hMuslims flock to Mecca

hMuslims flock to Mecca

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Millions of Muslims from around the world gathered in Mecca on Sunday for the start of the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage, as the Saudi Interior Ministry announced tough security precautions. Men and women draped in white robes circled the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, seven times in a ceremony anticipating the official start of the pilgrimage Monday. King Abdullah has invited 1,000 guests to this year’s hajj, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Over the next two days, an estimated 2.5 million pilgrims will move out of Mecca to Mount Arafat for today’s climax of symbolically stoning the devil.

Sentence in child porn

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A former attorney for a prominent church was sentenced Monday to six months of home confinement for destroying the former music director’s laptop computer, which contained child pornography. U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas also ordered attorney Philip Russell to pay a $25,000 fine and perform community service. The judge cited his years of good service in sparing him prison. The music director of Greenwich’s Christ Church, Robert Tate, has been convicted of possessing child pornography. But Nevas said Monday that Tate took child prostitutes from New York to the church. Prosecutor Peter Jongbloed said Tate sexually abused children in New York, the Philippines and Thailand. Jongbloed would not comment on why Tate faced only pornography charges but said the issue would be addressed when he is sentenced next month. Tate’s attorney, Francis O’Reilly, declined to comment.

Israeli airstrike kills 5

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes blasted two cars in Gaza on Monday night, killing five Islamic Jihad militants, including a senior commander and a master rocket maker. The target of the first attack was Majed Harazin, a senior Islamic Jihad militant in charge of rocket squads that have been firing at Israel, the Israeli military said. Islamic Jihad spokesman Khaled el-Batch confirmed that Harazin was killed. Palestinians said he was a top commander for both the West Bank and Gaza and he rarely traveled in vehicles for fear of Israeli attack. They said he was on Israel’s wanted list for nine years.

Body found in towed car

LOS ANGELES — Police found the body of an elderly woman in a vehicle that had been in an accident and taken to a tow yard the day before, authorities said. The woman’s injured son had been pulled from the car the day of the crash. The presence of the body of Shirley Lee Williams, 72, came to the attention of investigators Sunday after family members said two relatives were missing, not one. “We conducted a follow-up to the tow yard, and we discovered the woman inside the vehicle,” said police Officer Mike Lopez. “She was dead.” Doctors will investigate whether Williams died instantly or was alive when the car was towed away, an official said. Police were trying to determine how paramedics and others had left the woman at the accident scene.

King pardons rape victim

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A woman sentenced to prison and a public lashing after being gang-raped has been pardoned by the Saudi monarch in a case that sparked an international outcry, including rare criticism from the United States, the kingdom’s top ally. The woman, known only as “the Girl of Qatif,” was convicted of violating Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic laws against mixing of the sexes because she was in a car with a man she was not related to when the seven men attacked and raped them both in 2006. The sentence shocked many in the West. On Monday, Bush’s National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the White House thinks King Abdullah “made the right decision” by pardoning the woman, who was 19 at the time of the attack and is from Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Associated Press