday White while the lowest was Sainsbury's "whole and white".

The study was carried out by the campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) and comes a day before the Food Standards Agency launches the next part of its campaign to reduce salt consumption in the UK. The FSA will warn customers to be aware of the wide variation in salt levels in these types of food.

Katharine Jenner, a nutritionist and Cash campaign manager, warned that branded options were often the worst. "The supermarkets have generally been leading the way in reducing salt, while well-known brands have been dragging their heels," she said.

"Don't think that by buying the more expensive brands you are getting the healthiest products – often it's the cheaper versions that contain less salt." Rosemary Hignett, the FSA's head of nutrition, said it had identified the trend in bread. "It is true that supermarket own-brand loaves of bread are usually lower in salt than the branded loaves and this is good news for consumers, especially in the current economic climate," she said. "The only way of knowing for sure is by checking the labels for salt and comparing brands, and this applies for all foods."

Some supermarkets have started benchmarking their products against other supermarket lines instead of famous brands because of the differences in salt levels. A spokeswoman for Tesco said the chain had been cutting salt levels for four years. "Tesco has removed over 3,000 tonnes of salt from products in the UK since 2005, including 145 tonnes from our ready meals, and this is an ongoing process. The average Tesco ready meal already contains 10% less salt than the 2010 target set by the Food Standards Agency."

Some of the brands highlighted as having the worst levels of salt said they were also making changes. Heinz was rated worst by Cash in the tomato ketchup category with 3.1g per 100g compared with 0.9g per 100g in Asda Smart Price Ketchup. A Heinz spokesman said the recipe for its tomato ketchup had changed, and the new version would be in shops this month. It has reduced salt levels by 27% in line with FSA targets. "We kicked off our salt-reduction work as long ago as 1986, and since 1997 we have dropped the salt by 32% in Heinz Beanz, 39% in Cream of Tomato Soup and 63% in pasta shapes," he said.

Jack Winkler, professor of nutrition policy at London Metropolitan University, said that making a 25% reduction in salt content without alienating customers was a "real technical achievement".

He added: "Supermarkets and their own-label lines tend to be a progressive force on nutrition because if you are a 'brand' and you do something innovative like cut salt it might offend a few and you might lose business. Your company is tied up with one product or a limited number of products so you are extremely conservative about changing anything in case it harms the brand you have spent years building up."

 

Name: Li Yunbiao (李云彪)
Gender: Male
Age: 50
Address: Fourth Branch, Changshuihe Farm, Bei'an City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Mechanical technician employed by the Fourth Branch of Changshuihe Farm
Date of Death: October 18, 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jilin City Detention Center (北安监狱)
City: Bei'an
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feeding, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Heilongjiang Province) Mr. Li Yunbiao started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. After the persecution began, he went to Beijing to appeal and safeguard the Fa, and unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square. He was arrested and detained at Changshuihe Farm.

In April 2000, he was sentenced to forced labor for a year at the Huayuan Farm Labor Camp in Wudalianchi City. Due to his refusal to give up his faith, he was under strict control and tortured by being forced to "fly an airplane," a form of torture where one is forced to bend down with the head lower than the knees and the arms forced up and back. He was often made to stay that way for more than an hour at a time. The guards also encouraged the prisoners to beat him. The cell leader, who was a prisoner, once forced his head under the bed and forcibly spread his legs apart, with his arms held high and back behind him. He used a three-foot-long wooden board and hit Mr. Li with the smaller end, which caused him extreme pain. Another time the cell leader asked him about Falun Gong. When Mr. Li stated how wonderful it was in front of all his cell mates, the cell leader hit him cruelly with the bed board, resulting in multiple injuries.

The guards beat Mr. Li frequently, and fellow practitioners witnessed two guards beating him more than a dozen times. Li Chunwei, warden of the Third Ward, beat Mr. Li most often. One day he called Mr. Li into the office and asked him if he would eventually accept the brainwashing. Mr. Li answered firmly, "I solidly believe in Falun Gong, because it teaches people to be good!" Li Chunwei instantly brutally beat Mr. Li. He grabbed Mr. Li's head and punched him against the wall. Mr. Li's face swelled up and he was covered with bruises. The warden then forced Mr. Li into the "flying an airplane" position for a long time against the wall.

A few days later, Li Chunwei asked Mr. Li again, "Are you going to give up Falun Gong?" Mr. Li's answer was the same, "Absolutely not!" Li Chunwei was so angry that he and another guard used a white plastic tube to beat Mr. Li for more than an hour, resulting in him falling many times. His front teeth broke off, and he bled from the nose and mouth. The two guards shouted while beating him, "Are you going to give it up or not?" In extreme pain, Mr. Li stood up, looked the guards straight in their eyes, and said, "Absolutely not!" Li Chunwei then beat him even harder and caused him to lose sight in his left eye. The back of his head bled. The beating finally stopped when the two guards were exhausted.

Mr. Li was disfigured, and his head was in extreme pain and swollen. Even his eyes were purple and swollen. He could not sleep at all due to the pain. He was even more swollen the next day, and he could not walk due to the pain. Li Chunwei still forced him to do labor.

Soon after this cruel beating, he was taken to the Suihua City Forced Labor Camp. Because this beating caused him such severe injury, he was sometimes disoriented and spoke nonsense. He lost feeling in one leg and was incontinent. The doctors in the Suihua City Hospital found that he was bleeding inside his skull, so they operated on him. He was released from the hospital one month later, but became very weak.

The Suihua City Forced Labor Camp detained him for an additional four months, because he refused to accept the brainwashing. He was then transferred to the Changshuihe Farm Police Department and locked in a night watchman's guardhouse at one of the Fourth Branches of Changshuihe Farm. He protested many times by going on hunger strikes.

One night it was snowing heavily, and while the watchman was asleep, Mr. Li escaped. He was wearing light clothing and had to hike through a mountainous area to his brother's home in Daqing City. The local police received news of his escape, and the next day they sent an officer to Daqing City. Mr. Li was arrested again and put in solitary confinement in a cage, and he was very cold. The officer purposely opened the door for the cold air to come in.

Mr. Li was subjected to inhuman treatment, and he was thin and weak. A doctor indicated that he had pleurisy, water in his liver, and tuberculosis. From his chest down to his stomach he was extremely swollen. When they extracted what was inside, they found water-like pus. The doctor concluded, "He will not live long. Tell his family to prepare his funeral."

Mr. Li's sisters, who live in Dalian City in Liaoning Province and Shanghai, came to see and care for him, and all of his relatives were worried and angered that such a good man would be persecuted to this extent. Due to his faith in Dafa, however, he recovered day by day, and after a few months he was able to take care of himself. His miraculous recovery validated how extraordinary Falun Dafa is. The police took turns watching Mr. Li day and night, but he talked to people through an open window. There were many people in the hospital who were willing to hear his testimonial. Some doctors and nurses came to listen at the window and asked questions. On rainy days they held up umbrellas so they could hear him.

The hospital CCP secretary was angry, so he beat and cursed Mr. Li. He was later kept captive in a room in the rear of the hospital. They locked his door and did not allow any contact from the outside. He realized that he was in a hopeless situation and that he should leave. A fellow practitioner found him and came up with a plan. On a Saturday he was able to escape with the help of this practitioner.

In 2002, police officers were checking every house in Bei'an City. They found Mr. Li and illegally put him in the Bei'an City Detention Center. The local police later took him, and he protested again through a hunger strike. When he was about to die, they released him temporarily for medical treatment. His sister took him to Dalian City in Liaoning Province, and, after he recovered, he went to Beijing clarify the truth.

In 2005, he handed out many copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in Bei'an City, and walked through almost all of the Bei'an City suburban villages. In May 2005, Mr. Li took many copies of the Nine Commentaries to his hometown. He worked with fellow practitioners to distribute them and helped people to do the "three withdrawals" (withdrawing from the Communist Party, the Communist Youth League, and the Young Pioneers). One day while he was carrying a heavy load of the Nine Commentaries and other materials used to clarify the truth on his bicycle, he was stopped by local police officers in the Second Branch of Changshuihe Farm and was arrested again. In August 2005, he was illegally sentenced to eight years in the Ninth Ward of Bei'an City Prison.

Mr. Li was forced to be under strict control and to do slave labor. The food was extremely bad, and with the torture he became as thin as a skeleton. He could not endure such inhuman mistreatment any longer and went on a hunger strike to protest again. He never gave in despite guards cruelly force-feeding him. In October 2006, he was taken to the Bei'an Prison Hospital. He was very weak and died on October 18, 2009.

During the past ten years of persecution, Mr. Li Yunbiao has never had one day of peace in his life, as his days were filled with imprisonment, cruel beatings, living away from home, and sickness. His mother had high blood pressure and a stroke due to the mental pressure and living in fear, and became paralyzed. His wife and son were threatened and harassed, and are now both missing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders gathering in Rome this week.

For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church: at least since Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for claiming that other worlds exist.

Among other things, extremely alien-looking aliens would be hard to fit with the idea that God “made man in his own image”.

Furthermore, Jesus Christ’s role as saviour would be confused: would other worlds have their own, tentacled Christ-figures, or would Earth’s Christ be universal?

However, just as the Church eventually made accommodations after Copernicus and Galileo showed that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, and when it belatedly accepted the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution, Catholic leaders say that alien life can be aligned with the Bible’s teachings.

Father Jose Funes, a Jesuit astronomer at the Vatican Observatory and one of the organisers of the conference, said: "As a multiplicity of creatures exists on Earth, so there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God.

"This does not conflict with our faith, because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God."

Not everyone agrees. Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and author of The Goldilocks Enigma, told The Washington Post that the threat to Christianity is "being downplayed" by Church leaders. He said: "I think the discovery of a second genesis would be of enormous spiritual significance.

"The real threat would come from the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, because if there are beings elsewhere in the universe, then Christians, they're in this horrible bind.

"They believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on other planets."

The Academy conference will include presentations from scientists – by no means all of them Christians – on the discovery of planets outside our solar system, the geological record of early life on Earth, how life might have started on Earth, and whether “alien” life of a different biochemistry to our own might exist here without our knowing, among many other things.

 

(Clearwisdom.net) (correspondent from Hunan Province) By order of Jiahe County court in Hunan Province, a group of policemen arrested Falun Dafa practitioners Mr. Guo Huisheng and his wife Li Jumei, a school teacher in Zhuquanwan, on the night of August 6, 2009. Mr. Guo was brutally beaten and died two months later, on October 12, 2009. His wife, Li Jumei, remains detained in prison.

Guo Huisheng Guo Huisheng in hospital emergency care, shortly before his death

During the past ten years of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa, it has consistently implemented its policies of "Ruin them financially, ruin their reputation, and destroy them physically," with the aim of eradicating Falun Dafa. Mr. Guo and Ms. Li were trying to let more people know about the truth and magnificence of Dafa, but were met with arrest, detainment, hard labor and "re-education" (brainwashing). Ms. Li was sentenced many times. In early 2004, Mr. Guo and Ms. Li each had their wages stopped and were fined over 30,000 yuan (approximately 5 years' salary of an average urban worker) for practicing Falun Dafa. Mr. Guo was detained and sentenced to a men's forced labor camp once; Ms. Li was detained six times and sentenced to a women's forced labor camp twice, suffering a total economic loss of over 100,000 yuan. Ms. Li also had to endure a dozen or so different kinds of torture methods whilst in prison. These included being restricted from going to the toilet, being forced to stand up for long periods of time, sleep deprivation, being hung by the thumbs, being handcuffed with one arm behind the back and one behind the head, being forced to remain in awkward positions for long periods of time, beatings, and being pulled by the ears.

On July 6, 2009, policemen unlawfully detained practitioner Ms. Xiao Silan from Lanshan County, Hunan Province. She was imprisoned in Lanshan County detention center and has a fractured right arm after it had been twisted so much. To this day, she has not received the proper medical treatment for her arm. Mr. Guo and Ms. Li proceeded to call Xi Xiaogang, chief of the Public Security Bureau, Lanshan County, to appeal to his kindness. Instead, Xi Xiaogang reported them to the local 610 Office. Such an act of compassion was met with persecution from the Chenzhou District 610 Office, Jiahe County, Hunan Province.

On the night of August 6, 2009, a group of policemen arrested and detained Mr. Guo and Ms. Li. As their home was now empty, the police went there twice to confiscate their belongings. Those who witnessed the incident reported that at least six to seven sacks were full when they were taken from their home by the police. According to Mr. Guo Huisheng's older brother, several hundred thousand yuan in cash was at their home, which was intended for home improvements, and also taken by the police. Furthermore, four policemen, including Hu Yonghui, an instructor at the National Security military unit, severely beat Mr. Guo while he was handcuffed and kneeling down. Upon arrival at the local police station, Mr. Guo's face was covered in blood. According to eyewitnesses, at least four people dragged him out of the interrogation room, and he had blood stains all over his clothes.

On October 6, 2009, Mr. Guo fell into a coma in the Jiahe County Detention Center, and was sent to the local county hospital. After doctors operated on his head, Mr. Guo was still in a coma and had a faint heartbeat. He was in a critical condition. At 5 p.m. on October 12, 2009, Mr. Guo Huisheng's heart stopped beating.

Under the CCP's strict control of information, we do not know of every event that transpired during Mr. Guo's detainment. However, for a healthy, strong individual like Mr. Guo to be severely persecuted to the point of death is enough evidence to prove that the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong is cruel beyond human nature.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

 

By Mail Foreign Service

Chinese weather scientists were embarrassingly caught out by a sudden cold snap yesterday.

They had decided to 'seed' clouds with chemicals to produce rain and ease a drought in Beijing.

The operation went exactly as they had hoped - except that temperatures dropped sharply and the precipitation fell as snow.

It kept going for half the day, blanketing the capital's streets and hitting air and road travel. It was the earliest snow in Beijing for ten years.

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Winter wonderland: Holding an ambrella, a biker protects himself as he rides by after a snow storm hit Beijing

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Timber! A scooter rider maneuvres to avoid snow-capped trees fallen on the road

It was helped by temperatures as low as -2C (29 Fahrenheit) and strong winds from the north, Xinhua news agency reported.

'We won't miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought,' the report quoted Zhang Qiang, head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, as saying at the end of last week.

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Christmas scene... in China: A snow-capped pavilion

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Playtime: Children make the most of the snow

Chinese meteorologists have for years been honing the technique of making  rain by injecting special chemicals into clouds.

Although the technique often gets results, a drought in the north of the country has continued for over a decade.

Besides the snow, which the Beijing Evening News said was the earliest to hit the capital in 10 years, the cold weather and strong winds also delayed air travel from Beijing's Capital Airport.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1224475/China-overdoes-cloud-seeding-end-drought--blankets-Beijing-snow.html#ixzz0VvXBDWOI

 

Name: Li Xiuzhen (李秀珍)
Gender: Female
Age: In her 50s
Address: Caojiadougou Village, Linghe Town, Anqiu City, Shandong Province
Occupation: Linghe Town Nursery School Teacher
Date of Death: October 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 13, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jinan City Prison (济南监狱)
City: Anqiu
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Electric Shock, Sleep Deprivation, Forced Labor, Brainwashing, Illegal Sentencing, Beatings, Imprisonment, Torture, Forced-Feedings, Home Ransacked, Interrogation, Detention

(Clearwisdom.net)   Ms. Li Xiuzhen used to be in poor health, suffering from chronic migraines, stomach disease, gastroptosis and gynecological diseases. Her husband died in an accident, leaving her to rear their two children alone. After practicing Falun Dafa in 1998, Ms. Li's life changed to a positive cycle. She regained good health, and her mental outlook and morality were upgraded.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Li Xiuzhen went to Beijing three times to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. On the third trip, she was penniless and had to beg for food on her way to Beijing.

Ms. Li Xiuzhen was arrested 19 times, sent to forced labor, imprisoned for 7 years, and brutally force-fed 616 times. She endured more than a dozen tortures, but she still refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong. The guards used electric batons to shock her. However, she still talked to them about the wonderful benefits of Falun Gong. Ms. Li went on hunger strikes to protest the cruel beatings which occurred 5 or 6 times every day. The guards inserted a thick rubber tube into her nose to force-feed her. They deprived her of sleep for 28 days.

An object was used to keep Ms. Li 's eyes open, to prevent her from sleeping.

Ms. Li Xiuzhen was immobilized on a bed during brutal forced feedings.

Torture reenactments

By the end of 2002, Ms. Li could not walk. She was emaciated and weighed only 50 lbs. She was released when she was close to dying. Her daughter, 13 years, old passed out in shock upon seeing the sight of her mother.

Li Xiuzhen recovered, and later lived away from home for over 6 years to avoid being arrested again. On the afternoon of June 13, 2009, plainclothes police arrested her again. They tied her up with ropes and ransacked her rental unit. They took away 2 computers, 2 printers, cash and other belongings. No one knew of Ms. Li's whereabouts after the arrest.

Her family found out one month later that Ms. Li was detained in the Anqiu City Detention Center. She went on a hunger strike, and was brutally force-fed. She was later taken to a brainwashing center located in the Anqiu City Party Education School. Ms. Li was held in a brainwashing session especially set up for her, where she endured cruel torture. Her whereabouts were unknown again some time after that.

Many days after Li Xiuzhen died, her family saw her body in Jinan City Prison some time during the beginning of October 2009. The authorities ordered that her body be cremated soon after. The details of her brutal mistreatment in Jinan Prison are yet to be investigated. Over the past 10 years of persecution, 24 Falun Dafa practitioners in Anqiu City have died as result of the persecution.

The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world's most enduring myths – the fable of Atlantis – have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southern Greece.

Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say.

"There is now no doubt that this is the oldest submerged town in the world," said Dr Jon Henderson, associate professor of underwater archaeology at the University of Nottingham. "It has remains dating from 2800 to 1200 BC, long before the glory days of classical Greece. There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique."

The site, which straddles 30,000 square meters of ocean floor off the southern Peloponnese, is believed to have been consumed by the sea around 1000 BC. Although discovered by a British oceanographer some 40 years ago, it was only this year that marine archaeologists, aided by digital technology, were able to properly survey the ruins.

What they found surpassed all expectations. Thanks to shifting sands and the settlement's enclosure in a protected bay, the exploration revealed a world of buildings, courtyards, main streets, rock-cut tombs and religious structures. In addition, the seabed was replete with thousands of shards of pottery.

"We found ceramics dating back to the end of the stone age, which suggested that the settlement was occupied some 5,000 years ago, at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought," said Henderson, who co-directed the underwater survey.

"Our investigations also revealed over 9,000 square meters of new buildings. But what really took us by surprise was the discovery of a possible megaron, a monumental structure with a large rectangular hall, which also suggests that the town had been used by an elite, and automatically raised the status of the settlement."

More than any other underwater site so far, the find offers potential insights into the workings of Mycenaean society.

"It is significant because as a submerged site it was never reoccupied," said Elias Spondylis, who co-directed the survey as the head of Greece's underwater antiquities department. "As such it represents a frozen moment of the past."

Marine geologists have yet to work out why the settlement sank. Theories include sea level changes, ground subsidence as the result of earthquakes, or a tsunami.

"It is very likely a combination of the first two," said Dimitris Sakellariou, at the Greek Institute of Oceanography. "As the world's oldest submerged city it is truly amazing. It not only shows how people lived at the time is also of great interest to natural scientists because the waters around it are so shallow."

Locals in the nearby town of Neapolis are delighted. "Older generations always knew something was there but we had no idea about the extent of it," said Neapolis's mayor, Yiannis Kousoulis.

It is the first time a sunken city has been found in Greece that predates the time that Plato wrote his allegorical tale of the sunken continent of Atlantis.

"Atlantis was a myth but it is a myth that keeps underwater exploration going," said Sakellariou. "Less than 1% of the world's ocean floors have ever been surveyed. This is an extraordinary find but there is still a lot more down there that has to be found."

 

Name: Liu Laibin (刘来彬)
Gender: Male
Age: 67
Address: Yingkou City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Retired from Yingkou City Boiler Factory
Date of Death: October 10, 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 24, 2003
Most Recent Place of Detention: Yingkou City Prison (营口监狱)
City: Yingkou
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Sleep Deprivation, Brainwashing, Illegal Sentencing, Beatings, Imprisonment, Torture, Interrogation, Detention

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Liaoning Province) Mr. Liu Laibin used to have a stomach disorder, phlebitis, and lung disease. He began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, and all his illnesses disappeared. He disciplined himself according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and treated others kindly.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, the local police and community workers constantly harassed him when he went home, and they arrested him and once sent him to a brainwashing center.

On June 24, 2003, Mr. Liu was doing business in front of the Jianfeng Market in Zhanqian District, Yingkou City. Several officers from the Desheng Police Station arrested and detained him in the Yingkou City Detention Center, where he was brutally beaten by other prisoners. Guard Yi Zhaoyun would not allow Mr. Liu to do the exercises or speak. He forced Mr. Liu to do more than 10 hours of labor, and he often had to work overtime and into the night. He had very little sleep, and prisoners were forced to be on night watch duty where they would take turns watching his cell.

During his detention, the Zhanqian District Procuratorate charged Mr. Liu with "crimes undermining the execution of the law". They put Mr. Liu on trial on December 5, 2003, and sentenced him to five years in prison on December 23, 2003. He was taken to Yingkou City Prison in February 2004.

Upon entering Yingkou City Prison, guards instructed prisoners to force Mr. Liu to write statements to accept the brainwashing. He was once locked in a small cell (1) for four days, forced to sit on a small stool that was only one inch wide, and deprived of sleep for 24 hours. Mr. Liu's life was in danger twice, but the prison refused to release him. He was finally released after his five year term ended in June 2008. He died at around 9:00 a.m. on October 10, 2009.

(1) The detainee is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff practitioners behind the back in a fixed position, in which the practitioners can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to detainees locked up in a small cell during the daytime. During the night the rats run around. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.