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A 14 year old boy died on Thursday, November 11th, after having received 85 lashes; according to the ruling of the Mullah judge of the public circuit court in the town of Sanandadj he was guilty of breaking his fast during the month of Ramadan. The Kurdish site Rojeh´heh Lât reports that the young man´s identity has not been disclosed. He was scheduled for burial on Saturday, November 13th (after 3 days at the local morgue), in the cemetery of Beheshteh Mohammadi in Sanandadj. However due to the public´s realization of the events surrounding the boy´s circumstances the cemetery was...

MOSUL, Iraq Twelve decapitated bodies were found strewn about the northern city of Mosul on Friday as about 400 Iraqi commandoes stormed numerous locations around the city in search of rebel hideouts. And in Baghdad, four people were killed Friday, and at least nine wounded, while 23 suspected insurgents were arrested when hundreds of Iraqi troops backed by U.S. forces stormed a Sunni Muslim mosque after prayers, witnesses and an influential group of Sunni clerics said. The Iraqi troops raided the mosque in the Sunni district of Aadhamiya, firing percussion grenades and damaging the doors, the Muslim Clerics Association said....

On Lailat al-Kader, the holiest night of Islam, in the epic conflict between shopping and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's impending death, shopping has proved victorious. Or at least that's what Khaled Barghouti thinks. Smoking a water pipe at the Ramallah Coffee Shop, where PA officials and Fatah officials like to hang out, Barghouti explained that "we have a conflict between shopping and Arafat's death... it seems that shopping has won." As the Ramadan fast comes to a close, Palestinians made sure to get their shopping done. The streets of Ramallah throbbed Tuesday night with youths and women pushing perambulators....

THREE MEMBERS OF IRAQI PM ALLAWI'S FAMILY KIDNAPPED IN BAGHDAD - SPOKESMAN

As we noted Saturday, Japanese hostage Shosei Koda was beheaded by the Al Qaeda-associated terrorist group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.The monsters have now released stills and video of the beheading.Al Qaeda Organization of Holy War in Iraq said Tokyo had offered a ransom of "millions of dollars" for 24-year-old Koda. It warned Japan to withdraw its forces from Iraq or "drown in the hell of the mujahideen" along with "crusader forces."Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima denied the ransom claim. "It's just groundless. We have not done that," he said, denouncing the video posting as "disgusting." ...The video showed...

Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, who made a controversial film about Islamic culture recently, has been shot dead in Amsterdam, Dutch media report. Police said they had arrested a man at the scene after an exchange of gunfire. Van Gogh, 47, had received death threats after his film Submission, on violence against women in Islamic societies, was shown on Dutch TV. The film was made with liberal Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who fled an arranged marriage. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been under police protection since the film was aired. She has also received death threats...

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces battled rebels in Ramadi and pounded Falluja on Monday, but there was no sign that an all-out American-led offensive to retake the insurgent-held cities had begun on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. Kidnappers armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades seized an American, a Nepali and two Arabs from their Saudi company's office in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said. A spokesman said the attackers killed a guard when they stormed the company villa in the affluent Mansour district. The U.S. military said it had begun to increase its troop strength in Iraq (news -...

BAGHDAD, Iraq Baghdad's governor says gunmen have killed his number-two man. He says the deputy governor (Hatim Kamil) was on his way to work Monday when he was assassinated in a drive-by shooting. Another Iraqi official says two of the man's bodyguards were wounded in the attack. Insurgents have killed dozens of Iraqi politicians and government workers in recent months in a bid to destabilize the country's reconstruction.

This year's holy Ramadan has indeed turned out to be 'holier' than that of last year. Last year, the Mujahideen received Ramadan by bombing infidels and crusaders at the Red Cross and several police stations. This holy month, however, has a peculiar flavour. Another series of unsuccessful attacks were carried out against several churches. Iraqi Christian women have been offered a choice between 'observing the holy month' by covering their sinful heads or to face death. I kid you not. This threat was not carried out by foreign terrorists, Zarqawi or Al-Qaida, but by Muslim Iraqi student unions at Mosul...

A senior worker with a British-based charity in Iraq has been kidnapped. A spokeswoman said Margaret Hassan, who had been working for CARE International, was taken this morning. Robert Glasser, a director with the charity, said Ms Hassan was CARE's head of operations in Iraq. He said she was an Iranian national who had been caring for people in the country for more than 25 years. Mr Glasser added he had no idea of a motive for the kidnap and believed Ms Hassan had been unharmed. "We are doing what we can for her release," he added. The Defence Secretary...

100 casualties' in Iraq attack A mortar attack on an Iraqi National Guard headquarters north of Baghdad has caused many casualties, Iraqi officials have said. There is so far no clear breakdown on the number of dead, but more than 100 people are believed to have been killed or injured, the officials said. Six mortar rounds fell on the building in Mashahidan, 40km (25 miles) from the Iraqi capital, AP news agency said. Two American field hospitals are treating the wounded. US Blackhawk helicopters are also helping to evacuated the injured, AP reported. Iraq's fledgling security forces have been a...