hunger strike

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>

59 Days Later, California Prisoners End Hunger Strike

40 had been striking since July 8

(Newser) - California inmates have ended a nearly two-month hunger strike to protest the prison system's isolation policies, prison officials said today. More than 30,000 inmates, who said gang leaders are often held for decades in isolation units, had been refusing meals when the strike began July 8. By this...

Judge: OK to Force-Feed Calif. Inmates

Backs officials' request as 129 remain on hunger strike

(Newser) - As a prison hunger strike continues in California, a federal judge has given officials the go-ahead to force-feed inmates. The procedure is allowed if a prison's medical chief finds that an inmate is "at risk of near-term death or great bodily injury" or can't make his or...

Woman: 16 Days in NJ Jail a 'Death Sentence'

Topless-rights activist Phoenix Feeley threatens hunger strike

(Newser) - Phoenix Feeley thinks that conditions at Monmouth County Jail in New Jersey are so bad that a 16-day stay there amounts to a "death sentence." Feeley, a 33-year-old professional fire-eater, has been locked up for refusing to pay a $816 fine for going topless at Spring Lake beach...

Take It From an Ex-Con: Solitary Confinement Is Cruel

California's striking inmates deserve our attention: Wilbert Rideau

(Newser) - At last count, about 2,500 inmates in California were still taking part in a hunger strike that began on July 8. If corrections officials were smart, they'd pay careful attention to the inmates' complaints, writes Wilbert Rideau in the New York Times . The main one is that prisons...

Gitmo Hunger Strikers Have Eaten: Officials

But that doesn't mean the strike is over: Lawyers

(Newser) - The Guantanamo hunger strike may be coming to an end, with 99 of the 102 hunger strikers reportedly eating on Friday, according to military officials, the Washington Post reports. But were they really ending their strike or just pausing for Ramadan? Gitmo spokesman Captain Robert Durand says most of the...

30K California Inmates Join Hunger Strike

Prisoners demand end to indefinite isolation

(Newser) - More than 30,000 inmates in California refused meals yesterday in what could be the start of the biggest prison hunger strike in American history—although corrections officials won't consider it a hunger strike until inmates miss nine consecutive meals. Inmates at more than 20 of the state's...

Pussy Riot Member Ends Hunger Strike

Maria Alekhina says prison officials met her demands

(Newser) - A Russian activist says that a jailed member of the punk group Pussy Riot has ended her 11-day hunger strike after prison authorities met her demands. Maria Alekhina had complained that officials at her prison colony in the Ural Mountains attempted to turn fellow inmates against her with a security...

Guantanamo Prisoners Want Independent Doctors

Hunger strikers says military physicians have conflict of interest

(Newser) - Detainees at Guantanamo Bay on a hunger strike have written a letter to their military physicians to demand independent doctors, reports the Guardian . The 13 detainees who signed it—more than 100 in all are refusing food—say they can't trust the military doctors because they must do the...

Jailed Pussy Riot Member Goes on Hunger Strike

Maria Alyokhina refuses to participate in parole hearing

(Newser) - One of the still-jailed members of Pussy Riot has declared a hunger strike, RIA Novosti reports, after a Russian court denied Maria Alyokhina access to her own parole appeal. She had been participating via video, but when denied transportation to the courthouse, she refused to keep participating and prohibited her...

Guide to Gitmo Force-Feeding: Shackle, Mask Detainees

Al Jazeera obtains 30-page guidelines

(Newser) - The US process for force-feeding hunger-striking Guantanamo detainees has come to light in a new al Jazeera report. The news network obtained the guidelines for the process, which sees detainees held in a restraint chair for up to two hours. A guard "shackles detainee and a mask is placed...

UN: It's Illegal to Force-Feed Gitmo Hunger Strikers

High Commissioner of Human Rights says US breaking international convention

(Newser) - The US is breaking international law by force-feeding Guantanamo detainees to keep them alive as they hunger strike, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said today. "If it’s perceived as torture or inhuman treatment—and it’s the case, it’s painful—then it is prohibited by...

Close Gitmo, Already
 Close Gitmo, Already 
OPINION
May 1, 2013 4:08 AM CDT

Close Gitmo, Already

Time for Obama to make good on his promise, NYT says

(Newser) - President Obama has once again vowed to make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center , but his actions fall far short of his words, the New York Times writes in an editorial. The center, as Obama admits, is a "blight on the nation’s reputation"...

US Takes Action as Gitmo Hunger Strike Grows

Move raises fears some strikers are near death

(Newser) - The US Navy has sent 40 extra medical staff to Guantanamo Bay to deal with a hunger strike now in its 12th week. Officials say 100 of 166 detainees are now on hunger strike, with 21 being force-fed through tubes, though lawyers say 130 prisoners are taking part, al-Jazeera reports....

Obama Turns Blind Eye to Gitmo Horrors

Hunger strikes have turned closing the prison into a matter of life and death, lawyer argues

(Newser) - Barack Obama continues to ignore the Guantánamo Bay prison, even as "its continued existence is literally a matter of life and death," writes lawyer Baher Azmy in the Daily Beast . Azmy's firm represents a number of detainees who are on hunger strike within the prison, and...

Hunger Strike Spreads to Half of Gitmo

84 detainees join protest

(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay's hunger strike is spreading fast. Eighty-four of 166 detainees are now engaged in the protest, up from 52 less than a week ago, the BBC reports. Sixteen are being force-fed and five have been hospitalized. "How can the military, even the military, hope to maintain discipline...

Guantanamo: A Hunger Striker's Account

Accused bin Laden guard: 'No one seriously thinks I am a threat'

(Newser) - The New York Times today offers a harrowing firsthand account of life as a Gitmo detainee on hunger strike. "I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial"—all this...

Gitmo Hunger Strikers Forced Into Single Cells

US troops battle prisoners in pre-dawn raid

(Newser) - Over two months into their hunger strike , detainees at Guantanamo Bay today clashed with US forces who moved them from communal cell blocks to maximum security single cells. "Some detainees resisted with improvised weapons, and in response, four less-than-lethal rounds were fired," the prison camp said in a...

As Hunger Strike Grows, Red Cross Heads to Gitmo

31 detainees now refusing food: military

(Newser) - The latest Guantanamo Bay hunger strike has expanded to at least 31 of 166 people, according to the military, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is hurrying its efforts to address the situation. The plan had been to send representatives next week, the BBC notes; instead, a doctor...

Gitmo Hunger Strike Grows
 Gitmo Hunger Strike Grows 
Mar 20, 2013 2:22 PM CDT

Gitmo Hunger Strike Grows

Pentagon says 25, lawyers say 100

(Newser) - The military says about two dozen detainees at Guantanamo Bay are refusing to eat, up from 14 just a few days ago, reports the Miami Herald . Of those, two have been hospitalized with dehydration and eight are being force-fed through nose tubes, reports the New York Times . Their attorneys and...

Twist in 12-Year Hunger Strike: Attempted Suicide Charge

India slaps charge on Irom Sharmila, who last voluntarily ate in 2000

(Newser) - The last time Irom Sharmila ate a meal by her own hand was Nov. 4, 2000. In the 12-plus years since, the 40-year-old Indian known as the "Iron Lady" has been on a hunger strike to protest India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives the military wide-ranging...

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser