Word: amid
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...Amid an international outcry, China carried out the death sentence of a British man convicted of smuggling heroin into the western province of Xinjiang. London had sought clemency for Akmal Shaikh, 53, arguing that he was mentally ill and had been exploited by other smugglers. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled" by the Dec. 29 lethal injection, which Chinese officials defended as being in accordance with...
...Making of a (White) MegachurchWillow Creek Community Church's main complex, in South Barrington, does not tower so much as sprawl: eight low-slung buildings, landscaped on a swampy and thus underdeveloped grassland amid Chicago's bustling, affluent northwest suburbs. As the church has grown - especially with the 2004 completion of a new sanctuary building with an escalator and interior waterfall - it has become more self-consciously handsome. But like Hybels himself, it abandons pious overstatement for corporate efficiency: church as conceived by Jack Welch. (Read "Church Group Attacks Christmas Commercialism...
...succession: the hero is Hussain, grandson of the Prophet; the villain is Yazid, the usurper of the Caliphate; and each year on the holy day of Ashura, their bloody conflict is re-enacted as a Shi'ite cri de coeur. Iran, the pre-eminent Shi'ite nation, commemorated Ashura amid its own power struggle. Tens of thousands took to the streets, chanting, "We are the army of Imam Hussain ... supporters of Mir-Hossein." Hussain had become Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the declared loser in last June's presidential election to the "usurper" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The authorities reacted ferociously, with bullets...
...spectacular 2008 attack on the Marriott hotel, the police role has largely been to protect VIPs, she says. "Now they have to deal with a major threat, but have no expertise." Relative to the size of the population, the police are understaffed. And they enjoy little public confidence amid widespread allegations of venality. Other problems listed by Siddiqa include a lack of coordination between various intelligence agencies, poor pay and the dedication of élite units to the "protection of the powerful instead of the country's heartlands...
...alike. On Friday, Muslims demonstrated in scores of mosques across the country, but the protest was peaceful. In the mosque in Kampung Baru, a Malay enclave in the city, Muslims held placards that read "Leave Islam alone! Treat us as you would treat yourself! Don't test our patience!" amid cries of "Allah is great!" (See pictures of Islam's soft revolution in Cairo...