|
 |
News for: July 26, 2002
Supremacist Church Name Change
The Associated Press
CHICAGO -- The white supremacist group World Church of the Creator may have to change its name. A federal appeals court in Chicago ruled Thursday that the name violates the trademark of another church in Oregon.
CONNECTICUT
Lesbian teachers booted from all-girl Catholic school
WorldNetDaily.com
Lauralton Hall, an all-girl Catholic school in Milford, Conn., was surprised recently to learn that two of its teachers are involved in a lesbian relationship, and has issued an ultimatum to them - resign or be fired.
KENTUCKY
Ex-Elder Dropped for Abuse Comments
The Associated Press
DRAFFENVILLE -- A lifelong Jehovah's Witness said he was expelled from the tight-knit religious group after publicly criticizing the church's handling of allegations of child sex abuse.
MASSACHUSETTS
White supremacist couple convicted in racial bomb plot trial
The Associated Press
A white supremacist couple was convicted Friday of plotting to build a bomb to blow up Jewish and black landmarks in a plan to incite what prosecutors called a "racial holy war."
MICHIGAN
Agent Admits to Anti-Muslim Slurs
The Associated Press
DETROIT -- A Secret Service agent has admitted he scrawled anti-Muslim statements on a prayer calendar during the home search of a man charged with smuggling bogus checks into the United States, authorities said Thursday.
North Carolina
ACLU gives Quran reading mixed review
The Herald Sun
CHAPEL HILL -- The North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has weighed in on the debate swirling around UNC’s summer reading program, urging the university to proceed with caution, but stopping short of endorsing a lawsuit recently filed over the issue.
Related articles:
Winning Quran reading case against UNC is likely to prove difficult, The Herald Sun
UNC chancellor defends required Quran assignment, The Herald Sun
OKLAHOMA
Ghostly apparition spooks Oklahoma City
WorldNetDaily.com
OKLAHOMA CITY - Is seeing believing? After KFOR, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City broadcast startling images of what some people believe to be a ghost, the whole town is talking.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Religious Leaders Want State Dept's Muslim Website Removed
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON -- A group of US religious leaders has asked the State Department to remove from the Internet a website that seeks to educate foreign audiences about Muslim life in the United States, according to a letter seen Thursday.
CANADA
Sikh separatist groups should be on terror lists, say critics
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER -- Victims of the violence that once plagued Canada's Sikh community - including the bombing of Air India Flight 182 - want to know why extremist Sikh separatist groups have not been included on the list of terrorist organizations outlawed in Canada.
CHINA
Falungong friction between Biejing and US Congress
ABC Radio Australia News
China has reacted angrily to an American Congressional resolution demanding Chinese authorities stop persecuting followers of the Falungong movement.
Related articles:
US resolution angers Beijing, BBC News
NPC Official Condemns Falun Gong Resolution by US Congress, The People's Daily
ENGLAND
Murder accused had vampire 'interest'
BBC News
A teenager accused of stabbing an Anglesey pensioner to death admitted in court he had a "small interest" in vampirism.
INDIA
Indian women bare all in plea to rain gods
ABCNews Online
With farmlands parched and dying, 80-year-old Maha Devi and many other women in northern India are resorting to dancing naked in their fields in a desperate ritual to call on the gods for rain.
Killing for 'Mother' Kali
TIME Asia July 29, 2002 / Vol. 160 No. 3
It was at most a fringe practice, but a spate of ritual killings in India shows that human sacrifice lives on. For the magic to work, the killing had to be done just right.
JAKARTA
Family attacked over 'false' rituals
The Jakarta Post
BOGOR -- Hundreds of villagers in Cibungbulang, Leuwiliang district, Bogor regency, besieged the house of a resident on Wednesday and threatened to kill his entire family, who were accused of spreading heresies prejudicial to the Muslim religion.
KENYA
Church report praises some Mungiki ideas
Daily Nation
Some beliefs of the Mungiki (a banned sect) are good, a church report has said. The positive aspects include the preaching of self-reliance, hard work and independence among poor youth, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) report says.
MEXICO
Mexico's dangers give cult new life
Chicago Tribune
MEXICO CITY -- As Mexicans await the visit of Pope John Paul II, it is not only to the Virgin of Guadalupe that some of them are making their daily appeals for divine help.
NIGERIA
122 Cultists Identified in Port Harcourt
P.M. News
LAGOS -- The Rivers State Police Command has swung into action, by exposing those alleged to be cultists at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.
Rivers Tackles Cultists
P.M. News
Against the background of recent cult disturbances in the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, the state House of Assembly is now poised to take a decisive action against cultists in the institution.
SOUTH KOREA
S Korea launches cloning inquiry
BBC News
Prosecutors have been asked to investigate a company's claim that it has implanted a cloned human embryo in a South Korean woman. Health officials in Seoul have so far been unable to authenticate the claim by Clonaid, a US-based religious sect.
Related articles:
Company claims Korean woman pregnant with cloned embryo, South Korea Herald
South Korea Probes Human Cloning Claim, The Associated Press
THAILAND
Nails, hook found inside man's body;
Conscript says he is victim of witchcraft
The Bangkok Post
Doctors have found nails and a hook inside the stomach of an army conscript who insists he did not ingest them.
UGANDA
Cult Leaders Convicted
New Vision
Six leaders of the Jjajja Ndawula cult were yesterday convicted of unlawful operation of a religious organisation. The magistrate, however, sentences them today. They were remanded in Luzira Prison.
