Member of the European Parliament Roger Helmer wrote a letter on January 23rd to the Ambassador of the French Embassy in England regarding the incident in which Falun Gong practitioners were stopped from joining the Chinese New Year celebration parade in Paris. He pointed out that the attempt to extend such a persecution to member countries of the European Union is completely unacceptable. “Although most of us will never practise Falun Gong ourselves, the very democratic principles of the French Republic are there to protect peaceful minority lifestyle choices."

The International Conference on 'Genocide in the New Era’, which was jointly held by the ‘International Advocates for Justice’ and ‘Friends of Falun Gong’, convened in Stockholm, Sweden, on January the 26th 2004. The conference was attended by eighteen international human rights groups, many famous human rights lawyers and a few social activists.

On January the 14th, the French Falun Gong Association was invited to the Senate in Paris for a press conference on human rights in China. Among the guests were Former Minister of Education Jack Lang, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, ECPM (Together Against Capital Punishment), France Tibet and Chinese dissidents.

"We were shocked to learn that a Western, democratic country founded on the principles of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” so blatantly violated the human rights of peaceful, non-political citizens and visitors. It has been widely reported that during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to France, excessive and unreasonable measures were used to intimidate and harass practitioners of Falun Gong. Both Chinese and Western practitioners were arrested, simply because they wore yellow scarves or yellow sweaters with the words of "Falun Gong" or "Zhen Shan Ren"."

On January the 28th 2004, the French national newspaper Libération reported on Falun Gong practitioners' legal actions against Chinese Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng. The lawsuit filed by practitioners in France accuses him of the crime of Torture in his involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Mr. Sun was accompanying President Hu Jintao on a state visit to France when the case was filed.

Mr. Xie was an employee of Dingxing County Glass Tube Factory, Hebei province. In 2002, the police abducted Mr. Xie from his home and sent him to the Liyuzhuang Township Brainwashing Centre, where he was inhumanly tortured. His family was not informed until his life was in danger. Mr. Xie died soon after returning home. Before Mr. Xie's death, about 90 Falun Gong practitioners in Hebei province had already died as a result of the persecution in the past four years.

For a whole 24 hours, a dozen perpetrators took turns interrogating me. They threatened me and also enticed me and used various methods in an attempt to make me reveal personal information about some Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside of China, as well as my relationship with them. They were ruthless and said, "Although you are a Canadian citizen, we are afraid of no one. If you don't give us what we want, we'll fix you."

The Chinese prisons and labour camps keep detainees in virtual slavery, forcing them to work for exhaustive long hours and earning vast profits for the authorities. The international community has already condemned the slave labour practices that exist in China's forced labour camp system. Falun Dafa practitioners are being persecuted and held in prisons and labour camps simply because they live as upright and virtuous people and for following the principle of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in their daily lives.

During the three years of imprisonment, Yiwen Tang was subjected to painful torture. Her parents are over 70 years old, and she has a sister Lisa, who went to live in Australia more than ten years ago. The sisters have not seen each other for years. Recently Lisa invited Yiwen Tang to visit her in Australia, but the Guangzhou Police Station has refused to issue her a passport. The reason was that the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department has an order to stop Falun Gong practitioners from going abroad.

NTDTV attracted the attention of many overseas Chinese people for having hosted the Inaugural Chinese New Year Global Gala in New York's Manhattan Center. Then it broadcast an exclusive interview with Falun Gong founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. This was the first time since 1999 that the Falun Gong founder has accepted a media interview. Addressing people who are not practitioners, the Falun Gong founder spoke on a few topics of interest to many people. Clearwisdom reporters interviewed some NTDTV viewers and asked them to talk about their impressions after having watched the interview.

Jiang Zemin's group never passes up a chance to attack Falun Gong, but it's remaining silent when the media around the world are reporting Mr. Li's interview. It seems that the contents of the interview struck at the Jiang regime's biggest weakness: he ordered the persecution of millions of innocent people out of jealousy and paranoia. Jiang Zemin's own statement that "I just don't believe I can't fix Falun Gong" is a transparent show of his resentment.

Practitioners held many activities to show the beauty of Falun Dafa, including a dance, exercise demonstration and a display booth. Many people showed interest and came to learn the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution in China.

"When western countries arrest Falun Gong practitioners, the Jiang regime will immediately order its media to report the incidents and use them as evidence that governments of western countries endorse its brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Although it is the western governments' lack of understanding of Falun Gong that leads to the police's rough treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, these kinds of incidents will have a severe impact and could directly endanger millions of lives in China. "

In celebration of the holiday, Falun Gong practitioners participated in the annual Sydney Boat Parade, one of the most popular programs during Sydney's National Day celebration. The practitioners' boat was a unique, beautiful and bright scene on the Sydney Sea and was selected as Sydney's "Best Dressed Vessel Finalist."

Archaeologists say they have discovered an ancient Teotihuacan settlement in central Mexico City, 30 miles from the pyramids where the culture flourished nearly 2,000 years ago. The discovery of structures and tools on a hill just behind the landmark Chapultepec Castle in December suggests the Teotihuacan culture spread and influenced the area around Mexico City even earlier than previously thought, archaeologists said Wednesday while giving reporters a tour of the site.