Free Republic

Two hospitals in northwestern England will be offering head-to-toe gowns for Muslim women who request them, officials said Tuesday. The burqa-style blue gown will be available from Nov. 1 for patients served by the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The trust operates two hospitals, the Royal Preston, and the Chorley and South Ribble. "I noticed a gap in the market and thought that it would be great if there was a gown that helped to preserve a patient's modesty," said Karen Jacob, linen services manager for the trust, who designed the product. Jacob said the gown could be adapted...

A federal district judge in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration's NSA surveillance of phone conversations is unconstitutional.

Muslim leaders summoned to talks with the Government on tackling extremism in their midst called for public holidays to mark their religious festivals. The Whitehall meeting was set up in response to last week's airline bomb plot discovery. Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly had prepared an uncompromising message on the need to tackle dangerous radicalism. But, in what she admitted were 'sharp' exchanges, some senior Muslim figures turned the tables yesterday and made a series of demands which also included the introduction of Sharia law for family matters. Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of...

THIS IS AN UNCORRECTED TRANSCRIPT. P R O C E E D I N G S MR. STEINBERG: Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Brookings. I'm Jim Steinberg, the Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program here. And it's my privilege to welcome and introduce Senator Hillary Clinton from New York as our speaker this morning. It's a cliché when somebody comes up to start an introduction to say, of course our speaker needs no introduction--but in this case it's no cliché. Our speaker, clearly, needs no introduction to this or any other audience. She's had a remarkable...