Free Republic

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) - A mosque was hit by gunfire as members inside celebrated the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities said Saturday. No injuries were reported and there were no arrests. A member of the Islamic Society of Brevard County stepped outside the mosque Friday night to use his cell phone when he heard several gun shots, police said. The man, who was not immediately identified, took cover behind a wall as several rounds struck the building, police said. He then ran inside and told mosque members, who called police. Authorities searched the surrounding area for...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (news - web sites) - Shiite Muslim assassins are killing former members of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s mostly Sunni Muslim regime at will and with impunity in a parallel conflict that some observers fear could snowball into civil war. The war between Shiite vigilantes and former Baath Party members is seldom investigated and largely overshadowed by the mostly Sunni insurgency. The U.S. military is preoccupied with hunting down suicide bombers and foreign terrorists, and Iraq's new Shiite leaders have little interest in prosecuting those who kill their former oppressors or their enemies in the insurgency. The...

Foreign diplomats are sceptical of the explanation given by the six-member independent inquiry panel for the disproportionate use of force at Krue Se Mosque on April 28. At a briefing yesterday, diplomats asked panel chairman Suchinda Yongsunthorn, a former ambassador, how the government would treat the panel's initial 30-page report of its findings and what action was likely on its recommendations, sources said. Only 38 foreign diplomats, including eight ambassadors, of the 70 invitees attended yesterday's briefing by Mr Suchinda, who distributed a five-page letter he gave to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday along with the report. The diplomats...

A Hermantown church's display of crosses didn't sit well Wednesday with an unidentified driver. Broken crosses littered the tire track-covered lawn of Gethsemane Covenant Church, 4479 Ugstad Road, on Thursday morning as volunteers surveyed damage to the "Cemetery of Innocence," a display of 400 three-foot crosses each representing 10 abortions. More than 80 of the white PVC pipe crosses were knocked down or damaged, and some will have to be replaced. Lives represented by the crosses equal the number of abortions performed each day, said Jim Tuttle, Duluth branch manager of St. Paul-based Pro-Life Action Ministries, the group that manages...