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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- A Danish newspaper on Friday apologized for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech. Danish daily Politiken said its apology was part of a settlement with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia. It drew strong criticism among Danish media, which previously had stood united in rejecting calls to apologize for 12 Muhammad cartoons that sparked fierce protests in the Muslim world four years ago. Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen expressed surprise at...

OAKLAND — A jury Monday deadlocked on assault charges against three men who once were members of Your Black Muslim Bakery and acquitted a fourth, ending a two-week trial with no convictions. Jurors told Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner that they could not reach verdicts against Dahood Bey and Basheer Muhammad, who were accused of leading an attack Dec. 21, 2008, against a man who rented a room from Bey. Bey also was charged with torture. Ajuwon Muhammad, the third defendant, was acquitted on a robbery charge; jurors said they could not agree on an assault charge against him. The...

UC Irvine Police arrested 11 people Monday evening on suspicion of disrupting a speech that Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was giving on U.S.-Israel relations. (Original story about the protest.) The protesters — 8 UCI students and 3 UC Riverside students — were cited for disrupting a public event. (UCI said last night that 12 people had been arrested.) Police have identified the students as: UC Irvine Joseph Tamim Haider Osama Ahmed Sabry Shabaik Mohemed Mohy Eldeen Abdelgany Ali Mohammad Sayeed Asaad Traina Mohammad Qureashi Aslam Akhtar Hakim Nasreddine Kebir UC Riverside Taher Herzallam Shaheen Waleed Nassar Khalid Bahgat Akari

A 47-year-old San Francisco man was convicted Tuesday of four misdemeanor counts related to a September incident in which he harassed members of a local mosque celebrating Ramadan, according to the district attorney's office. Gregory Tolbert, also known as Troy Adams, was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of battery and two misdemeanor counts of interference with the exercise of civil rights for a Sept. 20 encounter with congregants of the Al-Sabeel mosque, the district attorney's office said. Tolbert reportedly showed up at a breakfast reception in Victoria Manalo Draves Park in the South of Market District, where members of...

FREMONT — Despite concerns that the Fort Hood shooting rampage would lead to a new backlash against American Muslims, optimism pervaded a Sunday gathering of hundreds of Bay Area members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "There is hope for Americans who happen to be Muslim," said host and Fremont dentist Mohammad Rajabally, who said attitudes toward Muslims have improved but could fall back into misjudgment and hatred without persistent advocacy. The fundraising banquet for the Bay Area chapter of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights group carried a cheerful name — "A New Era of Hope" — but came...

In the wake of the horrific attack at the Fort Hood military base in Texas earlier this month, and the mounting evidence that the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was motivated by Islamist beliefs, the media has turned to Middle East studies "experts" for enlightenment. Instead, what the media, and, by extension, the American public, has received is the moral relativism and obfuscation that too often meets any effort to address Islamism or jihadism in an intellectually honest manner. Writing for the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, John Esposito, professor and founding director of the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sent out its usual roundup Tuesday of news stories alleging the mistreatment of Muslims in America. There was a story critical of the FBI harassment of Muslims in Queens, N.Y., in the wake of the arrest of a suspected terrorist. Another story concerned calls for an investigation into an FBI shooting that left Detroit Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah dead. There were also notices of CAIR banquets. There was no story about Noor Faleh Almaleki. Her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, has been arrested for running down his 20-year-old daughter, as well as the mother of her...

Oakland, Calif. (AP) -- Court documents claim a man charged in the murder of an Oakland journalist was also involved in the killing of his own brother. Yusuf Bey IV, former head of Your Black Muslim Bakery, has pleaded not guilty in the deaths of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey and two other men. Yusuf Bey IV's brother, Antar Bey, was killed in 2005. Alfonza Phillips is serving life in prison for that murder. In documents filed last week seeking to overturn Phillips' conviction, defense attorney Randi Covin says Yusuf Bey IV and two other men acted on their intent...

Explosions have hit two luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, say police reports. The country's Metro TV reported that one blast was heard and felt at the Ritz-Carlton and another hit the Marriott Hotel. At least three people were injured in the Marriott blast, the Associated Press quoted police as saying. One witness told Reuters some windows on the lowers floors of the Ritz-Carlton hotel had been shattered.

Suspected Muslim guerrillas detonated a bomb near a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 46. The bomb exploded outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city as churchgoers were attending Mass. Two people were killed instantly in the attack and three others, including a militiaman, later died in hospitals, military officials said. Among the wounded were six soldiers and militiamen who were in an army van that passed by the cathedral when the device, fashioned from a mortar round, exploded, Cotabato city Mayor Muslimin Sema said. The improvised explosive, which...

Oakland, Calif. (AP) -- A former community-group leader accused of ordering the murder of three men, including a newspaper editor, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday. It'll be the third time Yusuf Bey IV will stand in front of a judge for the murder of Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007. Bailey was an editor for the Oakland Post and working on a story about the finances of Bey's Your Black Muslim Bakery when he was gunned down on the way to work.

OAKLAND - A grand jury today voted to indict Yusuf Ali Bey IV, the scion of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, for ordering the killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007, authorities familiar with the situation said. Prosecutors are likely to bring the case with special circumstances - allowing them to seek the death penalty against Bey IV, 23. He allegedly told two of his followers that in exchange for killing Bailey, he would teach them how to file fraudulent loan applications that could reap hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another man, Antoine Arelus Mackey,...

OAKLAND -- The man accused of fatally shooting Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey testified before a grand jury today that he was ordered to commit the killing by the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, his attorney said. Devaughndre Broussard, 21, a former handyman at the now-defunct black self-empowerment group, has struck a plea agreement with Alameda County prosecutors under which he agreed to testify against bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and another bakery figure, Antoine Mackey. In exchange, Broussard has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter, for the 2007 killings of Bailey and Odell Roberson, and...

OAKLAND -- After striking a deal with prosecutors, Devaughndre Broussard described in detail how he carried out orders from the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery to kill Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey, including specific instructions to fire enough rounds to make sure "it ain't no coming back." The 21-year-old former handyman for the bakery chillingly and nonchalantly took prosecutor Chris Lamiero step by step March 23 and 24 through the events surrounding the slayings of the Oakland Post editor and another man. Both shootings, he said, were ordered by Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of the bakery, a now-defunct black...

DETROIT (AP) -- A Michigan Muslim organization said Thursday it has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate complaints alleging the FBI is asking followers of the faith to spy on Islamic leaders and congregations. The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan sent a letter last week to Holder after mosques and other groups reported members of the community have been approached to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they make. Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman in the FBI's Detroit office, had no immediate comment. Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,...

<p>Oakland -- A confidential informant has told prosecutors that the jailed head of Your Black Muslim Bakery boasted to him last year that he ordered Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey executed to stop untrue information from being published about the bakery. In the statement obtained by The Chronicle, the unidentified informant recounted how he met Yusuf Bey IV, 22, while both were in jail and Bey IV talked constantly about the bakery and the Aug. 2, 2007, killing of the 57-year-old Oakland man.</p>

Hamas representatives claimed on Sunday that their militiamen were fighting against IDF troops in the Gaza Strip with weapons confiscated from the Palestinian Authority in the summer of 2007. They said Hamas had managed to lay its hands on all the weapons that Israel, the US and other countries had given forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas had also seized dozens of armored vehicles used by Abbas's security forces, they added. After its men took full control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas announced that it had seized tens of thousands of rifles and pistols, including heavy...

Israel's long overdue military response to the daily barrage of Gaza rockets aimed at its citizens has led to the usual round of protest/counter-protest confrontations in the West. Whether it's here in the San Francisco Bay Area or across the United States and Europe, Arab protesters and those on the left who have bought into their false victimhood narrative are enraged. They have directed their hatred and vitriol towards the few pro-Israel counter-protesters who have shown up to counter their monolithic message, and in some cases rioting and violence has ensued. For the most part, the mainstream media continues to...

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday night issued a general curfew in the West Bank beginning at midnight Thursday and ending at midnight on Saturday. The decision to issue the curfew was made due to warnings by the Security Establishment that terrorists were planning attacks in revenge of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Search for answers into slaying has raised questions not only about handling of case, but department as a whole — OAKLAND — As 2008 ends, more questions than answers remain about the brazen slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey 17 months ago, and they raise increasing concerns about this city's beleaguered police force — questions that some officers say are now being asked within their own ranks.Officers and recently retired officers interviewed for this story describe the department as fractured, lacking confidence in Chief Wayne Tucker and his executive command staff, and neutered in its crime fighting abilities.Continuing violent crime, chronic...