Woman booted off U.S. flight over T-shirt mocking Bush, Cheney and Rice

RENO, Nevada- A woman was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing a T-shirt that bore an expletive and images of President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Lorrie Heasley of Woodland, Wash., said she plans to press a civil-rights complaint against the airline over Tuesday's action at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, halfway through Heasley's scheduled trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon. "I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane . . . over a T-shirt. That's not freedom." Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said several passengers complained about the shirt. Heasley, 32, a lumber saleswoman, said passengers began complaining after she and her husband, Ron, moved to the front of the cabin in Reno. She agreed to cover the words with a sweatshirt, but when the sweatshirt slipped while she was trying to sleep, she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave. She and her husband left. They arrived home in a rental car Wednesday afternoon. McInnis said Southwest rules allow the airline to deny boarding to any passenger whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive." But Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Las Vegas, said it "might be problematic" that the airline "changed rules in the middle of a flight." Heasley said she has been in touch with ACLU lawyers in Seattle, and wants Southwest to reimburse her for the last leg of the trip.

Indian police arrest 67 women in death of barber suspected of black magic

HYDERABAD, India- Indian police arrested 67 women on Wednesday after a mob killed a barber suspected of practising black magic, an official said. Dozens more women were being sought by authorities. The arrests came after the mob of about 150 women from the south Indian village of Muddireddypalli attacked the shop of a barber named Parvathalu on Tuesday, beating him and locking him inside before setting the building on fire, said C. Satyanarayana, a district official. The villagers suspected he was practising black magic and held him responsible for the large number of deaths in the village in the past year, he said. The attack was prompted by the death of another woman earlier this week, the official said. The barber was suspected of sorcery because "he was seen throwing lemons here and there," Satyanarayana said. He gave no details, but many villagers in this part of India believe lemons are used in black magic. Police planned to arrest all the women involved in the attack, but most had fled their homes to avoid arrest, Satyanarayana said. Muddireddypalli is about 100 kilometres south of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state. Mahbubnagar, the district where the village is located, is a rural area with high levels of illiteracy and poverty. Many villagers are superstitious.

Netherlands court bans complaining mom

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A woman in the Netherlands has been banned from any contact with her daughter's school or teachers after complaining too much, a court ruled Friday. The woman, whose name was not released, "overloaded" the Borgh Elementary School in the northern city of Zuidhorn "with an incessant stream of questions, comments and complaints," a panel of judges at the Groningen District Court wrote in their judgment. "For causing an illegal hindrance ... she will be barred from approaching the school or the school area for a year, and forbidden from addressing the school, educators or the board in any way other than as specified in the verdict," the judges said. The woman's complaints ranged from treatment of her daughter - described as "highly gifted" - to disagreements about curriculum, method of teaching and the safety of the school. In the 2004-2005 school year, the woman sent 50 e-mails and 20 letters to the school, and came nine times to visit. She also wrote 29 letters to the school board and others "to the National Complaint Commission, the Labor Inspection Service, the Educational Inspection Service, the Queen's representative and the media," the judgment said. In the future, the woman will be allowed to submit complaints to the school on a single page of paper once a month, the court ruled.