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<p>Abdelhaleem Ashqar was "easy to get along with" as a University of Mississippi graduate student during the mid-1990s, one professor remembers.</p> <p>But a 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of Washington, D.C., describes Ashqar as acting as a "senior Hamas activist" while at Ole Miss. Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a militant group founded in 1987.</p>

<p>OXFORD — University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert Khayat tried Friday to ease the fears of those who are worried that the nicknames Ole Miss and Rebels — like the Colonel Rebel mascot — will be replaced.</p> <p>A 12-paragraph op-ed piece written by Khayat was posted on the Ole Miss athletic department Web site.</p>

You won't see his picture in the post office, but Clarksdale businessman Hartley Kittle is now listed as public enemy No. 1 by the outd-of-sync administration at Ole Miss. And with that, Kittle becomes the darling of the "vocal minority." That's how Athletic Director Pete Boone referred to the defenders of traditions at the Oxford-based campus. And here's what Kittle said in the state's largest publication in Mississippi - The Jackson Clarion-Ledger: "They took the flag, we don't have 'Dixie' and now it's Colonel Reb. They can say whatever they want, but they'll realize the deal when they count the...

Today we can be thankful we live in a country where we're free to choose our allegiances: Republican or Democrat, Mac or PC, Leno or Letterman. Saints or winners. Oops. We meant sinners, of course. But as you grill those hot dogs and enjoy fireworks on Independence Day, consider how some longtime Ole Miss fans are feeling these days. They've had their last hotty toddy with Colonel Reb -- and they didn't get the chance to say a proper farewell. A few weeks ago, the university said it will sideline its Colonel Rebel mascot, the familiar Southern gentleman with the...

<p>YOU'VE heard the term "hot button issues." I call them "send button issues." Somebody writes a column about the issue. And readers immediately respond with often emotional e-mail.</p> <p>Colonel Rebel at Ole Miss definitely rates as a "send button issue." Your responses to my Thursday column touched a nerve — mine.</p>

<p>To some, remaking the University of Mississippi's mascot is no more, or less, important than losing your own hair. To others, it's no more, or less, important, than losing your own head.</p> <p>No matter what you think about it, though, it appears that the head of Colonel Rebel is going to roll, to be replaced by a more modern head-to-be-named, according to Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone.</p>

Oxford, Miss. -- The Colonel Rebel mascot is out for this football season while the University of Mississippi searches for a new image. Athletic Director Pete Boone said the "Southern plantation-look" man with a big head, floppy hat and clothes and cane will off the sidelines while Ole Miss considers what it will do about its mascot.The Colonel Rebel logo, however, is still an official trademark of the university, university officials said Wednesday.Boone said the change is not part of any plan to completely overhaul or change the school's longtime nicknames "Ole Miss" or "Rebels.""It's an idea we've been thinking...

<p>He may be old, but Colonel Reb has people talking.</p> <p>While a consulting group has been hired to study the longtime sports mascot and whether he should be updated or lost to history, Ole Miss fans are taking sides and debating the issue.</p>

Oxford, Miss. -- Colonel Reb, the mascot at the University of Mississippi, may soon be in for major changes. Ole Miss athletics director Pete Boone said Monday that the mascot, decked out in red and blue and outfitted like an 18th century Southern gentleman, should no longer represent sports teams at the Oxford school."It doesn't fit anything we do," Boone said.Coming up with an alternative has been a problem, so Colonel Reb will stick around at least through the 2003 football season, Boone said.It's possible there could be a change for the 2003-04 basketball season, he said."We have made a...

OXFORD, Miss. - Colonel Reb, the mascot at the University of Mississippi, may soon be in for major changes.Ole Miss athletics director Pete Boone said Monday that the mascot, decked out in red and blue and outfitted like an 18th century Southern gentleman, should no longer represent sports teams at the Oxford school."It doesn't fit anything we do," Boone said.Coming up with an alternative has been a problem, so Colonel Reb will stick around at least through the 2003 football season, Boone said.It's possible there could be a change for the 2003-04 basketball season, he said."We have made a stab...

<p>The University of Mississippi's Colonel Reb, the old Southern gentleman who serves as the Rebels' sports mascot, could be in for a makeover to reflect the 21st century.</p> <p>"It doesn't fit anything we do," Ole Miss athletics director Pete Boone said Monday. Colonel Reb is "an 18th-century person," and it's not logical to keep that mascot around representing Ole Miss sports teams, he said.</p>

<p>A sizzling sex column in the University of Mississippi's student newspaper has spawned a religious-based, organized firestorm of angry e-mails to school officials, the State College Board and others.</p> <p>As of Wednesday, at least 2,000 e-mails flooded state College Board headquarters in Jackson and offices of Ole Miss leaders in Oxford. Copies also went to Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, an Ole Miss graduate who appoints board members.</p>

Even now, more than four decades after the fact, it is such a strange and repulsive image, so preeningly masculine, so crackling with smirky bonhomie and threat. Who are these guys, anyway? In particular, who is the handsome, slick-haired fellow in the middle, the one biting the end off his cigarette while he swats the air with his stick? And who are the cronies watching -- or pointedly not watching -- while he takes his swing? And where are they? And what are they doing there?''And,'' Paul Hendrickson ponders early in this deeply impressionistic journey back into a blinked...

Three African-American students at the University of Mississippi have been accused of writing racist graffiti on doors outside rooms of two other black students in the Kincannon residence hall on the Oxford campus.

Former National Republican Chairman Haley Barbour has filed paperwork necessary to begin recieving contributions for a run for governor in 2003, a spokesman said.Henry Barbour, Haley Brobours nephew and spokesman, said the elder Barbour filed a statement of organization last week.Haley Barbour had recieved campaign contributions and was required by law to file the statement within 10 days of taking the funds, Barbour said.

Editorial: Guardsmen receive overdue recognition October 02, 2002 Four decades ago, one of the most shameful episodes in American history took place when a mob tried to prevent James Meredith from becoming the first black man to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Two people were killed and more than 200 were injured as a result of the riot that ensued. National Guardsmen and U.S. Marshals withstood bottles, bricks and verbal venom from hundreds of white people who set blazes and fired shots in their fight against integration of "Old Miss." Murray C. Falkner, the National Guardsmen who led the...