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Father imprisoned four girls in flat to 'teach them Islam' By Henry Samuel in Paris (Filed: 07/01/2006) A Moroccan father of four girls who imprisoned his wife and children in their flat "in the name of Islam" received a 10-month suspended sentence and was stripped of his parental rights yesterday. The unidentified 45-year-old was found guilty of breaking French law on compulsory schooling for children over the age of six, which applies to three of the four girls - aged four, 10, 13 and 14. The man, from the town of Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme region, said he had refused...

"The transformation of a traditional society could only be achieved extremely slowly, and certainly not by wrecking its existing structure and relationships. Even in the Soviet Union there had been the 'great mistakes' of the 1920s and 1930s. As a Soviet official in Moscow was also reported as saying [in 1981], 'If there is one country in the world where we would not like to try scientific socialism at this point in time, it is Afghanistan.'" - Martin Ewans, Afghanistan (2001)

AMMAN, Jordan - Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against three Amman hotels, and police arrested 120 Jordanians and Iraqis in the hunt for anyone who might have aided them. Thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman for a second straight day, condemning the attacks that killed 57 people, excluding the bombers, and denouncing al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "Al-Zarqawi, you are a coward! Amman will remain safe!" chanted 3,000 protesters who marched through the capital, past its al-Husseini Mosque after midday prayers. The toll rose...

10/25/2005 - ABOVE IRAQ (AFPN) -- Tuskegee Airman Col. Richard Toliver (left) chats with Maj. (Dr.) Vanessa Williams as their C-17 Globemaster III makes its final approach to Balad Air Base, Iraq. Five of the original Tuskegee Airmen -- the first African-American aviators of World War II -- are visiting the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Balad. The unit is a descendant of the "Red Tail Angels" of the Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Andra Higgs)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2005 – Four years ago, America launched its counterattack against terrorism, hammering terrorist targets in Afghanistan and ushering in Operation Enduring Freedom and the global war on terror. That volley, launched Oct. 7, 2001, targeted far more than al Qaeda training camps and facilities and the repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan, President Bush noted in announcing the attacks during a White House address. It sent an unmistakable message to terrorist organizations worldwide that the United States and its coalition partners refuse to live under a cloud of fear and intimidation, he said. Bush emphasized that the action...

BINGHAMTON NY--the Ithaca New York antiwar protesters who threw blood on a recruiting center, a soldier and the American flag in 2003 have been found guilty of three counts by a federal court.According to the Ithaca Journal, the group, which calls itself “ the St. Patrick’s Day Four,” was found guilty of three counts of damaging federal property, but acquitted of the most serious conspiracy charge.The group was accused of going to a Army recruiting center near Ithaca on March 17, 2003, and throwing their own blood on the walls, the floor, the United States flag and Staff Sgt. Rachon...

Police keep watch as Iraq war protest case goes to jury BINGHAMTON, N.Y. A large contingent of local, county and state police remain positioned outside a Binghamton federal building as the case against four Iraq war protesters goes to the jury. There's been a highly visible police presence around the downtown building since the trial started Monday. Two men and two women are being tried on federal conspiracy charges for spilling blood at an Ithaca-area military recruiting office in 2003. Binghamton Police Chief John Butler today said he feels "pretty good" with the way things have gone this week. People...

BINGHAMTON, NY—A U.S. soldier has testified in federal court Tuesday (September 20) that he was splashed with human blood by anti-war protesters during a 2003 protest.The soldier, Staff Sgt. Rachon Montgomery, was working as an army recruiter on March 17, 2003, the day that four protesters threw their own blood around a recruiting center in Lansing, NY, a suburb of Ithaca. As a result of the incident, press reports indicate, Montgomery was tested for blood-borne illnesses such as HIV and hepatitis.In addition to Montgomery, the protesters also poured blood on the American flag, a military banner and the walls and...

Schoolgirls riot at tourist spot By NIGEL ADLAM 17sep05 HUNDREDS of people watched in horror as a mob of schoolgirls rioted at Darwin's biggest tourist attraction. Most of the youngsters were in their teens. But several witnesses said a few were as young as six. About 20 girls threw sticks and stones, and even pulled out a street bollard, as they fought with security guards. Fighting between rival gangs of boys and girls has been escalating at Mindil Beach markets (pictured). Market manager Tim Robinson said four guards were beaten. Security and market managers are to hold a crisis meeting...

Minnesota waterfowlers will be allowed two fewer ducks in the bag this fall than last, and the limit on hen mallards during a 60-day season has been cut from two to one, the Department of Natural Resources said last week. The reduction from last year's six-duck daily bag limit was due in part to a drop last year in the Mississippi Flyway duck harvest of about 1 million birds from 2003. Minnesota's 2004 harvest declined 23 percent. Additionally, Minnesota's breeding duck population this spring was the lowest since the drought years of the 1980s. Mallards, down 37 percent from 2004,...

One in four Muslims sympathises with motives of terrorists By Anthony King (Filed: 23/07/2005) The group portrait of British Muslims painted by YouGov's survey for The Daily Telegraph is at once reassuring and disturbing, in some ways even alarming. The vast majority of British Muslims condemn the London bombings but a substantial minority are clearly alienated from modern British society and some are prepared to justify terrorist acts. The divisions within the Muslim community go deep. Muslims are divided over the morality of the London bombings, over the extent of their loyalty to this country and over how Muslims should...

Just asking... anyone see it? I'd like to know how any FReepers liked it. I read a ton of their comic books, esp. the John Byrne ones, many moons ago. So... flame on! -- Joe

BEIJING -- State-run media said Thursday Zhang Chunqiao, a member of the Gang of Four which terrorized China during the Cultural Revolution, died. He was 88. Xinhua reported Zhang died of cancer on April 21. The news item did not mention where his death took place or why the announcement was delayed. Western academic sources had believed Zhang died in 1991. The Chinese agency inaccurately described him as "one of the culprits of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique." Lin Biao died in 1971 in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances, possibly after a failed coup. The Gang...

Australians in the country's Northern Territory should start smashing cane toads to death with golf clubs and cricket bats in a bid to stop the spread of the toxic creatures, a government politician has urged. Reuters Photo David Tollner, the member for the Northern Territory seat of Solomon, said on Monday the cane toads -- which have highly poisonous sacs behind their head that quickly kill native animals that prey on them -- should be eradicated by "any means possible". Australia has for decades fought unsuccessfully to stop the spread of cane toads, imported from Hawaii in 1935 in a...

Four Israeli kids were killed and 30 wounded today by a Palestinian homicide bomber. The young Israelis’ crime? They were waiting in line to get into a nightclub in Tel Aviv. This is the Palestinians’ idea of “peace?” According to the BBC, Alon Kotler, a paramedic who treated several of the wounded told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that rescuers had found "young people lying on top of each other, most of them moderately to seriously wounded". What happened to the “truce” the Palestinian Authority (PA) agreed to with Israel at the summit in Egypt on February 8? What has the...

SPECIAL REPORT [Intermediate Draft-- looking for input] In Philadelphia, once known as the City of Brotherly Love, eleven Christian protesters were arrested on October 10, 2004, when they paid a homosexual 'block party' a little visit, wielding bullhorns and Bibles, and singing Christian hymns. Leader of 'the Philadelphia Four', as the press is calling it, is Michael Marcavage, who spent a night in jail, along with 10 other protesters. Marcavage is actually leader of a group called Repent America. He is a Christian who may get as many as 47 years in prison for daring to preach to homosexuals, as...

The field of potential candidates for Democratic National Committee chairman shrank by two yesterday when former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes and former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk announced they had decided not to enter the competition. Kirk, the 2002 Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, gave a boost to former House member and fellow Texan Martin Frost by endorsing his candidacy, while Ickes, a veteran party strategist, said he would defer supporting another candidate. The decisions did only a little to clarify a contest that party leaders say remains wide open, with several Democrats energetically competing to...

Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when an American district court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing US$156 million.The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself, providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.First, it validates...

Liberal nightmareDonald Rumsfeld agrees to stay on as Sec. of Defense     This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

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