September 27, 2004

Lebanon al-Qaeda suspect dies BBC News, UK - A suspected al-Qaeda leader arrested in Lebanon last week has died of a heart attack, officials have said. Ismail Mohammed al-Khatib was among 10 people held after security forces said they foiled an attack against the Italian embassy in Beirut. He was rushed to hospital from jail but doctors were unable to save him, hospital officials said. Lebanese security officials confirmed Khatib's death of a heart attack, the Associated Press reported. 3:35:14 PM

IDF troops operating in PA-controlled Shechem apprehended a 15-year-old suicide bomber, preventing yet another fatal attack. 2:32:26 PM

Former Massachusetts Bishop Charged with Child Rape. BOSTON (Reuters) - A grand jury has charged a former Massachusetts bishop, Thomas Dupre, with raping two children in the 1970s, a state court said on Monday, in the first such action against a high-ranking member of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. [Reuters: Top News] 2:24:33 PM

Ayman al-Zawahri Captured?. Report: Top Bin Laden deputy caught in Pakistan. Top Bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri has been caught in Pakistan, according to a report from the region quoted on Israel Radio Monday. Pakistani forces operating against al Qaida strongholds in the country report capturing the Egyptian national, who was formerly the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which operated in the past against the Egyptian regime. [Little Green Footballs] UPDATE: Looks like a false alarm. 1:19:06 PM

CNN Confirms Employee Seized by Armed Men in Gaza. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Gunmen seized a CNN producer in Gaza City on Monday, the news network said. [Reuters: Top News] Will 'al-Reuters' still call them 'gunmen' if Reuters staff are kidnapped seized? 1:10:28 PM

Kidnapped Iranian diplomat freed USA Today, United States - A kidnapped Iranian diplomat was released Monday after nearly two months in captivity, the Iranian Embassy said. Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah II said he believes two abducted Italian aid workers are still alive despite claims they had been killed. Faridoun Jihani, the Iranian consul in Karbala, spent 57 days in captivity after he was seized by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, which accused Iran of meddling in Iraq's affairs. 10:24:13 AM

Apartheid in the Middle East? Say it aint so! "Freedom of religion does not exist. It is not recognized or protected under the country's laws, and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam. Citizens are denied the freedom to choose or change their religion, and non-citizens practice their beliefs under severe restrictions. Islam is the official religion and all citizens must be Muslims." "Hindus are considered polytheists by Islamic law, which is used as a justification for greater discrimination in calculating accidental death or injury compensation. According to the country's "Hanbali" interpretation of Shari'a, once fault is determined by a court, a Muslim male receives 100 percent of the amount of compensation determined, a male Jew or Christian receives 50 percent, and all others (including Hindus and Sikhs) receive 1/16 of the amount a male Muslim receives. "   9:52:08 AM

Another Triumph for the U.N. The United States said the killing in Darfur was indeed genocide, the Europeans weren't so sure, and the Arab League said definitely not, and hairs were split and legalisms were parsed, and the debate over how many corpses you can fit on the head of a pin proceeded in stentorian tones while the mass extermination of human beings continued at a pace that may or may not rise to the level of genocide. 9:22:37 AM

Adobe proposes new universal format for photos USA Today - Adobe Systems plans to introduce a new format for digital photos on Monday in an attempt to create an industry public standard to make the archiving and editing process compatible across all types of cameras and photo software. Most consumer digital cameras today capture images in the JPEG format, but a higher-quality raw photo format is gaining in popularity among higher-end and professional camera models. A major frustration among photographers, however, has been how different digital camera makers use different, proprietary versions of the so-called raw format, industry analysts say. That incompatibility has forced users, especially in media and other companies, to maintain multiple software programs to handle the raw photos taken by different cameras. It has also raised concerns that archived raw images could become inaccessible with future software. Now, Adobe, which dominates the photo editing market with its Photoshop products, is proposing that its new Digital Negative Specification, or DNG, becomes a universal standard for the raw format. The San Jose-based company is also launching a free software tool that will allow users to convert the raw formats from more than 65 cameras into the DNG format. 7:12:41 AM

Colleges turn to eBay to sell unwanted goods Houston Chronicle - Texas A&M University couldn't give away a fleet of 20-year-old buses, so it sold them - on eBay. With starting bids of $500 each, three buses went online for a weeklong auction. 6:59:45 AM