Accepted

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The black majority government is moving to give tribal weddings the same recognition as church marriages and to accept the ancient practice of polygamy.Under the previous rule of Christian whites, African traditional marriage ceremonies were not officially recognized by the state. Only church or civil weddings had full legal status. Blacks who chose traditional rituals were regarded as simply cohabiting in "customary unions.""The main difference is with a customary union, a man can have more than one wife," said Mary De Haas, an anthropologist with the University of Natal, "whereas he can't if it is a statutory marriage."

An off-duty Baltimore firefighter who accepted a ride from passers-by at a city street corner Tuesday afternoon was robbed at gunpoint and then bound, gagged and left on the floor of a vacant rowhouse for 22 hours, police said.Michael Wiggins, 47, who works out of the McMechen Street firehouse in Madison Park, was treated for minor injuries at Mercy Hospital. He was found yesterday after a woman claiming to be one of the abductors called police.Agent Ragina L. Cooper, a police spokeswoman, said Wiggins was waiting for a bus about 2: 30 p.m. at Eutaw and Franklin streets when he accepted a ride from a man and woman in a black Ford Taurus.

WASHINGTON -- At a time when the Defense Department is calling for "the best and the brightest" to fight today's tricky unconventional wars, the Army is quietly signing up thousands of low-scoring recruits, who historically have performed less well, in order to meet its recruiting goals. Only two years ago, the Army accepted fewer than 500 of these recruits, who scored below the 31st percentile on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) given to all recruits. Those scores put them in Category IV, the lowest category the military can accept.

The official in charge of enforcing workplace safety laws in Maryland accepted free tickets to a Towson contractor's luxury skybox at Camden Yards when he was negotiating a deal for more "cooperative" inspections at the company's stadium work site.Such an action is an apparent violation of Maryland's ethics laws.Craig D. Lowry, chief of compliance at the Maryland Occupational Health and Safety agency (MOSH) for 13 years, said he and his son were guests in the box owned by Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. when the Orioles played the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 22. The veteran regulator was seen at the game by an individual who recognized him and telephoned The Sun.In an interview last week, Lowry defended his actions, saying he was meeting with Whiting-Turner officials to discuss a "cooperative compliance program" for the contractor at the site of the planned Ravens football stadium.

She's hardly a goof-off: valedictorian of Franklin High's senior class; accepted early-action to Brown University; varsity athlete and artist.But yes, even Becky Park has that senior disease."

A tremendous roar shook the Coppin Center, an ovation louder than that for any player introduced that night. That touched Jason Iacona.Touched him so that his nervousness during Midnight Madness was now being conquered by an uncontrollable joy, and as he walked toward the center of the court he smiled an immense smile, pumped both arms in the air and began to "raise the roof."And as he soaked in the moment last Friday, Iacona couldn't help but think about the moment's irony. That at the age of 18, after being spurned and ridiculed by his peers through four years of high school, a skinny 7-foot-1 white guy finally found acceptance and respect from students from a predominantly black school.

WASHINGTON - Yielding to international pressure and a drumbeat of threats from President Bush, Iraq grudgingly agreed yesterday to a United Nations resolution requiring it to disarm and submit to unconditional weapons inspections. Iraq's agreement to "deal with" the U.N. resolution cleared the first hurdle toward a resumption of inspections under new rules unanimously approved Friday by the Security Council. Baghdad's response was conveyed in a hostile nine-page letter in which it called the United States and Britain a "gang of evil" that engineered the U.N. resolution's approval through "wicked slander."

As about 2,000 people packed the pews yesterday at a slain young girl's funeral, a priest urged the mourners at St. Matthew's Catholic Church in North Baltimore to rise up in outrage against the latest horrific act of city violence. "What kind of world do we live in when the greatest evil can attack the most innocent?" the Rev. Joseph L. Muth, Jr., said in an impassioned homily that brought some to their feet and others to tears as they paid their last respects to Marciana Monyai Ringo.

Some call it a brazen, drunken act of women's liberation. Others claim it's pure degradation. It's an annual ritual, a rite of passage, on the Preakness infield. Picture this: Blond-haired Jamie Morris hoists herself atop a set of broad shoulders, looks out across a muddy sea of T-shirt clad, beer-bonging twentysomethings and screams "wooooooo!" Then she lifts her head high and yanks up her gray top, answering the calls of "show us your [you-know-whats]!" The crowd closes in on the braless 18-year-old, spraying her with Bud Light and yelping with glee.

In our winter edition of Just for Kids, we asked: What books have you read that deal with the issue of fitting in? Rhonda Samples of Winand Elementary had this to say: " 'The Hundred Dresses' by Eleanor Estes deals with the theme of fitting in. Wanda was poor and no one accepted her in the group. I like the part after the drawing contest because Wanda won and she was accepted in the group."