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5. Pope appeals to Afghanistan over jailed convert | Pope Benedict has written to Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the fate of an Afghan man facing a possible death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday. (Reuters)
   
   
6. Rice: Afghanistan must find its own way | Afghanistan's prosecution of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity shows how a fledgling democracy struggles to recognize individual rights, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. (Associated Press)
   
   
7. Report: Convert says he's ready to die | An Afghan man who risks execution for converting from Islam to Christianity said he is fully aware of his choice and is ready to die for it, according to an interview published Sunday in an Italian newspaper. (Associated Press)
   
   

Afghans urge/oppose execution:

1. Preachers in Kabul urge execution of convert to Christianity | Preachers used Friday Prayer services to call for the execution of an Afghan Muslim who converted to Christianity, despite growing protests in the West. (The New York Times)
   
   
2. Protestors demand trial for Afghan convert to Christianity | Clerics led hundreds of people in a protest today in a northern Afghanistan city to demand that an Afghan man facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity be tried under Islamic law. (The New York Times)
   
   
3. Afghan paper calls for release of Christian convert | An Afghan newspaper called on Sunday for the release of a man facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity, saying Afghanistan cannot confront the international community over the issue. (Reuters)
   
   

CPT captives head home:

1. Freed Iraq hostage returning to Britain | Former hostage Norman Kember flew out of Baghdad on a British transport plane, the Christian Peacemaker Teams activist group said Friday. (Associated Press)
   
   
2. Briton thanks soldiers who rescued him | Freed British hostage Norman Kember returned home Saturday after four months in captivity in Iraq and thanked the soldiers who saved him and two other peace activists. (Associated Press)
   
   
3. Freed Iraq hostage Kember back at local church | Christian peace campaigner Norman Kember went to a service of thanksgiving at his local church in London on Sunday, attending for the first time since he was freed from kidnappers in Iraq earlier in the week. (Reuters)
   
   
4. Loney and Sooden start trip home | Freed Canadian hostages Jim Loney and Harmeet Sooden headed to Baghdad airport on Saturday to begin their journey home from Iraq, a colleague said. "They have left for the airport," Maxine Nash of Christian Peacemaker Teams told Reuters. (Reuters)
   
   

War & terrorism:

1. Irish priest hails Batasuna | Batasuna, the outlawed Basque political party, deserves credit for its role in the process which led to this week's ETA cease-fire, an Irish priest involved in the talks said on Friday. (Reuters)
   
   
2. U.N. extends peacekeeping mission in Sudan | The Security Council voted Friday to keep U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan to monitor an accord ending a 21-year civil war and authorized planning for the expected extension of the U.N. force's operations to Darfur. (Associated Press)
   
   
3. Imams in Spain say Muslims and Jews must confront extremism | Scores of rabbis and imams gathered here this week to discuss what they called a deepening crisis in relations between Muslims and Jews, saying religious leaders must confront religious extremism and the failure to make meaningful progress on the conflict in the Middle East. (The New York Times)
   
   

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50