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News for: October 12, 2002
Japan Cult Member Gets Death Penalty
The Associated Press
TOKYO -- A former leader of the doomsday cult that carried out a nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 12 people, was sentenced to death Friday, a court official said.
Other news agencies:
AUM's 'health minister' to hang for making sarin, Mainichi Daily News
Sarin maker sentenced to die, The Japan Times
Aum's Endo sentenced to death in sarin attacks, The Asahi Shimbun
Death sentence for Japan gas maker, BBC News
Seiichi Endo
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POLYGAMY CASE ARIZONA & UTAH
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FLORIDA
Man Can't Change Name to 'God'
The Associated Press
LAKE CITY -- A man who wanted to change his name to God chose a new name when a judge turned down his request. The former Charles Haffey's new name is I Am who I Am.
MASSACHUSETTS
Attleboro mom said to be cutting ties to cult
The Boston Herald
An Attleboro cult mom who is alleged to have starved her son to death is trying to sever her ties to the high-control group, which her attorney alleges forced her to stop feeding her baby.
Other news agencies:
Mother quitting cult, The Sun Chronicle
Lawyer: mother charged with son's death brainwashed, The MetroWest Daily News
MISSOURI
Psychic aids search for missing boy, 11
The Clinton Courier
RIVERWOODS -- Dozens of family members, friends and volunteers searched Friday for an 11-year-old boy last seen Sunday riding his bicycle to a friend's house. The search for Shawn Hornbeck moved to an area long Highway 47 in a rural area outside St. Louis.
NEW JERSEY
Voodoo Furor In Body Snatch
New York Post
A New Jersey man said yesterday he was "disgusted" with the news that his father’s body was stolen from its crypt and used by a bizarre voodoo cult to cast spells. Mike Perna’s father, Leonard, died in 1986 but cops say members of the Afro-Cuban Palo Mayombe cult stole his body from its crypt in January 1999 for use in perverted religious ceremonies.
NORTH CAROLINA
UNC, Quran tempest rears its head again
The Herald-Sun
CHAPEL HILL -- The Quran lawsuit may not be dead. Attorneys for the organization that sued the university earlier this year over UNC’s summer reading program have filed a new motion asking a federal district court to consider an amended complaint.
OHIO
Writer defends Book of Mormon;
Book authenticity issues, debate in church taken up
The Associated Press
The Bible and the Quran were written in the Eastern Hemisphere. Why doesn't the Western Hemisphere have its own holy book? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormon") believes it does...
Hindus gather to celebrate bounty Earth provides
The Cincinatti Enquirer
This weekend, more than 1,000 people from Greater Cincinnati and as far away as Indianapolis and Columbus will gather to celebrate the Earth.
OKLAHOMA
'Harry Potter' ban voted down
The Oklahoman
GUYMON -- Several towns around the nation have seen protests of libraries' stocking the "Harry Potter" books. One school board in Oklahoma was asked this week to ban the series, but voted to keep the books on its shelves.
OREGON
Ore. Muslim Cleric Released on Bail
The Associated Press
PORTLAND -- A judge allowed a Muslim cleric to be released on bail Friday a month after his arrest on a charge of Social Security fraud.
UTAH
Book on Mormon massacre of pioneers raises ire, sales
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- A month after hitting bookstores, debate over a book that blames early Mormon leader Brigham Young for ordering a 19th century wagon train massacre shows little signs of quelling. Neither do sales of "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows."
LDS Church Set to Appeal Ruling
The Salt Lake Tribune
The LDS Church wants a do-over. Attorneys for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are appealing the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision voiding free-speech restrictions on the Main Street Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City.
Court Rejects LDS Plaza Rules
The Salt Lake Tribune
Three judges in Denver voided free-speech restrictions on the LDS Church's Main Street Plaza on Wednesday, reopening the one-block stretch of Salt Lake City's most historic street to sunbathers, pamphleteers and smokers.
Page includes full ruling in PDF format.
Other news agencies:
LDS to fight plaza ruling, The Deseret News
To proselyter, plaza's the place;
'Constitution was upheld' by court, he says
Deseret News
The first person to take advantage of the court decision that lifts free-speech restrictions on the Main Street Plaza was an interdenominational minister who was so excited that he drove all night - some 600 miles and on one hour of sleep - to exercise the new right.
Mormons Back Bush Middle East Policy
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Mormon church offered support for President Bush's policy in the Middle East, qualifying remarks by an apostle who denounced war at a conference of thousands of faithful last weekend.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
LDS Talk No Conflict for Bennett
The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON -- On Saturday, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett sat in Salt Lake City's LDS Church Conference Center and heard Apostle Russell M. Nelson tell the faith's semiannual General Conference that, "As a church, we must renounce war and proclaim peace."
CHINA
China sect leader is given life term
The Associated Press
BEIJING -- The leader of a banned Christian sect whose death sentence was overturned for lack of evidence was convicted on different charges Thursday and sentenced to life in prison, a human rights group reported.
Other news agencies:
Chinese Christian leader jailed, BBC News
Update:
Eight more sentences reported in retrial of leaders of banned Chinese Christian sect
The Associated Press
BEIJING -- Eight more people were sentenced to prison terms of two to 15 years in the closely watched retrial of leaders of a banned Chinese Christian sect, a religious activist based overseas said Friday.
GERMANY
Court Says Headscarf is Religious Symbol
DW-World
For four years Fereshta Ludin, a Muslim woman from Stuttgart, has been trying to convince German courts of her right to wear a headscarf while teaching. Now the Federal Administrative Court has made a landmark decision.
GREECE
Beards must stay, says Greek Orthodox church
Reuters
ATHENS -- Greece's Orthodox church has rejected a request from its clergy for an image change that would do away with their long black robes and beards as well as their tall headgear.
INDIA
Five Killed in Religious Riot in Western India
Reuters
BOMBAY -- Five people were killed in a western Indian city Friday in clashes between Hindus and Muslims sparked off by protests against remarks by U.S. pastor Jerry Falwell criticizing the Prophet Mohammad, police said.
IRAN
Muslims wage war on US cola giants
The Australian
The US may be girding for war with Iraq, but it is already fighting "cola wars" throughout the Middle East. As a boycott of US products spreads across the Islamic world, Muslim manufacturers are taking on the big US brand-names by producing their own fizzy drinks.
JAPAN
Combating the cult next door
The Age
Followers of a notorious doomsday cult have set up shop in a quiet Tokyo suburb - and the neighbours are not happy. Shane Green reports.
KENYA
Three Killed in Orgy of Mungiki Violence
The Nation
Three people were killed in an orgy of violence in Nyahururu and Othaya said to have been orchestrated by members of the outlawed Mungiki sect. Two of the victims were reportedly killed during a confrontation at Baumann in Nyahururu after the sect members demanded extra "cess" payment from potato traders and matatus [commuter vehicles].
LEBANON
Falwell Enrages Shiite Clerics
The Associated Press
BEIRUT -- Shiite Muslim clerics in Lebanon and Iran have reacted with rage at the Rev. Jerry Falwell for calling Islam's prophet a terrorist and an envoy of Iran's supreme leader reportedly called for his death.
MALAYSIA
Death penalty for three Malaysians
BBC News
Malaysia's High Court has sentenced three members of a Muslim cult to death by hanging. Sixteen other members of the group, convicted on Thursday of treason for plotting armed rebellion, have been given life sentences.
