Monday,  September 3, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 050 • 28 of 39 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 27)

Culture clash emerges in Iraq as conservative clerics battle sassy Western styles

• BAGHDAD (AP) -- For much of Iraq's youth, sporting blingy makeup, slicked-up hair and skintight jeans is just part of living the teenage dream. But for their elders, it's a nightmare.
• A new culture rift is emerging in Iraq, as young women replace shapeless cover-ups with ankle-baring skirts and tight blouses, while men strut around in revealing slacks and spiky haircuts. The relatively skimpy styles have prompted Islamic clerics in at least two Iraqi cities to mobilize local security guards as a "fashion police" in the name of protecting religious values.
• "I see the way (older people) look at me -- they don't like it," said Mayada

Hamid, 32, wearing a pink leopard-print headscarf with jeans, a blue blouse and lots of sparkly eyeliner Sunday while shopping at the famous gold market in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
• She rolled her eyes. "It's just suppression." So far, though, there are no reports of the police actually taking action.
• This is a conflict playing out across the Arab world, where conservative Islamic societies grapple with the effects of Western influence, especially the most obvious -- the way their young choose to dress.
• ___

Flooding, power outages persist days after Isaac hammered Louisiana, Mississippi

• NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Days after Isaac hammered Louisiana and Mississippi with winds and rain, much of a parish southeast of New Orleans was still flooded and thousand were without power.
• Thousands of evacuees remained at shelters or bunked with friends or relatives.
• "My family is split up," said Angela Serpas, from severely flooded Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish. Serpas and her daughter were staying with her in-laws while her husband and son were staying in Belle Chasse, a suburban area of the parish.
• "This is the second time we've lost our home. We lost it in Katrina," she said.
• President Barack Obama was to visit Louisiana on Monday, a day ahead of the Democratic National Convention. He will meet with local officials, tour storm damage

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