be just

By GARY D. ROBERTSON, The Associated Press RALEIGH -- A lawsuit filed by the ACLU and a Muslim woman over the use of the Quran and other non-Christian texts for courtroom oaths in North Carolina should be allowed to go forward, the state Court of Appeals ruled today. A three-judge panel voted unanimously to reverse a trial court decision that had dismissed the challenge to state law and policy. Currently, only the Bible can be used by witnesses when swearing or affirming truthful testimony.

Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News DEARBORN -- About 40 Muslim Metro Detroiters say they were stranded at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany, and given a series of differing explanations about why they could not board their Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. A spokesman for Northwest Airlines said this morning that the travelers, who were returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, reported to the gate about 20 minutes before their connecting flight was to take off. They were barred from making the trip by airline and international flight rules, he said. But the Muslim travelers, including two imams, and their advocates -- the Council on American Islamic Relations -- adamantly rejected the airline's statement at a press conference today, saying flight rules are at least the third reason given for why the pilgrims could not board the Jan. 7 flight. They say they believe Northwest discriminated against the Muslims and left them on their own to find accommoda...

Even in a state of war, Islam enjoins that one deals with the enemy nobly on the battlefield. Islam has drawn a clear line of distinction between the combatants and the non-combatants of the enemy country. As far as the non-combatant population is concerned such as women, children, the old and the infirm, etc., the instructions of the Prophet are as follows: "Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman"[1]. "Do not kill the monks in monasteries" or "Do not kill the people who are sitting in places of worship."[2] During a war, the Prophet saw the corpse of a woman lying on the ground and observed: "She was not fighting. How then she came to be killed?" Thus non-combatants are guaranteed security of life even if their state is at war with an Islamic state.

The Ethiopian government continued the heavy-handed suppression and punishment of any form of political dissent as reintroduced following the 2005 elections. While most international attention focused on events in Addis Ababa, security forces and civil officials continued campaigns of repression and brutality in many parts of the country. International donors protested human rights abuses but took no meaningful action.

A day after Saddam's execution, a 10-year-old boy in Texas hanged himself from a bunk bed after watching a news report on the execution. Police in the Houston suburb of Webster said the boy, Sergio Pelico, tied a slipknot around his neck while on the bed but had not mean to kill himself. "I don't think he thought it was real," Julio Gustavo, Sergio's uncle, said afterward. "They showed them putting the noose around his neck and everything. Why show that on TV?" Something similar occurred in Turkey, where 12-year-old Alisen Akti hanged himself Wednesday from a bunk bed after watching TV footage. His father, Esat Akti, told a newspaper in the southeastern province of Mus that his son had been affected by the televised images. "After watching Saddam's execution he was constantly asking 'How was Saddam killed?' and 'Did he suffer?'" Akti was quoted as saying. "These television images are responsible for my son's death....

"We need to meet the needs of people instead of being a nation of dominators," said Lewis, who thought the country should direct its efforts toward preventing hunger and disease throughout the world. "That's more likely to provide security."

Watada is a military hero who refused to participate in the rape of Iraq, but his disappointment on American public to stand up to the rape of Iraq is misplaced. Americans always help their troops even when they rape. "Could it be that ... many people don't care about the illegality of this war?" Watada asked students and others who packed a hall at Seattle Central Community College. "It is my belief that the American people have relinquished their responsibility."