December 20, 2004

Report says Ont. Muslims should be able to use Sharia law in family disputes National Post - Ontario Muslims should have the same rights as Catholics and Jews in the province to seek arbitration based on religious law for family disputes and inheritance cases, concludes a report by former attorney general Marion Boyd. ''The Arbitration Act should continue to allow disputes to be arbitrated using religious law,'' Boyd recommends in her report to the Ontario government. Boyd was appointed to study the issue after the Islamic Institute for Civil Justice requested the right to offer religious-based arbitrations for family disputes based on Sharia law. Muslim women don't want it here either. 11:53:05 AM

Chrenkoff "Good news from Iraq": Operation Iraqi Children a brainchild of actor Gary Sinise and Laura Hillenbrand, author of the book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," has become one of the most successful humanitarian actions directed at Iraq. The idea of helping Iraq's next generation came to Sinise during an United Service Organistaion tour in Iraq in November 2003: "I went to this school, and I saw what it did for the troops to go out there and visit these kids and to see these smiling kids... These soldiers had helped to rebuild the school. So when they showed up, the kids just ran out and threw their arms around the soldiers. And the troops are very protective of kids at the school. I just saw a lot of good will there that day, and I wanted to reinforce that in some way." "So he told the troops that he would gather and ship school supplies back to them so they could take them to the children. "In this endeavor to foster good will between U.S. troops and the Iraqi civilians, he and Hillenbrand started an OIC Web site. It was their way of showing people how they could help support the troops and the Iraqi children at the same time. And the response from the military and the public has been terrific... "The American public has also embraced the organization. 'We get stuff every week, every day from all over the country,' [Sinise] said. 'Now we're asking for blankets, which they need - (they) desperately need blankets over there. At night it's very, very cold.' "Sinise said donations of blankets, shoes and other winter items are being collected for shipment after the holidays because of the high volume of packages shipped at this time of the year. "The program wouldn't have become as big as it is without some help, Sinise said. That help comes in the forms of People to People International and the Veterans of Foreign Wars." 10:31:20 AM

Bajaj: EBay Protests Jailing Of Its India CEO The U.S. State Department is watching the action on eBay, but not as an interested bidder. Washington is concerned by the arrest Friday of Avnish Bajaj, the chief executive of Baazee.com, eBay's Indian shopping portal. The Indian-born U.S. citizen has been held without bail over his site's listing of a sex video purportedly shot at a prominent New Delhi high school. EBay said it was "outraged" by the arrest, which it said happened after Bajaj voluntarily traveled to New Delhi to cooperate with police. "The video clip itself was not shown on the site; the seller offered to e-mail the clip to the buyer directly," the company said in a statement. "The listing violated Baazee.com's policies and user agreement and was removed from the site once it was discovered." The video's seller was arrested a week ago, but ... (more) 9:37:01 AM