Around the world: Aid is on way to Christian refugees in Iraq

The United Nations refugee agency said Friday that it was rushing aid to thousands of Christians who fled a northern Iraqi city.

About 13,000 have been chased away by threats and attacks in Mosul this month, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

That number is more than half the community in a city where Christians have lived since the early days of the religion. Many Detroit-area Iraqi Christians trace family roots to villages near Mosul.

The UN agency has delivered relief supplies to more than 1,700 Christian families now displaced in the north of the country, Redmond said.

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND: Hawking to retire post
Famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking will retire from his prestigious post at Cambridge University next year but intends to continue his exploration of time and space. Hawking, 66, became known through his theories on black holes and the nature of time.

http://www.freep.com/article/20081025/NEWS07/810250322