POPE, MUSLIMS, ISRAEL AND...

I AM SURE MOST HAVE HEARD THIS STORY BUT IT IS WORTH REPEATING. RELIGION ONCE AGAIN REARS ITS UGLY HEAD and turns a blind eye. Look at the world today and you can rest its turmoil and chaos at the feet of organized religions. And even the large corporations and bankers conduct their activities with the blessings of churches, mosques and synagogues-if that were not so, why are they not denouncing the greed that has caused our economic crisis?

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER and ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writers Bradley S. Klapper And Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 12 mins ago

"GENEVA – A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused an uproar with a speech attacking Israel at a U.N. conference on racism, the U.N. said Tuesday that Ahmadinejad had actually dropped language from the speech that described the Holocaust as "ambiguous and dubious."

The U.N. and the Iranian Mission in Geneva did not comment on why the change was made. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, however, said he had met with the Iranian president before his speech Monday and reminded him the U.N. had adopted resolutions "to revoke the equation of Zionism with racism and to reaffirm the historical facts of the Holocaust."

Ahmadinejad may have decided to drop the Holocaust phrase that was in his original text to deliver his condemnation of Israel in a more palatable fashion for many countries.

Still, Ahmadinejad's accusation that the West used the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians still provoked walkouts by delegates including every European Union country in attendance. But others, including those from the Vatican, stayed in the room because they said he stopped short of denying the Holocaust.

The walkout came after Ahmadinejad accused Western nations of complicity in violence against Palestinians surrounding the foundation of Israel.

The original text of his speech said "following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish sufferings and the ambiguous and dubious question of Holocaust."

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Heuze said U.N. officials had checked back with the interpreters and the Farsi recording of Ahmadinejad's speech, and determined that the Iranian president had dropped the terms "ambiguous and dubious," referring instead in Farsi to "the abuse of the question of the Holocaust."

Adding to the confusion, the live English translation of the speech did not mention the word "Holocaust" at all, while the French stayed true to the spoken words of Ahmadinejad. The English translator apparently was following the prepared text and stopped speaking when the Iranian president changed the wording.

The meeting turned chaotic from the start when two protesters in rainbow wigs tossed red clown noses at Ahmadinejad as he began his speech with a Muslim prayer. A Jewish student group from France said it had been trying to convey "the masquerade that this conference represents."

Thirteen people who disrupted the speech were expelled from the conference Tuesday.

The United States and eight other Western countries had already boycotted the event that started on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, because of concerns Muslim countries would drown out all other issues with calls to denounce Israel and restrict free speech when it comes to criticizing Islam."