21.   Dark was approaching, and a crescent moon was already cut out sharply in front of the towering mountains.

22.   Flying conditions were considered marginal because of a haze over the water, although visibility was mroe than three miles and stars and a crescent moon could be seen.

23.   Forget about cone hats with crescent moons, crystal balls, tea leaves, bead-curtained rooms or people in robes and turbans.

24.   From the high perch of a minaret, four leaders of a local mosque Thursday night searched the Western sky for the first sign of the crescent moon.

25.   In a tower of the neighborhood mosque, Al Adel of Baghdad, they looked for a crescent moon to deliver salvation an vengeance.

26.   In a tower of the neighborhood mosque, in the Al Adel section of Baghdad, they looked for a crescent moon to deliver salvation an vengeance.

27.   In Iraq, officials declared the start of Ramadan Friday with the sighting of the crescent moon.

28.   In the United States, where night skies are often overlit and hazy, Muslims learn of the crescent moon that announces the beginning of Ramadan by telephone chain.

29.   It has been stripped of its crosses and paintings, and the spires on its two plump towers now carry a crescent moon.

30.   Its flag is the Muslim color, dark green, surmounted by the Muslim symbols of a crescent moon and a star.