Free Republic

<p>NAJAF, Iraq &#8212; Like a human sea, the faithful flooded the streets of this holy city yesterday to pay their last respects to Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, the Shi'ite cleric slain in the massive car-bombing at the Imam Ali Mosque, the holiest in Iraq, last week.</p>

The funeral of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim yesterday witnessed vast crowds, understandable emotion and sharp oratory. Most important of all, the march and the memorial service passed off peacefully. The angry speech delivered by the late Ayatollah’s brother, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, will doubtless attract considerable and disproportionate attention. Mr al-Hakim sought to blame the Americans for the car bomb at Najaf on Friday on the ground that they had failed to provide sufficient security at the Shia shrine of Imam Ali. He then went on to assert that outside forces should leave the country...

<p>NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines stocked up on medical supplies and braced for trouble as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiite Muslims converged on Najaf to mourn the prominent cleric killed in a massive car bombing last week.</p> <p>The bombing killed at least 83 people, including Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a longtime Iraqi dissident. U.S. troops are keeping responsibility for security in Najaf longer than originally planned because of the attack, U.S. Central Command sources said Monday.</p>

JERUSALEM - Clamoring for revenge, thousands of Hamas supporters Saturday buried two militants killed in an Israeli raid, and a senior Palestinian official urged the United States to intervene to prevent the unraveling of a six-week-old truce. The militants and an Israeli soldier were killed Friday when troops raided a bomb lab in a West Bank refugee camp, sparking a gunbattle. A Palestinian stone-thrower also was killed by troops. At their funerals in the West Bank city of Nablus, masked gunmen fired in the air, and mourners waving Hamas flags chanted slogans demanding retribution. The Web site of Hamas' military...

<p>Five days after he was shot to death by a political rival at City Hall, Councilman James Davis returned to the landmark building Monday to lie in state, joining a list that includes Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Clay.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush joined the nation in mourning the death of comedian Bob Hope. "Today the nation lost a great citizen," the president said.The 100-year-old entertainer, who died Sunday, "made us laugh, he lifted our spirits," Bush said, as he boarded Air Force One en route to Pittsburgh."Bob Hope served our nation when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations," the president said. "We extend our prayers to his family. God bless his soul."

<p>It's difficult to write satire today, because so much of the real world is so ridiculous. Take last week's comments by Rep. Charles Rangel, for example. After the news broke that U.S. troops had killed Saddam Hussein's two sadistic sons, Uday and Qusai, in a firefight, the liberal New York Democrat was outraged, telling Fox's Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes that: "When you personalize a war and are saying that you're killing someone's kids, then they, in turn, think they can kill somebody. . . . I personally don't get any satisfaction that it takes 200,000 troops, 250,000 troops, to knock off two bums." This is what passes for constructive criticism in today's Democratic Party.</p>

POLICE fear Islamic terrorists could target a ceremony attended by Australians at the Bali bomb site today. Bali police confirmed yesterday they had received warnings of an attack on a purification ceremony to be attended by more than 30 families of victims of the October 12 bombing. Indonesian chief investigator, Inspector General Made Pastika, confirmed police were hunting six more men connected to the bombing. He said he was "very worried" about being unable to find 900kg of explosives missing from the terrorist's arsenal. Bali police chief Budi Setyawan confirmed he was aware of an intelligence report warning of a...