Free Republic

Months after being sued, a small Massachusetts town has agreed to let a local Islamic group build a cemetery that some neighbors opposed. Under a deal approved this week, the town of Dudley will permit the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester to buy a long-idle dairy farm and build a 6-acre cemetery at the site. In exchange, the group won’t seek to expand the burial ground for at least a decade and will drop a lawsuit it filed against the town in July. The society sued Dudley after a town zoning board denied plans for the cemetery in June, saying...

WASHINGTON (AP) - American taxpayers will pay the imam behind plans for a mosque near the Manhattan site of the Sept. 11 attacks $3,000 in fees for a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East that will cost roughly $16,000, the State Department said Wednesday. The department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the 15-day tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which is intended to promote religious tolerance. Airfare is included, as well as the standard federal government per diem for expenses and lodging in each of the cities he will...

It is a simple pleasure for millions of hungry Britons but researchers have uncovered the science behind the enduring appeal of the bacon sandwich. A complex chemical interaction in the meat is what produces the winning combination of taste and smell in a bacon buttie, according to an expert. The reaction between amino acids in the bacon and reducing sugars in the fat is what provides the simple snack with its appeal, according to Elin Roberts, science communications manager at the Centre for Life education centre in Newcastle. She explained that the chemical changes that take place when the bacon...

Relatives of the Muslim woman whose corpse was desecrated with bacon as it lay in a hospital mortuary are to sue for damages, it emerged today. The family of Habiba Mohammed will seek to hold Hillingdon hospital fully responsible after the failure of the police and hospital authorities to bring anyone to account. Today, 15 months after the incident occurred, the family will return to the hospital, saying they have yet to receive a formal explanation or apology. Up to this point, Mrs Mohammed's relatives - distraught at the act of desecration and mindful of police advice - have declined...