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News for: August 21, 2002
Sect member charged in starvation son to death to employ battered woman's defense
The Associated Press
DEDHAM, Massachusetts -- A member of an Attleboro religious sect charged with starving her one-year-old son to death has been granted more time to prepare a battered woman's syndrome defense.
FLORIDA
Men performing religious ritual charged with animal cruelty
The Associated Press
TAMPA -- Police have charged four men and a teenager with animal cruelty after finding them naked and doused in the blood of a dead goat with dismembered heads of other animals strewn in the yard.
Psychic arrested
Palm Beach Post
DELRAY BEACH -- Beleaguered local psychic Linda Marks, who is being sued by more than a dozen former clients who say she scammed them out of more than $1 million, was arrested Saturday for allegedly shoplifting groceries, police said.
ILLINOIS
Lutherans luring Hispanic Catholics?
Chicago Sun-Times
"We thought it was Catholic," said Imelda Quintero, recounting the baptisms of her two children in 1997 at Iglesia La Sagrada Familia/Holy Family Church on the South Side.
MASSACHSETTS
Trial delay sought
The Sun Chronicle
DEDHAM -- The lawyer for the Attleboro religious sect member charged with starving her year-old son to death in 1999 this morning introduced the battered women's syndrome in defense of his client, and asked for more time to prepare her case.
NEVADA
Lessons of Ruby Ridge
Scripps Howard News Service
Randy Weaver, still wiry after 10 years out of the limelight, his dark hair turned silver, was signing autographs for fellow survivalists at an Independent American Party convention in Elko, Nev., in April when someone asked if he would act differently if he could relive the horrible 11-day siege at Ruby Ridge.
UTAH
New battles in Green case may alter polygamy's status
Deseret News
In his 30 years as an attorney, John Bucher said, the appeal in the bigamy conviction of polygamist Tom Green will be his largest and most ambitious case.
The Utah Court of Appeals has set Sept. 18 as the filing deadline for an appeal and any other briefs in the case, which is expected to open a rare legal debate on where the practice of plural marriage stands, legally, in Utah.
Critics Say Polygamy Is Thriving
Los Angeles Times
ZION NATIONAL PARK -- It has been two years since Utah's Legislature appointed a full-time investigator to root out crimes associated with polygamy. But only one case -- last year's high-profile prosecution and imprisonment of polygamist Tom Green -- has been brought to court.
VIRGINIA
Swami who founded Yogaville in rural Va. dies
The Associated Press
BUCKINGHAM -- Sri Swami Satchidananda, who advocated respect for all faiths and founded Yogaville in rural Virginia, died Monday in India from heart disease. He was 87.
Quran Case Decision Expected Soon
The Associated Press
RICHMOND -- Small-group discussions of a book about the Quran were scheduled for Monday at the University of North Carolina - barring late action by a court considering whether the summer reading assignment violated religious freedoms.
CANADA
Sick girl's birthday off-limits
The Calgary Sun
The father of a teenage girl once involved in a court fight over her right to refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds will not be able to visit her on her 17th birthday tomorrow.
ITALY
Scientists Miffed About Shroud Test
The Associated Press
ROME -- Experts on the Shroud of Turin said Wednesday they felt frustrated and betrayed to learn a Swiss textile expert had obtained Vatican approval to test the sacred cloth without involvement from the international scientific community.
JAPAN
Unification Church must compensate followers over forced marriages
The Mainichi Daily
The controversial Unification Church was ordered to pay compensation to its former followers by a Tokyo court Wednesday for forcing them to marry an unknown partner at its "public wedding" ceremonies.
Japan's revisionists turn emperor into a god once more
Popular Tokyo shrine rewrites postwar history
The Guardian
The Japanese emperor's godlike status has not changed since the second world war, according to a new exhibit at the country's most popular war museum.
KENYA
Outrage Over Mungiki Threats
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
The Kenyan media and human rights fraternity has expressed outrage over threats of violence issued this week by members of an outlawed sect and by two legislators against those who were "insulting" President Daniel arap Moi.
Previous headlines:
Church Condemns Ndichu, Kihika, The East African Standard
Mungiki Sect Demonstrate in Support Uhuru Kenyatta, The Nation
Banned sect marches for Moi, BBC News
NIGERIA
Nigerian court upholds stoning sentence
The Age
A Nigerian Islamic court today threw out an appeal by a young woman sentenced to be stoned to death for bearing a child out of wedlock and ordered her to be executed once her child is weaned.
Group Cautions On Church Demolition
This Day
LAGOS -- Centre for Cultural and Religious Rights (CE-CURR), a non governmental organisation (NGO) has advised religious fanatics who are threatening to demolish some churches in Kano to desist from doing so otherwise they would face the wrath of the law.
PHILIPPINES
Rebels Kill Two Jehovah's Witnesses
The Associated Press
JOLO -- Muslim rebels linked to al-Qaida beheaded at least two of the six Jehovah's Witnesses they kidnapped in the southern Philippines, a top army commander said Thursday.
Other news agencies:
Abu Sayyaf seizes 6 Christian preachers
Jehovah Witnesses in Muslim area, Inquirer News Service
RUSSIA
Horseback 'Jesus' gathers his flock
The London Telegraph
Thousands of pilgrims have converged on the hamlet of Petropavlovka, deep in the Siberian tundra, to hear the annual sermon by a 41-year-old former traffic policeman whom they believe to be Jesus.
SWAZILAND
Ritual murders part of poll
News24.com
MBABANE -- Three children, whose mutilated bodies were found buried in isolated areas of Swaziland, are believed to have been killed as part of traditional rituals to bring luck to election candidates.
UNITED KINGDOM
River may become UK's "Ganges"
This Is London
A council is considering proposals for Hindus and Sikhs to use a British river for the ceremonial scattering of ashes. The River Ganges - the most religiously significant river in India - is traditionally used for the ceremony.
ZIMBABWE
Spirit 'spooks' men into jail
News24.com
HARARE -- Two men in Zimbabwe have been charged with murder after confessing to a local witch doctor that their victim's vengeful spirit was haunting them.
