Prominent Chinese dissident Hu Jia released from jail: wife (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – One of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, was reunited with his family in the early hours of Sunday after serving three and a half-years in jail on subversion charges, his wife said.

Hu was convicted in 2008 for "inciting subversion of state power" for criticising human rights problems in China, and he was seen by some supporters as a potential recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize before it went to another jailed Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, last year.

"He is back home with his parents and me," his wife, Zeng Jingyan, told Reuters in a brief telephone interview.

"I don't know if he can speak later. At the moment, I want everything to be peaceful. I'm worried that doing interviews at this stage might cause problems. Please understand."

Hu Jia's release follows the abrupt freeing from detention of the prominent artist and activist Ai Weiwei, and has come while Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is visiting Europe on trips to Hungary, Britain and Germany.

(Reporting by Maxim Duncan and Chris Buckley; Writing by Chris Buckley)

Yahoo! News

Released hiker describes friends' abuse in Iranian prison

Shane Bauer, left, and Josh Fattal have been detained in Iran since their arrest during a 2009 hiking trip near the Iranian border.Sarah Shourd says Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were abusedThey were beaten and pushed down stairs, she saysThe three hikers were arrested in July 2009 when they wandered into IranShourd was released last year but the two men remain jailed

(CNN) -- Iranian prison guards abused and assaulted two U.S. hikers who have been detained in the Islamic Republic since 2009, according to their friend Sarah Shourd, who was released last year.

In an interview with the BBC this week, Shourd described the abuse that Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer experienced before Shourd was released on $500,000 bail in September, according to a statement released by the families Thursday.

A guard at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison was furious that Fattal took extra food and pushed him down the stairs, Shourd said. The guard repeatedly threw Bauer against a wall of his cell until his head began bleeding.

She said the three had feared that they would be executed soon after they were arrested, when a guard began cocking his gun.

The two men are allowed limited communication these days, and their families have no way of knowing their condition.

"My worst fear is that they're not safe," Shourd said. "They don't have consular access, they're not allowed to see their lawyer, and we fear the worst."

In July 2009, Shourd, 32, Fattal, 29, and Bauer, 28, were hiking in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish area along the border with Iran when they were arrested by Iranian police. Shourd said they accidentally strayed across the border. Iranian authorities say the three crossed into Iran illegally.

Twice, they feared for their lives as guards loaded them into a vehicle to a mysterious location and cocked their weapons, Shourd said. Terrified, they held hands, cried out and begged for their lives.

Even though Shourd is free, she, along with the families of Fattal and Bauer, remains focused on helping her friends to freedom. Shourd and the families have begun fasting in an effort to show their solidarity and support for the imprisoned men.

Fattal and Bauer started their own hunger strike when they were no longer allowed to receive family letters. They have been allowed only three brief phone calls to their families; the most recent was May 22.

Fattal and Bauer were supposed to attend a trial hearing May 11 but never showed. Their absence has not been explained by Iranian officials.

"We are shocked and angry at the way Shane and Josh are being treated and the terrible incidents that Sarah has told us about only heighten our grave concern for their physical and mental welfare," said the family statement.

"The people who are holding Shane and Josh are breaking Iran's laws ... and behaving shamefully. This nightmare must end and Shane and Josh must be released."

CNN

Ex-IMF chief released from Rikers Island jail

New York (CNN) -- The International Monetary Fund announced its search for a new managing director as its former chief, Dominique-Strauss-Kahn, is confined to a Lower Manhattan apartment following his release on bail from a Rikers Island jail.

A private security guard will monitor Strauss-Kahn around the clock, a source with knowledge of the bail agreement said.

Strauss-Kahn, who is accused of trying to rape a maid last week in hissuite of rooms at the Sofitel hotel in New York, will pay the cost of the security guard at the apartment in the city's financial district, the source told CNN.

A real estate website states two-bedroom apartments with 9-foot ceilings in the landmark, 23-floor, turn-of-the-century building with a doorman start at $4,250 per month. The rental application asks, "Do you or do any of your occupants have charges pending against you or against them for any criminal offense(s)?"

Strauss-Kahn does. He faces two counts of criminal sexual act; two counts of sexual abuse; and one count each of attempt to commit rape, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.

In the charge of criminal sexual act in the first degree, Strauss-Kahn is accused of having "engaged in oral sexual conduct with an individual ... by forcible compulsion," an indictment states.

Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus ordered the release of the 62-year-old economist on Friday over the objection of the prosecution, which said he is a flight risk.

While Strauss-Kahn is in his apartment, where he is to stay with his wife, Anne Sinclair, he will not be able to leave except for medical reasons, Obus said. Once he is in a longer-term location, the former banker must give six hours' notice before leaving.

Defense lawyer William Taylor alluded to Strauss-Kahn's reported failure to win approval to stay at another apartment in pleading Friday with members of the news media to grant his client privacy.

"The reason that he had to move is because members of the press attempted to invade his private residence and interfere with his family's privacy," Taylor said.

The conditions of Strauss-Kahn's release included $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond. A document signed by bondsman Ira Judelson shows that the bond was secured by money from Sinclair.

Judelson would not divulge what Sinclair put up as collateral.

"I feel very comfortable with the bail package (and) the family is," Judelson told reporters. "I worked with them all last night on putting this together. They're good people."

On Friday, more details emerged about the alleged attack May 14 in Suite 2806 of the Sofitel hotel. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the case said a room service attendant entered the suite a short time before the 32-year-old Guinean maid arrived.

The room service attendant didn't think anyone was in the suite of rooms and used a pass key to let himself in to retrieve some room-service items, the source said. He told police he left the door ajar while inside, according to the source.

When the maid showed up at the door about noon, the room-service attendant told her to enter, then departed, the source said.

Once inside, the maid parked her cleaning cart in the doorway, as dictated by hotel policy. A short time later, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from a room and attacked her, the victim has alleged.

Prosecutors allege that Strauss-Kahn chased her through his suite, sexually assaulted her and tried to rape her.

A criminal complaint states Strauss-Kahn shut the door at one point during the alleged attack. The law enforcement source said the maid escaped about 1:30 p.m.

About an hour before his 4:40 p.m. flight was to take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport for Paris, Strauss-Kahn called the hotel to say he had left his cell phone. He asked security to look for it in his room and to have it delivered to the airport, the source said.

By then, police had been called to the hotel. Though hotel staff never found the phone, they followed police orders, telling Strauss-Kahn they had found it and would deliver it to him, the source said. Port Authority police took over from there, walking a compliant Strauss-Kahn from his first-class seat to a squad car at the airport, the source said.

At the time, Strauss-Kahn was in the fourth year of a five-year term with the global financial institution and was paid $441,980 in 2010, according to the most recent annual report. He also got $79,000 and first-class travel for him and his family while he was on company business.

On Friday, the IMF said that Strauss-Kahn will receive a $250,000 separation payment and a "modest annual pension" thereafter.

We don't disclose pension payments," said IMF spokesman William Murray. "But it is well below the separation payment figure."

The dean of the IMF Executive Board, Shakour Shaalan, announced Friday that the institution adopted a procedure to select its next managing director.

In a statement, Shaalan said the board will meet with final candidates in Washington "with the objective of completing the selection process by June 30, 2011."

Strauss-Kahn proclaimed innocence in a resignation letter to the IMF Executive Board late Wednesday.

"To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," he said.

His next court appearance is set for June 6.

The judge granted the bail Thursday on condition that, in addition to posting $1 million in cash and a $5 million bond, Strauss-Kahn surrender his travel documents and submit to home detention.

A criminal court judge denied him bail Monday, saying the fact that he was taken into custody aboard an Air France jet made him a flight risk.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyer argued Thursday that his client had bought the ticket on May 11, and that he was not fleeing anything.

The maid testified before a grand jury Wednesday, according to her attorney.

Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman has disputed her allegations, saying "forensic evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible account, and we believe there is a very, very defensible case."

CNN's Susan Candiotti, Adam Reiss and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.

CNN

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

D.C. Mayor Arrested, Released Following Budget Protest

AP

April 11: Mayor Vincent Gray is searched by Capitol Hill police after being arrested in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- The budget deal lawmakers struck to avoid a government shutdown was greeted by some with relief, but it has one city already reeling: the capital itself. 

City officials say Washington was used as a pawn in last week's budget bargaining, with new restrictions part of the price of a deal. 

Angry that Congress appears ready to take away autonomy granted to the city in the last several years, Mayor Vincent Gray and six Council members including the chairman were among 41 people arrested Monday outside the Capitol while protesting the changes that might be inevitable. 

Seven hours later, they were released from jail. 

"We needed to make a statement," Gray said after his release. 

He said protesters' shoelaces, ties and belts were removed while they were in jail. The district restrictions that were part of the budget deal reached Friday were "completely unacceptable," Gray said. 

The city will likely be unable to spend its own tax dollars on abortions for low-income women. It may also be banned from spending city money on needle exchange programs believed vital to curbing the spread of HIV in the district, where the disease is considered an epidemic. Also back: a school voucher program favored by Republicans. 

The news is considered a setback for a city that is unique in that it has a city government but its budget and laws are overseen by Congress. It had enjoyed more freedom in the past four years when both the House and Senate were controlled by Democrats, the party traditionally more friendly to pleas of autonomy from the heavily Democratic city. 

When Republicans took control of the House in January, the city readied for changes. Still, city leaders said they are outraged that Washington appears to have been used as a bargaining chip. 

"If this isn't taxation without representation, I don't know what is," the mayor said before being arrested. 

He and Council members, dressed in business attire, sat down in the street outside a Senate office building. U.S. Capitol Police arrested them, cuffing their hands behind them with plastic loops, and loaded them into police wagons to cheers from the crowd. 

They were cited for blocking the street with an unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor that can be resolved by paying a $50 fine. 

Gray said after he was released that he was proud to be part of the demonstration and would continue to fight the restrictions, but wasn't specific. 

Gray became the second D.C. mayor to go to jail while advocating for home rule. Sharon Pratt Kelly was arrested during a statehood protest in August 1993. Gray also was a council member before becoming mayor, so he is familiar with the home-rule fight. 

Ilir Zherka, the executive director of D.C. Vote, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for more independence for the district, said his group doesn't intend to let the budget pass this week without a fight. 

"We're not going to accept that they decided to throw the District of Columbia under the bus," Zherka said. 

But while the news is considered a setback for the capital city and its 600,000 residents, the restrictions wouldn't be new. 

The city's ability to spend money on abortions for low-income women has seesawed over the last two decades. When Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency, in 1993 and 1994 and again in 2009 and 2010, the city has been able to spend its own money to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid. When Republicans have controlled at least one branch of government that ability has been taken away. 

The fact that Congress will likely re-impose the ban on abortion funding wasn't a shock to Tiffany Reed, the president of D.C. Abortion Fund, a non-profit organization that makes grants to poor women to pay for abortions, which can cost $300 to $500 or more. Reed said her group, which helped pay for more than 300 abortions a year, had expected the ban to be re-imposed, but she was angry Congress had stepped in again to local affairs just as the lifting of the ban was beginning to take effect. 

"It gives me a lot of rage quite frankly," she said. "I'm really disappointed in our pro-choice president that he allowed this to happen." 

As for a possible reintroduction of a ban on city money for needle exchanges, it would be a step back. Congress prohibited the city from using its own money for the programs for two decades beginning in the late 1980s. Other groups stepped in to provide the service with private dollars, but it is a widely held belief that the city's inability to pay for needle exchange led to an increase in the number of residents contracting HIV. Approximately 3 percent of city residents are currently living with HIV or AIDS, a level considered by health officials to be epidemic. 

When the ban was lifted in 2007, the city invested money in community programs that collected 300,000 used syringes in the last year. People who work at the city's three needle exchange programs say they aren't sure how they will cope if the city is again unable to provide money. 

"It would be nothing short of disastrous," said Cyndee Clay, executive director of HIPS, an organization that works with sex workers and drug users and is currently exchanging about 8,000 needles a month. "I don't understand why they're doing this to us." 

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's representative in Congress, said she has not yet seen the actual language in the budget but has been told the abortion rider and school vouchers are in. Norton, a Democrat who is not allowed to vote on the House floor, said she doesn't believe needle exchange is part of the deal, but she said she won't be sure until she sees final language. 

"We got bargained away," Norton said of the budget deal. "I don't know for what."

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet View ArticleLeave a CommentSort: NewestSort: Oldest Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. You must login to comment.

View Article

View All Comments

Latest Politics VideosMore »

View the Original article

Released from jail, Mississippi sisters still seek full pardon

Updated

ShareWe've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

Advertisement

Most Popular E-mail Newsletter

View the Original article