'Major Discovery' Primed To Unleash Solar Revolution

ScienceDaily -- In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

--snip--

Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.

James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.

"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."

--snip--

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

More...

NASA Confirms Water On Mars

LOS ANGELES - The Phoenix spacecraft has tasted Martian water for the first time, scientists reported Thursday.

More...

See also:

Solar Eclipse On The Morning Of August 1st

Signs of life found inside rock salt

Antikythera Mechanism: Scientists Crack Secrets Of 2,000-Year-Old Astronomical Computer

ScienceDaily -- Cardiff University experts have led an international team in unravelling the secrets of a 2,000-year-old computer which could transform the way we think about the ancient world.

--snip--

The findings suggest that Greek technology was far more advanced than previously thought. No other civilisation is known to have created anything as complicated for another thousand years.

--snip--

Professor Edmunds said: "It does raise the question what else were they making at the time. In term of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa."

More...

Atheists To Have 'Coming Out Party'

American atheists are holding a "Coming Out Party" in Westerville, Ohio, this Saturday.

More...

Workers' Religious Freedom Vs. Patients' Rights

A Bush administration proposal aimed at protecting health-care workers who object to abortion, and to birth-control methods they consider tantamount to abortion, has escalated a bitter debate over the balance between religious freedom and patients' rights.

More...

Preacher Killed Wife, Stuffed Body In Freezer

Preacher is charged with murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

More...

Priest Stole From Church

UK -- A ROMAN Catholic priest was jailed today after admitting stealing more than 90,000 left to his church in a will.

More...

Condemn Homosexuality, Vatican Official Tells Lambeth Conference

Homosexuality is a disordered behaviour that must be condemned, a Vatican official said yesterday.

More...

Surge In Attacks On Jewish Students

UK -- Anti-Semitic incidents rose from 26 in the first half of 2007 to 49 in the same period this year, according to the study. More than half of the offences took place on campus.

More...

Saudi Religious Police Ban Pet Cats And Dogs

Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned selling cats and dogs or exercising them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said.

More...

See also:

Saudi capital bans pet walking, buying

Danish Muslim Groups To Appeal To Supreme Court Over Cartoons

Copenhagen - Seven Danish Muslim associations were planning to appeal to Denmark's highest court over the publication of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked violent protests in 2006, reports said Thursday. A spokesman for the Islamic Society told Danish media that a lawyer was working on the appeal to the Supreme Court.

More...

Hassan Tabbakh Found Guilty Of Making Homemade Bombs

UK -- A former chemistry student who made bombs in his home was jailed for seven years today under the Terrorism Act.

More...

E-mail Warns Of More Bombs In India

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- The Japanese Embassy has received an e-mail warning of a bomb in a New Delhi market, and has warned its citizens to stay away from crowded public places, a notice posted on its Web site said Thursday.

More...

Taliban Warn 'Un-Islamic' Businesses Of Dire Consequences

LAHORE: Tehreek-e-Islami Taliban Pakistan (TITP) has distributed a fifteen-days notice to several "un-Islamic" businesses in Kot Addu to shut down or face dire consequences.

The TTIP wrote threatening letters to owners of CDs shops, Internet cafes and cable service providers urging them to close down their activities.

Similarly, the group warned that women must wear hijab to ensure their safety.

--snip--

The second paragraph said that within five days of the receipt of the letter, every woman not wearing Hijab would be disfigured with acid.

More...

Afghan Clashes Kill 30 Taliban Militants

(AP) A series of clashes in southern Afghanistan killed 30 Taliban militants, while insurgents and a roadside blast killed five police, officials said. A NATO soldier also died after being wounded in a militant attack.

More...

See also:

Al-Qaida commander killed in U.S. airstrike

Afghanistan condemns consulate bombing

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Leader May Be in Afghanistan

Giant Lake Confirmed On Saturn's Moon Titan

A giant, glassy lake larger than North America's Lake Ontario graces the south pole of Saturn's largest moon Titan, new research confirms.

More...

See also:

Electrical Activity On Saturn's Moon Titan Confirmed By Spanish Scientists

And...

Cracks appear in ice under Mars lander

Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Thinking About Morality

Cognitive science and moral philosophy might seem like strange bedfellows, but in the past decade they have become partners. In a recent issue of Cognition, the Harvard University psychologist Joshua Greene and colleagues extend this trend. Their experiment utilizes conventional behavioral methods, but it was designed to test a hypothesis stemming from previous fMRI investigations into the neural bases of moral judgments.

More...

Cheesus! Jesus Spotted In A Cheeto

Kelly Ramey claims she sees the lord in the popular cheesy snack.

More...

See also:

Jesus Seen In Cat's Fur

A New Attack On Birth Control

The proposed rule, while claiming to protect the rights of nurses and doctors, would interfere with patients' rights. A woman seeking treatment could be denied birth control and not even be aware that the service was available - only denied to her because of the unexpressed personal beliefs of the practitioner.

More...

Turkey Showdown Averted, For Now

Turkey's popularly elected, Islamist-rooted government survived to rule another day, after the country's top court narrowly ruled today against banning the ruling party. In a narrow 6-5 opinion, Constitutional Court judges held that there was insufficient evidence backing the charge that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was undermining Turkey's secular democracy and seeking to turn the country into an Islamic state.

More...

Violence In Iraq Takes On New Face

(CBS) In Iraq's volatile mix of race, religion and tribal rivalry, police say there's a common denominator in the continuing violence - gender.

According to the U.S. military in Iraq, women have carried the bombs in at least 27 attacks so far this year - more than triple the number of female suicide bombers in all of 2007.

More...

See also:

How al-Qaeda grooms women as 'perfect weapons'

And...

Al-Qaeda's Sinister Creep Into North Africa

Curfew Imposed Amid Fighting In Pakistan Valley

(AP) Pakistan imposed a round-the-clock curfew in a restive mountain valley in the northwest on Wednesday as the army claimed more than 20 militants died in clashes with security forces.

More...

See also:

CIA Details Pakistan's Ties To Militants

Afghanistan Surpasses Iraq As Deadliest Spot For U.S. Troops

BAGHDAD -- Nearly twice as many U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq so far this month, marking the lowest death toll of any month since the U.S. invaded Iraq and putting July on course to be the first month in which the American military suffered more casualties in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

More...

See also:

Taliban commander: Afghan officials are helping kill Americans

Palestinian Factions Trample Rights, Watchdog Group Says

(CNN) -- Infighting between the two main Palestinian factions has led to arbitrary arrests, torture and abuse of detainees by both sides, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.

More...

Church Exorcism Protected By First Amendment

A woman who claims she was injured during an exorcism performed by a Texas church group is reportedly planning to take her case to the US Supreme Court after state judges ruled the actions of the church were protected by the First Amendment.

More...

Council Ban On Atheist Websites

UK -- A city council has blocked its staff from looking at websites about atheism.

Lawyers at the National Secular Society said the move by Birmingham City Council was "discriminatory" and they would consider legal action.

More...

Parish Priest Jailed For Sex Abuse

A parish priest who sexually abused a boy has been jailed for five years.

More...

See also:

Christian Brother on trial for sex abuse

India: Police Defuse 18 Bombs At Market

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) -- Police in India have defused 18 bombs found Tuesday near the main diamond markets in the city of Surat.

More...

Will Peace Hold In Sadr City?

Abbas seems friendly enough, and laughs easily. As his car breezes through Iraqi army checkpoints at the entrance to Baghdad's notorious and sprawling Sadr City slum, he talks about killing Sunnis. "We caught Takfiris [members of a fundamentalist Sunni Islamist sect] who were [working] with the Americans. We didn't want to kill them, but the government was too weak to do anything at the time. So we killed them all and put them in a big grave."

More...

Diamonds May Hold Clue To Origins Of Life

One of the greatest mysteries in science is how life began. Now one group of researchers says diamonds may have been life's best friend.

More...

Space Plane's Mothership Makes A Splash

MOJAVE, Calif. - British billionaire Richard Branson showed off a key piece of his fledgling commercial space program Monday, unveiling a carrier aircraft designed to launch a passenger-carrying spaceship.

More...

Animal Threesomes, Females Who Eat Their Mates

Did you ever wonder what a bonobo's orgasm sounds like? Or how barnacles reproduce? Did you know that over 300 living species display homosexual behavior?

More...

2 Killed In Tennessee Church Shooting; Suspect Charged

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A shotgun-wielding man opened fire at a Unitarian church during a children's play Sunday morning, killing two adults and wounding seven others before being overpowered by congregants, officials said.

--snip--

The church's minister, Chris Buice, said he was on vacation when the shooting happened but rushed back when he heard what occurred. Sunday afternoon -- after McKendry's death but before Kraeger's -- he spoke briefly to reporters.

"Please pray for this congregation, because we are grieving the loss of a wonderful man," Buice said as he choked back tears.

More...

See also:

Police: Church Shooting Suspect Angry Over Liberals, Job Hunt

Five Members Of Polygamous Sect Surrender

(CNN) -- Five members of a polygamous sect who were indicted alongside leader Warren Jeffs last week turned themselves in Monday to face sexual assault charges, Texas authorities said.

More...

Groups To Pray For Lower Prices At Gas Stations

(AP) Two prayer services will be held at St. Louis gas stations to thank God for lower fuel prices and to ask that they continue to drop. Darrell Alexander, Midwest co-chair of the Pray at the Pump movement, says prayer gatherings will be held Monday afternoon and evening at a Mobil station west of downtown St. Louis.

More...

Church Delay May Have Wasted $2.4M

THE Catholic Church waited so long to tell the State Government its World Youth Day pilgrim numbers had changed that the Government was forced to install far more showers and smoke alarms than needed in schools intended to house them.

More...

Turkish Court To Deliberate Whether Ruling Party Should Be Banned For Islamic Principles

ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkey's top court convenes Monday to decide whether the country's popular ruling party must be banned on charges that it is steering the secular nation toward Islamic rule.

More...

See also:

Tension between secular state and religious faith

Explainer: Islam in Turkey

Malaysian Islamic Court Sends 4 Muslim Men To Jail For Cross-Dressing

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: An official says an Islamic court in northern Malaysia has jailed four Muslim men for taking part in a transvestite beauty pageant.

More...

Beijing Jittery In Wake Of Olympic Threats

(AP) Just over a week before the Beijing Olympics, a militant Islamic group's claims of responsibility for bombings in China have fueled unease about security.

More...

India: Police Raid Homes After Bombings

(CNN) -- Anti-terror squads have carried out raids in the search for leads into the deadly synchronized bombings that killed at least 49 people in western India over the weekend, according to reports.

More...

Power Rising, Taliban Besiege Pakistani Shiites

In a strategic region of Pakistan, the Taliban have inflamed and exploited a long-running sectarian conflict.

More...

See also:

U.S. war on terrorism loses ground in Pakistan

The Taliban's Baghdad Strategy

Taliban winning the war of words

Al-Qaeda's Mad Scientist May Be Dead

Al-Qaida Commander Urges Killing Of Saudi King

Four Suicide Bombers Kill Scores In Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four female suicide bombers and a gunman killed at least 70 people and wounded almost 300 others during a string of attacks in central Baghdad and Kirkuk on Monday, officials said.

More...

George Carlin Laughs In The Face Of Death

His final album comes out Tuesday, may be comic's best ever.

More...

A Third Of Muslim Students Back Killings

ALMOST a third of British Muslim students believe killing in the name of Islam can be justified, according to a poll.

More...

See also:

Radical Islam gains ground in campuses

'Divisive' study on Muslim attitudes comes under fire

Catholic Groups Pray Against Passage Of Population Bill

MANILA, Philippines -- Dubbed the "Rally for Life," the event was a nationwide campaign opposing the House bill filed by Representative Edcel Lagman and co-authored by Janet Garin legalizing the use of contraceptives in family planning, in an effort to curb population growth in the Philippines.

More...

See also:

The Pope vs. the Pill

Homosexual Bishops Face Anglican Church Ban

Homosexual clergy will be barred from becoming bishops in the Anglican communion under controversial new plans backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

More...

First Test Of Decency Laws As Gallery Faces Court Over 'Obscene' Statue Of Christ

A leading art gallery is being taken to court over claims that it outraged public decency by displaying a statue depicting Christ with an erection.

More...

Police Save Man From Death By Angry Mob

KARACHI: Residents of Ittehad Town tried to kill the man for blasphemy within the jurisdiction of Baldia Police Station.

More...

Muslim Group Declares War On Olympics

A CHINESE terrorist organisation has warned it will create havoc at next month's Olympics and has claimed responsibility for a deadly Shanghai bus bombing in May.

A group monitoring terrorism threats on the internet said Commander Seyfullah of the Turkestan Islamic Party claimed responsibility for several attacks in China less than a fortnight out from the Olympics.

More...

India: The Terrorists Within

A day after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat. Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in.... Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI) and the indigenous Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). But even as the police searched for clues, the Ahmedabad attacks were owned up by a group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen."

More...

See also:

India on alert as death toll from bombs rises

India Detains 30 Over Mass Bombings

Group Takes Credit For India Blasts

Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility For Yemen Attack

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen has claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide bombing attack on a building housing Yemeni security forces.

More...

Seven Pilgrims Killed In Attack In Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Seven Shiite pilgrims were gunned down Sunday in a town south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

More...

See also:

Iraq's Christians form new militias to combat Islamic extremists

Dozens Of Militants Killed In Afghanistan Clash

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Some Afghan police officers and dozens of insurgents were killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, the NATO-led alliance said.

More...

Faith-Based Day Cares Face Pre-K Challenges

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Jane Rothman wants her pre-kindergarten students to learn about baby Jesus around Christmas and hear the resurrection story at Easter. Children pray at snack time and in other spots throughout the day at Charleston Baptist Temple.

More...

Vatican Rejects Condom Stance Criticism

The Vatican has hit back at allegations made by dissident Catholic groups calling on Pope Benedict XVI to reverse what they said was the Catholic church's "catastrophic" stance on contraception.

More...

Anglican Version Of The 'Inquisition' Proposed To Avoid Future Schism

An Anglican version of the Roman Catholic church's "inquisition" is proposed today in a document seen by The Times.

More...

Death Threat For Editor Najam Sethi Over Islamic Cartoon

A newspaper editor has received death threats from militant groups for publishing a cartoon of a radical woman Islamic leader encouraging her pupils to wage holy war.

More...

U.S.: Iraq Inmates Imposed Islamic Justice

(AP) For years, extremist Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody held self-styled Islamic courts and tortured or killed inmates who refused to join them, military officials said, disclosing new details about the use of American prisons to recruit for the insurgency.

More...

Dozens Killed, Wounded In India Blasts

(CBS/AP) A top official says 29 people have been killed and at least 88 wounded in a series of explosions in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

More...

See also:

Indian cities on high alert after blasts

Hamas Arrests Fatah Rivals After Gaza Blasts

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Hamas security forces arrested more than 100 rival Fatah members in Gaza Friday night and Saturday while searching for suspects in bombings that killed five Hamas militants and a child, a security source said.

More...

Six Die In Lebanon Fighting

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Six people have been killed and 52 wounded since Thursday night in battles between pro- and anti-government forces in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, security forces told CNN.

More...

Researchers Discover New States Of Electrons That Behave Like Light

ScienceDaily -- A team of researchers at Princeton University's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center has observed electrons moving through a crystal of bismuth metal behaving like light.

More...

See also:

Tracking Down Origin Of Matter And Antimatter

Texas Fiction Science

There's nothing the evil overlords of the fictional future like more than a nice, healthy round of brainwashing. Whether it's George Orwell's totalitarian government of Oceania thwarting rebellious citizens in 1984, the "conditioning" of children in Brave New World, or the large-scale human reprogramming in The Matrix, mind control is all the rage for governments looking to cultivate a herd of submissive subjects. And it's so simple, too! All that's necessary are a few moldable minds and a strict party line.

But here's a bit of nonfiction: The Texas State Board of Education has just those two things. Moldable minds, in the form of Texas schoolchildren, and a party line that favors teaching the "weaknesses" of biological evolutionary theory and, by implication, the strengths of the latest pseudo-scholarly variation on creationism: "intelligent design." Last fall, in the latest episode of that eternal Texas struggle, the Texas Education Agency, which is regulated by the SBOE, fired its science director for distributing information about a pro-evolution seminar. And now, the SBOE is beginning hearings on updated science curricula that teaches the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolutionary theory.

More...

Another Courtroom Victory For Religious Colleges

A federal appeals court ruling that a Christian university in Colorado can receive state scholarship money is the latest in a string of legal victories for religious schools seeking public dollars.

More...

Turning Up The Heat On Polygamists

The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) had basked in victory after the Texas Supreme Court ordered the return of the children taken from its ranch in Eldorado in April. But the state's attorney general Greg Abbott pledged to prosecute FLDS members to the full extent of the law. And this week, after going through evidence taken from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, Abbott indicted Warren Jeffs - the "Prophet" of the polygamists - along with four of his followers on charges of first-degree felony sexual assault of a minor. (The four men were not named, and law-enforcement officials are still seeking their arrest.) Evidence gathered during the raid included two photographs of young girls - one age 12, the other 13 - sitting in Jeffs' lap and embracing him, and kissing him in one photo. One was marked "first anniversary," the other as a marriage photo.

More...

Catholics To Pope: Lift Birth Control Ban

(AP) More than 50 dissident Catholic groups from around the world have written an open letter asking Pope Benedict XVI to lift the church's ban on birth control.

More...

See also:

Catholics ignore veto on the Pill

And...

Priest Jailed Over Church Fund Thefts

Tanzanian Witchdoctors Killing Albinos For Good Luck

At least 173 people, including witchdoctors and organised gangs, have been arrested for involvement in the killings, according to the Daily News, a newspaper based in Dar es Salaam.

More...

Pakistan Court Rules Conversion Of Kidnapped Christian Girls Is Legal

Bangalore, India (ENI). A Christian father in Pakistan is trying without success through the courts to gain custody of his two pre-teen daughters who were kidnapped and made to convert to Islam.

On 12 July, a judge in Pakistan's Punjab province ignored pleas that Saba Younis, aged 12, and her 10 year old sister, Anila Younis, who went missing on 26 June from the small town of Chowk Munda, had been kidnapped while on their way to their uncle's residence and ruled that their conversion to Islam was legal.

More...

See also:

The moment of truth

In death's shadow

Taliban Tightens Grip Near Northern Pakistan Border

In Pakistan, Taliban militants have tightened their grip on three sides of Peshawar, a strategic city of 3 million people near the frontier with Afghanistan.

More...

See also:

U.S., NATO Press Pakistan To Fight Terror

UK, Danish Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

LONDON, England (CNN) -- One Danish and one British soldier have died in fighting over the last 24 hours in southern Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province.

More...

See also:

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Encroach On Karzai's Turf

At Least 4 Dead In Lebanon Clashes

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- At least four people were killed in a gunbattle between opposing forces in northern Lebanon Friday, a senior security source told CNN.

Gunmen loyal to the Shiite Hezbollah-led opposition fought Sunni supporters from the Western-backed parliamentary majority in the port city of Tripoli.

More...

Six Die In Gaza City Explosions

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Six people, including two Hamas militants, were killed Friday in separate Gaza City explosions, Shiva Hospital spokesman said.

More...

8 Die In Iraq In Suicide Bombing, Apparently By Woman

BAGHDAD -- At first, a car bomb seemed the only explanation for the huge blast on Thursday on one of Baquba's main thoroughfares that killed a pro-American Sunni militia leader, an Iraqi police captain, a local politician, and five other people.

More...

See also:

Baghdad Muralists Resist Push For Sectarian Themes

Deadly Bomb Blasts Rock Bangalore

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- One person was killed and several others were injured on Friday in a string of bomb blasts in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, police said.

More...

Car Bomb Kills At Least 4 In Yemen

(CNN) -- A car bomb exploded at a building housing security forces in Yemen on Thursday night, killing at least four people, authorities said.

More...

Largest Sample Of Very Distant Galaxies Ever Seen Provide New Insights Into Early Universe

ScienceDaily -- New Hubble Space Telescope observations of six spectacular galaxy clusters acting as gravitational lenses have given significant insights into the early stages of the Universe. Scientists have found the largest sample of very distant galaxies seen to date: ten promising candidates thought to lie at a distance of 13 billion light-years (~redshift 7.5).

More...

See also:

NASA spacecraft reveal cause of auroras

Army Base Cannot Coerce Soldier Trainees To Attend Church Services, Says Americans United

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today asked the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate an Army base's practice of coercing soldiers to attend church services during their training.

Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri offers "Free Day Away" as one of only two opportunities for soldiers to leave the base during eight weeks of vigorous Army training. (The other day is the day before graduation, which can be spent with parents and guests.) During "Free Day Away," trainees are picked up by a bus sent from the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Lebanon, Mo., to participate in a day full of recreational activities, followed by dinner and a required church service.

Trainees are given the impression that the event is sponsored by the Army and that they must attend. If they do not attend, they have to remain on the base and continue with training, while those who attend the event have a break for the day.

More...

Senator: Polygamous Sects Are 'Form Of Organized Crime'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Polygamous sects that have spread throughout the United States and beyond are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

More...

Nun Asks To Take Back Guilty Plea

OMAHA, Neb. -- An Omaha nun who was sentenced to prison for theft said this week that she wants to change her guilty plea.

More...

'Allah Meat' Astounds Nigerians

Diners have been flocking to a restaurant in northern Nigeria to see pieces of meat which the owner says are inscribed with the name of Allah.

More...

Kashmir: Grenade Attack Kills Five

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Five people, including three children, were killed Thursday in a grenade attack on a bus stand in Srinagar, police said.

More...

Earlier:

Blast Kills 9 Indian Soldiers In Kashmir

8 U.S.-Allied Fighters Killed In Iraq

(CBS/ AP) A female suicide bomber blew herself up near U.S.-allied Sunni Arab fighters walking in a crowded area of Baqouba, killing at least eight of the guards and wounding 24 other people Thursday evening, police said.

More...

See also:

100 female U.S. service members have died in Iraq

Gays in Iraq terrorized by threats, rape, murder

Ambassador: Al-Qaida Leaving Iraq For Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al-Qaida's foreign fighters who have for years bedeviled Iraq are increasingly going to Afghanistan to fight instead, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States said Wednesday.

More...

See also:

Is Afghanistan a Narco-State?

How A Simple Mathematic Formula Is Starting To Explain The Bizarre Prevalence Of Altruism In Society

ScienceDaily -- Why do humans cooperate in things as diverse as environment conservation or the creation of fairer societies, even when they don't receive anything in exchange or, worst, they might even be penalized? This is a question that has puzzled academics for centuries, especially since in evolution the basis for the "survival of the fittest" is, after all, selfishness.

More...

See also:

Scientists Create Touch-based Illusion: Mind Trick Yields New Insights On Perception

3-D Views Posted From NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander

ScienceDaily -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission has released stereo images of the Martian surface near the Phoenix lander. The images in the new 3-D Gallery combine views from the left and right "eyes" of the lander's Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) so that they appear three-dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses.

More...

See also:

New Project To Develop GPS-like System For Moon

Micro Air Vehicle: Three Gram 'Dragonfly' Takes Flight

1,600-Year-Old Version Of Bible Goes Online

BERLIN - More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.

More...

See also:

Horse Racecourse In Ancient Olympia Discovered After 1600 Years

3,000-Year-Old Neolithic Site Found In China

"Beginning The Conversation"

Fifteen years after the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was enacted for the US military, Congress is prepping to review the law.

More...

Ruling Gives South Dakota Doctors A Script To Read

CHICAGO -- In a victory for antiabortion forces, doctors in South Dakota are now required to tell a woman seeking an abortion that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being."

More...

Bush HHS Tries End Run On Abstinence-Only Funds

Last week, the Bush Administration, in the person of Robert W. Patterson of the Children, Family and Youth Services Bureau, issued a letter waiving the annual application process and review for the Title V Abstinence-Only State Grant Program.

More...

Sect Leader Jeffs Charged With Child Sex Assault

(CNN) -- A Texas grand jury indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on sexual assault charges, and five of his followers also face a variety of charges, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday.

More...

See also:

Grand jury indicts sect members

Islam Subway Ads Cause Stir In New York

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Ads promoting Islam are to be placed on New York subway cars in September, but a U.S. congressman finds people sponsoring the messages unacceptable.

More...

Man Converts Home Into Church To Save Tax

George Michael said he converted his $3 million home in a Chicago suburb into the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff so his disabled wife and daughter did not have to travel to worship.

Mr Michael told Illinois officials he started his own congregation - reportedly numbering a few close friends and family - a year ago after receiving a pastor's degree from a religious internet site.

More...

'God' Told Suspect In Elderly Slaying To Kill

A mentally disturbed woman in Arizona is facing murder charges after police say she broke into an elderly neighbor's apartment Sunday evening and fatally stabbed an 83-year-old woman -- less than an hour after she had been released from a psychiatric care facility.

--snip--

The motive described by the murder suspect to investigators, according to a probable cause statement: "God told her to do it."

More...

Woman Runs Sword Into Foot During Wiccan Ceremony

(AP) A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery.

More...

Larry Charles Is Turning His Razor-Sharp Wit On World Religion

The 52-year-old funny man is set to appear at London's BRITDOC festival, kicking off on Wednesday. He is down to talk about Religulous - a documentary about religion crafted with fellow veteran US comic Bill Maher - its title a fusion between the words "religion" and "ridiculous". The movie sees Maher travelling to numerous religious destinations, including Jerusalem and the Vatican, to interview a raft of outlandish zealots, including "Jews for Jesus", polygamists and Satanists. Its release is scheduled for the US in October, with other countries to follow.

More...

Mayor Wants Python Film Ban Ended

Sue Jones-Davies is trying to overturn a near 30-year ban imposed by the town on Monty Python's Life of Brian...

More...

Couples Opt For Humanist Weddings As Appeal Of The Church Wanes

Scotland -- MORE and more couples are choosing humanist weddings over religious ceremonies because they have little connection with a church, a celebrant said last night.

More...

Pope Says 'Spiritual Desert' Is Spreading

The Pope blamed the problem on the modern world's "hard crust of indifference" to God. The world "wants to forget God, or even reject him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom," he said.

More...

See also:

Pope rejects invitation by 'apostate' Strasbourg

Islamists Launch PR War Against Western Values

RADICAL Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir has launched a campaign to stop young Muslims being corrupted by Western "liberal values".

More...

Fallujah Braces For Another Assault

FALLUJAH (IPS) - U.S. and Iraqi forces are preparing another siege of Fallujah under the pretext of combating "terror", residents and officials say.

More...

U.S., Afghan Forces Kill, Wound More Than 30 Taliban

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces backed by airpower have killed or wounded more than 30 Taliban insurgents in fighting in the west of Afghanistan, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

More...

See also:

Senior Taliban Leader Killed In Afghanistan

Afghanistan's 'pristine jihad' draws in outsiders trained in Pakistan

Afghanistan: The Forgotten War

Bulldozer Attack Injures 5 In Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A Palestinian man went on a rampage Tuesday in downtown Jerusalem, ramming a construction vehicle into cars and buses before he was shot and killed near the hotel where Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to stay Tuesday night.

More...

See also:

Israel-Hamas standoff deepens water woes

Grand Junction's Tradition Of Prayer At Meetings Challenged

GRAND JUNCTION (KJCT)- It's been hotly debated for months-- the question of whether or not to change Grand Junction's tradition of prayer at the beginning of city council meetings.

More...

Some other recent church/state separation news:

Hearing scheduled for creationist teacher's appeal in Ohio

Should public be OK with prayer before meetings?

Vouchers, Evolution Top Issues in La.

Atheist Activist Seeks to Sue Governor

Religion in school hit

Jefferson Bible Reveals Founding Father's View Of God, Faith

He compiled the four Gospels into one text without miracles, ending with Jesus' burial rather than the resurrection.

More...

Activist Group Ordains Women Priests

(AP) An activist group hoping to pressure the Roman Catholic church into dropping its long-standing prohibition barring women from the priesthood says it ordained three women on Sunday.

More...

Pope Meets Abuse Victims In Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI met privately on Monday with Australians who were sexually abused as children by priests, in a gesture of contrition and concern over a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic church.

More...

Nine Face Stoning Death In Iran

At least eight women and one man are reported to have been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.

More...

Group: Soldier Shot Bound Palestinian With Rubber Bullet

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Video shows an Israeli soldier firing a rubber bullet at a handcuffed, blindfolded Palestinian man this month in the West Bank, an Israeli human rights group said Sunday.

More...

Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian God

WASHINGTON - A dwarf planet orbiting beyond Neptune has been designated the third plutoid in the solar system and given the name Makemake, the International Astronomical Union said on Saturday.

More...

See also:

Three Red Spots Mix It Up On Jupiter

Amazing Space Moment: Moon Passes Earth

Distribution Of Creatures Great And Small Can Be Predicted Mathematically

ScienceDaily -- In studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant -- are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species.

More...

Untouchables In India

It is Manju's job is to manually clean away the excrement left by her upper caste neighbors and for that she is considered an "untouchable." I watch as she squeezes through an alley way to the so called bucket toilet of the house. It is simply a toilet seat with a hole that opens up to a small concrete cave below. No plumbing, no water. Manju has to scrape out the cave, and gather up its repulsive contents and then carry it away in a rusted metal bowl on her head.

More...

How To Cure Anorexia With Exorcisms

Australia -- Exorcisms to cure mental illness and drug addiction, locking vulnerable people away from friends and family, prayer as a solution to all problems -- sounds like psych ward from last century. But actually it's just the 'Mercy Way'.

More...

Christian Protests May Leave Philip Pullman's Trilogy As One Of A Kind

Sources in the film industry said that plans for a sequel to The Golden Compass appeared to have been put on ice following the fervent Christian protests surrounding the first film, which led to boycotts and box office disappointment in the United States.

More...

Anglicans Seek To Prevent Church Split

CANTERBURY, England (AP) -- The world's Anglican bishops turned Saturday to the enormous task at the heart of their once-a-decade summit: trying to keep the Anglican family from breaking apart over the Bible and homosexuality.

More...

Hundreds In Australia Protest Papal Visit

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australian protesters denounced Saturday what they called Pope Benedict XVI's antiquated and discriminatory views, holding a contest for a slogan that would most annoy Roman Catholics and chanting: "The pope is wrong, put a condom on!"

More...

Saudi King's Religion Conference Ends On Sour Note

MADRID -- The conference concluded on a sour note this afternoon as Christian and Jewish participants complained that the organizers, the Muslim World League, had too much control over the conference's closing communique.

More...

Kidnappers Say British Hostage Commits Suicide

(CNN) -- One of five British hostages captured in Iraq last year has committed suicide, the kidnappers said in a videotape obtained by The Sunday Times.

--snip--

He is identified as Jason in a statement signed "The Shiite Islamic Resistance in Iraq" that appears on screen.

More...

See also:

Sunni Arab bloc rejoins Iraqi Cabinet

Blast Kills 9 Indian Soldiers In Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- A blast from an improvised explosive device Saturday killed nine Indian soldiers and wounded 14 traveling in an army convoy, an army spokesman said.

--snip--

The militant Muslim group Hizbul Mujaheedin on Saturday evening claimed responsibility for the attack. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both.

More...

'Ten Commandments' Of Race And Genetics Issued

Even with the human genome in hand, geneticists are split about how to deal with issues of race, genetics and medicine.

More...

Researchers Discover Remnant Of An Ancient 'RNA World'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some bacterial cells can swim, morph into new forms and even become dangerously virulent - all without initial involvement of DNA. Yale University researchers describe Friday in the journal Science how bacteria accomplish this amazing feat - and in doing so provide a glimpse of what the earliest forms of life on Earth may have looked like.

More...

See also:

Glimpses Of Earliest Forms Of Life On Earth

Vocal Communication Evolved In Ancient Species

Texas State Board Of Education Approves Bible Course For High Schools

AUSTIN -- The State Board of Education on Friday gave final approval to a rule establishing an elective Bible course for high schools, but the panel rejected the arguments of some members and key lawmakers - and left it up to local school districts to design the classes.

More...

ACLU To Defend Amish On Buggy Light Charges

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union will defend a group of Amish men in Kentucky charged with not displaying slow-moving vehicle emblems on their horse-drawn buggies.

More...

Americans United, ACLU Ask Court To End Public Funding Of Discriminatory Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children

Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union today urged a federal appeals court to deny tax funding to a Baptist childcare agency that proselytizes youngsters in its care and fires gay employees.

More...

Abortion Proposal Sets Condition On Aid

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.

More...

See also:

Bush Administration Tries to Redefine Contraception as Abortion

Dept. Of Health And Human Services Redefine Contraception As Abortion

A New Prophet For The Polygamists?

"I am one of the most wicked men on the face of the earth since the days of Father Adam." Those words, spoken by polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, were recorded in a jailhouse phone conversation over year ago. On tape, he renounced his leadership of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, the breakaway Mormon sect whose latest run-in with the law saw hundreds of women and children rounded up by authorities in Eldorado, Texas.

More...

Employee Who Approved 'So Gay' Ad Resigns

COLUMBIA -- When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford learned that his state was being advertised as a gay tourism destination, he ordered a Cabinet-level department head "to do the right thing personnel-wise or process-wise to ensure this does not happen again," Sanford's spokesman Joel Sawyer told Q-Notes.

Sanford was reacting to U.S. media reports that a subway poster mounted in London, England, during Gay Pride week was announcing, "South Carolina is so gay."

More...

Majority In Poll Rejects Gay Marriage Ban

A slight majority of California voters oppose a measure on the Nov. 4 ballot that would impose a constitutional ban on gay marriage, according to the first Field Poll on the measure.

More...

See also:

Census Won't Report Gay Marriage

Attitudes Toward 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy Radically Change

Pope Says Sorry For 'Evil' Of Clergy Sex Abuse

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI apologized Saturday to victims of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, describing their acts as "evil" and a grave betrayal of trust.

More...

See also:

Catholic Church braces for another scandal

Catholic Church sex abuse investigations 'a joke'

Polish priest charged with groping girl on plane

Ex-Anglican communities to become Catholic, Rome confirms

Priests to delay their retirement over lack of new clergy

3 Catholic Women To Be Ordained Priests

17 'Cross-Dressing Tourists' Held In Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Police in the Gulf tourist hub of Dubai say they've detained 17 foreigners for allegedly displaying homosexual behavior in the city's shopping malls and other public places.

More...

Thou Shalt Not Smoke

A bar is trying to get round the ban on smoking introduced in Holland this month by declaring itself part of the One and Universal Smokers' Church of God.

More...

8 Charged Over Skull-Trafficking Ring

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) -- A police sting in Gabon brought down a ring of grave robbers suspected of selling human skulls to makers of traditional medicines and amulets, officials said Wednesday.

--snip--

The skulls were then ground down into a powder that healers use in various drinks and amulets believed to give the wearer strength or power...

More...

Haiti's Voodoo Pilgrims Pray For Future

Thousands of pilgrims bathed and threw their clothes into the cascading veils of Saut D'Eau, where the faithful believe the Virgin Mary, known as Erzulie in Haitian Voodoo, appeared in the 1800s. The observant lit candles and sacrificed a cow nearby.

More...

Turkey Party Closure Case Moves Closer To Verdict

ANKARA (AFP) -- The president of the Constitutional Court said here Wednesday that the rapporteur of Turkey's top tribunal had completed a written recommendation on whether the Islamist-rooted ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) should be outlawed.

More...

Foreign Jihadis Flock To Afghanistan

(CBS/AP) Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that al Qaeda is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terror groups.

More...

See also:

Al-Qaida Draws More Foreign Recruits To Afghan War

NATO: Senior Taliban Commander Killed

Civilian casualties fuel Afghan conflict

IRAQ: Unrest Surfaces In Fallujah Again

FALLUJAH (IPS) - Security has collapsed again in Fallujah, despite U.S. military claims.

More...

See also:

Iraq Sunni Arab dispute may delay Anbar handover

Violence returns to Anbar following months of relative quiet

Photos Suggest Mars Was Once All Wet

A lot more Martian rocks were altered by water than scientists originally thought, suggesting that early Mars was a very wet place.

More...

Anti-Darwinists Turned Away By Israeli Academia

Turkish scientists receive last minute cancellation from Hebrew University who fears Jewish-Muslim reconciliation conference may give stage to anti-Darwinist propaganda.

More...

Virgin Mary Statues Destroyed At Church

HOUSTON -- Three Virgin Mary statues at All Saints Catholic Church, 215 E. 10th Street in the Heights, were either damaged or destroyed during the past few months, officials said.

The phrases, "Don't worship idols" and "You have been warned" were also spray-painted.

More...

Californians Cleared To Vote On Same-Sex Marriage Ban

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The California Supreme Court has cleared the way for Californians to vote in November on whether to ban same-sex marriages in the state.

More...

Anglicans Meet Amid Gay Bishop Row

CANTERBURY, England (CNN) -- Controversy over gay clergy and female bishops is likely to dominate the Anglican church's once-a-decade conference, which begins Wednesday.

More...

Child Bride Gets Divorced After Rape, Beatings

SANAA, Yemen (CNN) -- Nujood Ali is 10 years old, but she already has been married and divorced. It was an arranged marriage in which she said a husband three times her age routinely beat and raped her.

More...

Released Prisoners Enter Lebanon As Swap Under Way

Story Highlights:

Five released prisoners have entered Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces says

Remains turned over by Hezbollah identified as Israeli soldiers, Israel says

Israel also sending back to Lebanon 199 bodies of fighters killed over the years

More...

U.S. Abandons Afghan Base, Taliban Move In

(AP) U.S. and Afghan troops have abandoned a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan where militants killed nine American soldiers this week, officials said Wednesday.

More...

See also:

NATO forces abandon Afghan outpost

Deadly Car Bomb Rocks Iraqi Market

(CBS/ AP) Police say a car bomb has exploded in a popular outdoor market in northern Iraq, killing at least 12 people and injuring 30.

More...

See also:

Iraq's Anbar province growing tense

Iraqi and US forces gear up for massive operation

Growing Up Amid War Affects Children's Moral Development

ScienceDaily -- Colombian children living in war zones exhibited an understanding that stealing or hurting others is wrong. But when asked to consider revenge as a motive, many said it is acceptable to steal or hurt others for revenge. These vulnerabilities were more pronounced among teenagers.

More...

Mars Lander Exposes More Ice

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander used its robotic arm to expose more of the hard icy layer just below the Martian surface so that it can more easily gather a sample of the material for analysis.

More...

See also:

Source Of Most Common Meteorites Discovered

Galaxy's Brightest Star Has New Competition

Nano-sized Electronic Circuit Promises Bright View Of Early Universe

New Generation Of Home Robots Have Gentle Touch

Marsupials And Humans Share Same Genetic Imprinting That Evolved 150 Million Years Ago

ScienceDaily -- Research published in Nature Genetics by a team of international scientists including the University of Melbourne, Department of Zoology, has established an identical mechanism of genetic imprinting, a process involved in marsupial and human fetal development, which evolved 150 million years ago.

More...

See also:

28,000 Year-old Europeans' DNA Was Like Ours

And...

Passive Learning Imprints On The Brain Just Like Active Learning

Will Our Future Brains Be Smaller?

Language Without Numbers: Amazonian Tribe Has No Word To Express 'One,' Other Numbers

Poll: Vermonters Pray Less

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A new poll suggests that people in Vermont and New Hampshire are less religious than those in other states.

More...

Mass. Aims To Open Gay Marriage Floodgates

(AP) The Massachusetts Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying in the state, a law that critics say was originally aimed at interracial marriages.

More...

The Gospel On Being Gay

When Canon Gene Robinson was consecrated as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, the world's first openly gay Anglican bishop, such was the ferocity of the opposition from right-wing evangelicals that he was forced to wear a bulletproof vest for the ceremony. Tomorrow he appears at the Southbank Centre in London, to be interviewed by Sir Ian McKellen for the UK premiere of For the Bible Tells Me So, a US documentary about homosexuality and the Bible.

More...

See also:

Protest Disrupts Bishop's Sermon

Chaplain Accused Of Having Child Porn

Gastonia, NC -- Police say youth minister and mentor of Scouts had 'inappropriate Internet images.'

More...

Gov't Wants Atheist Soldier's Lawsuit Dismissed

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- An atheist soldier who claims the military violates religious freedoms should have complained through the chain of command instead of civilian courts, the government said in arguing that his lawsuit should be dismissed.

More...

Man Sues Church Over 'God Injury'

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- A man said he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he fell and hit his head while at a Knoxville church.

Now he wants Lakewind Church to pay $2.5 million for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering he said he's endured from his injuries.

More...

Church Cancels Teen Gun Giveaway

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.

More...

Texas Leads Nation In Abstinence Education Funding

AUSTIN -- Texas spent a nation-high $17 million last year for abstinence education programs that continue to stir debate about whether classes promoting virginity before marriage work in public schools.

More...

Church Wants 2 Giant 200-Foot Crosses Erected Along I-45

"Grace Community Church is raising money to build two enormous crosses that its pastor says will mark the entrances to Houston on Interstate 45. The crosses will likely rank among the largest in the world.

Counting their bases, the crosses would reach up to 200 feet. Each would dwarf I-45's current symbol of Texas largeness. "Big Sam" Houston, the colossal statue in Huntsville, stands 77 feet tall with its base."

More...

English Civil War 'Ghost' Captured On Film By Paranormal Enthusiasts

A ghostly figure, supposedly the spirit of a dead soldier from a key battle in the English Civil War, has been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts.

More...

In Japan, Buddhism May Be Dying Out

OGA, Japan -- The Japanese have long taken an easygoing, buffetlike approach to religion, ringing out the old year at Buddhist temples and welcoming the new year, several hours later, at Shinto shrines. Weddings hew to Shinto rituals or, just as easily, to Christian ones.

More...

Dalai Lama Defends Islam As Peaceful Religion

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Dalai Lama said Sunday that "it's totally wrong, unfair" to call Islam a violent religion.

More...

Lourdes Fears Priestly Scandal Will Make Profits Dry Up

It is called the 'Zambelli Affair' and for the town of Lourdes, one of the world's most famous sites of pilgrimage, it could not have come at a worse time.

More...

Sydney Overturns Pope Protest Law

A court in Sydney has struck down a controversial state law that made it illegal to "annoy" pilgrims gathered for a Roman Catholic youth festival.

More...

See also:

Pope faces growing religious scepticism in Australia

Sorry not enough, Pope told

Vatican's iron grip on papal utterings

Rows surround 'Catholic Woodstock'

Catholic Church branded out out touch

Muslim Creationist Preaches Islam And Awaits Christ

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Harun Yahya is one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world. He may also be among the most widely criticized Muslim authors in the Western world.

More...

Radical Imam Claims Damages For Anti-Koran Film

Amsterdam (AKI) -- The radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Imam Fawaz Jneid is claiming 55,000 euros in damages from far-right Freedom Party MP Geert Wilders for allegedly damaging his reputation in a controversial anti-Koran film

More...

Veil Lifts On Plight Of Child Brides

ONE morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband's house and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.

More...

Saudi Faces Lashes And Jail Over 'Illicit Phone Affair'

A Saudi Arabian biochemist and his female research student face prison and flogging if an appeals court rules today that they conducted an "illicit affair" by telephone. Khalid al-Zahrani, 32, was sentenced to eight months in jail and 600 lashes by a lower court in November 2007. His unnamed student was given four months and 350 lashes.

More...

Twin Attacks Kill Iraqi Army Recruits

Story Highlights:

Nine people killed in suicide attacks in northern Iraqi city of Mosul

Suicide bombers attack Baquba base, killing at least 28, Iraqi officials say

Al Qaeda in Iraq has been target of military push around Baquba

Dozens killed in previous bombings in Baquba, north of Baghdad

More...

See also:

28 Killed In Twin Suicide Attacks In Iraqi City

Bombers Kill Dozens Of Iraqi Recruits

Bombs detonate near Iraqi officer's house, kill 3

Sadr's militia may live to fight again

Who's who in the world of jihad

Pakistan: Clashes With Militants Kill 16

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A clash between security forces and militants in Pakistan's northwest has left at least 16 people dead, all but three of them paramilitary troops, officials say.

More...

Scores Die In Wave Of Attacks In Afghanistan

Story Highlights:

NATO says insurgents suffer heavy casualties in daylong fighting

Suicide bomber riding a motorcycle kills at least 21 people

Coalition reports suffering casualties in heavy fighting with insurgents

Teen suicide bomber detonates explosives-laden vest killing three

More...

See also:

9 Americans Die in Afghan Attack

'Heroic' fighting repels Afghan militants

Pakistan intelligence blamed for Afghan attacks

Pakistan Rejects Afghan Accusations

Pakistan militants focus on Afghanistan

Bold Afghan Raid On U.S. Base Casts Doubts

See Mars In Wide-Screen

It's prime time for the Mars probes: NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is at the halfway point of its 90-day primary mission, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is sending back a flood of images from orbit. The pictures contain an incredible amount of detail - as the latest jaw-dropping panoramas illustrate.

More...

Children Are Naturally Prone To Be Empathic And Moral

ScienceDaily -- Children between the ages of seven and 12 appear to be naturally inclined to feel empathy for others in pain, according to researchers at the University of Chicago, who used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans to study responses in children.

More...

Bisexual Species: Unorthodox Sex In The Animal Kingdom

Two penguins native to Antarctica met one spring day in 1998 in a tank at the Central Park Zoo in midtown Manhattan. They perched atop stones and took turns diving in and out of the clear water below. They entwined necks, called to each other and mated. They then built a nest together to prepare for an egg. But no egg was forthcoming: Roy and Silo were both male.

More...

Pastor Among Suspects In Illegal Snake Bust

(AP) The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade.

--snip--

Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most states, including Kentucky.

More...

NOTE: The Bible verses referenced in the news report above are among twelve verses that were added to the end of Mark by a later scribe and were not originally contained in that Gospel.

The verses referenced are:

Mark 16:17-18

These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons and they will speak in tongues. And they will take up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any poison it will not harm them, and they will lay their hands on the sick and they will become well.

Satanist Father And Christian Mother Fight For Sunday Morning Custody Rights

Indiana -- A custody battle between a Satanist and his Christian ex-wife has raised constitutional issues after both demanded the right to share their religion with their three young children.

Kristie Meyer has cited the religious beliefs of her former husband, Jamie, as the main reason why an Indiana judge should restrict his visitation rights.

More...

Pope Benedict Arrives In Australia

Benedict arrives on trip focusing on global warming, clergy sex abuse.

More...

See also:

The Pope's Next Apology Tour?

Celibacy's stain will remain when the party is over

Even true believers fail to follow Vatican line

Abortion Reform Provokes New Battle With Bishops

Spain -- Plans to relax strict abortion and euthanasia laws and a proposed ban on Catholic symbols at state events have put Spain's Socialist Government on course for a showdown with the Roman Catholic Church.

More...

Sex Battles Religion In Catholic Brazil

BUENOS AIRES: Brazil may be the largest Roman Catholic country in the world, but its image is marked by its beaches and Carnival much more than by its approach to religion.

More...

Pakistan Says US Not Hunting Bin Laden On Its Turf

Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader.

More...

Hezbollah Gains Clout In Lebanon _ But At A Cost

Tales of heroism by Hezbollah fighters still make the rounds in Aita al-Shaab, the streets are adorned with portraits of the group's "martyrs," and yellow Hezbollah flags fly from lampposts. Villagers, still rebuilding from the devastation of the war, profess unswerving devotion to the Shiite Muslim group and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

More...

Pastor Hagee's Desperate News Suppression Campaign Backfires

During the week of July 1, lawyers representing far-right Pastor John Hagee demanded that YouTube remove scores of videos supposedly infringing on the copyright of John Hagee Ministries. YouTube acceded to Hagee's attorneys without even a cursory review of their claims. As the Huffington Post's Sam Stein reported, the maneuver resulted in the immediate disappearance of over 120 videos from YouTube -- almost all of which depicted the preacher in a negative light.

More...

Shirtless Mormons Calendar Gets Man In Trouble

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A Las Vegas man who devised a calendar that features shirtless Mormon missionaries is facing a disciplinary hearing and possible excommunication because of the project.

More...

Thousands Flock To Revival In Search Of Miracles

A middle-aged woman suffering from ovarian cancer shakes back and forth, speaking in tongues.

A young child with spina bifida and splints on his legs tears them off and bolts across the stage. He cries as he declares that his legs have strength like never before.

More...

When In Rome... Rasta Smokers Get Pot Win

(AP) If you're a Rastafarian in Italy, you might be able to possess more marijuana than the law allows everyone else.

--snip--

Rastafarians "use marijuana not only as a medicinal ... but also as a possible way to obtain the psycho-physical state contemplation aims for during prayer," Turin daily La Stampa quoted the document as saying. "Belonging to that religion ... followers (must) use the sacred grass daily, up to 10 grams (0.35 ounces) a day for person."

Rastafarians worship Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile Selassie, who died in 1975, as a god. They preach unity with nature and smoke marijuana as a sacrament.

More...

Bid To Gag Sex Abuse Victim

Anthony Jones, who was sexually assaulted in 1982 by a priest, Father Terrence Goodall, says he was threatened with legal action if he spoke about the matter on ABC Television.

More...

Weak US Dollar Hits Papal Profits

The Vatican made a loss last year as the weaker dollar reduced the value of donations from the faithful in the United States.

More...

Afghanistan: State Of Siege

A regroupment of the Taliban and al-Qaida in the Pakistani borderlands is bringing the war closer to Kabul.

More...

Water Found On The Moon

In a study published today in Nature, researchers led by Brown University geologist Alberto Saal found evidence of water molecules in pebbles retrieved by NASA's Apollo missions.

More...

See also:

On The Edge Of The Sun's Bubble: Spacecraft Gives Data On Space Beyond Sun's Influence

Universe Is More Transparent To High-energy Radiation Than Previously Assumed

Sample-Collection Tests By NASA's Phoenix Lander Continue

Susskind Quashes Hawking in Quarrel Over Quantum Quandary

Big Brains Arose Twice In Higher Primates

ScienceDaily -- After taking a fresh look at an old fossil, John Flynn, Frick Curator of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, and colleagues determined that the brains of the ancestors of modern Neotropical primates were as small as those of their early fossil simian counterparts in the Old World. This means one of the hallmarks of primate biology, increased brain size, arose independently in isolated groups--the platyrrhines of the Americas and the catarrhines of Africa and Eurasia.

More...

See also:

Brain Cells Related To Fear Identified

Brain Chemical Shown To Induce Both Desire And Dread

New Drug Reverses Alzheimer's Disease Within Days In Mouse Models

Money Makes The Heart Grow Less Fond... But More Hardworking

Flatfish Fossils Fill In Evolutionary Missing Link

ScienceDaily -- Hidden away in museums for more that 100 years, some recently rediscovered flatfish fossils have filled a puzzling gap in the story of evolution and answered a question that initially stumped even Charles Darwin.

More...

See also:

Two-ton, 500 Million-year-old Fossil Of Stromatolite Discovered In Virginia, U.S.

New Legal Threat To School Science In The US

BARBARA FORREST knew the odds were stacked against her. "They had 50 or 60 people in the room," she says. Her opponents included lobbyists, church leaders and a crowd of home-schooled children. "They were wearing stickers, clapping, cheering and standing in the aisles." Those on Forrest's side numbered less than a dozen, including two professors from Louisiana State University, representatives from the Louisiana Association of Educators and campaigners for the continued separation of church and state.

More...

One Humanist's Stand For Academic Freedom

(Washington, D.C., July 10, 2008) The Appignani Humanist Legal Center (AHLC), legal arm of the American Humanist Association, expressed its satisfaction today with a settlement resulting from its academic freedom advocacy on behalf of humanist educator Steven C. Bitterman in his dispute with Southwestern Community College in Red Oak, Iowa.

Bitterman had been an adjunct faculty member in the history department of the college since 2001, teaching Western Civilization at least three times. No complaints had been made against him by students or faculty until September 2007. When some students, taking his class via closed-circuit television, objected to Bitterman saying that the biblical story of Adam and Eve shouldn't be taken literally, they alleged that this and other statements belittled their religion. He later responded in an interview in "Community College Week," published October 8, 2007, saying, "I put the Hebrew religion on the same plane as any other religion. Their god wasn't given any more credibility than any other god."

More...

South Carolina Plans License Plate For Christians

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- Unless a federal court intervenes, South Carolina drivers may soon be able to profess their Christian faith with a state-issued license plate.

--snip--

While individuals can ask the DMV to print plates for other faiths -- for a $4,000 fee -- the request would be subject to significant limits and rules not imposed for the Christian plate. Other tags could feature a religious symbol -- such as the Star of David -- but no words would be allowed.

The Christian plate will include the words "I Believe" and a bright-yellow cross on a multicolored stained glass church window.

More...

Indonesian Executed For Killing 42 Females

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia has executed a man for killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings.

--snip--

He apparently believed the 11-year killing spree increased his magical powers.

More...

Religious Group Closes Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Australia -- A Leederville-based religious community will close after its leader was forced to step down amid sexual misconduct allegations.

More...

Demo Mocks Ban On Annoying Pope Fans

SYDNEY, Australia -- Wearing T-shirts that read "Pope Go Homo" and "The pope is wrong, put a condom on!," a dozen demonstrators poked fun Wednesday at a new Australian law meant to protect participants of next week's World Youth Day from being annoyed by opponents.

More...

See also:

Could the Pope Aid an Anglican Split?

Al Qaeda Suspected In U.S. Embassy Attack

(CBS/AP) Suspected al Qaeda militants armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.

More...

See also:

Al Qaeda Goes Viral

21 Bodies Found Buried At Iraq School Site

Story Highlights:

Relatives say some were al Qaeda in Iraq kidnap victims

School in western Iraq's Anbar province is under construction

Coalition soldier killed in explosion in northern Iraq's Salaheddin province

Mosul suicide bombing targets Iraqi soldiers; eight civilians killed

More...

See also:

Families: Missing soldiers found dead in Iraq

U.S. Troops in Iraq Face A Powerful New Weapon

Afghanistan's Growing Refugee Crisis

"The situation in Afghanistan is worsening, and we're running the risk of losing the gains we've made in the past few years," said RI advocate Patrick Duplat...

More...

Militant Gains In Pakistan Said To Draw Fighters

WASHINGTON -- American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan's tribal areas to join with militants there.

More...

Police Fail To Bring Indictments In Settler Attacks On Palestinians

Only 10 percent of the instances in which Palestinians accused settlers of attacking them ended up in indictments being filed against the suspects, according to data presented today by the human rights group Yesh Din. The group examined 205 different cases of alleged assault by settlers that were reported over the years.

More...

See also:

Palestinian Village Takes On Israeli Military

Atheist Soldier Sues Army For 'Unconstitutional' Discrimination

Story Highlights:

Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist but is now an atheist

His sudden lack of faith cost him his military career and put his life at risk, he says

Hall sued the Defense Department; claims military is a Christian organization

More...

Student Who Took Religious Icon Getting Death Threats

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A UCF student claims he's getting death threats for messing with something sacred.

Webster Cook says he smuggled a Eucharist, a small bread wafer that to Catholics symbolic of the Body of Christ after a priest blesses it, out of mass, didn't eat it as he was supposed to do, but instead walked with it.

Catholics worldwide became furious.

More...

See also:

IT'S A GODDAMNED CRACKER!