CALIFORNIA
Pledge mom fights to keep 'under God'
WorldNetDaily.com
Breaking her silence, the mother of the child involved in the Pledge of Allegiance case declares her 8-year-old daughter is a practicing Christian who is not harmed by reciting "one nation under God," contrary to what the girl's father argues in the controversial case.

FLORIDA
Cleo not the first, not the last
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
In the two-plus years she was a fixture on late-night television, Miss Cleo was an incredibly effective marketing tool. The company that hired her to draw callers to a $5-a-minute "psychic" hotline knew it. Miss Cleo, whose real name is Youree Harris, knew it. Callers who paid the $5 a minute knew it.<
For more information go to COURT TV's Full Coverage of Miss Cleo or COURT TV's Miss Cleo Special Report, including legal documents and script which "psychics" read to callers.

KANSAS
Topeka Group Proposes Gay, Lesbian Amendments
Kansas City Star
A Kansas citizens group said they are fighting an image of intolerance by proposing a new law, KMBC 9 News' Bev Chapman reported Monday. The group is asking for special protection for gays and lesbians to combat Topeka's best-known protestor, the Rev. Fred Phelps.

MICHIGAN
Pastor fans flame of blame
He blasts fellow cleric for 9/11 interfaith vigil
Detroit Free Press
A condemnation of Islam and all other non-Christian faiths by a pastor in Dearborn is at the center of a dispute raging within the 2.6-million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

WISCONSIN
Indictment Filed In 'Voodoo' Murder Case
Channel 3000
MADISON -- Two men have been indicted in the 1997 shooting of a Minneapolis pharmacist in Wisconsin. Mark S. Foster, 45, recruited his nephew and a drifter to shoot him in the heart so they could get his life-insurance benefits and inherit his "high priest" status in the Santeria voodoo religion, according to an indictment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Madison.

CANADA
Quebec cult leader Roch (Moses) Theriault denied parole in New Brunswick
The Canadian Press
DORCHESTER -- Cult leader Roch Theriault, who once used a meat cleaver to amputate the arm of a concubine, was denied parole Thursday on the grounds he represents an ongoing danger to society.

Dying teen loses appeal
The Canadian Press
CALGARY -- A dying teenager who fought blood transfusions on religious grounds was disheartened Thursday after losing her bid for Canada's top court to consider the medical rights of mature minors.

CHINA
Chinese minister tries to stop sect
Taipei Times
BEIJING -- The head of China's state-owned television industry is sleeping in his office to prevent hijackers from once again beaming forbidden images of the outlawed Falun Gong movement to televisions around the country.

ENGLAND
Portugal link probed in torso case
The Herald
Detectives investigating the killing of a boy whose torso was found in the Thames are to interview a prisoner in Portugal convicted of aiding the illegal immigration of West African children to the UK.

Jehovah's Witness jailed for abusing boys
BBC News
An elder in the Jehovah's Witness church has been jailed for child abuse. James Barratt, 45, of Rugby, Warwickshire, a married man with two children, was found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenagers entrusted to him for Bible studies and counselling.

Activists Recite Gay Christ Poem
The Associated Press
LONDON -- In a face-off Thursday over Britain's 17th-century blasphemy laws, sidewalk preachers bellowing biblical verses drowned out a group of free-speech activists who read a homoerotic poem about Jesus Christ on the steps of a central London church.

MALAYSIA
Malaysian police to ignore Islamic law
BBC News
Malaysian police have said they will not enforce the Islamic justice system approved in an opposition-ruled state.

PHILIPPINES
Ecleo cleared of drug raps
Inquirer News Service

SCOTLAND
Torso murder police bail woman
BBC News
A woman questioned in connection with the murder of a boy whose mutilated torso was found in the River Thames has been bailed by police. The remains of the small boy, thought to be of African origin, was recovered from the river in London last September.

Neighbours stunned by torso arrest
BBC News
Neighbours of a woman who was questioned following the discovery of a child's torso in the River Thames have spoken of their shock at her arrest.

Shutter hides secrets of woman in death ritual case
The Herald
A heavy steel door in a dimly lit corridor yesterday shielded the secrets of the West African woman arrested in her home on the south side of Glasgow in connection with the ritualistic killing of a five-year-old African boy.

THAILAND
Sect's new ploy to air faith
The Bangkok Post
The Falungong spiritual movement is employing technologies ranging from phones and faxes to the Internet to get its message directly to people in China, where it is outlawed, the group said yesterday.

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