ISTANBUL, Turkey – A court yesterday acquitted a 92-year-old academic of inciting religious hatred by making a sexual reference to the head scarf in ancient history and by criticizing abusive religious marriages.
In one of her published letters, Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, an expert on Sumerian civilization, asserted that 5,000 years ago, the head scarf was a symbol to distinguish the temple priestess who had ritual sex with young men to celebrate fertility. As such, her satirical letter argued, the wearing of a head scarf should not indicate a woman's morality or religious devotion in today's world.
New York Times News Service
Car bomber wounds 3
in Afghanistan attack
KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber struck a NATO military convoy in Shorabak in Kandahar province yesterday, wounding three NATO soldiers and killing himself.
Authorities also said they had arrested a suspect, Abdul Aziz, in the Sept. 25 killing of Safia Amajan, the director of women's affairs for Kandahar. Aziz was promised $4,000 for the killing “but he says he has not received the money yet,” Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
Associated Press
Britain releases
two in airline plot
LONDON – Brothers Umair Hussain, 25, and Mehran Hussain, 23, were released yesterday after a British court ruled the evidence against them in an alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners was insufficient to warrant a trial.
The two had been accused of withholding information about their brother, Nabeel Hussain, 22, one of 11 people charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism. Nabeel Hussain was granted bail Friday, along with a 17-year-old unnamed suspect.
Associated Press
Anti-Lebanon scheme
by Iran, Syria hinted
WASHINGTON – The White House said yesterday there was “mounting evidence” Iran and Syria were involved in a plot to bring down the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, but senior officials refused to describe in detail the intelligence they said they had collected.
New York Times News Service
