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Tsunami aid sent to an Indonesian province has freed government funds for the lashing of women for purported violations of Islamic law, a report said Sunday. Militant Islamists in Indonesia's Aceh Province now impose Shariah law and pay moral vigilante forces to harass women and stage frequent public beatings, The Times of London reported. More "Shariah police" than regular police are on the local government payroll, with many of them aggressive young men, the newspaper says. International aid workers say the flow of foreign cash for reconstruction has allowed the government to spend scarce money to enforce such laws as...

JAKARTA : Hardline Indonesian Muslims at a rally attended by thousands have vowed to wage war against America and said those who desecrate the Koran should be killed. "Destroy America and its allies! Kill those who desecrate Islam!" Muhammad Iqbal alias Abu Jibril, from the Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI), exhorted thousands of protestors through a public address system outside the US embassy. Muslims around the world have demonstrated in recent days against alleged abuse of the Muslim holy book at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The unrest, which left at least 14 people dead in Afghanistan, followed...

Jews dig deep for tsunami aid Across the United States and in Israel, Jews, singly, in groups, and in groups of groups, collected money and other forms of aid for tsunami victims. BEHIND THE HEADLINES In the United States and Israel, Jews raise money for tsunami aid By Rachel Pomerance Chabad relief worker Zalman Zaklos brings a smile to the face of a mother and her baby who are homeless in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Phuket, Thailand, on Jan. 25.NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (JTA) — As millions of Americans tuned in to the Super Bowl on...

An Australian leftie blogger, John Quiggin, has agreed to give AU$1 per comment left on his blog (repeat/spam comments not included) up to a maximum of $1000. A lot of other people have chipped in and promised to pay per comment as well, meaning that each comment is worth about US$3.50... Now I could say "comment so that a bunch of lefties will be forced into paying a hell of a lot more than he thought he would, and we'll see who pays up," but that'd be wrong, wouldn't it? Heh. Anyway, here's the link: http://johnquiggin.com/index.php?p=2140#comments.

We need to take another look at the role of radical Islamist terrorist groups in the global response to the recent tsunami tragedy. First, one of the immediate reactions of Islamists (and environmentalists, by the way, who are cut from the same cloth with regard to their hatred of the Great Satan) was that the United States somehow caused the enormous and tragic loss of (overwhelmingly) Muslim lives in the disaster that befell the world's most populous Muslim countries. My sense is that casting the tragedy in these terms was the only way the Muslim world community could hope to...

This address was written primarily to eliminate himself as a candidate for a third term. It was never read by the President in public, but it was printed in Claypoole's AMERICAN DAILY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia, September 19, 1796. The address is in two parts: In the first, Washington declines a third term, gives his reasons, and acknowledges a debt of gratitude for the honors conferred upon him and for the confident support of the people. In the second more important part, he presents, as a result of his experience and as a last legacy of advice, thoughts upon the government. George...

Excerpt from story on FoxNews Web Site: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143188,00.html Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohamed Ismail said 24 countries — including the United States, Italy, German and Saudi Arabia — have pledged to send relief to Somalia. But nothing has arrived more than a week after a massive underwater earthquake (search) off Indonesia some 3,000 miles away sent lethal waves as far as the east coast of Africa. "We are very happy that relief supplies have arrived in Asia, which was hit the hardest by the tragedy, but Somalia — which has been ravaged from a 13-year civil war, drought and political...

President Bush will announce at 10:15 that he has appointed his father, former President Bush, and the impeached former President Clinton to head tsunami relief aid fund raising.