Halloween

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year." Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

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Why Children Like To Share

This experiment is not the first to indicate that children are inequality averse, and that this behavior increases with age.

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Why We Believe

If you take the word "normal" as characteristic of the norm or majority, then it is the superstitious and those who believe in ESP, ghosts and psychic phenomena who are normal.

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Religion: Bound to believe?

High-Stakes Battle Over Same-Sex Marriage In Calif.

Anxious eyes around the U.S. will follow the vote on a California constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. It has become a referendum on sexual orientation and civil rights, with $69 million raised on both sides.

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Newsweek: What Proposition 8 means to my marriage

Religious Leaders Tell Pollsters That Their Churches Do Not Endorse Political Candidates

The overwhelmingly majority of America's religious leaders have apparently rejected the Religious Right's efforts to politicize their pulpits, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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Watchdog Group Exposes Catholic Election Abuse In Colorado

Americans United Asks IRS To Investigate N.C. Baptist Group

Vatican Test Screens Would-Be Pedophiles

(AP) The Vatican issued new psychological screening guidelines for seminarians Thursday - the latest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to be more selective about its priesthood candidates following a series of pedophile scandals.

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Blasphemy Law To Be Repealed

Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Christian Democrats) has finally given into pressure and is to recommend that blasphemy -- insulting religions or their practitioners -- is no longer a criminal offence.

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Head Of Italian Museum Displaying 'Blasphemous Frog' Sacked

The head of an Italian museum who offended the Pope by exhibiting a wooden sculpture of a crucified frog has been sacked amid a debate over artistic freedom.

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Rabbi Says Wartime Pope Fumbled On Hitler

(AP) A Jewish leader says Pope Benedict XVI is considering a request to freeze the sainthood process for wartime Pope Pius XII.

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U.S. Strikes Said To Kill Militant Leader

(CBS/ AP) U.S. missile strikes on Friday targeting locations in Pakistan's tribal areas were "unlikely to cause a major upset to militant activity in the region" in spite of the killing of an al Qaeda field commander of Iraqi origin, senior Pakistani security officials and diplomats said in their first assessments.

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Officials: Missile strike kills 28 in Pakistan

Suicide Blast Kills 5 At Afghan Ministry

(AP) Taliban militants stormed a government building in the center of the Afghan capital on Thursday and one of them blew himself up inside, killing five people, officials and witnesses said.

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Wave Of Suicide Blasts Kills 19 In Somalia

(AP) Suicide bombers struck a U.N. compound and several other targets in northern Somalia on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people, as talks about Somalia's political crisis began in neighboring Kenya, officials said.

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Somalia: Rape Victim Executed

Blasts Kill Dozens In Northern India

(CBS/AP) A series of coordinated blasts tore through India's volatile northeast on Thursday, killing at least 56 people, wounding more than 300 and setting police on a frantic search for any unexploded bombs, officials said.

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India's Northeast Rocked by Blasts

Officials: India Bombers Had Outside Help

Religion Not The Only Path To Altruism

Religion and its promotion of empathy get undue credit for our unselfish acts. Instead, it's our less-than-virtuous psychological perception that a moral authority is watching us that promotes altruism, a new review essay suggests.

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Fire Out Of Africa: A Key To The Migration Of Prehistoric Humans

ScienceDaily -- The ability to make fire millennia ago was likely a key factor in the migration of prehistoric hominids from Africa into Eurasia, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology believes on the basis of findings at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov archaeological site in Israel.

Earlier excavations there, carried out under the direction of Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar of the Institute of Archaeology, showed that the occupants of the site -- who are identified as being part of the Acheulian culture that arose in Africa about 1.6 million years ago -- had mastered fire-making ability as long as 790,000 years ago. This revelation pushed back previously accepted dates for man's fire-making ability by a half-million years.

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NASA Orbiter Reveals Details Of A Wetter Mars

ScienceDaily -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than scientists believed, and it played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life.

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Americans United Deplores Appeals Court Ruling Upholding Sectarian Council Prayers

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today criticized a ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the use of sectarian prayers before government meetings in Cobb County, Ga.

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Boom In Marriages Not Made In Heaven

Scotland -- THEY are the fastest growing type of wedding in Scotland, but God is definitely not invited.

A surge in Humanist marriages means they have overtaken Episcopal ceremonies for the first time.

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Three British Evangelicals Cast Blame On Each Other In Trials Over Child Abuse

...what should have been a sanctuary for vulnerable boys and girls became the site of one of eastern Europe's most shocking child sex abuse scandals. Three evangelical Britons, including the director of the orphanage, David Brown, have been accused of abusing children in their care.

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Islamists Stone To Death Woman

Somali Islamists have stoned to death a woman accused of adultery in the first such public killing by the militants for about two years.

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Pakistan's War On Terror Hits Roadblock

Pakistan's powerful, nuclear-armed military decided to halt construction of its ambitious new headquarters project in the nation's capital Tuesday, indicating the severity of the economic crisis.

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Iraq Sentences Al Qaeda Suspect To Death

(CBS/AP) An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced to death by hanging a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq militant for the grisly 2006 killing of three U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad.

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Iraqi Ministry Members Hurt In Car Bombing

U.S.: Syria Raid Killed Al Qaeda Leader

(CBS/AP) Families in this Syrian village on Monday buried relatives they said died in a U.S. helicopter attack. A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces killed the head of a Syrian network that funneled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq.

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Iraq Denounces U.S. Raid On Syria

Syria: U.S. Attack Kills 8 In Border Area

Al-Qaeda Still Has Route Through Syria

Society Without God: What The Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment

Contrary to the views of many conservative pundits and the Christian Right, the least religious countries in the world today are not full of chaos and immorality, but are actually among the safest, healthiest, most well-educated, prosperous, ethical, and successful societies on earth.

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Don't Count Us Out

As the presidential campaign winds down, members of America's largest and most silent minority may be excused for feeling a little left out. As Republicans and Democrats escalate their appeals to 2008's most contested and prized constituency -- swing voters among evangelicals and Catholics -- they treat those who are not religious as if they are invisible.

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Waiting for our show

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IRS Should Investigate N.J. Catholic Diocese For Campaign Intervention, Says Americans United

New Mexico Church Violated Federal Tax Law

CFI Pushes Back Against Religious Restrictions On Free Expression

In September 2008, the Center for Inquiry went to Geneva for the ninth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Although a staunchly secularist organization, it was there to fight for the right to talk about religion.

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Creationists Declare War Over The Brain

In August, the Discovery Institute ran its 2008 Insider's Briefing on Intelligent Design, at which Schwartz and Michael Egnor, a neurosurgeon at Stony Brook University in New York, were invited to speak. When two of the five main speakers at an ID meeting are neuroscientists, something is up. Could the next battleground in the ID movement's war on science be the brain?

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Expert education panel sparks doubts

Martin says evolution debate isn't completely resolved

Dr. Mynga Futrell, Executive Director Of Worldwide Brights' Network, Receives International 'World of Thanks' Award

SACRAMENTO, Calif., PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- This award is presented each year by the Atheist Alliance International to the person whose contributions have taken the organization in a positive direction.

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No-God Squad Climb Aboard The Atheist Bus

Advertising account executives must be green with envy; fundraisers must be tearing their hair. A young woman who writes sitcoms for a living came up with an idea around June, posted it on a comment-is-free website and saw it mushroom into something global. The idea of the atheist bus, which will bear the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", will not even leave the garages until January, but it has caught the popular imagination. More than that, it has ruffled the feathers of established religious spokesmen, prompted tentative support from unlikely corners and even breached the citadel of religious broadcasting.

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Atheists put faith in 'God-free' advertising

'Probably' the best atheist bus campaign ever

Voodoo Dolls, Zombies And France's President

Voodoo means "spirit" in the local language, and probably evolved there from ancient traditions of animism, or the belief that otherworldly spirits can inhabit the body of humans and animals.

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Vatican Suspends Bishop Who Adopted Woman, 26

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- The Vatican has suspended a Roman Catholic bishop in southern India after he adopted a 26-year-old woman, a senior church official said Saturday.

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Hindu Extremists Held Over Deadly Bombings

Three people said to be Hindu activists were arrested yesterday in connection with bombings that killed six Muslims during Ramadan last month in the west of the country.

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Christians Face Attacks In Eastern India

Nun tells of rape by Hindu attackers

Australia Warns Of Indonesia Terror Threat

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia is urging its citizens to rethink travel to Indonesia, saying the threat of a terrorist attack is high as the country prepares to execute three militants over the 2002 Bali bombings.

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Jordanian Poet Accused Of 'Atheism And Blasphemy'

AMMAN: A Jordanian writer was charged this week with insulting Islam after incorporating verses of the Koran into a book of love poetry, "Grace like a Shadow," that he printed in June without government approval, his lawyer said. "The prosecutor general of a magistrate's court in Amman charged Islam Samhan with insulting Islam and the Koran as well as violating the press and publications law."

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Christians in Algeria face jail for 'blasphemy'

Afghan Student Gets 20 Years Instead Of Death For Blasphemy

Kabul, Afghanistan -- In a case that has illustrated Afghanistan's drift toward a more radically conservative brand of Islam as well as the fragility of its legal system, an appeals court Tuesday overturned a death sentence for a student convicted of blasphemy but sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

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Coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Two DHL Employees Killed In Afghanistan

Pakistan Army Captures Militant Stronghold

(AP) A two-month offensive by Pakistani forces has driven militants from a stronghold through which Taliban and al Qaeda fighters had poured into neighboring Afghanistan to attack U.S. troops, the army said Saturday.

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Al-Qaida Influence Apparent In Groups In Pakistan

US Training Pakistani Forces To Fight Taliban

Strike On Pakistan Islamic School Kills 9

Four held over Marriott hotel blast in Islamabad

Time and Money Running Out for Pakistan

Killings Force 13,000 Christians To Flee Mosul

Iraq -- The full scale of the persecution of Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became apparent last night when the UN's refugee agency said about 13,000 had been hounded from their homes this month - more than half of the city's Christian community.

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Iraqi general wounded in car-bombing

29 suspects tied to al Qaeda captured in Iraq

66 suspects tied to al Qaeda captured in Iraq

9 killed in attack on Iraqi minister's convoy

Beyond Belief 3: Candles In The Dark

Beyond Belief: Candles in the Dark is the third in an annual series of conversations: an ongoing project to foster and promote the use of reason in formulating social policy. This year, we asked participants to propose a Candle -- a potential solution to a problem that they have identified in their area of expertise or informed passion.

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The Soul? It May All Be In Your Mind

Everything you think you know about the soul is wrong.

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Humanists Threaten Nevada Lawsuit to Legalize Godless Weddings

Today the American Humanist Association put Clark County Clerk Shirley B. Parraguirre on notice that she may be sued for denying an atheist's application for a Certificate of Permission to Perform Marriages in Nevada. Parraguirre is also the Commissioner of Civil Marriages.

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Earlier...

Humanist Tenets Subverted in Court

Church-State Watchdog Group Says Pastor Violated Federal Tax Law With Call To Vote For McCain

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is advising houses of worship nationwide to respect federal tax law and stay out of partisan politics.

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All Aboard The Atheist Bus Campaign

It's real, it's happening: you can sponsor the first atheist advert on a bus -- and Richard Dawkins will match your money.

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Religious-Bias Filings Up

Claims of religious discrimination filed with federal, state and local agencies have doubled over the past 15 years and rose 15% during 2007 to 4,515, a record.

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Bush Aides Say Religious Hiring Doesn't Bar Aid

WASHINGTON -- In a newly disclosed legal memorandum, the Bush administration says it can bypass laws that forbid giving taxpayer money to religious groups that hire only staff members who share their faith.

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Boy Scout Leaders Question District Policy

ARMAGH - United School District policy is preventing the Boy Scouts of America from boosting its ranks locally, according to a group of Scout leaders.

At Tuesday's school board meeting, the Scout leaders objected to the district not allowing the group to recruit students during school hours or during open house events after school. They said membership has fallen in the three Cub Scout packs and three Boy Scout troops that serve the district.

``If we let you come, we have to let just about everybody else come through,'' said Superintendent Dr. Kathy Myers Wunder.

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The Unholy Legacy Of Pius XII

The man who presided over the Vatican during the war stands accused of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust. And his reputation is still a source of division between Catholics and Jews.

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Why Is the Pope So Silent About the Mob?

Catholics Want Teen's Videos Of Host Desecration Removed From YouTube

A series of YouTube videos showing a Quebec boy destroying Eucharistic hosts has prompted demands for the popular videos to be removed from the Internet.

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YouTube For Islamic Extremists

Islamist militant group Hamas has unveiled its latest weapon - an extremist version of Youtube.

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Convert Or We Will Kill You, Hindu Lynch Mobs Tell Fleeing Christians

Hundreds of Christians in the Indian state of Orissa have been forced to renounce their religion and become Hindus after lynch mobs issued them with a stark ultimatum: convert or die.

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Christian Families Flee Mosul After Death Threats

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly 600 more Christian families have fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul over the past week, amid threats by Muslim extremists to convert to Islam or risk death, an official in Nineveh province said Monday.

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Men arrested in attacks on Iraqi Christians

Hundreds more Christian families flee Iraq city

Explosive device goes off at checkpoint north of Baghdad

Taliban Say Aid Worker Killed For 'Spreading Christianity'

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility yesterday for the murder of a British aid worker in Kabul, accusing her of spreading Christianity. Gayle Williams, 34, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle as she walked to the office of the Christian charity Serve.

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Christians in Kabul are warned: you are being watched by Taliban agents

Afghan Reporter Sentenced to 20 Years for Blasphemy

Afghanistan: Fighting In A "Hornet's Nest"

Officials: Taliban fighters ambush, kill bus passengers

Coalition airstrike kills Afghan soldiers

Officials: Coalition airstrike kills 8 Afghans

Coalition airstrike kills Taliban commander

Pakistan Army Claims 60 Militants Killed

(AP) Troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions in northwest Pakistan, killing 60 fighters and wounding many others, the military said Saturday.

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5 Killed In Pakistan Attacks

Suicide attack kills 4 in Pakistan

The US vs. Pakistan: With Allies Like These

Jewish Settlers Attack Palestinian Photog

(AP) Jewish settlers attacked a Palestinian photographer who was taking pictures of Palestinian farmers picking olives in the West Bank.

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Why Evolution Is True

The new book is simple to summarize: just read the title. It's aimed at a lay audience and answers the question of why biologists are so darned confident about the theory of evolution by going through a strong subset of the evidence.

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See: Why Evolution Is True

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Details Of Evolutionary Transition From Fish To Land Animals Revealed

Oldest Fossil Impression Of Flying Insect

Unique Fossils Capture 'Cambrian Migration'

Being Altruistic May Make You Attractive

ScienceDaily -- Displays of altruism or selflessness towards others can be sexually attractive in a mate. This is one of the findings of a study carried out by biologists and a psychologist at The University of Nottingham.

--snip--

Dr Phillips said: "For many years the standard explanation for altruistic behaviour towards non-relatives has been based on reciprocity and reputation -- a version of 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. I believe we need to look elsewhere to understand the roots of human altruism. The expansion of the human brain would have greatly increased the cost of raising children so it would have been important for our ancestors to choose mates both willing and able to be good, long-term parents. Displays of altruism could well have provided accurate clues to this and genes linked to altruism would have been favoured as a result."

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NASA's Mars Odyssey Shifting Orbit For Extended Mission

ScienceDaily -- The longest-serving of six spacecraft now studying Mars is up to new tricks for a third two-year extension of its mission to examine the most Earthlike of known foreign planets.

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Phoenix lander survives Martian dust storm

'New Atheism' Is Gaining Its Voice

The percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans has doubled since 1990, rising to 16 percent. That growth represents one of the largest trends in American religion today, according to a poll published this year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

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Sen. Chambers May Pursue Suit Against God

The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent." It says God has caused "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like."

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Many Christian Pastors Dismiss Mental Illness

In a study of Christian church members who approached their church for help with a personal or family member's diagnosed mental illness, researchers found that more than 32 percent were told by their pastor that they or their loved one did not really have a mental illness.

The problem was solely spiritual in nature, they were told

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Pastor Faces Charges In Paddling Of 4-Year-Old

PICKENS, S.C. -- The pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church in Pickens was arrested after officials said he left severe bruises on a 4-year-old boy.

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Warring Monks Threaten Destruction Of The Church Of The Holy Sepulchre

A long-running row over the rights to a rooftop section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre could bring the entire structure tumbling down, destroying Christendom's holiest site.

While renovations are needed across the church, the small Deir al-Sultan monastery on its roof has reached an "emergency state", according to engineers who completed an evaluation this month.

Local officials are pressing the church to begin repairs before the heavy autumn rains begin but have stopped short of interfering directly in its notoriously acrimonious affairs.

The church has been vigilantly managed by six competing and often fractious Christian denominations - Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian - since an agreement reached under Ottoman law in 1757.

Rival denominations often battle for access or space and the congregation at the annual Easter service sometimes resembles the terraces of a boisterous football match. The keys to the main entrance of the church have been held by a Muslim family since the 12th century because the Christians do not trust one another.

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Evangelical Leader Urges Anglicans To Break Away

English churches opposing the ordination of women and homosexuals are planning to defect from the Church of England to join the Global Anglican Future Conference, a breakaway movement launched earlier this year.

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Talking Fisher-Price Doll Accused Of Promoting Islam

The Fisher-Price Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo is meant to make realistic baby sounds and occasionally cry out for its "mama".

But some parents claim that one of its noises sounds just like "Islam is the Light", and have complained to Mattel, which owns Fisher-Price.

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India Gets Christian Woman Saint

A Catholic nun, Sister Alphonsa, has become India's first female Christian saint, at an event presided over by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

--snip--

According to a Vatican biography, when she was only 13 she deliberately thrust her foot into a pile of burning embers.

Her aim was to make herself less attractive, and therefore less likely to be forced into marriage.

She wanted instead to be free to dedicate her life exclusively to God, and eventually she entered a convent.

Sister Alphonsa endured successive bouts of illness and died in her mid-30s.

In the Vatican's view, Jesus led her to perfection through a life of suffering.

And it credited her with miraculously curing illnesses after her death.

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Anti-Christian Violence Spreads Across India

Hindu gangs here have embarked on a spree of violence against Christians that has left 60 dead, hundreds injured and more than 50,000 displaced.

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Newsweek: Christians in India under renewed attack

Arson probe as Indian Muslim family burned alive

Egypt Jails Christian Woman In Religious Dispute

CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife) -- There was concern Friday, October 10, about the situation of an Egyptian Coptic Christian woman who has been sentenced to three years in prison for "refusing" to follow her late father's conversion to Islam, Coptic Christians with close knowledge about the case said.

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Hanged For Being A Christian In Iran

Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer.

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Pakistan Violence Forces Mass Exodus

(AP) Nearly 190,000 people are reported to have fled fighting between Pakistani troops and militants near the border with Afghanistan, the United Nations said Tuesday as fresh clashes in the area killed 17 militants.

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Suicide Attack Kills 2 At Pakistani Police Station

Pakistan Tribesmen Fight Taliban, Al Qaeda

Bomb targets Pakistan anti-extremist

U.S.: No. 2 Al Qaeda In Iraq Leader Killed

(CBS/AP) The U.S. military said Wednesday that the No. 2 leader of al Qaeda in Iraq had been killed during an operation in the northern city of Mosul.

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Bombers Strike Mosul, Baghdad, Killing 13

Christian families flee Muslim attacks

Police pour into Mosul to protect Christians from sectarian killings

Christian Families Fleeing Mosul Number 1,390

Afghans fear insurgents fleeing from Iraq

Afghan Bombings Leave 19 Dead

(AP) Officials say violence in Afghanistan today has killed three NATO soldiers and 16 other people.

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Afghan battles kill more than 100 militants

Cassini's Closest Encounter

The Cassini orbiter came through its closest-ever encounter with a Saturnian moon with flying colors - and with a fresh crop of cool black-and-white pictures of Enceladus. The most precious products of Thursday's 16-mile-high pass weren't the pictures, but the samplings of the mysterious stuff welling up from the cracks in Enceladus' icy surface.

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NASA to push ahead with Mars Lab launch

Where have all the little Plutos gone?

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New machine prints sheets of light

Scientists Confirm Shark's 'Virgin Birth'

RICHMOND, Va. - Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark.

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Citizen Enforcers Take Aim

The public urge for punishment that helped delay the passage of Washington's economic rescue plan is more than a simple case of Wall Street loathing, according to scientists who study the psychology of forgiveness and retaliation. The fury is based in instincts that have had a protective and often stabilizing effect on communities throughout human history. Small, integrated groups in particular often contain members who will stand up and -- often at significant risk to themselves -- punish cheaters, liars and freeloaders.

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Earlier:

Our Animal Instincts Demand Wall Street Blood

Creation Museum Draws Big Crowds

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The museum exhibits are taken from the Old Testament, but the special effects are pure Hollywood: a state-of-the-art planetarium, animatronics and a massive model of Noah's Ark, all intended to explain the origins of the universe from a biblical viewpoint.

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Math Skills Suffer In U.S., Study Finds

The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

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Kansas Atheist Soldier Dropping Lawsuit

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - 1 of 2 atheist soldiers at Fort Riley who has sued the Department of Defense over alleged religious freedom violations is dropping his case.

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Oklahoma Ultrasound Law Challenged

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The state lawmaker who introduced a bill intended to reduce abortions in Oklahoma believes the law will withstand a legal challenge.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the law. It requires a woman to have an ultrasound and get a description of it from the doctor before getting an abortion.

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Judge Declares "Real-Life Victory" For FFRF And Plaintiffs In Green Bay Nativity Scene Case

Yesterday a U.S. District judge, declaring that the Foundation and its Green Bay plaintiffs "have already won," have a "concrete victory" and a "real-life victory," declared moot FFRF's lawsuit against a manger scene atop Green Bay City Hall.

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Also Note:

Freedom From Religion Convention - Oct. 10-12, Chicago

Conn. High Court: Civil Unions Discriminate

Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled today that gays and lesbians should be afforded the same basic right to marry as any other citizen of the state, paving the way for same-sex marriages to begin in that state before the end of the year.

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Connecticut Supreme Court strikes down same-sex marriage ban

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Calif. Ballot Initiative Threatens To Strip Marriage Rights From Same-Sex Couples

The Camp That 'Cures' Homosexuality

At a Christian 'boot camp' in the US, those struggling to reconcile faith and sexuality are taught to overcome gayness

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Anti-Gay Christians To Eat McDonald's Again

A right-wing Christian group has ended its boycott against McDonald's, claiming a victory after an executive of the hamburger chain resigned from the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

But McDonald's says that vice president of communications Richard Ellis' decision to step down from the business group was personal and based on his relocation to Canada, where he's accepted a new position with McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd.

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Mich. 'Crucible' Instructor Accused Of Witchcraft

FERNDALE, Mich. (AP) -- A man assigned "The Crucible" in an adult education English class doused his teacher with a nonflammable liquid and threatened to burn her as a witch, police said.

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Surviving Waco

One of the Branch Davidians who survived was a British man called Livingstone Fagan, from Nottingham.

--snip--

He compares what happened at Waco to the crucifixion and likens David Koresh to Christ. He also says Waco is not over in terms of what he calls "the prophetic dimension".

--snip--

And as for why the community he was part of in Waco in 1993 required firearms, he says they needed them to defend themselves and that they were instructed to have them for that purpose by God.

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Canada's Religious Tolerance Put To Test

Samuel Wurz's people arrived in Canada to the promise of religious freedom. But 90 years later, they're afraid that freedom could be destroyed in the blink of a digital camera's eye.

As members of a traditional Hutterite community in southern Alberta, they believe being photographed is a sin. But that belief is becoming harder to sustain in a world obsessed with security.

The Alberta government is heading to the Supreme Court of Canada this week as part of its heated legal battle with the Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony over the province's photo driver's licence scheme.

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Prophet Bride Novel Published In US

The US publication of a controversial book about the child bride of the Prophet Mohammed has been brought forward after its British publisher's office was bombed.

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Muslim Pupil Planned To Blow Up BNP Members, Court Hears

A muslim pupil who allegedly planned to make home-made bombs and blow up members of the BNP glorified 9/11 in his school book, a court has heard.

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'Doctors In Glasgow Airport Attack Inspired By Fundamentalist Islam

TWO NHS doctors accused of trying to murder hundreds of people in Glasgow and London using car bombs were motivated by "a fundamental form of Islam," a court heard yesterday.

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Doctors accused of car bomb terror attacks planned indiscriminate and wholesale murder, court told

U.S. Study Is Said To Warn Of Crisis In Afghanistan

WASHINGTON -- A draft report by American intelligence agencies concludes that Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral" and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban's influence there, according to American officials familiar with the document.

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Joint Chiefs Chairman Is Gloomy on Afghanistan

U.S. May Rethink Talking To Taliban

Gates sees Taliban reconciliation as possible

3,200 Afghan civilians killed by NATO, US action since 2005: study

Explosions Kill 16 Iraqi Civilians

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb exploded Friday in an outdoor market in southern Baghdad, killing at least 12 civilians and wounding 22, an Interior Ministry official said.

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Shiite fighters clash with Iraqi, U.S. troops in Baghdad

Iraq: Bomb Kills Senior Shiite Lawmaker

New U.S. intelligence report warns 'victory' not certain in Iraq

Suicide Attack On Pakistan Tribal Gathering Kills 18

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suicide bomber targeted a tribal gathering in north-west Pakistan Friday evening, Pakistani authorities have said, killing 18 people and injuring more than 45.

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Police: Blast In Pakistan's Capital Wounds 9

Suicide Blast Targets Pakistan Police

Holy War Strikes In India

For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering tension that has erupted in the Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa - a nun being raped, churches being burned, at least 35 people killed and thousands forced from their villages - is both a belated wake-up call and a mounting embarrassment.

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Big Bang Or Big Bounce?: New Theory On The Universe's Birth

Our universe may have started not with a big bang but with a big bounce -- an implosion that triggered an explosion, all driven by exotic quantum-gravitational effects.

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Mercury, up close and personal: Photos revealed

Mercury Like You've Never Seen It Before

Cassini Flyby Of Saturn Moon Offers Insight Into Solar System History

Spotless Sun: Blankest Year Of Space Age

Sun Is Not A Perfect Sphere, NASA Spacecraft Finds

Is It A Planet? Exotic Object Orbits Star

India's first moon mission launches Oct. 22

Keep Emphasis On Public Education, Says Church-State Watchdog Group

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today criticized the White House for issuing a report calling for massive new forms of tax funding of religious schools.

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"Keep Religion OUT Of Politics" Message Comes To Des Moines

The national Freedom From Religion Foundation, with the help of its Iowa members and Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, is placing a timely message--"Keep Religion OUT of Politics"--that will be up until election day in Des Moines, Iowa. The billboard is slated to go up today on Fleur Drive, near the intersection of Bell Avenue, connecting the downtown and the Des Moines International Airport.

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The Rival To The Bible

What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What's left out?

--snip--

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible.

The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

--snip--

The Codex - and other early manuscripts - do not mention the ascension of Jesus into heaven, and omit key references to the Resurrection....

--snip--

Nor are there words of forgiveness from the cross. Jesus does not say "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".

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Pope laments decline of scripture

Wiltshire church could close due to apathy

Vicar Could Be Disciplined For Blog Slurs Against Gays And Muslims

A Church of England vicar could face disciplinary action for saying gay men should have "sodomy" warnings tattooed on their bodies.

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One Man, Seven Wives, Eight Children...

You would think seven wives would be more than enough to keep a man busy.

But Philip Sharp has a little more on his plate than usual - two are pregnant at the same time.

--snip--

Mr Sharp, a self-proclaimed rabbi, came to public attention two years ago thanks to his bizarre living arrangements.

God, he claimed, had told him he was a reincarnated Old Testament king. And so he lives like one, with a harem of devoted 'wives', none of whom he is legally married to.

Now the 'rampant rabbi', as he has been called, has eight children by four wives - on top of five by a previous and now estranged wife.

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Nepal Appoints New Living Goddess

Story Highlights:

3-year-old girl Matani Shakya appointed the new "kumari" or living goddess

She will live in Katmandu temple, until she reaches puberty, loses her divine status

She will be worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists as incarnation of Hindu deity Taleju

Critics say the tradition violates both international and Nepalese laws on child rights

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Saudi Cleric Favours One-Eye Veil

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

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Death Toll Rises Amid India Ethnic Violence

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The death toll has risen to 47 in clashes between tribal people and Muslims in India's remote northeastern state of Assam, authorities said Tuesday.

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Earlier:

India: Violence kills 14, displaces 10,000

Bomber Strikes During Raid in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vest inside a home in northern Iraq as U.S. forces were trading gunfire with its occupants, according to the American military. Eleven Iraqis were killed in the operation...

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Afghan Refugees Fleeing Pakistan War Zone

(AP) Afghan refugees ordered out of a Pakistani war zone have begun flowing over the border into their homeland, worsening a humanitarian crisis resulting from an army offensive against Taliban militants, officials said.

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Pakistan to deport Afghans from tribal area

Pakistan suicide bomber kills 10

Rockets miss Pakistani politician's home

Sources: Taliban Split With Al Qaeda, Seek Peace

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda...

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Our Animal Instincts Demand Wall Street Blood

The outrage expressed by many so-called Main Street folks over the proposed Wall Street bailout is based on more than a sense of injustice.

It's about revenge, a basic animal instinct shared by humans, chimpanzees and even blue-footed boobies.

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How much is that in Apollos?

'Space Elevator' Would Take Humans Into Orbit

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new space race is officially under way, and this one should have the sci-fi geeks salivating.

The project is a "space elevator," and some experts now believe that the concept is well within the bounds of possibility -- maybe even within our lifetimes.

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Uranus poses challenge for planet fans

'Little Bang' Triggered Solar System Formation

A Last Refuge For Life Remained After Extinction

During the worst apocalypse the planet has ever known, somehow, life found a way to survive. But how? Scientists now think they have an answer: a nurturing refuge in the shallow continental shelf waters of northwestern Pangea.

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Short RNAs Show A Long History: MicroRNAs Found In Animals That Appeared A Billion Years Ago

Seeing Red and Blue Can Divide a Species -- of Fish

FFRF Sues Bush, Shirley Dobson And Gov. Doyle Over National Day Of Prayer Proclamations

(MADISON, WIS.) The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, filed a federal lawsuit today broadly challenging the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer and requiring a National Day of Prayer Proclamation by the President. In addition to suing Pres. George W. Bush, the lawsuit names his press secretary, Dana Perino, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, one of 50 governors to also issue prayer proclamations, and Shirley Dobson, chair of the National Day of Prayer Task Force.

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Atheist group sues Bush over national prayer day

Americans United Commends Virginia State Police For Instituting Nonsectarian Prayer Policy

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today commended the Virginia State Police for requiring chaplains to offer only nonsectarian prayers at public events but urged the state agency to take the next step and discontinue official prayers altogether.

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Americans United Asks IRS To Investigate Oklahoma Church That Endorsed McCain

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate an Oklahoma church whose pastor called for the election of Republican presidential candidate John McCain from the pulpit last Sunday.

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Religion Makes People Helpful And Generous -- Under Certain Conditions

ScienceDaily -- Belief in God encourages people to be helpful, honest and generous, but only under certain psychological conditions, according to University of British Columbia researchers who analyzed the past three decades of social science research.

--snip--

The study also points out that in today's world religion has no monopoly on kind and generous behaviour. In many findings, non-believers acted as prosocially as believers. The last several hundred years has seen the rise of non-religious institutional mechanisms that include effective policing, courts and social surveillance.

"Some of the most cooperative modern societies are also the most secular," says Norenzayan. "People have found other ways to be cooperative -- without God."

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Eureka! How Distractions Facilitate Creative Problem-solving

5 New Temples Planned For Mormon Church

SALT LAKE CITY - Mormon church president Thomas S. Monson said Saturday the church has plans to build five new temples worldwide, three abroad and two in the United States.

--snip--

A Kansas City-area temple should hold great significance for Mormons. Church founder Joseph Smith led an early Mormon migration to Independence, Missouri, and declared the area would be the center of Zion and the New Jerusalem. Now a Kansas City suburb, many Mormons also believe the area was the original site of the Garden of Eden.

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Episcopal Diocese OKs Split Over Bible, Gays

MONROEVILLE, Pa. - Clergy and lay members of the theologically conservative Pittsburgh diocese voted overwhelmingly Saturday to break from the liberal Episcopal Church.

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Pope Reaffirms Opposition To Contraception

VATICAN CITY (AFP) -- Pope Benedict XVI yesterday reaffirmed the Catholic Church's condemnation of artificial birth control, a position that has driven millions of people away from the faith.

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US cuts funding for condoms in Marie Stopes' African clinics

Catholic Priests Cane YouTube Over Blasphemous Vids

A group of US priests has demanded YouTube show Catholics the same respect it shows to Jews when it comes to removing sacrilegeous videos.

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YouTube Reinstates Pat Condell

YouTube censors comedian's anti-Sharia video called 'Welcome to Saudi Britain'

U.N. Anti-Blasphemy Resolution Curtails Free Speech, Critics Say

Religious groups and free-speech advocates are banding together to fight a United Nations resolution they say is being used to spread Sharia law to the Western world and to intimidate anyone who criticizes Islam.

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Religious Row Over Store Worker Who Refused To Touch Alcohol

A MUSLIM worker is suing supermarket giant Tesco for religious discrimination because he was asked to handle crates of alcohol at the firm's Fradley depot against his beliefs.

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"Modesty Patrols" Sow Fear In Israel

(AP) In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.

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Officer Lambasts Rising Jewish Extremism

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli army officer in charge of the occupation of the West Bank, Gen Gadi Shamni, has lambasted extremist Jewish settlers, blaming rising levels of violence on the encouragement of their leadership and right-wing rabbis.

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Breaking the Silence

How I became a target for Israel's 'Jewish terrorists'

Confronting Taliban, Pakistan Finds Itself At War

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- War has come to Pakistan, not just as terrorist bombings, but as full-scale battles, leaving Pakistanis angry and dismayed as the dead, wounded and displaced turn up right on their doorstep.

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Leaked Report Ties Pakistani Intelligence To Taliban

UN dependents to leave Islamabad

Pakistan: 12 Dead In Suspected U.S. Strike

Alleged Baghdad Bomb Mastermind Killed

(CBS/AP) The U.S. military said Saturday it has killed an al Qaeda in Iraq leader suspected of masterminding one of the deadliest attacks in Baghdad as well as recent bombings and the 2006 videotaped execution of a Russian official.

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Iraq Facing New Civil War, Insurgency

And...

American Al Qaeda Resurfaces In New Tape

Saudi Arabia's Economic Cities Ease Grip Of Religious Power

Allowing women to drive cars and possibly permitting cinema houses, they may also add to the few bubbles of freedom in Saudi Arabia -- where suffocating gender restrictions have been eased in recent years, to the ire of many religious conservatives.

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Bill Maher Vs. The "Talking Snake"

What if there was a religion, asks comedian Bill Maher, in which an all-powerful god from outer space decided to send his unborn son on a suicide mission to planet Earth? So this space-god impregnates a human female in some mystical, not-quite-physical fashion, and she gives birth to a baby who is both a human being and a divine incarnation, simultaneously the space god's spawn and the space god himself. (Oh, space god also has a third manifestation, one that's totally invisible.) So space-god junior is born on Earth destined to be killed, even though he's a space god and therefore immortal.

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Maher vs. God: 'Religulous' flays organized faith

Take an Utterly Religulous Stand for Free Speech!

Space Scientists Set For Second Spacecraft Flyby Of Mercury

ScienceDaily -- NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which is toting an $8.7 million University of Colorado at Boulder instrument to measure Mercury's wispy atmosphere and blistering surface, will make its second flyby of the mysterious, rocky planet Oct. 6.

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Strict Societies May Foster Violent Drinking Cultures

ScienceDaily -- Countries with strict social rules and behavioral etiquette such as the United Kingdom may foster drinking cultures characterized by unruly or bad behavior, according to a new report on alcohol and violence released today by International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP). The report lists 11 cultural features that may predict levels of violence such as homicide and spousal abuse.

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Texas University Scientists Criticize Attempts To Water Down Evolution Instruction In Public School Science Classes

AUSTIN -- Scientists from Texas universities on Tuesday denounced what they called supernatural and religious teaching in public school science classrooms and voiced opposition to attempts to water down evolution instruction.

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Atheist Soldier Sues Gates Over Mandatory Christian Prayer Sessions

The U.S. Army has been subjecting soldiers to fundamentalist Christian prayer ceremonies against their will during mandatory military events in violation of their basic constitutional rights, according to a new lawsuit filed against Secretary of Defense Robert Gates by a U.S. Army soldier.

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Atheist Family Challenges Minute Of Silence Law

Every day in every Texas public school, students pledge allegiance to the U.S. and Texas flags and sit through a moment of silence so they can pray, meditate, daydream or twiddle their thumbs.

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Earliest Reference Describes Christ As 'Magician'

A bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., is engraved with what may be the world's first known reference to Christ. The engraving reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ."

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YouTube Censors Pat Condell's Latest Video

The outspoken English comedian Pat Condell has had his latest video blocked by YouTube.

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Plans To Publish Controversial Novel About Wife Of Mohammed Suspended After Firebomb Attack

Plans for the British publication of a controversial novel about a young wife of the Prophet Mohammed have been postponed following a firebomb attack at the publisher's London office.

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Salman Rushdie Unrepentant About Satanic Verses

Twenty years after the publication of the book that almost cost him his life, Sir Salman Rushdie is still glad that he wrote The Satanic Verses.

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Saudi Woman Crashes Car After Defying Women-Only Driving Ban

Saudi Arabia's conservative establishment has seized on news that a woman crashed her brother's car while driving illicitly on a desert highway.

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Attacks On Christians Worry India

(AP) Nearly a year of attacks on Christians have put India's leaders on edge, and the latest flare-up in violence drew an angry denunciation from the country's Sikh prime minister as "acts of national shame."

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20 Children Die In Tanzania Stampede

ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) -- A stampede at an overcrowded dance hall in central Tanzania killed 20 children and left 50 others injured as they celebrated an important Muslim festival, police said Thursday.

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Kenya: Islamists Attack Church

A longstanding effort to replace a church with a mosque in Kenya's northern town of Garissa culminated in an attack by 50 Muslim youths recently that left the worship building in ruins.

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Iraqi Police: Bombs Kill 24 Near Shiite Mosques

Blasts occur as worshippers left prayers; separately, 6 killed in shooting.

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A Delicate Changing of the Guard

Cost of massive unemployment in Iraq could be paid in blood

Trio Of Warlords Blamed For Surge In Afghanistan Violence

WASHINGTON -- The escalating insurgency in Afghanistan is being spearheaded by a trio of warlords who came to prominence in the CIA-backed war to oust the Soviets but who now direct attacks against U.S. forces from havens in Pakistan, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials.

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Top U.S. commander warns that Afghan war could get worse

Blast Kills 4 Near Pakistan Pol's House

(CBS/AP) A suicide bomber blew himself up close to the house of a leading secular politician in restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least four people, police said.

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Islamabad After the Marriott Bombing: The Baghdad Effect

Pakistani Taliban Leader Dead Or Dying?

Pakistan Plotted Afghan Attack, Spain Says

(AP) A report marked confidential and bearing the official seal of Spain's Defense Ministry charges that Pakistan's spy service was helping arm Taliban insurgents in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government.

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