Free Republic

Muslim figures elsewhere also continued to assail the Pope's comments, with one Turkish politician quoted as comparing him to the World War II dictators of Germany and Italy, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. “How can (the Pope) imply that Muslims are the creators of terrorism in the world while it is the followers of Christianity who have aggressed against every country of the Islamic world?” prominent Saudi cleric Salman al-Odeh said. “Who attacked Afghanistan and who invaded Iraq? ... The Pope's statements are an attempt to put a religious cover on injustice and political aggression practised by the American administration...

No further info... Just a large explosion reported.

Theo van Gogh and Margaret Hassan were murdered within days of each other -- indeed, since we don't know the exact date of Hassan's murder, they might both have perished on the same day. They were more than a thousand miles apart when they died: Van Gogh was murdered in Holland, Hassan in Iraq. And they were very different people. Van Gogh was a Dutch pornographer who sought to outrage respectable Holland and people of faith; Hassan was an aid worker inspired by faith who spent her life helping the poor. Above all, they had very different attitudes about Islam....

<p>On April 28, 2003, just two days before President Bush declared the end of "major hostilities" in Iraq, members of the 101st Airborne Division occupying a school in Fallujah opened fire on about 200 Iraqi demonstrators, killing 15, including at least three schoolboys under the age of 10.</p>