Latest Hunger strike Stories
NEW YORK -- U.S. military officials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, strapped hunger-striking prisoners into restraint chairs for hours to feed them through tubes and isolated them in cold cells, The New York Times said on Thursday.A Pentagon official said there was no one immediately available to comment on the report.The Times, citing unnamed military officials, said tougher measures came in recent weeks after authorities concluded some of the prisoners were determined to kill themselves.The...
By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The number of Guantanamo prisoners on a hunger strike to protest their detention has dropped to its lowest level since October, according to U.S. military officials, who said they are unsure why most of those involved have resumed eating. As of Wednesday night, 22 prisoners had refused at least nine consecutive meals and 17 of those were being fed through tubes inserted through the nose into their stomachs, according to...
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in an ongoing hunger strike has fallen by more than half after a surge in participation that began on Christmas Day, the U.S. military said on Friday. The military last week said participation in the protest by detainees, believed to be uniformly Muslim, had more than doubled starting on the Christian holiday on December 25, with 46 joining in, bringing the total to 84 by last Thursday. But 44 of...
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in an ongoing hunger strike has fallen by more than half after a surge in participation that began on Christmas Day, the U.S. military said on Friday. The military last week said participation in the protest by detainees, believed to be uniformly Muslim, had more than doubled starting on the Christian holiday on December 25, with 46 joining in, bringing the total to 84 by last Thursday. But 44 of...
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a hunger strike that began nearly five months ago has surged to 84 since Christmas Day, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Forty-six detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the protest on the Christian holiday on Sunday, said Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman. The prisoner population, which the Pentagon says...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Thursday reported a major surge since Christmas Day in the number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a nearly 5-month-old hunger strike, with 84 currently refusing food. Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman, said 46 detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the hunger strike last Sunday. The military defines a hunger striker as someone who has refused...
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian opposition politician Ayman Nour was taken to a prison hospital after his health deteriorated on the eighth day of a hunger strike in protest at being detained on forgery charges, his wife said on Saturday. Nour, who came a distant runner up in September's presidential election, is a diabetic and doctors said the hunger strike could lead to a coma and eventually death as his blood becomes more acidic, compromising his vital organs. "He has been moved to the...
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday it invited a European parliamentarian who has urged the United States to close the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects to visit the facility, but barred her from meeting with any prisoners. The invitation went to Anne-Marie Lizin, Socialist speaker of the Belgian Senate, who is the special representative on the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in...
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Spurning a request by U.N. human rights investigators, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday the United States will not allow them to meet with detainees at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects. Rumsfeld also told a Pentagon news conference that prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were staging a hunger strike that began in early August as a successful ploy to attract media attention. The three U.N....
By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Three U.N. human rights investigators said on Monday they would turn down a long-awaited U.S. invitation to visit Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba unless they were permitted to interview the detainees. Nearly four years after the visits were first requested, Washington said on Friday the three envoys, including the U.N. expert on torture, could visit foreign terrorism suspects because it had "nothing to hide." But although they could question...
