As a somber, black-clad Saddam Hussein marched to the gallows in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, Ralph Ayar thought about his father. Ayar, now 55 and living outside Detroit, was only 12 years old when members of Saddam's Baath Party arrested his father in the family's northern Iraqi village of Tel Kief. His crime: friendly connections to local Kurds, an ethnic group despised by the government. "They gave him no trial," Ayar told WORLD. "They led him straight from the jail to the gallows."

ROCK HILL, S.C.- On a cold December morning in this small South Carolina town, Nell Carrier is waiting on company. Carrier, 86, is a resident of Westminster Towers, a retirement community developed by Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA). The church sits just across the parking lot from the Towers, along with the congregation's K-12 Westminster Catawba Christian School.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.-By mid-December, passengers at Charlotte's busy international airport form long lines and slouch over small piles of luggage, resigned to the holiday crush. Beyond the crowded security checkpoints, Terry Tellison and Jesús Rodriguez squeeze through the teeming food court and climb up a set of winding, red stairs. A sign at the top tells the young men with heavy backpacks and worn combat boots that they're in the right place. It reads: "USO: Until everyone comes home."

New York City's department of health is expected to approve two controversial policies this month: One will prohibit New York City's 20,000 restaurants from serving food full of trans fats. The other will allow the city's residents to change the sex on their birth certificates if they believe they are transgender.

If both policies pass, New Yorkers won't be able to choose fatty fries from a menu, but they will be able legally to choose their gender without having a sex-change operation.

NEW DELHI - Just before a quiet dawn, calls to prayer waft from a whitewashed mosque towering near the center of this city of nearly 14 million people. The end of Ramadan is nearing, and devout Muslims who fast during daylight hours of the month-long Islamic observance rise to eat their last meal until nightfall.

Ballroom dancing once was a national sensation. Classically trained dancers like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dazzled moviegoers with elaborate numbers in big-production musicals in the 1940s and '50s, and audiences agreed that no one could move like Gene Kelly.

One hour before polls closed in Pennsylvania, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) received a ninth-hour plug from a Democrat. Urban Family Council founder Bill Devlin sent an e-mail plea to Santorum supporters: "Polls close here in PA in an hour . . . let us be diligent in continuing our 24-hour prayer and fasting efforts; and diligent in getting the vote out for Rick Santorum thru calls and e-mails . . ."