Immoral behavior

[Soldier4Christ]

Ethical storm as scientist clones himself 
Creates embryo copies by placing his skin cells in woman's egg

A scientist has achieved a world first... by cloning himself.

In a breakthrough certain to provoke an ethical furore, Samuel Wood created embryo copies of himself by placing his skin cells in a woman's egg.

The embryos were the first to be made from cells taken from adult humans.

Although they survived for only five days and were smaller than a pinhead, they are seen as a milestone in the quest for treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

But critics fear the technology could be exploited by mavericks to clone babies and accused the scientists of reducing the miracle of human life to a factory of spare parts.

Researchers from the Californian stem cell research company Stemagen employed the same technique used to make Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, to create the embryos.

They took eggs donated by young women having IVF and replaced genetic material with DNA from the skin cells of two men.

The eggs were then zapped with an electric current to induce fertilisation and the creation of embryos.

Some of the skin cells came from Dr Wood, Stemagen's chief executive officer and a leading fertility specialist, while the others came from another member of staff.

The result was a handful of embryos, at least three of them clones of Dr Wood and the other man.

Although all were destroyed in the process, the technique is seen as a vital step in the creation of cloned embryos rich in stem cells, which are "master cells" capable of becoming any type of body tissue.

Such stem cells could be invaluable in the study of diseases and the testing of drugs.

They could ultimately be used to replace the damaged tissues behind diseases from Alzheimer's to diabetes.

Stem cells taken from cloned embryos would be a perfect match to the patient, whose body would not reject them.

Dr Wood, who has degrees in medicine, psychology, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, called the research "a critical milestone" in the development of treatments.

The unmarried father of two, who is in his forties, is working on extracting stem cells from such embryos - a process that inevitably leads to the death of the embryo.

John Smeaton, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: "We have got scientists wandering around in an ethical wilderness, forgetting about matters of justice relating to our fellow human beings.

"We have people creating human beings with the intention of destroying them. That's appalling."

And the Vatican condemned the cloning of human embryos, calling it the "worst type of exploitation of the human being".

"This ranks among the most morally illicit acts, ethically speaking," said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican department that helps oversee the Church's position on bioethics issues.

Stem cell experts gave the U.S. breakthrough, published in the journal Stem Cells, a cautious welcome.

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, of the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research, said: "This is another step along what has turned out to be a tortuous road.

"However, it is still a long way from the goal of achieving embryonic stem cells."

U.S. researcher Professor Robert Lanza questioned the validity of the research and said the embryos looked "very unhealthy".

Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment On Reproductive Ethics, said: "Human cloning is unethical, unsafe, and completely unnecessary.

"It is time that scientists started to put some brakes on."

Dr Calum MacKellar, of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, said the creation and destruction of human embryos was "extremely offensive to millions in the UK".

Although Dr Wood's team is the first to create human embryos from adult cells, human embryos have been cloned before.

Scientists at Newcastle University created cloned human embryos in 2005 using cells from embryos rather than adults, seen as less useful in creating potential treatments.

British law says created embryos must be destroyed in 14 days and cannot be implanted in a woman.

The news came as it was revealed that animal-human hybrid embryos will be created in British laboratories within weeks after the research was allowed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

Two teams have been licensed to make cow-human hybrids for research into incurable diseases.

Scientists say they are needed because of a shortage of human eggs for research.

The embryos would be more than 99 per cent human and would have to be destroyed after two weeks.

But Mr Smeaton said: "It is creating a category of beings regarded as sub-human who can be used as raw material to benefit other members of the human family.

"How wrong can something be before a scientist understands you cannot just do it because of the perceived good for human beings."

[Soldier4Christ]

District lessons teach 'erotic' sex techniques
Parents group wants halt in 'violations of state law'

A parents group is asking a judge to halt an explicit sex-education curriculum implemented by a Maryland school board that teaches homosexuality is innate and provides depictions of "erotic" sex techniques.

Brandon M. Bolling, of the Thomas More Law Center, told Judge William J. Rowan III that state law requires that information presented in public schools be supported with evidence, and the teaching that homosexuality is "innate" lacks that support.

"The Maryland law says you have to teach something that is factually accurate," he told the judge. "They are not doing that. That is illegal."

He also argued that the lessons required by Montgomery County Board of Education teach students how to use condoms in violation of a state prohibition against material that "portrays erotic techniques of gotcha146."

The judge promised to issue a decision in a written ruling.

At issue is a series of lessons created by the Montgomery County school board for students that, opponents say, conflicts with the facts at hand.

"Declaring homosexuality to be 'innate' is a direct attack upon the ex-gay community and the possibility of changing one's sexual orientation," said Peter Sprigg, a Montgomery County resident and board member for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays. He also served on the Citizens Advisory Committee that reviewed the curriculum.

"This statement was inserted into the curriculum at the last minute and was never reviewed by the Citizens Advisory Committee. It also directly contradicts the statement elsewhere in the curriculum that 'sexual orientation results from an interaction of cognitive, environmental, and biological factors,'" he said.

Bolling said the Maryland State Board of Education had abdicated its responsibility by allowing Montgomery County arbitrarily to decide that classroom discussions of oral and anal intercourse did not violate a state law against discussions of such "erotic" techniques.

Montgomery County educators have defended their decision to present the explicit sexual instruction to students. They also say any criticism of the curriculum "intrudes" into their right to teach children.

The school system launched its work on the highly explicit sex curriculum six years ago, and it earlier was struck down by a federal judge because of its content that condemned religious perspectives that did not endorse homosexuality. The newest challenge is an edited version of the curriculum that still includes elements to which parents have objected, such as the statement that being "gay" is a natural trait that people have at birth.

"The Montgomery County Board of Education claims that teaching children to 'respect' transsexuality, homosexuality and cross-dressing is a 'civic virtue,'" Regina Griggs, the executive director of PFOX, told WND earlier.

"But they refuse to teach respect for ex-gays or a child's right to not embrace homosexuality," she said.

The organization joined with Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and the Family Leader Network in filing the request for the stay of the program targeting middle school and high school students in the district.

The court will may take into consideration the recent ruling from the Maryland Court of Appeals that concluded homosexual conduct is not immutable.

According to a blog on Montgomery County school issues, the court ruling "quoted laws from every state in the union except Massachusetts to support its finding that no gay gene exists."

"Don't forget, the sex ed curriculum does not discuss families (although the curriculum is called Family Life) spends much time pushing the gay agenda and directs students to chop off body parts and change their gender," the commentary said.

Plaintiffs in the court challenge have raised concerns regarding "the normalization of anal sex by the curriculum without warning about the increased HIV/AIDS risk of anal sex (even with a condom); the labeling as 'homophobic' for children holding traditional religious or moral beliefs regarding homosexuality; the exclusion of any information regarding ex-gays; the inclusion of transgender as a sexual orientation, even though it is characterized by the American Psychological Association as a mental disorder; the claim that homosexuality is 'innate,' although there is no scientific or medical study that points definitively to its origin."

Lacking, they say, is information from the Centers for Disease Control as well as the National Institute of Health raising concerns about the increased health risks of such alternative sexual lifestyle choices.

Also required is that students memorize "gay bullying" statistics provided by a homosexual advocacy organization, the plaintiffs note.

"Nowhere is abstinence or sex placed within the context of marriage. The word marriage is not mentioned in the 8th or 10th grade lessons," the critique said.

WND has documented a number of earlier cases in which educators have promoted a homosexual lifestyle to children under their charge.

WND reported California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, under whose supervision hundreds of thousands of children are being educated, has used his state position and taxpayer-funded stationery to praise a "gay" pride event used in the past to expose children to sexually explicit activities.

That drew vehement objections from several educators, including Priscilla Schreiber, the president of the Grossmont Unified High School District governing board.

"I am outraged that a person in this high-ranking elected position would advocate an event where diversity is not just being celebrated but where pornography and indecent exposure is being perpetrated on the young and innocent children of our communities," she said.

California's legislature also approved a new law that will ban the use of any words or terms that can be perceived as derogatory to homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders and those with other alternative lifestyles.

WND also covered the issue when officials in Boulder, Colo., held a seminar for students in which they were told to "have sex," including same-sex experiences, and "take drugs."

Another school event promoted homosexuality to students while banning parents, and at still another, WND reported school officials ordered their 14-year-old freshman class into a "gay" indoctrination seminar after having them sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to tell their parents.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

It's a sad and evil state of affairs when JESUS CHRIST can't be taught in the classroom, but filthy and perverted sex acts that cause dreaded diseases and death can be. If we left religion out of the discussion entirely, we would still be talking about filthy and perverted sex acts that cause dreaded diseases and death. What IDIOTS want to teach something like this to our children? Do they have a brain cell left in their heads? Why are these BLOOMING IDIOTS allowed to even be close to a public school? The filthy and perverted acts they are promoting was a felony in every state in the land just a few short years ago. It was called a "Crime Against Nature" in many places, and this phrase has several root meanings. FIRST - A perversion of the natural. SECOND - A crime against GOD'S established NATURE! All of CREATION has a NATURE established by GOD.

If one were to look at the millions suffering from disease that will lead to death and the millions that are actually dying, why couldn't these IDIOT SCHOOL BOARDS be charged with ATTEMPTED MURDER of our children? If not that, how about RECKLESS DISREGARD FOR LIFE? As an easy example, there's a common sense reason why we don't teach elementary school children how to use explosives! WHY NOT? There are many laws designed to protect children, and we really need to start filing CRIMINAL CHARGES against these IDIOT SCHOOL BOARDS. They need to spend some time in JAIL or PRISON for RECKLESS CONDUCT WITH CHILDREN! Laws such as this will be known by various names, but you can be sure that they exist. Many other laws carry much heavier penalties if the crime is committed so many feet from a school. In short, there are CRIMINAL STATUTES that apply to what happens in and around our public schools. Once the perverted school board members and teachers are identified, they should be treated exactly like child molesters, listed as sex criminals, and banned from the presence or general area of children. Their names need to go into a national database so that the same applies in all states. If they want to teach something, LET THEM TEACH ANIMALS AT ZOOS OR NOTHING!

[Shammu]

Prophet Mohammed cartoon publisher jailed
Pictures caused mass demonstrations across Muslim world
Jan. 19, 2008

BELARUS - Belarus on Friday jailed for three years an editor of an independent newspaper who reproduced cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that first appeared in Denmark in 2005 and caused mass demonstrations across the Muslim world.

The 12 cartoons portraying the founder of Islam, including one showing the prophet with a bomb in his turban, outraged Muslims who saw them as blasphemous. More than 50 people died in protests across the world the following year.

Belarussian authorities shut down the "Zgoda" (Consensus) paper in March 2006, around the time when other European journals began reprinting the cartoons. The security service, still known by its Soviet-era name, the KGB, began an investigation after Muslims in the ex-Soviet state complained.

Editor Alexander Sdvizhkov was sentenced to three years in jail in a closed session of the court for incitement of religious and national hatred.

"May God and the holy cross be with us," Sdvizhkov said afterwards. His lawyer said she would appeal.

Muslims constitute about two or three percent of the 10 million residents of the country wedged between Russia and three members of the European Union. The Muslim community had called for leniency in the case.

Miklos Haraszti, media freedom representative for the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, protested against Sdvizhkov's jailing, calling the case against him "shocking" and saying he should be freed.

"Persecution of journalists for trying to inform the public on important issues is a misuse of hate speech laws," Haraszti said in a statement from Vienna. "In fact the Belarus government has used the international controversy around the cartoons as a pretext to eliminate a critical voice from public life."

President Alexander Lukashenko is accused by the West of ruling the country with an iron grip, jailing opponents, shutting down independent media and rigging polls, including his own re-election to a third term in 2006.

Prophet Mohammed cartoon publisher jailed

[Shammu]

For those of you, that haven't seen this cartoon pictures, here they are in all there glory.



I will post the next 6, after this on finishes posting.

[Shammu]

 

Now I don't see anything wrong with these pictures. After all, look what the muslims do to the Bible. You don't see Christians rioting in the streets.

[Shammu]

Canada takes U.S. and Israel off torture watchlist
Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:44am EST

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured.

Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged that they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats.

Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture.

"It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten," Bernier said in a statement.

"The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the government's views or positions."

The document -- made available to Reuters and other media outlets -- embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel.

U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said the listing was absurd while the Israeli envoy said he wanted his country removed.

Asked why the two countries had been put on the list, a spokesman for Bernier said: "The training manual purposely raised public issues to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom."

The government mistakenly gave the document to Amnesty International Canada as part of a court case the rights organization has launched against Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.

No one from Amnesty was immediately available for comment.

Under "definition of torture" the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.

It also mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where a Canadian man is being held.

The man, Omar Khadr, has been in Guantanamo Bay for five years. He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a clash in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15.

Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

The foreign ministry launched the torture awareness course after Ottawa was rapped for the way it handled the case of Canadian engineer Maher Arar, who was deported from the United States to Syria in 2002.

Arar says he was tortured repeatedly during the year he spent in Damascus prisons. An official inquiry into the affair showed Canadian diplomats had not been trained to detect whether detainees might have been abused.

Canada takes U.S. and Israel off torture watchlist

[Shammu]

Spanish priest to lead Jesuits
ROME (AP) — The Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order known for intellectual excellence and missionary work, on Saturday chose a 71-year-old Spanish priest with top academic credentials and extensive experience in Asia to be their new leader.

The Rev. Adolfo Nicolas was chosen to serve as superior general, the 29th successor to St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus, as the order is formally known, in 1540. With nearly 20,000 members worldwide, it is the largest Catholic religious order.

The choice of Nicolas followed four days of prayer and discussion among 217 electors who came to Rome from around the world, the Jesuits said.

Pope Benedict XVI was informed of the choice and immediately gave his approval, Vatican officials said. Papal approval is required.

Nicolas succeeds Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, a Dutch priest who was elected leader in 1983 and who was widely credited with improving the Jesuits' often tense relations with the Vatican.

Jesuit leaders traditionally serve for life, but Kolvenbach, who turns 80 this year, had asked to retire because of his age.

A native of Spain, Nicolas was ordained a priest in Tokyo in 1967 after studies in theology in that city and earlier in philosophy in Madrid. He received a masters degree in sacred theology in Rome's prestigious Gregorian Pontifical University.

He then embarked on nearly four decades of work in the Pacific, taking a theology professorship at Sophia University in Tokyo in 1971 and directing a pastoral institute in Manila, from 1978 to 1984. In the 1990s he held leadership positions in the order in Japan and from 2004 to 2007 served as moderator of the Jesuit Conference for Eastern Asia and Oceania.

He also has had experience in Korea.

Nicolas' Asian experience will help him "understand the world, and the church, from a non-European perspective," said James Martin, a priest who is associate editor of America Magazine, a New York-based Jesuit publication, in an e-mailed comment.

In a profile last year on an Australian Jesuit website, Province Express, Nicolas expressed the conviction that the West does not have a monopoly on meaning and spirituality.

"Asia has a lot yet to offer to the church, to the whole church," Nicolas was quoted as saying.

The new leader in his Asia positions has been responsible for training young Jesuits as the order grapples with a drop in a number of new priests, a problem affecting Catholic religious orders in general.

In the same profile, Nicolas said he was wary of missionaries who are more concerned with teaching and imposing orthodoxy than in having a cultural exchange with the local people.

"Those who enter into the lives of people, they begin to question their own positions very radically," Nicolas said.

Intellectual challenges have long characterized Jesuits.

The Jesuits have had a tense relationship with the Vatican on issues of doctrine and obedience. The Vatican occasionally disciplines Jesuit theologians and issues reminders of the their vows of obedience to the pontiff.

In past decades, aspects of their work with the poor in Latin America left the Vatican with the perception that some Jesuits were embracing liberation theology and Marxist political movements.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II named a temporary replacement to lead the Jesuits after its superior, the Rev. Pedro Arrupe, suffered a crippling stroke, brushing aside Arrupe's chosen successor. Paolo Dezza, an Italian who later was made a cardinal, guided the Jesuits until 1983, when Kolvenbach took the helm.

Arrupe, who died in 1991, had pushed for the church to move for a more socially just world while remaining faithful to papal authority.

For many, the Jesuits are synonymous with higher education. In the United States alone, the Jesuits run 28 colleges and universities, including Georgetown in Washington, D.C., Fordham in New York and the University of San Francisco, and dozens of middle schools and high schools.

Spanish priest to lead Jesuits
~~~~~~~~~

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).

[Def]

 

Now I don't see anything wrong with these pictures. After all, look what the muslims do to the Bible. You don't see Christians rioting in the streets.

What lack of maturity  grabing at anything to achive somekind of power being offended by tidbits like three years old. like that is mine no no thats is mine..

[Shammu]

Do-it-yourself 'spirituality' linked to poor mental health
Study: Young adults believing in higher power other than God at greater risk for depression
Posted: January 20, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

The first study examining young adults' religious and spiritual thoughts, behavior and feelings in Australia has found those replacing traditional religious beliefs with trendy, self-focused religions and spirituality are not the happier for their attempts at self-transformation.

Rosemary Aird conducted surveys of 3,705 21-year-olds in Brisbane as part of her Ph.D. studies at the University of Queensland's School of Population Health.

"I had a look at two different beliefs – one was a belief in God, associated with traditional religions, and the other was the newer belief in a spiritual or higher power other than God," Aird told the Brisbane Times.

Her research found the newer non-traditional beliefs linked to higher rates of "anxiety, depression, disturbed and suspicious ways of thinking and anti-social behavior" – results, she suggested, arising from New Age beliefs focused on self-transformation, self-fulfillment and self-enlightenment to the exclusion of community.

"Traditional religion tends to promote the idea of social responsibility and thinking of others' interests, whereas the New Age movement pushes the idea that we can transform the world by changing ourselves.

"The downside is that people are very much on their own and not part of a community, which may lead to a kind of isolation," she said.

Aird, a 51-year-old agnostic, said individualism was the common thread in the shift away from traditional religious thoughts to non-religious spirituality.

In Aird's study, eight percent of respondents attended church once a week, a practice linked to a reduction in antisocial behavior among males, but not females. While those with traditional religious beliefs enjoyed no major benefit in the study, their New Age counterparts were twice as likely to report higher levels of anxiety and depression.

Those coming from Pentecostal backgrounds were less likely than other religions to adopt non-traditional beliefs in adulthood.

"People who are into the New Age spirituality tend to shop around and will often borrow from all sorts of old beliefs, like Wicca, witchcraft or Native American religions," said Aird. "It's a whole mish-mash and changes all the time, where they'll do something for a while before doing something else.

"If there's no sense of any kind of tradition, it means you're kind of cast adrift and means there's no fundamental basic thing to hang on to."

Aird said popular culture has fed the trend toward non-traditional beliefs with a popularization of "spirituality."

"Religion and belief has kind of become mixed up with popular culture," she said.

"Look at television and the kinds of shows that we've got, like 'Supernatural,' 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Medium'. They promote witchcraft, special powers and spirituality and the general population and young people especially are exposed to these things and could see them as very attractive.

"People want to find some way of embedding these things into some sort of belief system."

Aird also singled out popular self-help books for creating a do-it-yourself approach to matters of faith.

"My generation was about social responsibility and collective interests compared to the Me Generation," Aird said. "'New Spirituality' promotes the idea that self-transformation will lead to a positive and constructive change in self and society.

"But there is a contradiction – how can one change society if one is focused on oneself?"

[Shammu]

Row erupts in Australia over 'gay' Jesus play

Sun Jan 20, 1:20 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian church leaders have condemned a play shortly to open in Sydney depicting Jesus as a gay man who is seduced by Judas, a report said Sunday.

The play, named Corpus Christi, is due to open next month as part of the city's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper reported.

A senior Sydney churchman called the play "historical nonsense".

"It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it," Robert Forsyth, Anglican bishop of South Sydney, was quoted saying.

Apart from the relations between Jesus and Judas, the play also features Jesus conducting a gay marriage between two apostles.

The play's director Leigh Rowney, who claims to be a Christian, accepted the play would offend some Christians but said he was keen to provoke debate about Christianity.

"I wanted this play in the hands of a Christian person like myself to give it dignity but still open it up to answering questions about Christianity as a faith system," Rowney was quoted saying.

Playwright Terrence McNally, who is gay, received death threats when the work was performed in the United States, the newspaper said.

Row erupts in Australia over 'gay' Jesus play

[Shammu]

Separated Saudi couple sues to reunite
Woman’s family had marriage annulled, saying she married beneath her
updated 2 hours, 29 minutes ago

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.

It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

That was just the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who — under Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules — can no longer live together. They sued to reverse the ruling, publicized their story and sought help from a Saudi human rights group.

But the two remain apart and Fatima is considering suicide, she said, if her recent appeal to King Abdullah doesn't reunite her with the man she still considers her husband.

"Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima told The Associated Press by telephone in a rare interview. "I want to return to my husband, but if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."

Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal system _ in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

Those rules' most frequent — and recently, most high-profile — victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Rape victim was pardoned
Recently, the king did intervene and pardon another high-profile defendant — a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The two cases have brought Saudi human rights once again into the international spotlight — revealing not only the weakness of the kingdom's justice system, but the scant rights Saudi women have here.

"When I heard that the (rape victim) was pardoned, I couldn't believe it. My case is so much simpler than hers, since my divorce is invalid," Fatima said.

Fatima said her husband, a hospital administrator, followed Saudi tradition in asking her father for permission to marry her in 2003.

"My brother reported good things about him, so my dad accepted his proposal," said Fatima, a computer specialist who was 29 when she married.

She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe than hers, but that he didn't mind because he "cared about the man himself."

A few months after the wedding, several of Fatima's relatives persuaded her father to give them power of attorney to file a lawsuit demanding an annulment, she said.

Then her father died, and Fatima said she'd hoped the case would be dropped.

But on Feb. 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve Mansour with divorce papers — which said his marriage had been annulled nine months earlier.

"We were shattered. How did this happen? Why?" Fatima asked.

Fatima took the couple's 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son to live with her mother, who had persuaded her to let Mansour deal with the legal issues on his own.

But after three months without her husband, Fatima and the children sneaked out of her mother's house and flew with Mansour to the western seaside city of Jiddah, where they sought to live in anonymity.

Family jailed
Saudi police soon discovered them and imprisoned the family for living together illegally.

"The police told me I either return to my (mother's) family or go to jail," Fatima said. "I chose jail."

"My children and I were thrown in a cell with women sentenced for pushing drugs, practicing witchcraft and behaving immorally," Fatima said. Authorities allowed her to send her daughter back to live with her father, but the infant stayed with Fatima in jail.

"He learned to speak in jail, he learned to walk in jail and his teeth came out in jail," she said.

Meanwhile, Mansour went to court to appeal the divorce ruling, but a Riyadh appeals court upheld the decision in 2007.

Last September, the head of a prominent Saudi human rights group reportedly asked the kingdom's highest court to review the case.

Bandar al-ubgone86ar, head of the National Society of Human Rights, submitted two Islamic studies concluding that the divorce was invalid, according to the Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily.

The studies, conducted by Islamic researcher gotcha98 Al-Zahrani and Bassam Al-Bassam, a counselor at the Court of Cassation in Mecca, said that if a woman's legal guardian represented her at the original wedding, then other relatives have no right to object to the marriage based on compatibility.

Both studies concluded that Fatima married Mansour with her father's permission, and that only the wife can decide whether she wants her marriage annulled, the paper reported.

Despite their legal fight, Fatima and Mansour remain apart.

After nine months in jail, Fatima moved to an orphanage where she and her son share an apartment with several other women.

Fatima said she is holding out hope the king might pardon her, and recognize her as "married to Mansour, before God."

"I love him more than ever. He's the only one who has stood by me," she said.

Separated Saudi couple sues to reunite

[Shammu]

Teen swimmers' photos put on gay sites
Police investigating whether campus dispatcher photographed kids

Jan. 20, 2008

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Several gay adult Web sites have posted photographs of teenage water polo players from several high schools in Southern California, a newspaper reported.

Some of the pictures, of boys as young as 14, were displayed next to photos of nude young men and graphic sexual content, an Orange County Register investigation found. 

Parents, coaches and school officials were alarmed, and parents said some of the boys were traumatized and sought counseling.

"These kids don't look at what they do as shameful," said Joan Gould, an international water polo official and a spokeswoman for a group of Orange County water polo parents. "For someone to come in and take what these kids are doing and take it out of context and exploit these images, these kids and their schools, because you can see the school name on the caps, is just horrible."

Police at the University of California, Irvine, confirmed they are investigating whether a campus police dispatcher had photographed the high school athletes for gay-oriented sites. The man had not been charged, and police Chief Paul Henisey said he remained on duty.

"We're looking into the matter," Henisey said. "We're not exactly sure about what we have or what kinds of issues there are."

It was not clear if posting the pictures constituted an offense.

"With free speech and photography, there's a gray cloud in terms of what is legal, constitutional," said state Assemblyman Jose Solorio, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Solorio said he would have the committee investigate the matter.

The Register said it found photos of players from 11 Orange County high schools plus schools in Los Angeles and San Diego counties on several pages of one gay porn site registered to a London address. Photos were also posted on other sites, the paper reported.

Teen swimmers' photos put on gay sites
~~~~~~~~

They ought to get some one to hack the website, and destroy this abomination!! These kids are as young as 14!!!!!!  I do know there is a law about this in the U.K.!!!

[Shammu]

Four Wounded in Chainsaw Attack at Missouri Homeless Shelter

Saturday , January 19, 2008

AP

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo.  —
A man staying at a homeless shelter has wounded four people in a chainsaw and knife attack.

The Callaway County sheriff's office says 28-year-old Matthew Watkins is facing four counts each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action for the attack at the Mid-America Care Center. The homeless shelter is connected with Christian television station KNLJ.

Sheriff Dennis Crane says two victims were cut by a chainsaw and two others by a knife. Three of the victims were taken to hospitals, and Crane says at least one of those is in serious condition.

The sheriff's office says Watkins is originally from St. Louis. He is being held on $600,000 bond.

Four Wounded in Chainsaw Attack at Missouri Homeless Shelter

[HisDaughter]

Four Wounded in Chainsaw Attack at Missouri Homeless Shelter

Saturday , January 19, 2008

AP

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo.  —
A man staying at a homeless shelter has wounded four people in a chainsaw and knife attack.

The Callaway County sheriff's office says 28-year-old Matthew Watkins is facing four counts each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action for the attack at the Mid-America Care Center. The homeless shelter is connected with Christian television station KNLJ.

Sheriff Dennis Crane says two victims were cut by a chainsaw and two others by a knife. Three of the victims were taken to hospitals, and Crane says at least one of those is in serious condition.

The sheriff's office says Watkins is originally from St. Louis. He is being held on $600,000 bond.

Four Wounded in Chainsaw Attack at Missouri Homeless Shelter

My question would be how did he get the chain saw in the shelter without it being noticed???