Muhammad

John Allen Muhammad failed to persuade Maryland's second-highest court to overturn his six murder convictions this week, but the sniper did inspire it to issue one colorful legal opinion. "For 22 days in October of 2002, Montgomery County, Maryland, was gripped by a paroxysm of fear, a fear as paralyzing as that which froze the London district of Whitechapel in 1888," it began. "In Whitechapel, however, the terror came only at night. In Montgomery County, it struck at any hour of the day or night.

On November 5, 2007, ROBEST M. MUHAMMAD, devoted wife of Wali Muhammad. The family will receive friends on Thursday at Masjid Ul Haqq, 514 Islamic Way at 11 A.M. follow by services at 12:15 P.M.

Maryland's Court of Special Appeals upheld yesterday the six first-degree murder convictions of John Allen Muhammad for his role in the sniper shootings in Montgomery County, comparing his crimes to those of Jack the Ripper. The ruling by the judicial panel used emotionally charged language to describe how Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized the Washington region, shooting 13 people - killing 10 of them - during three weeks in October 2002. "Jack the Ripper has never yet been brought to justice.

Mallory Terry, who lives on a Northwest Baltimore block in Upton where half the rowhouses are vacant, wasn't expecting to see a throng of people collecting food and clothing outside the Ul-Haqq mosque when she took her two sons for a walk yesterday. After pausing briefly to ask if the bonanza was open to anyone, she collected apples, water, soda, spaghetti, corn and two bags of clothes, blankets and toiletries. Then she graciously thanked several volunteers. Terry, 23, said she isn't in dire straits, but as a mother of two young sons, she takes all the help she can get. "We need more things like this to help the community," she said, before calling out for her 4-year-old son Josiah to return to her side.

The black-and-white images flit across a screen above the stage - white cops hosing protesters, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. inspiring a rally, thousands marching on Washington - and fade away, leaving a small stage empty, silent and mostly dark. There, beside a black Everlast punching bag that hangs from the ceiling, a spotlight falls on a figure you've known your whole life, though not really: the broad, caramel-colored face, the larger-than-life physique in the black suit and tie, the eyebrows climbing the forehead in childlike surprise.

Auto racing DALE EARNHARDT INC. -- Announced that Mark Martin and Aric Almirola will share racing for No. 8 car in NASCAR Nextel Cup. Signed driver Regan Smith to Nextel Cup team. ROBERT YATES RACING -- Announced retirement of president Robert Yates, effective at end of season. Baseball MLB -- Suspended Reds minor league C Ryan Jorgensen 50 games for violating MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Suspended Astros minor league P Carlos Lazu 50 games for testing positive for performance-enhancing substance in violation of Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

St. Louis // -- All the breathless debates about Michael Vick are missing the point. The bigger issue has nothing to do with whether he deserves the right of due process, or whether NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should suspend him, or whether Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank should enable him or give him tough love. It's not even about whether Nike should be launching another designer shoe with his name on it. All of those are minor distractions from a much larger and far more significant issue.

Three members of a family - two of them children - were killed after a blaze swept through a Baltimore apartment complex early yesterday morning. The deadly fire, which witnesses said began before 3 a.m. in one unit and quickly spread throughout the small apartment building at 1903 N. Forest Park Ave. in Franklintown, also displaced about a dozen other families. The victims were found by firefighters in a basement apartment and identified by a family member as Raheem Muhammad, 28, and her son, Royelle Riley, whose 10th birthday would have been today.

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi political leaders warned yesterday that sectarian violence is likely to increase if thousands of Shiites gather next week at the damaged Golden Mosque in Samarra. Their warnings came on a day in which at least 38 Iraqis died in bombings in the capital. Iraqi leaders have been pressuring Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to abandon plans to lead a July 5 procession to the Golden Mosque, also known as the Askariya Shrine, in the heart of the mostly Sunni Arab city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.