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BRUSSELS, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A top U.S. official said Friday in Brussels that the United States expects to admit 17,000 Iraqi refugees for resettlement in 2009.

"The Pope's private secretary has given warning of the Islamisation of Europe and stressed the need for the continent's Christian roots not to be ignored, in comments released yesterday. "Attempts to Islamise the West cannot be denied," Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in an advance copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazin to be published today."

Jury is in!

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The state Ethics Commission concluded Monday that state Comptroller Alan Hevesi "knowingly and intentionally" violated the public trust by using public employees to chauffeur his wife. more at url

Military, civilian leaders are failing the U.S. By TERENCE L. KINDLON Forty years ago I quit college to join the Marines. There was a war on and, like so many of my generation, I was inspired to enlist by President Kennedy, who challenged us to ask not what our country could do for us, but to ask what we could do for our country. I loved the Marine Corps and, even now, with my memories of Vietnam receding and my 60th birthday approaching, I am intensely proud that I once had the privilege of wearing its uniform. My 30-year-old son,...

Pyongyang's missiles right on target By Donald Kirk LONDON - The search for a face-saving way out of the latest version of the Korean missile crisis leaves the United States with fast-diminishing options and risky alternatives. Go along with one-on-one talks, as demanded by North Korea and advocated by The New York Times and voices from the Bill Clinton administration, and the US plunges into lengthy, fitful palaver that has little chance of going anywhere. Hold fast for a call for sanctions by the United Nations, and the US may go through the embarrassment of vetoes by China and Russia...

"However, a reliable source told Haaretz that "now that the Palestinian Authority is paralyzed and incapable of resisting, it's an excellent opportunity to carry out the plan."

American Muslim News Briefs Thursday, May 25, 2006 KY: High School Prayer Axed After Muslim Complaint Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS SHELBYVILLE - The principal of Shelby County High School said the school will not have formal prayer at graduation exercises next month after receiving a complaint from a student and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. Principal Gary Kidwell met Monday with the Board of Education and a lawyer as residents held a prayer vigil outside. Tuesday, Kidwell said the school will break from the tradition of student-led invocations and benedictions at graduation June 2. The school "will be compliant...

21 February 2006 Europe at a crossroads Address to the American University of Rome by Marcello Pera 1. A geopolitical continental drift The subject I intend to address today is the crisis of the West, and particularly of Europe. In my view this crisis is twofold, both geopolitical and spiritual, with the latter as the main cause of the former. The fact that the Old Continent is in a state of deep crisis has been upheld by many distinguished scholars, observers and a few – unfortunately just a few – political leaders in Europe. This was argued in most alarming...

"Unfortunately, all too often "Islam" and "terrorism" are juxtaposed in news reports and editorials. A word search on news stories published in major newspapers over the past decade shows that reporters are hundred times more likely to associate Islam with terrorism or militancy than all other faiths combined. Such lopsided portrayal is indicative of deep-seated misunderstandings about Islam, and sometimes just plain prejudice. Surely all terrorists are not Muslim, neither are all Muslims terrorists."

Russia said it had promised emergency aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, breaking with fellow mediators the EU and the US, which have stopped funding to try to force Hamas to recognise Israel.

A former teacher has taken 18 students, a teacher and a teaching assistant hostage at a school in France. Breaking: More at url.

News Releases Wednesday, March 08, 2006 CAIR Chairman Elected to Board of ACLU-Florida (WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/8/06) - CAIR National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed has been elected to the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU-Florida). SEE: http://www.aclufl.org/ “American Muslims view the protection of civil liberties as one of the most important issues facing our nation today,” said Ahmed. “By working with the ACLU in Florida, I hope to strengthen constitutional rights and help balance those rights with legitimate national security concerns.” Ahmed is a resident of Jacksonville, Fla. The ACLU of Florida, with headquarters in Miami, is...

The announcement that Rev. Jerry Vines is stepping down from the helm of First Baptist Church has elicited mixed reactions within the American Muslim community. While recognizing the positive contributions made by Rev. Vines in his stewardship of the congregation and as a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Muslims remain disappointed that a prominent religious leader used divisive rhetoric at a time when the world needed spiritual healers. In 2002, Rev. Vines sparked a national controversy when he defamed the Prophet Muhammad by calling him a "demon-possessed pedophile." Besides the fact that his comments were offensive to Muslims,...

A Palestinian student and PFLP supporter casts her vote for the University council at An-Najah University in Nablus (EPA) Palestinian Fatah''s polls suspended due to fraud RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) -Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday suspended primary elections of his ruling Fatah party over widespread voting fraud in a new blow to preparations for a January parliamentary ballot. The primaries, Fatah''s first, have been seen as a key step for Abbas to assert control since Israel''s Gaza pullout ... more http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=2875

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Police used tear gas to break up a rock-throwing crowd that had gathered to protest a planned march Saturday by the National Socialist Movement. At least two dozen members of a Roanoke, Va.-based group that calls itself "America's Nazi Party" had gathered at Wilson Park just before noon and were to march under police protection.

Children in pre-K programs across the state are 19 times more likely to be expelled than students in kindergarten through high school, a shocking new study shows. About nine out of every 1,000 pre-K tots in New York state are tossed from their programs, according to Yale University researchers. By contrast, researchers found that just one in every 2,000 K-12 students in the state is expelled. The study, "Pre-kindergartners Left Behind," to be released today, found that pre-K students are three times as likely to be expelled as kids in other grades across the nation. Researchers did not collect data...

The Declaration Dominus Jesus issued by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Tuesday reaffirms the fundamental teaching of Christian revelation, as handed down in the Catholic Church, on the role of Jesus Christ and the role of the Catholic Church in our salvation. The declaration, which was approved and affirmed by the Holy Father, proceeds from a theological context and presents classic truths of the Catholic faith in contrast to relativistic theories. The declaration is a response to several confusing or erroneous ideas regarding what it means to call Jesus Christ the one savior of the...