Free Republic

RAMADI, Iraq – As the Marine Corps shrinks its footprint in Iraq's western desert, Iraqi community leaders here are publicly voicing worries about what will happen once the Americans are gone. They fear a wave of corruption and the return of the insurgency that once held sway over the area. Marines have begun divorcing themselves from the task of advising local leaders, the clearest signal that their role in Anbar province is quickly nearing its end. An Associated Press reporter embedded with the troops witnessed two cases in a single day of Iraqis — a headmistress and a party of...

Cartoon blasphemy gets hot really hot... An international row over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad gathered pace on Thursday as more European dailies printed controversial Danish caricatures and Muslims increased pressure to stop them. A dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the cartoons, one of which shows Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.Palestinian gunmen kidnapped and later released a German from a hotel in the West Bank city of Nablus, witnesses said.Earlier, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened at a news conference to...