After a practical joke went sour....

ARMENIA: An I 1 -year-old boy killed a former policeman Friday by stabbing him In the back after a practical Joke went

The boy was playing In the street and threw a water balloon that hit the ex cop in the face, police In this western town said.

The former policeman flew into a rage and kicked the boy. who rap home, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the adult In the back before fleeing.

'Rushdie deserves death sentence'

ATHENS. Prominent Egyptian Islamic scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al Qardawi said the majority of fuqaha (Islamic Jurists) are' of the view that an apostate like Salman Rushdie deserves the death sentence, reports Ima.

Speaking to Egyptian writer on Islamic affairs Fehmi Huwakii. the Sheikh said apostasy (al ridda) In Islam is divided into two categories ' Mukhaffafa and MughaUaxa' which could be translated loosely In English as "light and severe" apostasy.

In the Mughallaza category. like the apostasy of Salman Rushdie, said Sheikh Qardawi. an apostate calls to his heresy by his speech or pen. So In this case the harsher punish merit is to be applied taking the view of the majority of the ummah In order to eliminate evil.

He said the one who advocates apostasy publicly deserves the death sentence because it is considered a treachery to the ummah and a major crime.

Playboy no longer scandalous just naughty

CHICAGO: It started with a restless young man plotting an empire from his kitchen table. He had little money and a big plans to remove the plain brown wrapper from America s most taboo topic — sex. reports Al’.

Soon he had the recipe: The bunny. The photo of Marilyn Monroe. And. of course, the name. Playboy.

Playboy celebrates its 40th anniversary this mo^th aqd both the magazine and man have changed. Hugh Hefner, once the guru of hedonism. Is a senior citizen and family man. his empire is run by a feminist - his daughter. Christie - and his middleage creation has gonf from -scandalous to-Just naughty. Yet It remains a success '

Today. Playboy's US circulation is 3.4 million, half its peak in the 1970s; about 80 per cent are subscriptions. It has 1.6 million readers of 17 foreign editions.

"Playboy is no longer at the leading edge of sexual shock." said Bernard Beck, an associate sociology professor at Northwestern University. "It's conventional."

"It's no longer cutting edge...but it's still'the biggest men's magazine and probably the best In the country." declares James Kobak. a New York magazine consultant who has worked with Playboy. They really changed with culture. Or maybe the culture changed with them."

'Wolf-dog mauls 3-yr-old

TOWNSHEND: A wolf-dog mauled a 3-year-old boy to death after the youngster wandered away from his day-care center, reports AP.

Kevin Michael Lahey of Townshend wandered Friday into a yard next to the center, where the 2 1 /2-year-old female wolfdog was caring for a litter of nine puppies.

The 120-pound (54-kilogram) animal may have been protecting its puppies after Lahey walked over to look at them, said Cathy Barrows, an animal control-officer from Brattleboro who took the wolf-hybrid away after the attack. *

. "She probably chased the boy and knocked him down from the back. From there she ended up fatally wounding him." Barrows said.