Possible Ice On Mars Seen By Phoenix Lander Robotic Arm Camera

ScienceDaily -- Scientists have discovered what may be ice that was exposed when soil was blown away as NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars last Sunday, May 25. The possible ice appears in an image the robotic arm camera took underneath the lander, near a footpad.

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E.T.? It's Hard To See In Hyped Video

The video was played at a downtown Denver news conference, after days of buildup from a Denver resident who is circulating a petition calling on the city to create an "Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission" to deal with reports of alien encounters. The petition drive's organizer, Jeff Peckman, hopes to get 4,000 signatures to place his initiative on the ballot.

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Teacher Tortures, Kills Boy

Multan, Pakistan - A blind seven-year-old student at an Islamic school in eastern Pakistan has died after his teacher punished him for not learning the Qu'ran, police said on Friday.

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Official: NATO Soldier Killed In Afghan Bombing

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber killed one NATO soldier and wounded at least seven other people, an Afghan official said on Saturday.

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Indonesian Police Reports Outline Terror Links

Members and associates of Jemaah Islamiyah are blamed for a string of suicide bombings in Southeast Asia that have together killed more than 240 people, most of them Western tourists, as well as a number of failed terror plots. The group had ties with al-Qaida and other foreign extremists before 2002, but most experts have thought the links had been broken since then.

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Egyptian Police Official: Weapons Cache Discovered

(AP) Boxes of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft missiles have been found in a mountain in the northern Sinai peninsula, an Egyptian police official said Saturday.

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Key Provincial Elections Split Sunni Arabs In Iraq

(AP) Plans for provincial elections in Iraq by the fall have already set Sunni Arabs against each other as factions prepare to compete for control of the local governments that will wield considerable power over security and finances.

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Outrage As French Judge Annuls Muslim Marriage Over Bride's Virginity Lie

The annulment of a young Muslim couple's marriage because the bride was not a virgin has caused anger in France, prompting President Sarkozy's party to call for a change in the law.

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Turkish Christians In Distress

A surge of religiously motivated violence has resulted in the violent murder of three church members and brazen attacks on priests and has created a general sense of isolation and trepidation amongst Turkish Christians. This has been compounded by a growing nationalist sentiment in Turkish society that Christians seek to undermine the nation's sovereignty by promoting a faith that is seen by many as Western.

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Alzheimer's Plaques Cleared Up In Mice

ScienceDaily -- Blocking a common immune system response cleared up plaques associated with Alzheimer's Disease and enabled treated mice to recover some lost memory, Yale University researchers report May 30 in the journal Nature Medicine.

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Ibuprofen, Aspirin, Naproxen May Be Equally Effective At Reducing Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease

U.S. Soldiers Launch Campaign To Convert Iraqis To Christianity

Some U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq appear to have launched a major initiative to covert thousands of Iraqi citizens to Christianity by distributing Bibles and other fundamentalist Christian literature translated into Arabic to Iraqi Muslims.

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Marine Removed From Duty Over Bible Coin Reports

U.S. reassigns Marine for passing out Bible verses to Muslims

Insurgents Hide in Tanker to Attack Iraqi Police

In Iraq, suicide bombing kills 16

The Taliban: An Organizational Analysis

Despite their quick overthrow in 2002 by a small coalition of U.S. forces and anti-Taliban groups, the Taliban has not gone away. In fact, today, in the face of thousands of NATO and U.S. troops, a growing Afghan National Army (ANA), and a popularly elected government, the movement's influence in Afghanistan is increasing. It continues to wage an insurgency that has prevented the new government from establishing legitimacy, and it has created massive unrest in Pakistan. Clearly, it behooves us to know something more about this archaic but formidable enemy."

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US terror drive stalled in political quagmire

NATO Chief in Afghanistan Says Pakistan's Tack on Militants Is Not as Expected

Worshippers Shot Dead At Yemen Mosque

(CNN) -- A man opened fire at a Shiite mosque Friday in northern Yemen, killing seven and wounding 11, state-run news agency SABA said.

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'Moment' In Schools Banned For Now

Federal judge to weigh constitutionality of law requiring silent reflection.

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South Carolina Senate bill allows display of Lord's Prayer, 10 Commandments

The Boy Scouts' Free-Speech Fight

The City of Philadelphia wants the Boy Scouts to be prepared -- prepared, that is, to change their views on homosexuality or get out of the city-owned building they have occupied for 80 years.

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Scientology Protest: Liberty Challenges Police Over Summons

UK -- The police force that issued a teenager with a court summons for calling Scientology a cult could face a judicial review over the legality of its policing guidelines.

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Texas Takes DNA Samples Of Polygamist Leader

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Texas authorities have collected DNA swabs from jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs for an ongoing criminal investigation, an official said Friday.

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Vatican Sends Threat Over Women Priests

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican announced Thursday in a general decree that it will excommunicate anyone who would attempt to ordain a woman as a priest and the woman herself.

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Storm Erupts Over 'Virginity' Divorce

FRANCE plunged into a heated debate about its marriage laws today after learning that a court had annulled the union of two Muslims because the husband said the wife was not the virgin she had claimed to be.

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Fossil Reveals Oldest Live Birth

A fossil fish uncovered in Australia is the oldest-known example of a mother giving birth to live young, scientists have reported in the journal Nature.

The 380 million-year-old specimen has been preserved with an embryo still attached by its umbilical cord.

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Mars' Water Appears To Have Been Too Salty To Support Life

Synthetic Copycat Of Living Cell Underway: Life, But Not As We Know It?

Altruism In Social Insects Is A Family Affair

The contentious debate about why insects evolved to put the interests of the colony over the individual has been reignited by new research from the University of Leeds, showing that they do so to increase the chances that their genes will be passed on.

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Stonehenge Was A Place Of Burial, Researchers Say

WASHINGTON (AP) -- England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.

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'Uncontacted Tribe' Sighted In Amazon

(CNN) -- Researchers have produced aerial photos of jungle dwellers who they say are among the few remaining peoples on Earth who have had no contact with the outside world.

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Large Hadron Collider Enables Hunt For 'God' Particle To Complete 'Theory Of Everything'

ScienceDaily -- When the world's most powerful subatomic particle collider begins gathering data this summer, it will be a major milestone for a number of University of Washington scientists.

--snip--

Physicists the world over are hoping that Atlas will help unlock some deep scientific mysteries and perhaps even lead to discovery of the Higgs boson, sometimes called "the God particle" because it is believed its discovery will refine the understanding of exactly how the universe came to be and how it functions, and how mass came to be in the first place.

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Probe lands on Mars, NASA says

Mars lander begins its arm exercises

Religion Is A Product Of Evolution, Software Suggests

By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish.

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Resource supply and the evolution of public-goods cooperation in bacteria

Marines Pass Out Gospel Verse To Iraqi Muslims, Iraqis Say

Fallujah, Iraq -- At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.

Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.

He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

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Matt Taibbi On The Daily Show

Taibbi talks about joining the ranks America's conspiratorial fringes to write "The Great Derangement".

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Enlightened Consumerism

Stranger in a Strange Land

Rapture Ready [Excerpt]

Crucifixion And Ice Cream

Amid cell phones ringing, video cams rolling and ice cream melting under the Florida sun, a blood-spattered Jesus stumbles through the crowd on his way to Golgotha, where nasty Roman soldiers strip him, nail him to the cross and crucify him -- while perspiring tourists look on in Bermuda shorts.

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Car Dealer Regrets Ads Urging Non-Christians To 'Sit Down And Shut up'

A radio ad that tells non-Christians to "sit down and shut up" has prompted a flood of phone calls to the Kern County car dealer who paid for the ads and now regrets airing them.

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Earlier:

Car dealership advert tells atheists to 'shut up'

Wisconsin Sheriff Has No Right To Impose Religion On Employees, Americans United Tells Appeals Court

A Wisconsin sheriff has no right to compel his employees to attend presentations by an evangelical Christian group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has told a federal appeals court.

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AU Urges IRS To Investigate Religious Group's Fund-Raising For Washington State Gubernatorial Candidate

The Internal Revenue Service should investigate a Washington state religious group that engaged in fund-raising for a gubernatorial candidate, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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Louisiana's Latest Creationism Bill Moves To House Floor

On May 21, 2008, Senate Bill 733 (PDF), the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, was unanimously passed by the Louisiana House Education Committee. Before passage, the bill was amended slightly from the form which passed the Senate on April 29, 2008, as previously reported by NCSE. It now moves to the full House.

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Home-schoolers learn to argue against evolution

Evolution Debate Pops Up in Maine

District urged to abandon evolution

No SAD 59 vote on evolution question

Gay Marriage Advances In Calif., New York

California Sets June 17 As Date For First Weddings; New York To Recognize Gay Marriages

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New York to recognize gay marriages

Pastor Accused Of Staging Crash, Killing Rancher To Inherit Millions

FRESNO, California (AP) -- The Rev. Howard Douglas Porter says he tried to brake before his truck plunged into an irrigation ditch, and that he made a desperate effort to save his elderly passenger from drowning in the mire.

But prosecutors in a murder trial scheduled to begin opening statements Thursday say the country preacher staged the crash as part of a far-fetched plot to kill the old rancher and inherit his millions.

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Vatican Unveils Newly Restored Pagan Tomb

(AP) The Vatican unveiled the largest and most luxurious of the pagan tombs in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday after nearly a year of restoration work.

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Church Of Scotland Mediators To Quell Disputes

THE Church of Scotland will hire mediators to handle mutinous parishioners clashing with ministers over the interpretation of Christian doctrine.

A third of the kirk's 1,200 congregations are in squabbles between church-goers and ministers, says a report calling for independent "peace-makers" to be used to quell disputes.

The infighting has been blamed on the growing influence of atheist writers such as Richard Dawkins, the evolutionist whose book The God Delusion challenges religious faith and the "irrational" belief in a supernatural creator.

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Nepal Declared Secular, Federal Democratic Republic

Kathmandu: Nepal on Wednesday scripted a new chapter in its turbulent history as the new Constituent Assembly abolished the 240-year-old monarchy and declared the country a "secular, federal democratic republic."

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Secular Turks Attack Religious Council's Code For Women

A powerful state body regulating the role of Islam in Turkey has come under fire over an article on sexual behaviour that equated flirting with adultery and condemned women for wearing perfume.

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Group Cites Rights Violations In Gaza, West Bank

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are increasingly violating human rights in their territories in a quest for control, a human rights group said Tuesday.

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Hundreds of New Testaments torched in Israel

CIA: Killing Bin Laden Won't End Al Qaeda

(AP) The United States is making "a big and continual push" to capture or kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but his demise will not end the organization's menace, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Tuesday in an Associated Press interview.

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Are terror groups pursuing the mentally disabled?

Female Al-Qa'eda Supporter Uses Internet As 'Bomb' To Recruit Others To Wage Jihad On West

Malika El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin, has been convicted in Switzerland for her part in running terror websites showing execution videos and promoting statements from al-Qa'eda linked groups.

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Al Qaeda Warrior Uses Internet to Rally Women

Cell Phone Bomb Kills 2 Near Philippine Air Base

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A homemade bomb exploded outside an air force base in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing two people and wounding 19 others in a possible attack by al Qaeda-linked militants, police said.

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Dozens Killed In Afghan Carnage

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) -- A dozen policemen and 12 civilians including three children were killed in violence Tuesday, officials said, in one of insurgency-hit Afghanistan's bloodiest days in weeks.

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Taliban turn to Iraq-style tactics to take Kabul districts

Afghan prison nightmare may be coming to an end for Pervez

NEW: Car Bomb Targets Troops, Kills 3 Afghans

Suicide Bomber Kills 16 People In Northwestern Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday in a crowd of police recruits in northwestern Iraq, killing at least 16 men and wounding 14 others, an official said.

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Suicide Bomber Kills Iraqi Police Recruits

Boys trained for suicide attacks

Iraqi army: 6 teens trained as suicide bombers

Al Sadr: Let Iraqis decide on U.S. troops

Sadr Pursues Image to Match His Power

Iraqis losing patience with militiamen

Keeping the Sunni-Shi'a Peace

U.S.-Iraqi Forces Given Ominous Warning

A religion hijacked

Germany's CDU Interested in Accepting Refugees from Iraq [Christians Only]

Iraqis claim Marines are pushing Christianity in Fallujah

Where No Mars Probe Has Gone Before

When NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander sets down in the Martian arctic on Sunday, it will open a new, icy frontier for scientists back on Earth.

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Does Time Run Backward In Other Universes?

One of the most basic facts of life is that the future looks different from the past. But on a grand cosmological scale, they may look the same.

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New Statistical Method Reveals Surprises About Our Ancestry

ScienceDaily -- A statistical approach to studying genetic variation promises to shed new light on the history of human migration.

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Roadside Bomb In Iraq Injures 7 Marines

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Seven U.S. Marines were wounded by a roadside bomb that also wounded two Iraqi police officers and killed a civilian interpreter in the Anbar province city of Falluja Friday morning, according to the U.S. military.

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Imams in Iraq denounce Quran shooting

Al-Sadr lawmakers denounce Iraqi government

Car Bomb Kills Police Officer In Peshawar

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Pakistani police officer died and two other were wounded when a car bomb exploded Saturday morning in Nasir Bagh, about 15 miles from Peshawar, a Peshawar police official said.

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Police Facing Action Over Teenage Protester's Arrest

A HUMAN rights group has pledged to take action against a police force which tried to prosecute a teenager for branding Scientology a "cult".

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Vatican Talks On Argentine Church-State Showdown

Buenos Aires -- An Argentine cardinal is traveling to the Vatican for consultations about a Church-state crisis in that country.

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Brain's 'Trust Machinery' Identified

ScienceDaily -- The brain centers triggered by a betrayal of trust have been identified by researchers, who found they could suppress such triggering and maintain trust by administering the brain chemical oxytocin. The researchers said their findings not only offer basic insights into the neural machinery underlying trust; the results may also help in understanding the neural basis of social disorders such as phobias and autism.

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Five Things Humans No Longer Need

Federal Court Rules Against Military Gays Policy

The military cannot automatically discharge people because they're gay, a federal appeals court ruled in the case of a decorated flight nurse who sued the Air Force over her dismissal.

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Californians narrowly reject gay marriage

Two men exchange vows in Norfolk

Cross Could Adorn State License Plates

COLUMBIA, SC -- The cross could soon grace a state specialty license plate.

But if the Legislature endorses the new plate, which would say "I Believe" across the bottom and carry the image of a cross in front of a stained-glass window, the state could end up in court.

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Iran 'Plans To Destroy Baha'i Community'

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A top Baha'i official has criticized Iran's claim that the six imprisoned leaders of the religious minority were held for security reasons and not because of their faith.

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Powerful Iraqi Cleric Flirting With Shiite Militant Message

(AP) Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible -- a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.

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7 Killed By Suicide Bomber In Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Seven people, including four Afghan soldiers and two children, died when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in Afghanistan's southeastern Khost province Friday morning..

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Drive to clean up TV leaves soap fans fearing for their one respite from reality

Gaza Crossings Rocked By Gunbattle, Suicide Blast

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Two suicide bombers died when their explosives-laden truck detonated Thursday near a border crossing in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said.

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'Recent Convert To Islam' Is Arrested After Bomb Explosion In Restaurant

A Muslim convert with a history of mental illness who was "preyed upon and radicalised" injured himself yesterday after a device he was carrying exploded in a busy shopping centre in Exeter.

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UK police: Restaurant bomber was 'radicalized'

Phoenix Spacecraft On Course For May 25 Mars Landing

ScienceDaily -- With three days and 3 million miles left to fly before arriving at Mars, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is on track for its destination in the Martian arctic.

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Mars Express Mission Controllers Ready For NASA Phoenix Landing

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Jupiter gets a brand-new Red Spot

'Telectroscope' peers across the Atlantic

Louisiana Bill Sneaks Religion Into Science Classes, Says Americans United

A bill approved yesterday by a Louisiana legislative panel brings religion into science classrooms and undercuts fundamental constitutional principles, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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Supernova Birth Seen For First Time

ScienceDaily -- Astronomers have seen the aftermath of spectacular stellar explosions known as supernovae before, but until now no one has witnessed a star dying in real time. While looking at another object in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, using NASA's orbiting Swift telescope, Carnegie-Princeton fellows Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger detected an extremely luminous blast of X-rays released by a supernova explosion. They alerted 8 other orbiting and on-ground telescopes to turn their eyes on this first-of-its-kind event.

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Observation Of X-rays From Birth Of Supernova Leads To All-out Effort To Record Stellar Death

Cosmic Supermagnet Spreads Odd Morse Code

The Mouse That Roared: Pipsqueak Star Unleashes Monster Flare

Astronomers Search For Orphan Stars Using Newly Upgraded Telescope

Missing Matter Of Universe Found; Cosmic Web Discovered

Storm Winds Blow In Jupiter's Little Red Spot

Jupiter: Turbulent Storms May Be Sign Of Global Climate Change

Genetically Altered Bacteria For Data Storage

ScienceDaily -- US researchers have created 'living computers' by genetically altering bacteria. The findings of the research demonstrate that computing in living cells is feasible, opening the door to a number of applications including data storage and as a tool for manipulating genes for genetic engineering.

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Diamond-Like Crystals Discovered In Brazilian Beetle Solve Issue For Future Optical Computers

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New Robot Walks Like A Human

Grasshopper-Inspired Jumping Microrobot Can Make Staggering Leaps

Debate Over Origin Of Frogs And Salamanders Settled With Discovery Of Missing Link

ScienceDaily -- The description of an ancient amphibian that millions of years ago swam in quiet pools and caught mayflies on the surrounding land in Texas has set to rest one of the greatest current controversies in vertebrate evolution. The discovery was made by a research team led by scientists at the University of Calgary.

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First Dinosaur Tracks On Arabian Peninsula

World First Discovery: Genes From Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Function In A Mouse

Social Workers Turned Away From FLDS Ranch

ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas Child Protective Services workers were turned back from a polygamist sect's ranch Wednesday when they tried to investigate reports that some children remained at the compound, a lawyer for the sect said.

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Exorcists Are Summoned From Abroad To Drive The Demons Away

Hundreds of Germans, tortured by inner voices, are on the search for priests who can free them from what they believe to be the grip of the Devil, according to an extraordinary radio documentary that has stirred an awkward debate about exorcism in the Catholic Church.

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Publisher To Suspend Cartoon Sales After Muslims Say It Insults Islam

CAIRO -- A popular Japanese cartoon is sparking off outcries in the Muslim world where some fear it could fuel a backlash not seen since European papers carried cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and a Dutch lawmaker released a controversial film earlier this year.

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3 Dead In Afghan 'Quran Shooting' Protest

(CNN) -- Two civilians and a Lithuanian soldier were killed when a protest outside a NATO base in western Afghanistan against the Quran desecration incident in Iraq turned violent on Thursday, a spokesman for the alliance's military in Kabul said.

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Taliban Make Afghan Stability a Distant Goal

Our Mission Is Liberation, Says Somali Islamist Leader

The senior leader of Somalia's Islamist opposition vowed yesterday to expel US-backed Ethiopian troops by force and create an Islamic republic in the war-torn country on the Horn of Africa.

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Pakistan Signs Truce With Militants

Pakistan's government on Wednesday signed a controversial peace agreement with hard-line Islamic militants in a picturesque northern valley, with the government accepting the introduction of Islamic "Shariah" law to the region and agreeing to free dozens of prisoners.

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Israel-Syria Peace Deal Could Threaten Iran, Hezbollah

ANKARA, Turkey -- Newly launched peace talks between Syria and Israel face daunting odds, but a breakthrough could bring fundamental change to the Mideast by returning the Golan Heights to Syria, cutting off support for Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, and diminishing Iran's regional influence.

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Israel and Syria's Secret Talks

'A Huge Day'

U.S. Airstrike Kills Iraqi Children

(CBS/AP) A U.S. helicopter strike north of Baghdad killed eight civilians, including several children, an Iraqi police official said Thursday. The U.S. military said the strike targeted al Qaeda fighters but acknowledged children died.

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Has Maliki Conquered Sadr City?

Non-Religious Summer Camps Develop Niche

Caitlin, 16, and Elizabeth, 10, go to Camp Quest, which in 1996 created a niche getaway for children who are agnostic, atheist, or just not sure what to believe yet.

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16% Of US Science Teachers Are Creationists

Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in US schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science - and especially evolutionary biology - tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles.

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Irmo High Principal Quitting Over Gay-Straight Alliance

IRMO, SC (WIS) - The principal of Irmo High School will announce his resignation Wednesday after being asked to allow the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at the school.

--snip--

"Allowing the formation of this club on our campus conflicts with my professional beliefs and religious convictions."

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Boy, 12, Beheads Man In Al Qaeda Video

Amid cries of 'Allah o Akbar' (god is great), a young boy, barely 12 years old, lifts his machete and strikes at his victim who is lying on the ground, all tied up for the kill.

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Bin Laden Calls on Egyptians To Overthrow Mubarak, Lift Gaza Blockade

Kenyan Witchhunt Leaves 11 Burned To Death

(AP) Officials say a mob in western Kenya has burned to death 11 people suspected of being witches and wizards.

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Spanish Catholics Rise Against State

Once they governed an empire, their crusaders and missionaries spreading the faith to newly discovered corners of the world. Today the Catholics of Spain are an angry and fearful group....

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Anti-clergy protest marks pope trip to Italian north

Gay Student Who Faced Execution In Iran Granted Asylum In Britain

A gay man who faces the death penalty in Iran has won asylum in the UK after protests prompted the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to reconsider his case.

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Teenager Faces Prosecution For Calling Scientology 'Cult'

A teenager is facing prosecution for using the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.

The unnamed 15-year-old was served the summons by City of London police when he took part in a peaceful demonstration opposite the London headquarters of the controversial religion.

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Church of Scientology: Boy faces court for 'cult not religion' placard

Museum Director On Trial For Blasphemy

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian prosecutors on Tuesday charged Yuri Samodurov, head of the Moscow museum, with "inciting hatred" and "offending human dignity" in the March 2007 exhibition "Forbidden Art," his lawyer said.

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Afghan Journalist Appeals Death Sentence

PUL-E CHARKHI, Afghanistan (AP) -- The prison uniform Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh wears is emblazoned with crudely painted black scales of justice, but the young journalist insists on the eve of his appeal that he has yet to see justice done.

A court in January found the 24-year-old Kambakhsh guilty of distributing an article that questioned the Muslim practice of polygamy. It handed him the maximum sentence on the charge of insulting Islam -- death.

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Afghan reporter facing death sentence denies blasphemy

I was tortured to confess, Pervez tells appeal court

And...

Two NATO-led soldiers slain in Afghanistan

Appeal Against Woman Renouncing Islam In Malaysia

The Malaysian government has said it would challenge a court decision allowing Tan Ean Huan, a Chinese woman who called herself Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah as a Muslim , to renounce Islam and revert to Buddhism.

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The Saudi Woman Who Wants A Divorce

After 30 years of marriage, cynics might say most husbands and wives would have seen quite enough of each other, thank you very much.

But not in the case of one Saudi Arabian man who managed to live with his wife for three decades without setting eyes on her face.

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Iraqi: 'I Killed Her With A Machine Gun'

BASRA, Iraq (CNN) -- The man, blindfolded and handcuffed, crouches in the corner of the detention center while an Iraqi soldier grills him about rampant crimes being carried out by gangs in the southern city of Basra.

--snip--

Women bore the brunt of the militias' extremist ideologies. The militants spray-painted threats on walls across Basra, warning women to wear headscarves and not to wear make-up. Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something "un-Islamic."

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See also:

How picture phones have fuelled frenzy of honour killing in Iraq

Iraqi Forces Move Into Sadr City; Violence Elsewhere

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers launched assaults across Iraq over the past 24 hours, killing 11 police recruits and six civilians, including a 7-year-old.

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Iraqi troops pour into Sadr City

Radical Islamists Gain In Kuwait Vote, No Women Elected

Radical Sunni Islamists made a strong showing in Kuwait's legislative election and minority Shiites gained one more seat, reflecting heightened sectarian sentiment and conservatism in the oil-rich Gulf state.

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Facts About The Golan Heights

(AP) Israel and Syria said Wednesday they are holding peace talks through Turkish mediators on a dispute that centers on the Golan Heights.

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Israel-Hamas Truce In Gaza Could Take Effect Later This Week

The cease-fire (tahdiyeh) being negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip is expected to go into effect in a number of days, following developments at the end of meetings held by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday with the Egyptian leadership.

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Lebanon Agreement Buoys Hizballah

The new agreement broadly gives Hizballah what it wants: legitimacy as an armed state-within-a-state.

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Somali Gunmen Seize 2 Italian Aid Workers

(AP) Gunmen seized two Somali aid workers and their Somali colleague in an overnight attack, a witness said on Wednesday.

--snip--

Somali insurgents vowed to target foreign aid workers after a U.S. missile strike killed a the head of the Islamist al-Shabab militia, Aden Hashi Ayro, and 24 other people earlier this month. Ayro was reputed to be the top al-Qaida commander in Somalia and was linked to a string of attacks on foreign aid workers and journalists.

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Morocco Arrests Alleged Terror Plotters

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Eleven people with alleged ties to Iraq's insurgency have been arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks in Morocco and Belgium, the state news agency reported Monday.

--snip--

The suspects are accused of having links to cells sending fighters to Iraq's insurgency and to camps run by an Algeria-based militant group that calls itself al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa. Authorities believe they were planning attacks in Morocco and Belgium, the report said.

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Virtual Telescope Opens Night Sky

Twirling galaxies, exotic nebulae and exploding stars are now just a mouse click away for amateur astronomers.

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Physicists Demonstrate How Information Can Escape From Black Holes

Simple Artificial Cell Created From Scratch

ScienceDaily -- A team of Penn State researchers has developed a simple artificial cell with which to investigate the organization and function of two of the most basic cell components: the cell membrane and the cytoplasm--the gelatinous fluid that surrounds the structures in living cells. The work could lead to the creation of new drugs that take advantage of properties of cell organization to prevent the development of diseases. The team's findings will be published later this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Parrot Fossil 55 Million Years Old Discovered

ScienceDaily -- Palaeontologists have discovered fossil remains in Scandinavia of parrots dating back 55 million years. Reported May 14 in the journal Palaeontology, the fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark.

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Rapid, Dramatic 'Reverse Evolution' Documented

Climbing As Easy As Walking For Smaller Primates

Humanity Was Genetically Divided For 100,000 Years

Texas Megachurch Minister Busted In Internet Sex Sting

BRYAN, Texas -- A minister from a Dallas-area Baptist megachurch was caught in an Internet sex sting and charged with online solicitation of a minor, police said Friday.

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Former Altar Boy Seeks Lien On Church Building

BURLINGTON, Vt. - A former altar boy who won an $8.7 million judgment against the Diocese of Burlington in a priest sex case wants a lien on the Vermont church's headquarters to make sure it gets paid.

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Evangelical Group Seeks Separation Of Religion From Politics

A group of prominent U.S. evangelical Christians is urging other Evangelicals to step back from partisan politics and avoid becoming ''useful idiots'' for any political party.

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Islamist Fighters Seize Town In Somalia

(AP) A human rights leader says Islamist fighters have seized a southern town in Somalia that is a major agricultural center, compelling hundreds of refugees to flee.

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Iran's Arrest Of Baha'is Condemned

(CNN) -- Six Baha'i leaders in Iran were seized and imprisoned this week, the religious group said. The act prompted condemnation and concern from the movement and a top American religious freedom panel.

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