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TULKAREM, West Bank, Aug 25, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The son of the first known Palestinian woman to be executed as an Israeli collaborator on Sunday said gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about his mother's involvement in a militant's death. Ikhlas Khouli, a 35-year-old mother of seven, was shot dead Saturday after being seized from her home in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Bakir Khouli, 17, lifted up his T-shirt at his one-room house in Tulkarem on Sunday to reveal black and blue marks he said were made by electrical wires shortly before...

Abu Sabaya still alive, says priest ABU SABAYA is alive. He was sighted a day after Malacañang trumpeted his demise in June throwing a party in Tuburan municipality in Basilan province. He had good reason to celebrate: He is "alive and the group is intact." Fr. Cirilo Nacorda made this disclosure Thursday to the INQUIRER before he spoke before the Rotary Club of Manila at the Manila Hotel. During the open forum following his speech, Nacorda, who’s the parish priest of St. Peter Parish in Lamitan, Basilan, repeated that Sabaya was alive. Nacorda said that Sabaya’s group was "possibly"...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli security forces have arrested several Palestinian suspects in the July 31 bombing at Jerusalem's Hebrew University in which nine people, including five Americans, were killed, Israel Radio said Wednesday.

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Security officials announced this afternoon the capture of six Palestinians from east Jerusalem who were responsible for some of the most deadly terror attacks in recent months. The Hamas terrorists perpetrated the suicide bombing at Jerusalem's Moment Café, the suicide attack at a Rishon Letzion billiards hall, and the bombing at Hebrew University on July 31. The cell was responsible for the deaths of 35 people, officials said. Most of the Palestinians are from the village of Silwan. The head of the cell is Waal Kassam, 31, a resident of Ras al-Amud. The arrests of the cell members took place...

Dear Colleague: As we begin the new academic year, I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update regarding Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Through events of the past year with which we all are familiar, this situation has been the source of intense disruption for the university. We as an institution, and I as a president, have had to think daily about the fundamental values of universities in a way that few institutions ever do. We care deeply about freedom in the United States. At USF, we understand that academic freedom is the core value of the academy. It...

<p>August 22, 2002 -- Vivendi-Universal is bankrolling a new documentary defending anti-American terrorism - and a second media conglomerate, Viacom, is sponsoring the flick's red-carpet premiere in Toronto on Sept. 11.</p> <p>The film, "11'09"01," consists of 11 Sept. 11-themed shorts, several of which are being described as "stridently anti-American," that a Vivendi-Universal subsidiary commissioned from a team of international directors.</p>

An hostage decapitated in the south of the Philippines Wednesday August 21, 2002 - 23h40 GMT ZAMBOANGA (the Philippines), August 22 (AFP) - One of the six Christian hostages Filipinos removed by supposed islamists of the group Abu Sayaf in the south of the Philippines Wednesday was decapitated by its kidnappers, one learned military Thursday of source. The head of the hostage was found Wednesday evening near the headquarters of the army, in the capital of the island of Jolo, one specified of the same source. A second hostage decapitated in the south of the Philippines Thursday August 22,...

Dr. Bethea-Jackson : I don’t think 18 or 20 years ago, we knew much of anything about pedophiles. It wasn’t really looked at as a criminal matter. We didn’t publicize it as being an act that needed criminal intervention, so to speak. We didn’t look at it… or it wasn’t … people didn’t have the body of knowledge 18 or 20 years ago to say that this is something that will harm your child emotionally, if you don’t address it. Parents didn’t know that seriousness, 18 or 20 years ago, and the long-term effects. And as people document the work...

Leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses are taking steps to excommunicate a Western Kentucky man and three other church members who have publicly criticized what they say is their church's secretive handling of child-molestation cases. Bill Bowen of Benton, Ky., said he was summoned to a judicial hearing to be held Friday at his Draffenville, Ky., church to answer allegations of ''causing divisions within the congregation and organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.'' Bowen resigned as an elder in the Marshall County congregation in December 2000 to protest the church's handling of a local case and its policies on handling abuse allegations. He...

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Sharon Roe remembers her brother-in-law spreading his financial records on the floor and crunching numbers during a December visit. Robert Bryant was burning through money at an alarming rate. "We have enough food and money for two months," she recalls him saying. "After that, we're going to starve." His wife, Janet, tried consoling him: "It's OK, Rob, we'll just buy lots of rice and beans." Roe doesn't know why, just a few months later, Robert Bryant became so desperate that he murdered his wife and four children in their beds before taking his own life. Their bodies...