CHICAGO�To the thunderous roar of cheers from a standing-room only 1,200-plus crowd of family, followers and friends at Mosque Maryam Dec. 12, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered his first words from the rostrum of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad since early January.

On Nov. 20, Elian Gonzalez was just another little boy in the Cuban town of Cardenas. He was looking forward to flying a kite made for him by an uncle the following day. That was not to be.  Elian, since Nov. 25 when he was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean, has become the center of heated political debate between Washington and Havana as well as a poster-child for a Miami-based anti-Castro exile movement.

FCN Poll: Should Elian Gonzalez be returned to his father in Cuba?

Rep. McKinney Challenges UN's Bloody Hands

WASHINGTON�Even as African issues gain more and more attention from government officials, Congressional Black Caucus members and non-governmental organizations (NGO) in this country, there is virtually one, lone voice�that of Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.)�crying out for solutions to the problems in poverty-stricken, AIDS-afflicted eastern and central Africa.

See Also: FCN Editorial: Trouble in the United Nations

THE
GRACE OF GOD
by Minister Louis Farrakhan

There is something in the nature of God that we all have heard about and some of us talk about, but very few of us delve deeply enough into it to understand: the Grace of God. Allah says in the Holy Qur�an that He created the heavens and earth with truth. He says that everything that He created, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, glorifies God. Since you and I have never seen God, then how do we get acquainted with the unseen?

Jury: King Murder A Conspiracy

MEMPHIS�The 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a conspiracy, a jury ruled here Dec. 8, bringing closure to an issue that has pierced the heart of the King family for years and has been the focus of controversy for the nation.

World Web News

Laurent Kabila Visits Tripoli (Tripoli -Pana)

Uganda-Sudan Peace Deal Angers US
-The East African (Nairobi, Kenya)

Unita 80 per cent destroyed: 
Angolan army chief The Namibian

Jordanian message to the Iraqi President 
(ArabicNews.com)

PERSPECTIVES

FCN EDITORIAL
Another shocker from Columbine

ELEVEN FIFTY-FIVE
by Abdul Allah Muhammad
Will the real people of God
please stand up?

Get tough attitude ignores
corporate crime
by Robert Weissman and
Russell Mokhiber

Farrakhan The Traveler
by Jabril Muhammad
God desires perfection for human beings

Unveiling the Number 19
by Tynnetta Muhammad
Reconciliation of differences
in the year 2000