Falun Dafa practitioners from Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia and Macedonia wish our respected Master a Happy New Year!

On this Chinese traditional holiday, the Spring Festival, we Falun Dafa practitioners in the United Kingdom recall with gratitude Master's compassionate salvation and feel grateful for the new lives and honour that Dafa has bestowed upon us.

Dr. Terri Marsh, lead attorney in the ground-breaking lawsuit against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and the 6-10 Office, filed a 60-page brief this morning in the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The brief asks the Circuit Court to reverse the decision of the U.S. District Court and allow the case to go forward.

'The French Falun Dafa Association held a press conference in Paris on Tuesday to protest that they have been prevented from participating in the Spring Festival Parade on January 24th. Falun Gong practitioners will hold a parade on January the 23rd in Paris and hold a candlelight vigil that evening near the Eiffel Tower.'

Falun Gong practitioners held large-scale activities to celebrate Chinese New Year on the streets of the Welsh capital, Cardiff. Falun Gong’s peaceful, graceful exercises and beautiful music attracted the attention of many passers-by. A petition to rescue practitioners’ persecuted relatives and friends in China received warm support and feedback from local people.

Ms. Tang Meijun, age 49, was an operator from the Railway Communications Company under the Chongqing Railway Branch Bureau. During a two-year term of forced labour, she was subjected to both physical and mental torture. In 2003, she was released on bail for medical treatment. On December 10, 2003, she was arrested while distributing truth-clarifying materials. At 4:30 (could be a.m. or p.m.) on December 30, she died in the Maojia Forced Labour Camp. The details are still being investigated.

Ms. Jiang Shulan, a practitioner from Da'an City, was around sixty years old. On June 9, 2003, she died as a result of force-feeding for four days with high-density salt water in Da'an Detention Centre. Protesting against her illegal detention with a hunger strike, she had been subjected to brutal force feeding of high-density salt solution, which had knocked out four of her front teeth, and injured her upper jaw so seriuosly that the bone was exposed.

Dafa practitioner Lai Zhijun was tortured to death in March or April of 2000 at Sanshui Labour Camp. Township Vice Mayor and Vice Director of the People's Congress at Fenggang Town, he was honoured as an excellent state official. In his 30's, he had been practicing Falun Dafa since Chinese New Year of 1999, and actively promoted the Fa locally. After Jiang's group started persecuting Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999, he went to Beijing to appeal in December 1999.

After the second half of 1999, the Hengshui City government detention center became a place for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, especially during 1999 and 2000. Everyone detained there was a Falun Gong practitioner. The Director of the detention center, Gen Zhanwu, received an "Award" from higher officials in 1999, because of his persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.He used all kinds of ways to get money and property from them.

Liu Chengjun was one of the Falun Gong practitioners who tapped into the Changchun City cable TV system. During this incident, Liu Chengjun and other Falun Gong practitioners successfully tapped into eight channels and broadcast [documentaries about Falun Gong] for an uninterrupted 40-50 minutes to an audience estimated to be more than one million. This heroic incident brought strong reactions from not only within China but also around the world.

The Chinese television media are maintained and supported by the hard-earned money of the Chinese people, and the media should speak for its people. At the same time, the media should play the role of supervising government officials. However, the fact is that the majority of Chinese media is television and it is completely controlled by the dictator Jiang Zemin. Jiang sold his "three representatives theory" on prime time television and turned the daily "news report" into his own personal show.

On January 19 2004, Falun Gong practitioners from Houston and Dallas participated in the 10th annual parade on Martin Luther King Day, which attracted five hundred organizations and forty thousand people. The Falun Gong procession was received with waves of warm applause throughout the parade.

'Victims of a crackdown on the Falun Gong have the right to pursue legal action against the man who directed the torture or execution of thousands of the spiritual movement's members, a group of Chinese nationals contended Tuesday. The eight individuals asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate a class-action lawsuit accusing former Chinese president Jiang Zemin of horrific human rights violations.'

'Oblivious to the drumbeats and slogans shouted by anti-globalization activists, two Falun Gong volunteers - their eyes shut and hands raised - triggered curiosity right through the six-day World Social Forum that ended Wednesday. Peace and human-rights activists from all over the world paused to take a look at the Falun Gong [practitioners], who practised meditation exercises to tunes that crackled from a small music system in a small stall at the forum venue.'

Liu Buowen’s original name was Liu Ji. He was born near the end of the Yuan Dynasty. At a young age, he successfully passed the highest imperial examinations and became an official at the royal court. He was an expert in military theory, politics, astronomy, geography and history, and was a widely-known personage in his hometown. He wrote a book called Yu Lizi. The book contains many fables appearing to be only funny stories on the surface, however they actually have deep inner meanings. One of the stories is entitled “A Villager Learns to Make Umbrellas."