Free Republic

ANKARA: An attack by Islamists on a young Turkish woman wearing a bikini on a beach has reopened the question of the direction that the country, overwhelmingly Muslim but traditionally secular, is now taking. The incident happened earlier this month at the resort of Karaburun, near Izmir in the west of the country, the most Europeanized part. The young woman had asked a group of headscarf-wearing women and their families not to soil the beach with the used diapers of their children, only to be called a prostitute because she was wearing a bikini. She was then attacked by the...

Palliative care personnel in Belgium are complaining that a changeover in the pharmaceutical market has rendered them unable to euthanize their patients, Expatica reported on Wednesday. The problem occurred after the U.S. manufacturers of Pentothal, the “euthanasia drug,” transferred their license to another firm. Since then the flow of the drug into Belgium has stopped. According to The Brussels Journal a change-over in the method of packaging the drug is the cause of the sudden lack of supply. Palliative care workers are deeply concerned about the dearth of Pentothal. Without the drug they say it is impossible to comfortably kill...

Women more likely to be perpetrators of abuse as well as victims Filed under Research, Education, Family, Law, Gender on Thursday, July 13, 2006. GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Women are more likely than men to stalk, attack and psychologically abuse their partners, according to a University of Florida study that finds college women have a new view of the dating scene. “We’re seeing women in relationships acting differently nowadays than we have in the past,” said Angela Gover, a UF criminologist who led the research. “The nature of criminality has been changing for females, and this change is reflected in intimate...

BAGHDAD -- In a country where people are killed because their names mark them as Shi'ites or Sunnis, having the wrong haircut can be lethal, too. So for barber Abu Saif, staying in business requires keeping up with the latest religious edicts. "Being completely clean-shaven is not right," Mr. Saif explains as he draws his razor down a customer's cheek, then sweeps it back up toward his upper lip. He takes time over the cut -- a perfect upside-down question mark shave around the cheek that is most popular with Baghdad's religious Shi'ites. "The 'Marine' cut, or shaven head, is...

Brussels, 14 April (AKI) - The European Council - the European Union's decision-making body - is currently preparing a new public communication guidelines aimed at removing 'derogatory' terminology on Islam, such as "Islamic terror" and "fundamentalists" to make it clear that extremists are hijacking the religion. The lexicon of terms is aimed at politicians, officials and diplomats, but given freedom of speech concerns, its use will not be be legally binding. It is expected to be adopted in June. The lexicon will reconsider terms like "Islamists" and also "Jihad" - which is often used by groups like al-Qaeda to mean...

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox residents of Jerusalem demonstrated Friday for the second consecutive day, to protest the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man suspected of killing his baby son. Protesters set trash cans ablaze Friday morning, blocking roads in the ultra-Orthodox Meah Shearim and Geula neighborhoods. They also threw garbage and rocks at passing cars and screamed "Nazis" at police officers. The protesters dispersed Friday afternoon, and demonstrations are expected to resume on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath. Five protesters were arrested Thursday. Jerusalem municipality said Friday that the protesters have caused NIS 140,000 worth of damage. Rabbinical sages issued a statement...

BEIRUT (AFP) - The leader of the Lebanese fundamentalist Shiite movement Hezbollah claimed that if Muslims had executed British novelist Salman Rushdie others would not dare to insult Islam. Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa or religious edict in 1989 demanding Rushdie's execution over his best-selling novel the "Satanic Verses," deemed blasphemous and insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so," Hezbollah chief Hassan...

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox rioted Tuesday in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Kiryat Ata in protest of an autopsy carried out on the body of a haredi woman who was found dead in her Kiryat Ata apartment at around midnight. The woman, Frida Wiesel, was apparently murdered by burglars. Using loudspeakers ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem called on the haredi public to protest with “total devotion” against the autopsy. Zaka, an organization responsible for the recovery and identification of body parts, attempted to convince police not to perform the autopsy, but as foul play was suspected detectives in charge of the case filed a...

New York's Court of Appeals Tuesday overturned the conviction of Andrew Goldstein in the notorious subway station murder of Kendra Webdale, holding that the mentally ill defendant's right to a fair trial was abridged when a psychiatric expert for the prosecution told the jury of hearsay conversations she had had with witnesses who were not subjected to cross examination. Tuesday's 6-1 ruling was grounded in Crawford v. Washington, 541 US 36, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2004 confrontation clause landmark opinion that generally barred the use of so-called "testimonial" hearsay in criminal cases unless the defendant has an opportunity to question...

Reviewing Mary Mapes' new book, Truth and Duty, in the November 2 National Review, Byron York opens with a description of the 60 Minutes II story that got her fired from CBS last year. That story said CBS had new documents shedding light on an old story--that George W. Bush had spent the Vietnam War years in a playboy unit of the National Guard and skipped out when he got bored. "CBS aired the documents in a 60 Minutes II report on September 8, 2004, and all hell broke loose," York writes in his review. "Within hours, the papers were...

Roligt og metodisk skræver storebroderen over sin lillesøster, mens han skyder det ene projektil efter det andet ind i hende. Hendes ægtemand er ramt af flere skud i maven og kan blot se hjælpeløst til, mens hans kone henrettes af sin egen familie. (rough translation) Calm and methodically big brother stoops over his little sister while shooting one projectile after the other into her. Her spouse, affected by several shots to the abdomen, can only look on helplessly, while his wife is executed by her own family.

On CNN just now. New Orleans Mayor Nagin, apparantly stressed out, in interview segment, said he has been yelling at the President and the Governor, and for all he knows, the "CIA could wipe me out". (Paraphrase) Just now. Turning into a strange, macabre show now. Blame continues, spiraling out of control. Sad. It even raised CNN's eyebrows a bit.(5:57 p.m. Eastern/4:57 p.m. Central)

Methamphetamine's Clutch Leaves More Gays Addicted, Infected BY JOSEPH ROSE PORTLAND, Ore. -- Before he met Tina, John Motter had a closet full of $3,000 suits. He was a superstar tax consultant, entrusted with some of Arthur Andersen's biggest clients. But when Motter started using crystal methamphetamine, known as Tina in the gay community, the drug became more important than success. The long hours at the office stopped. In the clutches of the powerful stimulant, Motter spent many of his nights at gay bathhouses and sex parties in Portland and Seattle. Sitting in a Portland coffeehouse on a recent morning,...

Marblehead police are readying for a possible hate group protest that threatens to mar the privacy and solemnity of a local man's military funeral. A radical Midwestern group has announced its intention to rally at the Marblehead funeral of U.S. Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Christopher N. Piper, who died June 15 at Brooke Army Medical Center of wounds suffered in action in Afghanistan on June 3. The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, proclaiming "thank God for IEDs" or roadside bombs, claims the attacks on September 11 and American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's vengeance on a nation that...

The head of the National Education Association opened the largest school union's annual convention yesterday with a call for public school teachers and employees to mobilize politically to help defeat President Bush this fall. "I know that if we put forth our best effort, we are going to win," Reg Weaver told a cheering audience in a 30-minute speech in which he criticized Mr. Bush and Education Secretary Rod Paige. "Our 2.7 million members can be the 'X-factor' in this election. We and our pro-public-education allies can and will make a decisive difference," he said. The convention votes tomorrow on...

By Linton Weeks WASHINGTON POST In Nicholson Baker's new novella, "Checkpoint," a man sits in a Washington hotel room with a friend and talks about assassinating President Bush. It's a work of the imagination and no attempts on the president's life are made, but the novel is likely to be incendiary, as with Michael Moore's documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11." Flush with the headline-generating success of "My Life," by Bill Clinton, Alfred A. Knopf is planning to publish Baker's work Aug. 24, on the eve of the Republican National Convention. "Checkpoint" is 115 pages long and will sell for $18.