Follow RT’s day-by-day timeline on Gitmo hunger strikeNavy Capt. Robert Durand said that the slight increase, up one from Thursday, takes into account all prisoners who have missed at least nine consecutive meals.He added that two prisoners who had been hospitalized for dehydration have now been released, and eleven more are being force-fed to keep them from losing enough weight to endanger their lives. The US military has continued to engage in the controversial process of forced feeding – an act the UN has compared to torture- despite opposition from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) monitoring the prisoners’ condition. Despite the officially recognized figure, prisoners and their attorneys have long maintained that 130 out of the camps 166 detainees have already joined the hunger strike. The hunger strike, which reportedly began around February 6, “was precipitated by widespread searches of detainees’ Qur’ans – perceived as religious desecration – as well as searches and confiscation of other personal items, including family letters and photographs, and legal mail, seemingly without provocation or cause,” Fifty-one attorneys wrote to defense secretary Chuck Hagel on March 14. US authorities have summarily denied the prisoners’ claims. On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Washington to close Guantanamo Bay in an uncharacteristically strong statement from the UN. Pillay, who characterized the prison hunger strike as a “desperate” but “scarcely surprising” act, expressed her “deep disappointment” that the US government had not followed through on its four-year-old pledge to shut down Guantanamo Bay.“We must be clear about this, the United States is in clear breach not just of its own commitments but also of international laws and standards that it is obliged to uphold,” Pillay said in a statement. She further condemned “the continuing indefinite incarceration of many of the detainees,” saying it “amounts to arbitrary detention,” a violation of international law. Of the 166 detainees, who hail from 23 different countries, only nine have been formally charged or convicted of a criminal offense. … Read More
LA Lakers owner in hospital for cancer
Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who has been in failing health for the past year, has been hospitalized in intensive care for cancer, the Los Angeles Times reported. The 79-year-old was taken to hospital in July for “dehydration” and underwent surgery a month later for an…
Hillary Clinton Faints, Is Recovering From A Concussion
The U.S. Secretary of State is recovering at home after fainting from dehydration.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a news conference at Stormont Castle in Belfast December 7, 2012.
Image by NORTHERN IRELAND – Tags: POLITICS / AP
The State Department has reported that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has sustained a concussion after fainting. She has been sick with a stomach virus, and the department says that Secretary Clinton was dehydrated because of her sickness. She is recovering at home while being monitored by doctors. Aide Philippe Reins says that Secretary Clinton will work from home next week at the recommendation of her doctors. Congressional hearings on Benghazi are scheduled for this week, but there was already some question about whether Secretary Clinton would testify. Reins’ statement concluded that Clinton “is looking forward to being back in the office soon.”
Oscar Niemeyer Dead: Acclaimed Brazilian Architect Dies At 104
RIO DE JANEIRO — Architect Oscar Niemeyer, who recreated Brazil’s sensuous curves in reinforced concrete and built the capital of Brasilia on the empty central plains as a symbol of the nation’s future, died on Wednesday. He was 104.Elisa Barboux, a spokeswoman for the Hospital Samaritano in Rio de Janeiro, confirmed Niemeyer’s death and said the cause was a respiratory infection. He had been hospitalized for several weeks and also on separate occasions earlier this year, suffering from kidney problems, pneumonia and dehydration.Read More…
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