U.S. Army Iraq Veteran Guilty of Refusing Orders
By Andy Buerger Reuters

DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - A U.S. military court convicted a 23-year-old Army mechanic of willfully disobeying orders for refusing to perform duties after a year-long tour of Iraq, an army spokesman said Monday.

Specialist Blake Lemoine, who returned to Germany in May 2004, said he wanted to quit the army due to religious beliefs.

The special military court sentenced Lemoine to seven months confinement, reduction in rank to private and gave him a bad conduct discharge, said Bruce Anderson, deputy public affairs spokesman for the 3rd Corps support command.

Lemoine, who had condemned the invasion of Iraq, was charged for repeatedly refusing to obey orders from commanders between Jan. 10 and Feb. 15 at a base in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt.

Lemoine, from Moraville, Louisiana, told a recent news conference in Germany sponsored by anti-war groups that even though he volunteered to join the army, he had changed his mind and wanted to leave.

"It was simply a slow realisation that serving in the U.S. military at this day and time contradicts my religion and to continue to do so would make me a hypocrite," he said last week.

Lemoine had also been quoted in German newspapers as saying: "The contract with the U.S. army is a slavery contract." He also spoke out against U.S. army violence against Iraqis, saying: "Iraqi civilians are often treated worse than animals."

Lemoine joined the army for three years, a term which would have ended on Feb. 13, but extended his enlistment at some point for a further eight-month period.

Chocolate Crosses Move Into Mainstream

By MATT SEDENSKY, AP

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A symbol of Christianity that sits atop church steeples, dangles from necks and hangs on walls is now ending up in the mouths of the faithful, over the objections of some religious officials.

A mass-produced chocolate cross is being sold this Easter by Russell Stover Candies Inc. in about 5,000 stores nationwide, which experts say is apparently a first for a major American company.

"Obviously they've seen that there's a market for chocolate crosses at Easter," said Lisbeth Echeandia, a consultant for Candy Information Service, which monitors candy industry trends. "I don't see it growing tremendously but I think there would be growth in the Christian market."

However, not all Christians are happy about it. Chomping on a chocolate cross can be offensive to some, said Joseph McAleer, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese in Bridgeport, Conn.

"The cross should be venerated, not eaten, nor tossed casually in an Easter basket beside the jelly beans and marshmallow Peeps," he said. "It's insulting."

Nonetheless, Kansas City-based Russell Stover, the third-largest American chocolate manufacturer, said it is targeting some of the most devout Christians — Hispanic Americans.

Pangburn, which Russell Stover bought in 1999, has long had a hold in that market. The milk chocolate cross is about 6 inches high, adorned with a floral bouquet and filled with caramel made of goat's milk, popular in Mexico and Latin America. Its packaging features Spanish more prominently than English.

Russell Stover President Tom Ward doesn't expect the chocolate cross to overtake the chocolate bunny, but he does expect it to bring in new customers who "wouldn't buy rabbits."

"I think it's a market that's potentially overlooked," said chocolate expert Clay Gordon, who runs the chocolate Web site Chocophile.com.

Ward said Russell Stover considered making other traditional images out of chocolate but eventually opted not to.

"A molded Jesus, for example, would not be a good call and a cross with Jesus on it wouldn't be a good idea either," Ward said.

(AP) Being a practicing homosexual is no bar to becoming a priest, the Scottish Episcopal Church says, a stance that puts it at odds with the Anglican Communion in other parts of the world.

[...]

The Scottish bishops expressed regret at the decision to request the withdrawal of U.S. and Canadian Churches from the ACC.

"We are conscious that as a church we are much indebted in our life both to a significant presence of persons of homosexual orientation, and also those whose theology and stance would be critical of attitudes to sexuality other than abstinence outside marriage."

"We rejoice in both," the bishops' response said.

"Mexico has been very responsible in security matters," he said, noting that his government had invested heavily in poor areas, hoping that more job opportunities at home would reduce the number of Mexicans going illegally to the United States to find work.

"Arab nations have taken serious steps on the road of reform, but the road is still long and we have to go ahead confidently, out of conviction that reform is an uninterrupted process derived from the nation's will and not demanded from others," Mubarak said, opening the three-day gathering.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, one of Russia's most wanted men, has been killed in Chechnya, according to Russian news agencies who quoted Russian federal forces in the northern Caucasus.

[...]

Maskhadov has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Russian forces in the region and has been blamed by Russia for involvement in many other attacks on non-military targets including the Beslan school hostage massacre last September and a mass hostage-taking at a Moscow theater in 2002.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. The court in 1988 outlawed executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes. Three years ago justices banned executions of the mentally retarded.

Tuesday's ruling prevents states from making 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution.

"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

Juvenile offenders have been put to death in recent years in only a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia. Kennedy cited international opposition to the practice. (Notice the exclusive club of nations we've been admitted to who still legalize killing little children for sport. --ed.)

"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," he wrote. (Kennedy, show me where the heck it says we should confer with international law in the AMERICAN CONSTITUTION!??!?! --ed.)

In a dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia disputed that there is a clear trend of declining juvenile executions to justify a growing consensus against the practice.

"The court says in so many words that what our people's laws say about the issue does not, in the last analysis, matter: 'In the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty,"' he wrote.

"The court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our nation's moral standards," Scalia wrote. (Boo-yea! Did I just see this in print??? --ed.)

Justices were called on to draw an age line in death cases after Missouri's highest court overturned the death sentence given to Christopher Simmons, who was 17 when he kidnapped a neighbor, hog-tied her and threw her off a bridge in 1993. Prosecutors say he planned the burglary and killing of Shirley Crook and bragged that he could get away with it because of his age.

The four most liberal justices had already gone on record in 2002, calling it "shameful" to execute juvenile killers. Those four, joined by Kennedy, formed Tuesday's decision: Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Justice Clarence Thomas and Scalia, as expected, voted to uphold the executions. They were joined by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.