labor camp

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Report: North Korea Sends 'Slaves' Abroad

State steals wages to combat sanctions, says NK Watch

(Newser) - Though most North Koreans will never leave their isolated country, an estimated 100,000 work long hours abroad to earn hard currency for the state. As sanctions against North Korea continue to take a toll, a program of sending contract workers to build monuments in Africa, fish off Fiji, dig...

North Korea: Yes, We Have Labor Camps

But 'no prison, things like that,' UN envoy says

(Newser) - A North Korean official publicly acknowledged to the international community the existence of his country's "reform through labor" camps yesterday, a mention that appeared to come in response to a highly critical UN human rights report earlier this year. A North Korean foreign ministry official said at a...

N. Korea: Detained American Hid Identity

Entered country 'under manipulation' of 'hostile' forces

(Newser) - North Korea today revealed a few more details about a Korean-American recently sentenced to 15 years' hard labor , saying he entered the country with a disguised identity. Pyongyang also rejected speculation that it intends to use Kenneth Bae as a bargaining chip. In remarks carried by state media, a Foreign...

China: We're Reforming Forced Labor Camps

Controversial program was said to be used against political activists

(Newser) - China's first step toward the reform promised by new leader Xi Jinping : The country will reform its forced labor camp system, state media reported today. The long-standing, controversial "re-education through labor system" allows police to jail petty criminals for up to four years without going through the court...

Chinese Woman Jailed Over Single Tweet

Cheng Jianping is to spend 1 year in a labor camp

(Newser) - A single tweet, intended as a joke, has landed a 46-year-old Chinese woman in a labor camp for a year. Cheng Jianping (aka wangyi09 ) retweeted a tweet sent by her fiance during last month's demonstrations against Japan. His tweet suggested protesters smash Japan's pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. In...

Brutal North Korean Labor Camps Hold 200K

Prisoners face 15-hour days, malnutrition, executions: Korean bar

(Newser) - Some 200,000 political prisoners are held in North Korean labor camps, where they work up to 15 hours a day before dying of malnutrition by about age 50, the Washington Post reports. Testimony from survivors and former guards has been newly published by the Korean Bar Association, and new...

China Sentences 2 Aged Women to 'Re-education'

Pair, nearly 80, face forced labor for attempt at housing protest

(Newser) - Officials in Beijing had promised that Chinese could hold demonstrations during the Olympics, so long as they applied for permission. But of 77 applications, none have been approved—and now, writes the New York Times, two old women upset about the small compensation for the demolition of their homes have...

Chinese Teacher Sent to Labor Camp Over Quake Dissent

Man posted photos of collapsed schools

(Newser) - A Chinese teacher has been sent to a labor camp for a year of "re-education" after he posted online photos of school buildings that collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake, the Guardian reports. The man, who was neither formally charged with a crime nor given a trial, is one of...

'Killing Fields' Photog Dith Dead at 65
 'Killing Fields'
 Photog Dith 
 Dead at 65 
Obituary
Mar 30, 2008 12:39 PM CDT

'Killing Fields' Photog Dith Dead at 65

Times photojournalist and anti-Khmer Rouge crusader had pancreatic cancer

(Newser) - Photojournalist Dith Pran, whose saga was re-created in the film The Killing Fields, has died of pancreatic cancer at 65, the New York Times reports. The Cambodian native became the Khmer Rouge's most vocal opponent after escaping in 1979, having worked in labor camps and survived on a spoonful of...

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