LONDON – Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, faced calls to resign yesterday for suggesting that the introduction of some aspects of Islamic law in Britain was unavoidable.
In a BBC interview Thursday, the archbishop of Canterbury talked about the use of Shariah to resolve some personal or domestic issues among Britain's Muslims, much like the way Orthodox Jews have their own courts for some matters.
Asked if Shariah needed to be applied in some cases for community cohesion, Williams said, “It seems unavoidable.”
Williams' comments sparked outrage in some of Britain's popular newspapers, led by the mass-circulation Sun, which yesterday launched a campaign to remove him from office, accusing him of giving heart to “Muslim terrorists.”
Reuters
Israeli brothers hurt in rocket attack
JERUSALEM – Israel threatened retaliation yesterday after two brothers, ages 8 and 19, were seriously wounded when a Palestinian rocket from Gaza slammed into the center of the Israeli border town of Sderot.
“Israel will take resolute and decisive measures to protect our citizens,” government spokesman David Baker said. “We will not allow Israeli families to be victimized by Palestinian rockets in the heart of their own cities.”
The rocket was one of 11 fired toward southern Israel yesterday, police said. The militant Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees groups claimed responsibility for firing rockets toward Sderot around the time of the attack.
Hours later, an Israeli airstrike on a car hit Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one. Three attacks that followed overnight struck a militant outpost, weapons factory and a weapons warehouse, all belonging to Hamas, the military said today.
Associated Press
Organ-harvesting suspect deported
KATMANDU, Nepal – The alleged leader of a syndicate accused of illegally removing hundreds of kidneys, sometimes from poor laborers held at gunpoint, was deported to India yesterday, officials said.
Nepalese authorities handed over Amit Kumar to Indian officials who had been seeking his extradition since he was arrested Thursday at a jungle resort in Nepal, said Upendra Aryal, a top police officer in Nepal's capital city, Katmandu.
Authorities had been searching for Kumar since last month, when he fled after police said they broke up the kidney transplant racket they claimed he ran from an upscale New Delhi suburb.
Associated Press
Museum purchases war-era postcards
WARSAW, Poland – A museum has acquired a collection of rare World War II-era postcards, stamps and letters from Polish insurgents who fought their Nazi occupiers during the Warsaw Uprising.
Included in the 123 items are postage stamps printed by insurgents with seals made from potatoes, and letters and postcards that describe the fighters' plight. Some of the letters had never been opened.
Jan Oldakowski, director of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, said yesterday that the museum bought the collection at auction in Duesseldorf, Germany, for the asking price of $280,000. The auction house could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
During fierce fighting, the insurgents – largely ill-armed teenagers – organized a postal service to help residents get information to family who were often cut off by street-to-street fighting that erupted in Warsaw on Aug. 1, 1944, and raged for 63 days.
Associated Press
