Radical Imam Claims Damages For Anti-Koran Film

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

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Veil Lifts On Plight Of Child Brides

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

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Saudi Faces Lashes And Jail Over 'Illicit Phone Affair'

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

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Twin Attacks Kill Iraqi Army Recruits

Story Highlights:

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

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

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

Dozens killed in previous bombings in Baquba, north of Baghdad

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28 Killed In Twin Suicide Attacks In Iraqi City

Bombers Kill Dozens Of Iraqi Recruits

Bombs detonate near Iraqi officer's house, kill 3

Sadr's militia may live to fight again

Who's who in the world of jihad

Pakistan: Clashes With Militants Kill 16

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

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Scores Die In Wave Of Attacks In Afghanistan

Story Highlights:

NATO says insurgents suffer heavy casualties in daylong fighting

Suicide bomber riding a motorcycle kills at least 21 people

Coalition reports suffering casualties in heavy fighting with insurgents

Teen suicide bomber detonates explosives-laden vest killing three

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9 Americans Die in Afghan Attack

'Heroic' fighting repels Afghan militants

Pakistan intelligence blamed for Afghan attacks

Pakistan Rejects Afghan Accusations

Pakistan militants focus on Afghanistan

Bold Afghan Raid On U.S. Base Casts Doubts

See Mars In Wide-Screen

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

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Children Are Naturally Prone To Be Empathic And Moral

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

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Bisexual Species: Unorthodox Sex In The Animal Kingdom

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

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Pastor Among Suspects In Illegal Snake Bust

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

--snip--

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

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

The verses referenced are:

Mark 16:17-18

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

Satanist Father And Christian Mother Fight For Sunday Morning Custody Rights

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

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

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Pope Benedict Arrives In Australia

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

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The Pope's Next Apology Tour?

Celibacy's stain will remain when the party is over

Even true believers fail to follow Vatican line

Abortion Reform Provokes New Battle With Bishops

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

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Sex Battles Religion In Catholic Brazil

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

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Pakistan Says US Not Hunting Bin Laden On Its Turf

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

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Hezbollah Gains Clout In Lebanon _ But At A Cost

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

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Pastor Hagee's Desperate News Suppression Campaign Backfires

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

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Shirtless Mormons Calendar Gets Man In Trouble

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

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Thousands Flock To Revival In Search Of Miracles

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

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

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When In Rome... Rasta Smokers Get Pot Win

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

--snip--

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

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

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Bid To Gag Sex Abuse Victim

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

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Weak US Dollar Hits Papal Profits

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

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Afghanistan: State Of Siege

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

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Water Found On The Moon

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

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

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

Sample-Collection Tests By NASA's Phoenix Lander Continue

Susskind Quashes Hawking in Quarrel Over Quantum Quandary

Big Brains Arose Twice In Higher Primates

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

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Brain Cells Related To Fear Identified

Brain Chemical Shown To Induce Both Desire And Dread

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

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

Flatfish Fossils Fill In Evolutionary Missing Link

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

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

New Legal Threat To School Science In The US

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

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One Humanist's Stand For Academic Freedom

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

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

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South Carolina Plans License Plate For Christians

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

--snip--

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

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

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Indonesian Executed For Killing 42 Females

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

--snip--

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

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Religious Group Closes Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations

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

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Demo Mocks Ban On Annoying Pope Fans

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

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See also:

Could the Pope Aid an Anglican Split?

Al Qaeda Suspected In U.S. Embassy Attack

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

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Al Qaeda Goes Viral

21 Bodies Found Buried At Iraq School Site

Story Highlights:

Relatives say some were al Qaeda in Iraq kidnap victims

School in western Iraq's Anbar province is under construction

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

Mosul suicide bombing targets Iraqi soldiers; eight civilians killed

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Families: Missing soldiers found dead in Iraq

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

Afghanistan's Growing Refugee Crisis

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

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Militant Gains In Pakistan Said To Draw Fighters

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

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Police Fail To Bring Indictments In Settler Attacks On Palestinians

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

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Palestinian Village Takes On Israeli Military

Atheist Soldier Sues Army For 'Unconstitutional' Discrimination

Story Highlights:

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

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

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

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Student Who Took Religious Icon Getting Death Threats

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

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

Catholics worldwide became furious.

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IT'S A GODDAMNED CRACKER!

Origin Of The Novel Species Noodleous Doubleous: Evidence For Intelligent Design

Penne Rigate will spontaneously insert itself into Rigatoni (order pasta) under liquid to gas transition conditions of H2O to create the previously unobserved species Noodleous doubleous. The estimated probability of this spontaneous generation event is too low to be explained by thermodynamics and therefore apparently represents intelligent design.

--snip--

A viable hypothesis is that a divine Noodly Appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was responsible for the effect. These results are therefore strong empirical in support of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.

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See also:

A trip to the Creation Museum

McDonald's Makes Jesus Cry

It feels a little like the American Family Association was looking for someone to boycott and it was just McDonald's' turn. They've already boycotted Sears, Kohl's, Kmart, Target, Old Navy and IKEA. As a result, they're naked and don't have anywhere to sit. The McDonald's boycott follows boycotts of Burger King, Carl's Jr., 7-11, Proctor & Gamble and Kraft, which means Donald Wildmon hasn't eaten anything for sale in America since the late '70s. You'd think he'd be dead, but no.

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Was Jesus' Resurrection A Sequel?

A 3-ft.-high tablet romantically dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation" could challenge the uniqueness of the idea of the Christian Resurrection.

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Messianic message stirs debate

Atheism On The Buses

"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and get on with your life."

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"Imagine No Religion" Billboard Campaign Comes to Seattle

Call To Remove Blasphemy Law

The New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists says the charge gives religious doctrine special protection that other ideas and beliefs do not have.

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Landlords Protest After Pub Swearing Ban Gets Them Sacked

A couple sacked from a pub after their ban on swearing saw takings plummet have staged their own lock-in protest at the eviction.

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Pope Likely To Apologise In Australia For Abuse

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI is expected to apologise to victims of sexual abuse by clergy when he visits Australia for World Youth Day next week....

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See also:

Australian Catholic leader in sex abuse row before Pope's visit

Big Catholic celebration holds a risk of backlash

Legal manoeuvre causes strife for pope's World Youth Day visit

Gay Christians' protest to coincide with Pope's arrival

Catholics to combat condom handout

Anti-Pope fashion parade held ahead of Australian visit

Church Of England Heads For Split On Women Bishops

(AP) The Church of England's ruling body voted Monday to move ahead with allowing women to become bishops, a move that risks further division because it lacks accommodations for traditionalists opposed to the idea.

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Church vote backs women bishops

Churches' secret talks to stop gay surge

Church divided: Women bishops an obstacle to unity, Vatican warns

Vicar Kicked Wife In The Face As They Rowed Over What To Have For Dinner

Vicar who repeatedly kicked his wife in the face during an argument over what they were having for dinner has been jailed.

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Dad Charged With Murder In Bride's 'Honor Killing'

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Pakistani man accused of killing his daughter because she wanted out of an arranged marriage told a judge Tuesday that he had done nothing wrong.

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Indonesia Clerics 'Growing Force'

Hardline Muslim groups in Indonesia are gaining greater influence over government policy, a report says.

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Deadly Blasts Rip Through Pakistani City

(CBS/ AP) A string of explosions wounded at least 25 people Monday in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, police said.

The five blasts came within about an hour the day after a deadly suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad, killed 18 people, most of them police officers.

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Pakistan police arrest 4 bomb suspects

Blast Strikes Pakistani Police Station

Pakistan Islamists vow jihad year after mosque siege

THE TALIBAN AT THE GATES OF PESHAWAR

Suicide Bomber Kills Scores In Afghanistan

(CBS/AP) A suicide car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in central Kabul on Monday, killing some 40 people in the deadliest attack in Afghanistan's capital this year, officials said.

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See also:

Afghan official: Pakistan spies behind Kabul attack

Newsweek: Blow to Afghan security

Australian soldier killed, 3 people wounded in bomb attack

Afghan security increasingly bleak

Relative Calm In Iraq Ends As Attacks Take 16 Lives

BAGHDAD -- A wave of attacks in Baghdad and areas north of the capital Sunday shattered a relative lull in violence, killing 16 people and injuring 15 a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that Iraq's government had defeated terrorism.

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Baghdad's Grasp on Iraq's South

Israel Opens Gaza Crossings Despite Mortar Fire

JERUSALEM - Israel agreed to an Egyptian request and opened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday despite Palestinian mortar fire that violated a three-week-old truce.

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Tablet Ignites Debate On Messiah And Resurrection

JERUSALEM -- A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

--snip--

Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day.

But there was, he said, and "Gabriel's Revelation" shows it.

"His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come," Mr. Knohl said. "This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel."

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When Using Gestures, Rules Of Grammar Remain The Same

ScienceDaily -- For the study, the team tested 40 speakers of four different languages: 10 English, 10 Mandarin Chinese, 10 Spanish and 10 Turkish speakers. They showed them simple video sequences of activities and asked them to describe the action first in speech and a second time using only gestures. They also gave another 40 speakers of the same languages transparencies to assemble after watching the video sequences. Some of the videos portrayed real people and others animated toys that represented a variety of sentence types: a girl waves, a duck moves to a wheelbarrow, a woman twists a knob and a girl gives a flower to man.

When asked to describe the scenes in speech, the speakers used the word orders typical of their respective languages. English, Spanish, and Chinese speakers first produced the subject, followed by the verb, and then the object (woman twists knob). Turkish speakers first produced the subject, followed by the object, and then the verb (woman knob twists).

But when asked to describe the same scenes using only their hands, all of the adults, no matter what language they spoke, produced the same order ---- subject, object, verb (woman knob twists). When asked to assemble the transparencies after watching the video sequences (another nonverbal task, but one that is not communicative), people also tended to follow the subject, object, verb ordering found in the gestures produced without speech.

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Decades Later, Still Asking: Would I Pull That Switch?

Some of psychology's most famous experiments are those that expose the skull beneath the skin, the apparent cowardice or depravity pooling in almost every heart.

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Merger Of U.S. Earth Science Agencies Proposed

WASHINGTON -- From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet.

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Group Asks For Divine Intervention To Ease Oil Prices

(CNSNews.com) - As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles.

The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

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Preaching To The Pub

When the devout British Christian couple took over the management of a North London pub, the Kings Head, less than a year ago, they decided to serve up a helping of Christianity to their customers.

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Pub with no swearing, no gambling and, guess what... no customers

Does The Pope Wear Prada?

Pope watchers have been put on notice that the Vatican does not take kindly to facile labels like "retro" or "vintage" when discussing the sartorial choices of Pope Benedict XVI.

After insistent rumours that the pope's red shoes were from luxury house Prada, the Vatican finally put the matter to rest.

Benedict, 81, is a "simple and sober man (who is) not dressed by Prada but by Christ," the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano wrote last week, noting that the colour symbolises the blood of martyrs.

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Al Qaeda Expanding Recruitment Of Children

Al Qaeda has successfully established a network for recruiting boys as young as 12 from across central Asia as it seeks new volunteers to enlarge its team of prospective suicide bombers and militants fighters.

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Suicide Blast Targeting Police Kills 16 At Pakistan Rally

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suicide attacker killed 16 people Sunday, 12 of them police officers, near a protest rally marking last year's Pakistani government raid on the Red Mosque, police said.

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See also:

A Deadly Anniversary in Pakistan

Civilian, Police Officer Killed In Northern Iraq Violence

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A civilian and a police officer were killed in violence Saturday in a restive northern Iraqi city, the U.S. military said.

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Stars And Stripes In Space

Two of NASA's Great Observatories present a red-white-and-blue example of cosmic stars and stripes, just in time for the Fourth of July.

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See also:

The scientific flash behind the fireworks

A Healthier July Fourth: Eco-friendly Fireworks And Flares Poised To Light Up The Sky

And...

Celebrate Separation Of Church And State!

First Measurements Of The Solar Wind Termination Shock By Voyager 2 Spacecraft

ScienceDaily -- Two University of Iowa space physicists report that the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which has been traveling outward from the Sun for 31 years, has made the first direct observations of the solar wind termination shock, according to a paper published in the July 3 issue of the journal Nature.

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See also:

Voyager Squashes View Of Solar System

First Images Of Solar System's Invisible Frontier

MESSENGER Settles Old Debates And Makes New Discoveries At Mercury

Volcanism And Iron-deficiency on Mercury

Phoenix To Bake Ice-Rich Sample Next Week

Einstein Was Right, Astrophysicists Say

New Evidence That Ancient Choanoflagellates' Form Evolutionary Link Between Single-Celled And Multi-Celled Organisms

ScienceDaily -- What do humans and single-celled choanoflagellates have in common? More than you'd think. New research into the choanoflagellate genome shows these ancient organisms have similar levels of proteins that cells in more complex organisms, including humans, use to communicate with each other.

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Evolutionary Origin Of Mammalian Gene Regulation Is Over 150 Million Years Old

Life Altered 12,900 Year Ago By Giant Comet?

Senate Examines TV Evangelists

Every year some of America's best known TV evangelists bring in hundreds of millions of dollars from donors all over the world. But as Jonathan Beale reports, some of the TV evangelists' own lifestyles have begun to ring alarm bells and prompted a Senate investigation into their activities.

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Former State Science Director Sues Over Intelligent Design E-Mail

AUSTIN -- A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes.

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Insurers Settle Clergy Sex Abuse Claims With Massachusetts Diocese For $8.5 Million

BOSTON: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts, has reached an $8.5 million settlement with insurance companies to pay claims filed by people who were sexually abused by priests....

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Catholic Church: Pedophile Priest Had 'Boy Trouble'

Denver -- The Catholic priest who was a serial pedophile sex abuser was described as having "boy trouble" by a church official and shuffled off to at least nine parishes during his 44-year-career.

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Pope Approves Miracle For Hawaiian Priest

(AP) Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of a 19th century Belgian priest who ministered to leprosy patients in Hawaii - opening the way for him to be declared a saint.

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New Zealand Man Sells His Soul To 'Hell'

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand man has sold his soul to hell -- Hell Pizza, that is.

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Will The World End In 2012?

Two years ago, Patrick Geryl, then 51, quit his job as a laboratory worker for a French oil company. He'd saved up just enough money to last him until December 2012. After that, he thought, he wouldn't need it anyway.

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Mother And Girl Cut Up 'For Being Witches'

PACHUCA, Mexico - Three women have confessed to strangling and cutting into pieces a woman and her three-month-old daughter because they feared they were witches, Mexican police said today.

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Mysterious Cave Opened At Mexican Pyramid

MEXICO CITY - Archaeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.

--snip--

They say new excavations begun this month could be the key to unlocking information about the sacred rituals of the people who inhabited the city, later dubbed "The Place Where Men Become Gods" by the Aztecs, who believed it was a divine site.

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Muslims Outraged At Police Advert Featuring Cute Puppy Sitting In Policeman's Hat

A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

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"Breaking The Veils" Through Art

Jordan Charges Dutch Politican With Blasphemy

Dutch politician Geert Wilders was charged by a Jordanian prosecutor Tuesday with blasphemy and contempt of Muslims for making an anti-Koran film, and ordered to stand trial in Jordan, Reuters reported.

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Dutch politician to make another anti-Muslim film

Jerusalem Bulldozer 'Terrorist' Kills 3 In Rampage

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli authorities are investigating why a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem rammed his bulldozer into several cars and buses Wednesday, killing three people before Israeli police shot him dead.

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Renewed Warnings About Al Qaeda

A senior U.S. official on Wednesday renewed warnings of the danger posed by al Qaeda to the security of the United States, the Western world, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a message pointed at Pakistani leaders.

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Does Osama bin Laden Still Matter?

Militants Abort Indonesian Terror Attack

(AP) Islamic militants aborted a planned bombing attack on a cafe at the last minute in western Indonesia after realizing many of the victims would have been Muslims, police said.

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Religion And Politics In Iran

In 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran closed a speech at the United Nations with a call for the "mighty Lord" to "hasten the emergence" of Imam Mahdi, a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad. Shia Islam holds that the Mahdi, as the redeemer of Islam, will return from hiding to rid the world of injustice.

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Iraqis: Hezbollah Trained Shiite Militants

(AP) Hezbollah instructors trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago when they slipped across the border to Iran - presumably to continue instruction on Iranian soil, according to two Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.

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See also:

Alcohol is flowing again in Baghdad

Particularly long gas lines in Baghdad

Iraq lawmakers promise tough ride on oil contracts

Epic struggle for Iraqi oil

Fire The Starting Gun! The Darwin Year Begins...NOW!

It was on 1 July 1858, 150 years ago today, that the idea of natural selection was first presented to the public in a joint reading of Darwin's and Wallace's papers at the Linnean Society of London (an event which they did not recognize as important at the time), which makes today analogous to the Fourth of July for the biology revolution. Celebrate! If you've got a some fireworks you were saving for the holiday in a few days time, set off a few early.

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Mapping Metaphor: This Is Your Brain On Figurative Language

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Then again, mischief is the hot smoke that curls off the end of a lit intellect. And sometimes a diamond in the rough is indeed just an ancient deposit of highly compressed carbon. But no facet of humanity's evolved "genius," as Aristotle put it more than 2,300 years ago, sparkles so brilliantly as our unique capacities for extra-literal description and comprehension.

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How Does Language Exist In The Brain?

New Map IDs The Core Of The Human Brain

Faith-Based Initiative Should Be Abolished, Not Renamed

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics), today condemned Barack Obama's "gratuitous" pandering and his pledge to expand and rename George Bush's faith-based initiative. The Foundation is a nonpartisan educational organization working to keep church and state separate, which has taken the lead in legal challenges against the faith-based initiative.

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Obama Support For Expansion Of 'Faith-Based' Program Is Disappointing, Says Americans United

Obama Backs Expanded Faith-Based Funding

Obama Says Amen to Faith Based Programs

The Note: Obama Makes Faith His Mission

FFRF Pursues Open Meetings Violation

(Madison, Wis.) The Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked the La Crosse County District Attorney to prosecute officials of the Village of Holmen who engaged in open meetings violations in selling off part of Star Hill and a cross on it. Actions made during a violation of open meetings law can be invalidated by a district attorney.

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Amish Communities Facing Health Crisis

Amish communities in America are facing a financial crisis that could threaten their way of life as they struggle to cope with an epidemic of deadly genetic diseases.

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'Battling For America's Soul'

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property leaps headlong into the showdown over same-sex marriage in California.

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And God Said, "Just Do It"

Genesis, chapter 2 verse 24, says a man "shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." But how liberally to define cleave? That was the very special Bible query the Rev. Stacy Spencer and his wife Rhonda took up last month with 252 married people at their New Direction Christian Church in Memphis, Tenn. And the Spencers' answer was ... encouraging. Does frequent sex have a place in marriage? Yep. Oral sex? Read the Song of Solomon 2: 3 for assurance. How about role-playing? One participant expressed a yearning to see her husband dressed as a police officer. The Good Book offers no specifics on that, so Stacy Spencer allowed that it was up to the woman, "as long as you're not lusting after a particular officer. Jesus talked about spiritual adultery, and that could be spiritual adultery. But if it's just a generic cop, go for it."

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Polygamists Offer Prairie Fashions For Sale

DALLAS -- Just in time for back-to-school shopping: authentic polygamist prairie dresses.

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Perverted Temple Elder Jailed

A PERVERTED elder at a Sikh temple was caught abusing a young girl on the building's new CCTV cameras.

--snip--

Singh, an over-stayer in the UK from India, made no comment in police interviews after being told of the evidence. But when brought before the court he pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault on a female aged under 13.

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Thou Shalt Not Irk, NSW Police Rule

EXTRAORDINARY new powers will allow police to arrest and fine people for "causing annoyance" to World Youth Day participants and permit partial strip searches at hundreds of Sydney sites, beginning today.

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'Plotters' Seized As Tension Mounts In Turkey

(CNN) -- Political tensions rose Tuesday across Turkey as police seized two retired generals, a prominent journalist and others accused of plotting to overthrow the government and prosecutors undertook a court case to ban the Islamic-rooted ruling party.

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Turkey ready to ban ruling Islamist party

Majlis To Vote On Anti-Social Offenses

TEHRAN -- MP Hamidreza Hajbabaii on Monday said the Majlis is going to put to the vote a plan on imposing tougher punishments on anti-social offenders.

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Afghanistan Deadlier Than Iraq

KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq last month, as they did in May.

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Iraqis face miles-long lines for gas

Officials: Hunt For Al Qaeda Ineffective

(CBS) Despite billions of dollars spent and more than 500 U.S. soldiers having been killed in Afghanistan in the hunt for al Qaeda, there's increasing evidence that the terror group is making a comeback just across the border in Pakistan's lawless tribal territories, where the Pakistani government has little or no control.

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Criticism grows as Pakistani military pursues limited offensive

Is Osama bin Laden Dying ... Again?

Israel Closes Gaza Border Over Suspected Attack

Another blow for shaky cease-fire; Hamas denies rocket was fired..

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Dalai Lama's Time Bomb

Some Tibetans have had it with the spiritual leader's nonviolence. But as Gandhi showed, patience can be the deadliest of weapons.

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Journey of a Buddhaholic

Saying His Peace

Super Atoms Turn Periodic Table Upside Down

ScienceDaily -- Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands have developed a technique for generating atom clusters made from silver and other metals. Surprisingly enough, these so-called super atoms (clusters of 13 silver atoms, for example) behave in the same way as individual atoms and have opened up a whole new branch of chemistry.

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Physicists Create Millimeter-sized 'Bohr Atom'