Seven more die after hajj stampede

The Calgary Sun: "MINA, Saudi Arabia -- Seven more pilgrims died after being crushed in a stampede during the ritual stoning of Satan at the Muslim hajj, bringing the death toll to 251, a Saudi official said yesterday. 'Seven of the wounded succumbed to their injuries,' said Khaled al-Marghalani, spokesman for the Health Ministry.

Bishr Abdullah, one of hundreds injured in Sunday's stampede in Mecca said when the pushing began from two directions, Abdullah -- jammed in the midst of a crowd of pilgrims close to a tall stone pillar -- had no place to turn. The Nigerian pilgrim slipped and fell beneath many sandalled feet.

'When the pressure intensified, I could not breathe and I fell. People stepped on me, but luckily someone I don't know pulled me out,' he said yesterday from his bed at King Faisal Hospital in Mecca, where he was recovering with a dislocated shoulder.

Despite the tragedy, waves of pilgrims shoved their way through the crowds to continue with the devil-stoning rituals yesterday."

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New York Post Online Edition

news : "December 29, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Startling new Army statistics show that strife-torn Baghdad - considered the most dangerous city in the world - now has a lower murder rate than New York. The newest numbers, released by the Army's 1st Infantry Division, reveal that over the past three months, murders and other crimes in Baghdad are decreasing dramatically and that in the month of October, there were fewer murders per capita there than the Big Apple, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The Bush administration and outside experts are touting these new figures as a sign that, eight months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, major progress is starting to be made in the oft-criticized effort by the United States and coalition partners to restore order and rebuild Iraq. 'If these numbers are accurate, they show that the systems we put in place four months ago to develop a police force based on the principles of a free and democratic society are starting to

Forum: The fish that threatened national security : "At La Guardia we proceeded to security and the X-ray inspection point run by the Transportation Security Administration. I have learned by now that, post-9/11, a traveler is better off safe than sorry when proceeding through security. I wasn't prepared, however, for the TSA to stop me right at the entrance, proclaiming that no small pets, including fish, were permitted through security. I had, however, just received the blessing of the ticket agents at US Airways and pre-assured MJ's travels with Pittsburgh International Airport security weeks before our travel date. I tried to explain this to the screener who stood between me and the gates, but she would have none of it. I was led back to the US Airways ticket counter, stocking-footed and alone, where the agents reasserted that they did not see a problem for me to have a fish on board, properly packaged in plastic fish bag and secured with a rubber band as MJ was.

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