Suspected U.S. Missile Strike Kills 9 In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- In what could herald an intensified U.S. campaign against Islamic insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas, a suspected American missile attack killed at least nine people near the Afghan border, local officials said Wednesday.

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Muslims Demand Independent Kashmir As Indian Police Kill 13

Indian Kashmir has been convulsed by the biggest pro-independence rallies for two decades, with tensions between Muslims and Hindus spilling over into violence that has so far claimed 13 lives and left more than 100 people injured.

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Afghan Militants Kill 3 Aid Workers

(AP) Taliban fighters with assault rifles shredded a U.S. aid group's SUV with dozens of bullets Wednesday, killing three Western women and their Afghan driver amid an escalating militant onslaught against humanitarian workers in Afghanistan.

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British aid worker killed by Taliban named

Lebanon Bus Stop Bomb Kills 18

A bomb killed at least 18 people, including nine soldiers, as they boarded a bus in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli today, security sources said.

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Cassini Begins Transmitting Data From Enceladus Flyby

ScienceDaily -- Shorty after 9:03 p.m. Pacific Time (August 11, 2008), the Cassini spacecraft began sending data to Earth following a close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. During closest approach, Cassini successfully passed only 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface of the tiny moon.

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Maximum Of Perseid Meteor Shower, August 12 -13, 2008

Judge Says UC Can Deny Class Credit To Christian School Students

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

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District Of Columbia Gift Of Land And Money To Central Union Mission Is Unconstitutional, Americans United Says

The District of Columbia City Council's plan to give $13 million in property and cash to Central Union Mission is unconstitutional and must be dropped, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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4 More In 'Cult' Cited In Death

Baltimore police have obtained warrants charging four more members of what authorities call a religious cult in the death of 2-year-old Javon Thompson, whose body was found in May in a suitcase in Philadelphia. The warrants bring the number of people charged in the boy's death to five.

--snip--

Police say the five suspects belonged to a small group of adults and children who operated for a time in East and West Baltimore. Police allege that the victim's mother, Ria Ramkissoon, 21, the first to be charged with murder, and others neglected Javon and allowed the boy to starve to death because they thought he was a demon for not saying amen after he was fed, according to police charging documents.

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Cult Murder Suspect's Mom: It's Not Her Fault

First Card To Comply With Sharia Law Launched

The UK's first Sharia-compliant prepaid MasterCard was launched yesterday.

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Three Police Officers Slain In Western China

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- An attack on a security checkpoint in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region killed three members of the security force and wounded a fourth, state media reported Tuesday.

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Hijab-clad women Olympians attempt to break away from Muslim stereotypes

Bomb Hits Pakistan Military Truck, Up To 14 Dead

Peshawar, Pakistan - A roadside bomb hit a Pakistan air force truck in a northwestern city Tuesday, killing as many as 14 people including a 5-year-old girl in the latest violence in the volatile region.

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Taliban Declares "Open War" In Pakistan

India Yearns For Pakistan's Musharraf Amid Turmoil

Campaign To Silence Dissent In West Bank, Gaza

(AP) A weeks-old clampdown on political opponents by the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its rival Fatah in the West Bank has increased allegations of human rights abuses by security forces.

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Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Tuesday Morning

The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a good display of shooting stars in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday.

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Colorful Star Birth Region Near Tarantula Nebula Unveiled On Hubble's 100,000th Orbit Milestone

FreeThoughtAction Hero Of The Day - 08/11/08

Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 - July 21, 1899)

According to Wikipedia, Ingersoll "was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism."

Some Ingersoll Quotes:

The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called "faith."

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

No man with a sense of humour ever founded a religion.

It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.

More Ingersoll quotes HERE.

"Keep Religion Out Of Politics" Billboard Goes Up In Denver

Two months after posting an "Imagine No Religion" billboard in Denver at West 14th Avenue and Fox Street, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and its local membership have replaced that sign with a timely new message:

"Keep religion OUT of politics."

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Boy In Suitcase Was Cult Victim, Police Say

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia in the spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say "amen" after meals, police said.

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U.S. Soldier Killed As Bombers Target Troops Across Iraq

Story Highlights:

U.S. soldiers among 24 wounded in blast north of Baghdad, official says

Two people killed, 10 injured when bomb explodes outside bank in Baghdad

Suicide car bomb explodes outside Kurdish security department, killing 3

Four separate bombings target Iraqi army patrols

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Iraq Struck by Wave of Bomb Attacks, Killing 13

U.S. and Iraqi forces wall off threats in Sadr City

Severe Islamic law which banned 'suggestive' cucumbers cost Al Qaeda public support in Iraq

3 Killed By Suicide Bomber In Afghanistan

(CBS/ AP) A suicide bomber rammed his car into a NATO convoy in Kabul on Monday, killing three civilians and wounding at least a dozen, officials said. Clashes and an airstrike in the south killed 25 militants and eight civilians held hostage by insurgents.

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Soldier killed in Afghanistan

Police arrest Mullah for marrying off girl, aged 7

Rape getting a public airing in Afghanistan

Sex Shame Priest Drops Legal Action To Sue Catholic Church

A PRIEST sacked over an 18-year affair with a woman has abandoned his sensational legal action.

Monsignor Joseph Creegan had threatened to expose scandals in the Catholic Church in Scotland, including priests' secret homosexual liaisons and alcoholism.

But now he has ditched the unfair dismissal action only two weeks before the hearing was due, prompting speculation he has been paid off.

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Cassini Prepares To Swoop By Saturn's Geyser-Spewing Moon

ScienceDaily -- Fractures, or "tiger stripes," where icy jets erupt on Saturn's moon Enceladus will be the target of a close flyby by the Cassini spacecraft on Monday, Aug. 11.

Cassini will zoom past the tiny moon a mere 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface. Just after closest approach, all of the spacecraft's cameras -- covering infrared wavelengths, where temperatures are mapped, as well as visible light and ultraviolet -- will focus on the fissures running along the moon's south pole. That is where the jets of icy water vapor emanate and erupt hundreds of miles into space. Those jets have fascinated scientists since their discovery in 2005.

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Poof! Scientists Closer to Invisibility Cloak

Quantum Chaos Unveiled?