ATTLEBORO SECT TRIAL - "THE BODY" MASSACHUSETTS Robidoux testifies The Sun Chronicle "TAUNTON -- In the first day on the stand, reputed Attleboro religious sect leader Jacques Robidoux this morning wept as he recounted the death of his 10-month-old son, Samuel, who he is accused of starving to death in an attempt to fulfill a religious prophesy." Sect member says he believed miracle would save starving son The Associated Press "A member of a religious sect charged with starving his infant son testified Wednesday he believed a miracle would save his son, even as the boy ground his teeth in apparent hunger." Experts: Child starved The Sun Chronicle "TAUNTON -- Medical experts testified on Tuesday that Samuel Robidoux, a boy in the embattled Attleboro sect known as "The Body of Christ," died of severe malnutrition due to starvation." Jacques Robidoux, leader of "The Body"

CALIFORNIA
Escondido approves church
The North County Times
"ESCONDIDO -- The Escondido Planning Commission approved a request Tuesday night to turn an empty residential care facility into a new home for the Self-Realization Fellowship, Escondido."

MISSOURI
Church Head Won't Repudiate Comments
The Associated Press
"ST. LOUIS -- The new head of the Southern Baptist Convention has rejected calls to repudiate what a Muslim group is calling "bigoted" and "hate-filled" statements made by one of its pastors."
Also:
Political leaders cautiously supportive
The Florida Times-Union
Many of Jacksonville's political leaders linked with First Baptist Church were cautiously supportive yesterday of their pastor's controversial statements about Islam and its inferiority to Christianity.

CHINA
Two Hong Kong Falungong practitioners detained in Shenzhen
AFP
"Two Hong Kong practitioners of the Falungong spiritual movement have been detained in Shenzhen, a group spokeswoman said."

ICELAND
Falungong members held in Iceland ahead of Chinese leader's visit
AFP
"REYKJAVIK -- Some 70 followers of China's banned spiritual group Falungong were detained for several hours when they arrived in Iceland ahead of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to the country, police said Wednesday."

SAUDI ARABIA
Saudis oppress Muslim splinter sects, activists say
USA Today
"JEDDAH — Rabea Dahlan, a descendent of the prophet Mohammed, was deputy governor of the Muslim holy city of Mecca until three years ago, when he was jailed. Dahlan's crime, according to supporters: He belongs to a Muslim sect that doesn't conform to Saudi Arabia's state religion."

TURKEY
The Green Patriarch - Bartholomew I
BBC News
"The spiritual leader of the world's estimated 300 million Orthodox Christians is a man on an ecological, as well as a theological, mission. The 270th successor to the Apostle St Andrew, dubbed the Green Patriarch, he was awarded on Wednesday Norway's $100,000 Sophie Prize for his environmental efforts."

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