Falun Gong

An American follower of the Falun Gong sect who was detained in Beijing returned to Detroit, saying he had been questioned and threatened before he was deported. Jason Pomerleau, 25, said it was only because he is American that he and his Canadian girlfriend, Christine Loftus, 22, were freed. China outlawed Falun Gong in 1999, calling it an "evil cult."

Two adherents of Falun Gong, an American and a Canadian, have been detained in Beijing, supporters abroad said. Jason Pomerleau, 25, and Christine Loftus, 22, were detained outside a market Thursday, the group said in an e-mail to reporters. The statement was sent along with a photo of two people, identified as Pomerleau and Loftus, being taken away by security guards.

About 40 Western followers of the outlawed Falun Gong meditation group were taken away by police Thursday after they mounted a series of protests in Tiananmen Square, the heart of the Chinese capital. The demonstrators breached tight security to hold up signs in support of the banned movement, which the Chinese government has labeled an "evil cult" intent on subverting the state.

A Canadian follower of Falun Gong was expelled from China on Thursday after being detained for protesting in Tiananmen Square against the Communist country's ban on the spiritual group, a Canadian diplomat said. Connie Chipkar, 61, left aboard a British Airways flight for London, said Charles Reeves, a spokesman for the Canadian Embassy. Chipkar, a former teacher from Welland, Ontario, was detained Wednesday after she sang and held out her arms in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

A member of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement detained in central China has died after a hunger strike, a hospital administrator said. Wan Guifu, 57, died Dec. 18 at the hospital of the Dashaping labor camp in the city of Lanzhou, the administrator said by telephone. He gave only his surname, Zhang. Wan was detained in March for distributing Falun Gong materials in Lanzhou, group supporters abroad said in a statement. He stopped eating Oct.

China swiftly expelled six Americans and more than two dozen other Westerners who protested in the heart of Beijing against the government's repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. By Wednesday evening--little more than 24 hours after they chanted, sat cross-legged and unveiled a banner in Tiananmen Square--all 35 protesters had been forced to leave the country, China's official New China News Agency said.

Thirty-five Westerners protesting China's brutal crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement were seized by police after chanting slogans and unfurling a banner in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. State media said the 35 protesters from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the U.S. would be expelled. The men and women, most in their 20s and 30s, initially looked like tourists.

The protesters were so quiet and peaceful, it was hard to believe that they were actually demonstrating. About 50 local members of the Falun Gong spiritual group, the target of a crackdown by the Chinese government, gathered Tuesday outside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, where China's ambassador to the United States was appearing.

Five Falun Gong members were sentenced to as many as 13 years in prison for arranging gatherings of the banned spiritual group in Beijing, a state newspaper said. The report in the Beijing Daily came two days after four people were sentenced to prison on charges of organizing a Jan. 23 attempt by Falun Gong members to publicly burn themselves to death. Authorities banned the group in 1999.