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Over a thousand Turks spent the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha in emergency wards on Sunday after stabbing themselves or suffering other injuries while sacrificing startled animals.

At least 1,413 people — referred to as “amateur butchers” by the Turkish media — were treated at hospitals across the country, most suffering cuts to their hands and legs, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Four people were severely injured, crushed under the weight of large animals that fell on top of them, the agency reported. Another person was hurt when a crane used to lift an animal tumbled onto him, the agency said.

Three other people suffered heart attacks and died while trying to restrain animals, CNN-Turk television reported.

Muslims sacrifice cows, sheep, goats and bulls during the four-day religious holiday, a ritual commemorating the biblical account of God’s provision of a ram for Abraham to sacrifice as he was about to slay his son. They share the meat with friends, family and neighbors and give part of it to the poor.

Turkish authorities have introduced fines for those who slaughter animals outside facilities set up by local municipalities, but many Turks ignored the rules and sacrificed animals in their backyards or on roadsides.

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A local soup kitchen was in dire financial straits and facing closure until fifth-grader Liz Feller showed up.

Starting with $60 she had received as a birthday gift, the 10-year-old Cortlandt girl donated $863, mostly from the sale of her handmade beaded jewelry.

It helped to put the kitchen back in business, according to the Rev. Douglas Leonard, pastor of the Reformed Church of Cortlandtown, one of 80 area churches that support the charity. About $34,000 has been contributed, nearly enough to run the program for a year.

Liz, who made the largest donation, said she decided that “since I like beading, it was something that would work well, especially since it’s right before the holidays.” She sold her handmade jewelry to her friends, her mother’s co-workers and other members of her church.

Area churches prepare and donate the food, but a $20,000 annual grant from a big U.S. food and beverage company to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Peekskill was recently terminated, creating a financial pinch.

Leonard told The Journal News for Sunday’s editions that Liz’s contribution “kinda puts us to shame, anybody who says they can’t do much this year. If you have the will and the heart to do this, you can.”

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It’s ironic that the Texas executioner will never spend a night in jail, yet Saddam Hussein was hanged. As governor of Texas, George Bush executed 131 prisoners. He slept on clean sheets last night and enjoyed three hot meals today. Hussein, recently convicted of killing 148 people in 1982, was hanged this morning.

Bush should certainly be tried for misconduct in office at both the state and federal levels, but I’m opposed to the death penalty. Although he was responsible for all those deaths in Texas and the deaths of 3,000 US service men and women in Iraq, I believe that when found guilty he should be imprisoned, not executed. And vaguely, I felt the same way about Hussein. State sanctioned homicide is no better or worse than the private enterprise version. Killing is killing, and by permitting Bush to turn him over to the hangman we’re all complicit in the death of Saddam Hussein.

I won’t lose any sleep over Hussein’s passing, nor Gerry Ford’s, nor the recent demise of Pinochet. I do continue to regret the shallow and callous nature of George W. Bush.

The Chicago Tribune published a compelling report on an investigation of all 131 death cases in Governor Bush’s time. It made chilling reading.

In one-third of those cases, the report showed, the lawyer who represented the death penalty defendant at trial or on appeal had been or was later disbarred or otherwise sanctioned. In 40 cases the lawyers presented no evidence at all or only one witness at the sentencing phase of the trial.

In 29 cases, the prosecution used testimony from a psychiatrist who — based on a hypothetical question about the defendant’s past — predicted he would commit future violence. Most of those psychiatrists testified without having examined the defendant: a practice condemned professionally as unethical.

Other witnesses included one who was temporarily released from a psychiatric ward to testify, a pathologist who had admitted faking autopsies and a judge who had been reprimanded for lying about his credentials.

Asked about the Tribune study, Governor Bush said, “We’ve adequately answered innocence or guilt�? in every case. The defendants, he said, “had full access to a fair trial.�?

There are two ways of understanding that comment. Either Governor Bush was contemptuous of the facts or, on a matter of life and death, he did not care.

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These are among the findings of an Associated Press-AOL News poll that asked people in the U.S. to contemplate what 2007 holds for the country.

Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of a terrorist attack. An identical percentage thinks it likely that a biological or nuclear weapon will be unleashed somewhere else in the world.

Seventy percent of people in the U.S. predict a major natural disaster in the country and an equal percentage expects worsening global warming. Also, 29 percent think it likely that the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Among other predictions for the U.S. in 2007:

-35 percent predict the military draft will be reinstated.

-35 percent predict a cure for cancer will be found.

-25 percent anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ.

-19 percent think scientists are likely to find evidence of extraterrestrial life.

With Democrats poised to take control of Congress this week, eight in 10 people predict lawmakers will raise the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum wage. It would be the first increase since 1997.

Somebody needs to start a Reverse Mortgages for Evangelicals loan program. Folks who know that the rapture is coming should be happy to get, say, $0.50 on the dollar for their homes, with the understanding that they can continue to live there until the rapture, or January 1, 2008, whichever comes first.