=== Japan - Takao Wakasa
1. 5 decomposed bodies found in Osaka house
2. Five dies in possible cult ritual

=== Aum Shinrikyo
3. Aum followers down by 10: report

=== Catholic God's Spirit
4. Solons seek probe of cult clash
5. Lawmen in Bukidnon cults' death 'committed murder': Lacson

=== Falun Gong
6. Chinese religious leaders call for crack down on cults, Falun Gong
7. Beijing's long-distance bid to snuff out banned sect in Australia
8. Falun Gong, free in Hong Kong, irks public

=== Zhong Gong
9. China jails banned sect member - HK rights group
10. Report: China Jails Sect Organizer

=== Scientology
11. Scientology shops for Scots
12. Former Scientologist sues ex-employer

=== Islam
13. Farrakhan Denounces Times Story
14. Religious Police Close Bathhouses For Poor Men
15. Man's eye taken in punishment for crime

=== Buddhism
16. Cremation Error Angers Buddhist Family

=== Attleboro Cult
17. Judge in religious sect case declares missing infant dead
18. State seeks custody of children
19. Attleboro cultists go to court in fight for custody of children

=== Witchcraft
20. Villagers escape justice as 'witches' lynched
21. A family circle: Local Wiccans make their niche
22. The drug that unleashed witchcraft and murder

=== Hate Groups
23. Supremacist suit might include punitive damages

=== Rebirthing
24. Therapists accused in 'rebirthing' death due in court
25. Rebirthing victim, 10, had nightmares of being murdered
26. Therapist Blamed Herself for Death

=== Other News
27. Girl of 10 in line to lead Brazilian religion
28. Complete Remains Of the Stinemans, Bishop Recovered / Examination
rules out another victim
29. Priest Sought in Alleged Exorcism
30. Filmmaker's Quest Opens Murder Case in Wyoming
31. The case of the missing filmmaker
32. Rastafarian Meeting Bans Marijuana
33. Students Surrender Secret Cult Items to Police
34. South China Exhibition Exposes Evils of Superstition
35. Kazakh authorities investigate cult
36. Russians Criticize Missionaries

=== Alternative Healing
37. Psychic surgeon eases man's pains
38. Study: Acupuncture effective treatment for cocaine addiction


=== Japan

1. 5 decomposed bodies found in Osaka house
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
OSAKA -- Five decomposed bodies were found in a house in Sennan, Osaka Prefecture, on Wednesday evening, in a mysterious case that police suspect involves cult activities.

The five bodies were discovered at the home of Takao Wakasa, 66, by Wakasa's younger sister Kimiko Furuyashiki, 60, who lives next door and others, police said.

The degree of decomposition differed from body to body, with some having decomposed significantly, leading police to believe that there were wide differences between the dates of the deaths.

Police were trying to identify the bodies and determine the causes of death. They questioned Wakasa and another younger sister, Akiko, who lives with him. Akiko was found emaciated.
(...)

Neighbors said Akiko, 64, and her four daughters and son, aged from 27 to 41, were living with Wakasa. Police suspect the bodies are those of Akiko's five children.

According to a homemaker living nearby, Wakasa's house was always locked and the shutters were closed. Salt was piled in front of the metal fence surrounding the house, leading her to believe that cult activities were being held there, she said.

Another homemaker said Wakasa claimed to be a guru, and that every morning and night the sound of what seemed to be sutras and bell-ringing could be heard. There was a smell of incense from the house, she said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Five dies in possible cult ritual
News Wire (England), Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.lineone.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Japanese police have discovered the bodies of five people who may have starved to death in a cult ritual.
(...)

Police could not confirm media reports that the deaths may have been cult related. Newspapers claim the five had starved to death.

Several local residents were quoted as saying that the family was involved in ''religious ceremonies'' and had been seen digging holes in their garden and sprinkling salt, which associated with purity.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo

3. Aum followers down by 10: report
Japan Times (Japan), Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Aum Shinrikyo religious group had 1,140 members as of Aug. 1, down 10 from three months ago, according to a report the group submitted Tuesday to the Public Security Investigation Agency.

The number of followers living at Aum facilities was 549, down 17, while the number of outside members was 591, up seven, according to the report.

The group has 11 facilities in Japan, which is unchanged, the report says.

The report is the third of its kind. Under a law enacted last December to crack down on the group, Aum is required to file a report every three months detailing the number of its followers, their names and addresses, the group's properties and other information.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholic God's Spirit

4. Solons seek probe of cult clash
The Philippine Star (Philippines), Aug. 15, 2000
http://www.philstar.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Opposition leaders in the House of Representatives batted yesterday for a congressional inquiry into last Friday's massacre of 16 members of the religious cult Tadtad in Bukidnon.

House Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City) warned that the bloody incident may be repeated if authorities did not take it seriously.

''It's not just worrisome, but frightening. We may start to take these things for granted... that it is a part of life. So if no investigation has been done, we'll call for it,'' Belmonte said.

The 16 followers of the Catholic God's Spirit religious sect in a remote village in Pangantocan town in Bukidnon were shot dead by members of a composite group of soldiers, policemen and militiamen trying to serve a warrant of arrest on one of the cultists.

However, the cultists, armed with bolos and improvised guns, resisted, resulting in heavy fighting.

Belmonte said there is ''inherent danger'' in employing ill-trained militiamen under the government's Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU).

''This is really a question of lack of training showed in the lack of restraint,'' Belmonte noted.
(...)

However, the military defended the slaying of the Tadtad cultists by saying it was a case of self-defense.

''The civilian volunteers (who were) with the police tried to implement a lawful arrest, but they were forced to do what they did because of the assault by the Tadtad cultists,'' said Brig. Gen. Generosa Senga, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Philippine National Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome also claimed the warrant servers strictly observed the rules of engagement.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Lawmen in Bukidnon cults' death 'committed murder': Lacson
Sun Star (Philippines), Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MANILA -- PNP Director Panfilo Lacson said Wednesday lawmen committed ''plain and simple murder'' in the shooting to death of 16 cult members in Pangantucan, Bukidnon last Friday.

Lacson, in an ABS-CBN report last night, said the lawmen involved could have used other means to pacify Roberto Maduina Jr. and 15 of his companions, all members of the cult named Catholic God Spirit cult.
(...)

The police official said the charging cult members, who were armed only with machetes, could have been maimed or immobilize, not shot to death. The incident was caught on video by ABS-CBN Cagayan de Oro cameraman Peterson Bergado.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

6. Chinese religious leaders call for crack down on cults, Falun Gong
BBC Monitoring, Aug. 16, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)
Beijing, 16th August: Leaders of major religions in China today denounced Falun Gong for stealing Buddhist and papist phrases to spread its fallacies and defame these religions, and urged the authorities to crack down on this cult and others.

Seven religious leaders of five lawful beliefs in the country, namely Buddhism, Taoism [Daoism], Islamism, Catholicism and Christianity, gathered today to attend a symposium of the Chinese religious circles on the issue of world peace.

These leaders are members of the Chinese delegation to the forthcoming United Nations' millennium conference on world peace attended by religious and spiritual leaders.

Master Shenghui, a vice-chairman of the Buddhist Association of China, said the Falun Gong cult is by nature against science, mankind, the government, society, world peace and the fortunes of human beings.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Beijing's long-distance bid to snuff out banned sect in Australia
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Aug. 15 ,2000
http://www.smh.com.au:80/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Australian security services and police are monitoring suspected Chinese harassment of Falun Gong sect members in Australia as the Howard Government prepares to open human rights talks with Beijing on Wednesday.

Officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have contacted Falun Gong devotees in Sydney and Canberra to warn them of the campaign.

Chinese diplomats have also been involved in attempts to curtail the activities of the sect in Sydney and Canberra with pressure put on local governments to deny members the use of community facilities.

Chinese diplomats have warned Blacktown and Hurstville councils that the sect, banned and persecuted in China, is destructive and should be discouraged.

It is understood that Blacktown Council has continued to allow the group to take part in its community activities and use its facilities.

Falun Gong followers in Australia say they have been followed by people who appeared to be Chinese, have had their telephones tapped, and property and vehicles damaged.
(...)

China's Vice-Foreign Minister, Mr Yang Jiechi, will lead a delegation to talks in Canberra this week where Australia will protest over the crackdown on Falun Gong in China and other human rights abuses.

However, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade refused to answer questions on the harassment of the movement in Australia or confirm that diplomatic protests had been lodged with Beijing over these activities.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. Falun Gong, free in Hong Kong, irks public
Reuters, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Outlawed in mainland China, the Falun Gong spiritual movement has been allowed to operate unhindered in Hong Kong, but after a spate of publicity stunts the group is beginning to get on people's nerves.

Recent staged suicide attempts, a hunger strike and a dispute within the fractious group over leadership are costing Falun Gong public sympathy, experts and commentators say.

``These events hurt their credibility,'' Joseph Kaung, theology lecturer at the Chinese University, told Reuters. ``It's showing traits of a cult. It keeps an air of mystery about it, and there is leader worship.''

On two occasions in the past month members orchestrated suicide attempts, throwing one of the busiest districts in Hong Kong into traffic chaos and hurt local businesses.
(...)

In both cases, the Falun Gong followers claimed they were being persecuted for their beliefs. No one was hurt.
(...)

In the former British colony, which will enjoy a high degree of autonomy for 50 years after returning to Chinese rule in 1997, followers have been allowed to carry on as normal. But patience is wearing thin.

``The Falun Gong factions cunningly manipulate the media,'' wrote columnist Kevin Sinclair in the South China Morning Post newspaper in late July in a piece entitled ``Falun Gong disciple's hysterics tries our good faith.''

``If the government attempts to enforce our laws, they clamber out on window ledges and threaten to leap, but only after having called television stations and newspapers.''

Another member of the movement, U.S.-based ethnic Chinese Wendy Fang, has exacerbated the public's annoyance with the group. In early July the pregnant San Francisco woman, who holds a mainland Chinese passport, went on a hunger strike at Hong Kong airport when she was refused entry because she did not have a visa, required for mainland Chinese passports holders.

Fang, who said she wanted to see a manifestation of Buddha on Hong Kong's Lantau island, resumed eating only after four days when a court issued an order for her to be force-fed. She was deported and tried to enter Hong Kong two more times in July but was turned away on both occasions.

``Her actions have nothing to do with freedom of speech, the government placing restrictions on Falun Gong or indeed any matter of principle,'' the South China Morning Post said in a July editorial. ``No woman has the right to intentionally put her unborn child at risk in this way; and certainly not for the sake of a twisted sense of principle.''

The group is also waging an internal struggle in Hong Kong over its leadership, contributing to the growing sense of unease about the movement in the territory.

A splinter group of about 20 members has claimed in recent months that Belinda Pang, one of the most outspoken followers since Beijing's ban, is now the movement leader.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Zhong Gong

9. China jails banned sect member - HK rights group
Reuters, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HONG KONG, Aug 15 (Reuters) - China has sentenced a member of the banned Zhong Gong meditation group to two years in jail for ``disturbing society order,'' a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Tuesday.

The Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy in China said in a statement Wang Xuemei, who was arrested last November, was sentenced in late July.

Wang was one of the leaders of the Zhong Gong group in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, it said.

The human rights group also said Sun Guifang, one of the group's leaders in Shenzhen, was arrested by police last month.
(...)

The Information Centre said more than 600 Zhong Gong members had been detained by the Chinese authorities since the crackdown.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. Report: China Jails Sect Organizer
The Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING (AP) - A local leader of banned Chinese meditation group Zhong Gong has been sentenced to two years in prison, and police are questioning more than 20 other members, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Wang Xuemei, a Zhong Gong organizer in the southern city of Guangzhou, was charged with disturbing social order, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
(...)

According to the Information Center, about 600 Zhong Gong organizers have been detained, and 3,000 businesses linked to the group shut down. State media criticizes Falun Gong and Zhong Gong as fraudulent and dangerous.

Last month, Zhong Gong founder Zhang Hongbao escaped to Guam, a U.S. territory, where he is seeking asylum. China has asked for his extradition, accusing him of leaving the country illegally and other crimes.

Also last month, police arrested a Zhong Gong organizer in the city of Shenzhen, bordering Hong Kong, and seized a list naming more than 20 other participants, the Information Center said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

11. Scientology shops for Scots
Scottish Daily Record, Aug. 15, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The world's fastest growing religious cult has launched a recruitment drive in Scotland.

The Church of Scientology - whose members include Hollywood superstars Tom Cruise and John Travolta - claim they have successful programmes which could help solve the country's crime and drugs problems. Yesterday, the cult launched their bid for newmembers with a week-long exhibition. A free hotline has also been set up.

Graeme Wilson, the church's UK spokesman, said the Scots exhibition is intended to dispel public myths about Scientology.
[...entire item...]

Scientology *claims* to be the world's fastest growing religious cult.
However, that appears to be nothing more than the usual Church of Scientology
PR.

Dispelling Scientology's myths

12. Former Scientologist sues ex-employer
The Spokesman Review, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Spokane _ Scientology was good to Michael R. McClaughry.

His wife once met high-profile church member John Travolta. McClaughry worked in the ''church intelligence unit.'' They both climbed to high ranks within the church.

But now the good times are over.

The Post Falls man claims he was ousted from the Church of Scientology because he talked about changes he discovered in the religion's scripture. Then he was asked to leave his job at a Spokane office managed by Scientologists, he said.

McClaughry is suing a Spokane company in U.S. District Court for alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act, claiming he was fired for his religious beliefs.

The office manager said McClaughry resigned.
(...)

McClaughry said he was excommunicated when he told other members that sacred texts had been altered.

McClaughry said Scientologists are not allowed to associate with former members.

''The supervisor basically said, `You realize once you're expelled (from the church), I can't deal with you. You have to go find another job,''' said McClaughry's lawyer, Steven Crumb.

''I guess that's as good as someone saying you're fired,'' Crumb said.

Pat Dougherty, Spokane and Seattle office manager for David Morse & Associates, said the charges are unfounded.

''He thinks that we fired him because of his problems with the church. We didn't. He resigned. I didn't fire him, period,'' said Dougherty, a Scientologist. ''There are Scientology members who work at David Morse. We are not a Scientology company. There are non-Scientologists that work for us also.''

He added there is no connection ''whatsoever'' between the church and the business.

McClaughry filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Seattle, which dismissed his charges April 26 for lack of supporting evidence.

McClaughry challenged the EEOC dismissal and received a letter from the Seattle District Office director, Jeanette Leino, that said, ''it is unlikely that continued investigation would show that your theological differences with the Church of Scientology led to a discriminatory discharge from Dave Morse and Associates.''

His lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on July 25.

McClaughry had been part of the church for 32 years. He was at the level called ''OT III.'' His wife had reached the highest level, an ''OT VII.''

To maintain the highest level members must submit to ''sec checks'' every six months, a security screening that costs $800 an hour with off-and-on sessions that can last for weeks, McClaughry said.

''The people who are in charge of the church took it upon themselves to begin rewriting the scripture,'' McClaughry said.

Phone calls seeking comment were not returned by Spokane's Dianetics Center Mission, which is affiliated with the church. Messages left with the church headquarters in Los Angeles also were not returned.

During an interview, McClaughry shared a copy of a 12-page document detailing the rules for conducting an audit, a mental health procedure devised by Hubbard, the church founder. A more recent set of rules, rewritten after Hubbard's death in 1986, is only five pages, McClaughry said.

Under the rewritten rules, Scientologists who reach the upper levels of the church must continue to be ''sec checked,'' whereas they could be exempted under the original document, McClaughry said.

Changing church guidelines is a ''cardinal sin,'' and there are more, he said.

He is still researching further alterations to church doctrine.
(...)

The religion has been the target of attacks and controversy, not unlike other new religious movements, according to the Encyclopedia of American Religions.

The Church of Scientology has developed a reputation of attacking critics through lawsuits. Time magazine fought a $416 million lawsuit filed by the church for a 1991 cover story called, ''The Cult of Greed.'' The suit was dismissed in 1996.

The Church of Scientology offers Web pages explaining the religion, but many other sites are critical of the religion.

Lawyers representing the church have been using copyright laws to remove protected church documents from the Internet.

McClaughry doesn't agree with the church's aggressive stance against critics or any of the changes.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Islam

13. Farrakhan Denounces Times Story
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 14, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Sunday night denounced a Los Angeles Times story that quoted him as questioning the national loyalty of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman.
(...)

He denounced The Times while speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 people at Compton College Sunday evening.

''The L.A. Times made mischief with my words and we are desirous of a meeting with the L.A. Times, because it's not what we said, it's what they wrote,'' he said. ''And what they wrote was carried all over the world, getting people to think very ugly things about Brother Farrakhan.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. Religious Police Close Bathhouses For Poor Men
Source: The Record, Northern New Jersey
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Afghanistan's Taliban militia rulers closed public bathhouses in the war-battered Afghan capital, saying Saturday that Islam forbids men to display their bodies publicly.
(...)

The poorly lit bathing rooms accommodated 80 to 100 men mostly the city's poorest, who do not have running water. Men and young boys wore shorts or tied towels around their waists while bathing in the giant tubs. Baths typically cost about 18 cents.

The Taliban, who have little money to run the war-torn country, say they will build small, single-occupancy public bathhouses to replace the ones that closed.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Man's eye taken in punishment for crime
Reuters, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DUBAI (Reuters) - An Egyptian man had an eye removed under court order in Saudi Arabia for throwing acid at another Egyptian, the first such punishment under Islamic law in the kingdom in 40 years, newspapers said Tuesday.

The reports said the 37-year-old Egyptian had his left eye removed last week at a hospital in the Muslim holy city of Medina after being found guilty of throwing acid at the face of a fellow Egyptian six years ago, damaging his left eye.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Buddhism

16. Cremation Error Angers Buddhist Family
Law.com/Fulton County Daily Report, Aug. 15, 2000
http://www.law.com/
Georgia law says little about how to hold a funeral home responsible for dooming a man's spirit to a dreadful rebirth.

But Fayetteville, Ga., lawyer Richard D. Hobbs says he would like to establish a new legal principle surrounding a family's right to see to their dead in accordance with the manner of their faith.

The issue, Hobbs says, arises in a recent suit he filed on behalf of Each Hang against Wages and Sons Funeral Home in Atlanta. Each Hang v. Wages and Sons Funeral Home Inc. No. 00A64857-6 (DeKalb St. filed Feb. 22, 2000). The home was to handle the Buddhist funeral services of Hang's husband Khin Tep, who died in March 1998.

Rather than letting the body lie in state for seven days of prayer and mourning as the Buddhist faith prescribes, the home cremated Tep's body the day he died. According to the family and to experts on Buddhism, the premature cremation may have condemned Tep to a horrifying afterlife and rebirth. The family is demanding restitution.

''They sincerely believe their father is suffering through at best a lesser afterlife because of what happened,'' Hobbs says.

The trick is determining what the law can do about it, Hobbs says. After months of study and research, he says he would like to establish a new tort -- ''denial of closure.'' When somebody interferes so intrusively into the funeral process, he says, the family should be able to collect. Mourners have the right to say goodbye to their loved ones in the manner they see fit, he says.
(...)

Emory University professor of religion Eric R. Reinders says the period immediately following clinical death is extremely important among Buddhists. ''In a Buddhist sense, death is more of a process. It's less of a moment,'' he says.

Rather than conceiving of life and death as a candle flame or a light switch that is either on or off, Reinders says, Buddhists believe that death is the gradual disassembling of elements that combine to generate life. When a person dies, Reinders says, elements such as mind, body, and spirit separate but do not vanish. Most importantly, he says, the consciousness continues and hovers near the body.

''The consciousness is still present somehow, floating around -- but still somehow present and likely somewhat confused and frightened,'' he says.

Reinders refers to the period of mourning before burial by the Tibetan term ''bardo'' -- the transition period during which family and friends try to reassure the deceased's consciousness and direct it into the next rebirth. Whether one's new life is better or worse than the previous, Reinders says, depends not only on how one lived, but how one died.

''The moment of death is very important -- the approach to it and the time immediately after,'' he says. ''That's the time when your next birth will be decided.''

Without a full period of bardo, with its blessings, rituals, and mourning, Tep could be born again in anxiety, confusion, fear, or pain, Reinders says. ''It potentially could mean a very bad rebirth,'' he says.

On the day of Tep's clinical death, his family began the seven days of bardo: burning candles, praying, and placing clothing, water, and food on his bed. After the cremation, the family typically preserves the bones of the dead, washes them, gilds them, and then prays over them during an extended service.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Attleboro Cult

17. Judge in religious sect case declares missing infant dead
Boston.com/AP, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.boston.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) A judge in the case of a fundamentalist Christian sect condemned sect leader Jacques Robidoux on Wednesday as a ''false prophet'' and blamed him for allowing his infant son to die of malnutrition because it was God's will.

Judge Kenneth P. Nasif censured Robidoux after declaring 10-month-old Samuel Robidoux dead for the purposes of the custody case. He also awarded custody of seven children who were part of two families involved with the sect to the Department of Social Services, who will make them available for adoption.

Hearings on other children were scheduled for Thursday.

Separately, a grand jury is investigating whether the sect should face criminal charges for allegedly allowing Samuel to die and for disposing of his body along with the body of a stillborn infant, Samuel's cousin Jeremiah. Neither child has been found.
(...)

''You are not a prophet, sir,'' the judge told Robidoux, who remained silent and expressionless. ''You are a false prophet. Your actions, in my judgment, have caused the death of an innocent child who suffered before he died. I am convinced of that. And you are responsible, because you are the so-called leader of this group.''

The group rejects legal counsel, and the five women still living in the sect's Attleboro house refuse to speak to reporters. The sect is made up of two core families whose children married each other, or married outsiders who joined the group.

The investigation started in November, when former sect member Dennis Mingo discovered a 10-page diary by an unknown author describing how Samuel grew weaker after his parents changed his diet.

Jacques Robidoux was instructed by God that his wife, Karen, should feed their son only breast milk and water, the diary says. It says Samuel's eventual illness was Satan's way of testing Karen.

The diary, which Mingo gave to police, does not say what happened to Samuel. But two children of sect members told police about a trip the sect took to Maine during which they apparently buried Samuel and the stillborn child, according to court documents.

The state has taken custody of 12 sect children. Samuel, who officially was considered missing, had been included in the custody case until Nasif's decision Wednesday.

Mingo is seeking custody of his five children with Michelle Robidoux Mingo, who is in jail. Men outside the sect who fathered two children with Karen Robidoux also are seeking custody.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. State seeks custody of children
Boston.com/AP, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.boston.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) The state is suing for custody of eight children of jailed members of a religious sect, according to the state Department of Social Services.

The state is set to go to court Wednesday to seek permanent adoption of the children, who were among 13 removed Nov. 10 from an Attleboro duplex owned by Roland Robidoux, the leader of the Christian fundamentalist organization.

Robidoux and seven members of the group are in jail for refusing to answer questions about the whereabouts of 10-month old Samuel Robidoux and his cousin, Jeremiah Corneau.
(...)

The eight children have been in temporary homes. The other five taken from the sect last year are with their father, Dennis Mingo.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Attleboro cultists go to court in fight for custody of children
Boston Herald, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.bostonherald.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Members of a reclusive Attleboro cult, suspected of letting an infant in their care starve to death because it was ``God's will,'' will fight for the custody of their other children in a Bristol County courtroom today.

The sect, which authorities believe buried the 10-month-old boy and his missing cousin in Maine last year, is trying to prevent the state Department of Social Services from gaining permanent custody of eight kids fathered by its fundamentalist leaders.

DSS stepped in last year when eight members of the sect - including the fathers of the two missing boys - were jailed for refusing to cooperate with authorities probing the whereabouts of 10-month-old Samuel Robidoux and his cousin, Jeremiah Corneau, who is believed to have been stillborn.
(...)

Authorities say cult members buried the two boys in Baxter State Park in Maine last year, but searches there and at the cult's former Seekonk compound have turned up nothing.
(...)

The DA's office is thinking about bringing murder charges against the cult members, even though investigators haven't found either of the boys' bodies.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Witchcraft

20. Villagers escape justice as 'witches' lynched
Scotland on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Police in India are still searching for dozens of villagers who participated in the lynching of five people suspected of being witches. So far, 57 people have been arrested in connection with the murders in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh earlier this month.
(...)

''Almost the entire village is guilty,'' local journalist Ravi Kumar said yesterday. ''The police are looking for another 30 or 40 people who have absconded.''

The fear of evil in Timmapuram is said to be connected with a doctor who used to visit the village to treat people for witchcraft. He was banned from the village by the authorities but surfaced again some months ago. The situation in the community deteriorated after a housewife committed suicide and a youth died in suspicious circumstances.

''Witch-hunting is very common in this area,'' said Kumar. ''In one district alone, more than 80 villages have been affected during the past five years.''

In remote parts of India where no medical aid is available, people rely on shamans to treat them and these doctor-priests often hide their inability to cure diseases by blaming witches.
(...)

A law was passed last year in the northern state of Bihar - considered the poorest and most lawless state in the country - to prevent the persecution of alleged witches. But elsewhere there is little protection for women so accused .
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. A family circle: Local Wiccans make their niche
News & Record, Aug. 13, 2000
http://www.news%2Drecord.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GREENSBORO -- They're a lively bunch, sipping cappuccino and chatting in Borders, between the ''Chicken Run'' art books and the C.S. Lewis novels.

Mara Silversea hushes them. She brings news of a shower -- a wiccaning. She and the other witches will give the expectant mother and father a coverlet, welcoming their soon-to-be-born baby into their Wiccan coven, into their Wiccan family.

They think of themselves that way, as a family. Since January, the group has gathered at the bookstore to study Wicca, the religion of witches. Their beliefs vary, but most in the coven revere nature, practice magic, worship the Goddess and the God.

Twice a month and on Wiccan holidays -- full moons, summer solstices and such -- they trade their plain-Jane names for magical ones. Mara and Angelo, Phoenix and Freya, paired with the surname Silversea. They invite distant relatives of Wicca -- Pagans and Druids, along with those who practice shamanism and Native American rites.

In the Triad and across the country, more Wiccans are ''coming out of the broom closet,'' their term for worshipping the Goddess and the God openly. Increasingly, they're meeting in public places like Borders, wearing pentagram necklaces on the outsides of their shirts.

As these witches have become more visible, so have their critics. Ministers are talking about the religion from their pulpits, parishioners from their pews. Many believe Wiccans are lost souls in need of saving because they practice magic, worship the Goddess along with the God, and reject Jesus' divinity.

Mara Silversea, who wears the five-pointed star called a pentagram, is often accused of worshiping Satan by customers she serves at an area restaurant. The hairdresser, the teacher, the security guard -- all struggle with when, or if, they should come out of the broom closet, and how it will affect their jobs.

But together, as a family, they say it's easier to make that decision, easier to shrug off church groups who gather around them, praying for their salvation.
(...)

Members of the local coven say they don't believe Satan exists, much less worship him. They say they're not a cult because Wicca is too fragmented to produce one charismatic leader. They say they don't try to recruit members because they believe their religion is no better than others.

''We don't believe in pushing ourselves on anyone,'' says Mara Silversea, one of the coven's founders. ''That's what Christianity does. 'You need to do this. You need to do that.'''
(...)

Concerns people have about Wicca stem, in part, from their pentagram, which represents air, earth, fire, water and the spirit. Internet Web sites devoted to Wicca say it's a positive symbol, one that can remind practitioners of the Goddess and her universal wisdom.

Satanists wear pentagrams, too, but invert them. Many people fail to make the distinction when they see the symbols.

''Christians who fear and protest against Wicca generally do so because they associate it with the dark, evil forces of black magic, witchcraft and satanic influences,'' says Kathleen Joyce, an assistant professor at Duke University who specializes in the religious history of North America.

Others reject Wicca because practitioners celebrate female power, she says, while some are critical of any religion not rooted in the Trinity.

''Wiccans are worshipping and invoking a power other than the tribune god of Christianity, and this to some is akin to summoning up the devil,'' she says.

In recent months, those fears have resulted in court cases.
(...)

These and other opponents of Wicca aren't reacting out of fear, but out of love, says the Rev. Alex McFarland, a conservative Christian evangelist who runs Greensboro's Faith in Focus Ministries.

The Bible condemns witchcraft and magic, he says, along with the worship of nature and multiple gods. Plus, he says, the Bible teaches that people without Jesus are spiritually lost. McFarland also believes Lucifer lies behind the occult, and might just use Wiccan magic as a tool against God -- regardless of whether practitioners know he's doing it.

''They may not believe in the devil, but that doesn't mean he doesn't exist,'' he says.

Instead of fearing Wiccans, Christians should reach out to them, he says -- respectfully, gently. Wiccans often feel alienated from mainstream religion, says McFarland, so the last thing they need is a loud, public rebuke.

''When you're talking about a group that has experienced alienation and rejection, it's not terribly productive to lash out and say, 'Get back, spawn of Satan,''' he says.
(...)

Wicca is hard to define. There are no sacred texts or liturgy, no mandatory rituals or world headquarters.

Most Wiccans can agree on this much: They worship Earth and its natural cycles -- changes in the moon, changes in season, changes in themselves. They believe the Goddess and her consort, God, created life. They believe the two are equals, both kind, gentle and omnipresent.

Female and male Wiccans alike call themselves witches. They believe they're practicing a modern, adapted version of ancient witchcraft. They cast spells,which ask the Goddess and the God for wisdom, strength, protection or guidance. Most books on Wicca say those spells shouldn't hurt living creatures or reduce another person's free will.

Hence the Wiccan Rede, a mock-archaic expression of their theology: ''An' ye harm none, do what thou wilt.'' Translated, the rede means everything is morally acceptable, as long as no one is hurt.

Beyond those basics, Wicca is harder to peg because its practice is highly personalized. Some might say, as those in the local coven do, that they're Wiccan with a touch of shaman. Or Druid with a dash of Gardnerian Traditional Wiccan.

''It's a religion that can be made up as one goes along, tailored to one's individual needs and interests at the moment,'' says Thomas Robisheaux, a Duke University historian who studies witchcraft. ''Authority is loose, structure at a minimum, creativity high.''
(...)

As hard as their religion is to define, it's even harder to count Wiccans. Practitioners meet where they can, inside bookstores, Unitarian churches, private homes or, in the past few years, over the Internet. Some groups, such as the Silversea coven, publicize their meetings. Others remain in the broom closet.

Some Wiccan Web sites claim as many as 100,000 American practitioners. No one knows for sure how many Wiccans live in the Triad, because many are solitary, not part of any coven.
(...)

Wiccan prayers vary as much as the people who practice it. But books, including ''Wicca: A Guide for Solitary Practitioner,'' suggest chants and invocations.
(...)

All they want, these Wiccans say, is the freedom to worship together, as a family.

''If people don't want to believe what we believe, that's fine,'' says Phoenix Silversea. ''Just don't be scared of us.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. The drug that unleashed witchcraft and murder
Daily Mail, Aug. 7, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
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(...) More than 40,000 'witches' were killed in Britain and Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries for the hellish suffering they supposedly bestowed on their bewitched victims.
(...)

For medieval peasants who saw their family members subject to convulsions, unexplained hallucinations and death, the ancient, dark arts were the only possible explanation for the suffering of their loved ones.

Yet, as a TV documentary reveals tonight, scientists now believe a very modern phenomenon could be the answer: LSD, the hallucinogenic drug that powered the Sixties psychedelic revolution.

Behaviour that our forefathers attributed to witchcraft may have been people suffering from 'bad acid trips', brought on by eating rye contaminated with the fungus from which LSD is derived.

LSD (lysergic acid diethyl-amide) was discovered in the Fifties by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman when he experimented on the ergot fungus which grows on the staple grain crop rye.

It was so powerful that Hoffman began to hallucinate when he absorbed a small amount of ergot through his fingertips. He then synthesised LSD from the fungus.
(...)

In medieval times this early form of LSD poisoning defied all normal symptoms of illness. It did not appear to be infectious and, conversely, some victims had been in isolation yet still fell prey to it.

But because no one understood that these frightening symptoms were caused by eating a poisonous fungus, other causes for the malady had to be found.

In a world where medical knowledge was scant, witchcraft seemed the only explanation.

One of the most famous witching events of all occurred in Salem in Massachusetts in 1692, and it has long baffled historians.

Why was it, 47 years after the last witch persecutions had taken place there, that the population suddenly turned on many of its womenfolk? Linnda Caporael, professor of behavioural sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, believes ergot poisoning is the only explanation.

The Salem witch trials took place after two young girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, started exhibiting bizarre behaviour in January 1692: screaming, convulsions and trance-like states.

Then several other villagers began behaving similarly. After Elizabeth and Abigail accused three women of bewitching them, the floodgates opened. In this fearful, Puritan society, neighbour accused neighbour. Even Rebecca Nurse, a deaf grandmother, was thrown in jail, along with Dorcas Good, a four-year-old girl, and left chained to the wall in darkness.

There were 200 accusations, with 19 people hanged as witches and a further five dying in prison.

The traditional explanation is that mass hysteria gripped the village. But after Professor Capo-rael looked at all the transcripts available from the trials, she believed ergot was to blame.
(...)

Mary Matossian, a University of Maryland historian, found that a large proportion of the witchcraft trials in Europe were concentrated in the regions where rye was usually grown as a staple.

Also, they often coincided with wet, warm growing seasons that encourage ergot fungus growth.

In Britain, she discovered that trials were rarely held outside Essex and East Anglia - two counties where rye was the staple.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

23. Supremacist suit might include punitive damages
Seattle Times/AP, Aug. 16, 2000
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
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COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A woman and her son can seek punitive damages against the Aryan Nations in a civil lawsuit that alleges the white-supremacist sect's security guards shot at them, a judge ruled.

Victoria and Jason Keenan can amend their lawsuit against Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler and three former security guards to seek punitive damages in addition to unspecified actual damages, Idaho 1st District Judge Charles Hosack ruled Monday.
(...)

The Keenans are represented by lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Co-founder Morris Dees has won large settlements against the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, attended the pretrial conference. He has said he hopes the trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 28, will bankrupt the Aryan Nations.

Butler, 82, did not attend Monday's pretrial-motions hearing.

His attorney, Edgar Steele, argued that former Aryan Nations security guards Edward Jesse Warfield, John Yeager and Shane Wright were volunteers, not employees or agents of the white-supremacist group.

The guards acted on their own, contrary to a written Aryan Nations policy, Steele told the court.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Rebirthing

24. Therapists accused in 'rebirthing' death due in court
CNN, Aug. 15, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
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GOLDEN, Colorado (AP) -- It was therapy meant to re-create a birth. Instead, it is accused of leading to a 10-year-old's death.
(...)

On Tuesday, four people, including therapists Connell Watkins, 53, and Julie Ponder, 39, face preliminary hearings on child abuse charges as a result of the April 18 ''rebirthing session.''
(...)

Also charged and facing preliminary hearings are Jack McDaniel, 47, an intern at Watkins' home-based therapy center in Evergreen, and Watkins' business manager, Brita St. Clair, 41. Candace's adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, 46, faces a hearing next month.
(...)

Evergreen has become an unofficial center for therapists specializing in attachment disorder since the now-retired Foster Cline started developing treatment methods in the mountain town two decades ago.

But other area therapists have said they were shocked to hear that Watkins used the rebirthing therapy. They said they had never before heard of rebirthing therapy used in children or in cases of attachment disorder.

Court documents say Newmaker, a nurse practitioner from Durham, North Carolina, hired Watkins to treat Candace for two weeks for $7,000. She had been seeking help for her daughter's problems since adopting the girl in 1996.

Watkins and her three associates were charged with knowing or reckless child abuse resulting in death. They face up to 48 years in prison if convicted.

Newmaker was charged with criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Rebirthing victim, 10, had nightmares of being murdered
Denver Post, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.denverpost.com/
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Aug. 16, 2000 - Ten-year-old Candace Newmaker, the girl who died after a ''rebirthing'' session in Evergreen went awry, had dreams that she was going to be murdered, including one the night before the infamous session, according to court testimony.

Candace had been thrown out of a second-story window by her natural mother before being adopted by Jeane Newmaker in 1996, and that caused the nightmares, according to testimony from Diane Obbema, an investigator with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office crimes-against-children unit.

''She had nightmares about being murdered,'' Obbema said. ''She thought she was going to die after she fell out the second-story window.''

Obbema said the girl's natural mother was ''abusive and neglective.'' In April, Jeane Newmaker, 46, brought Candace to Evergreen from their home in North Carolina to undergo an intensive two-week therapy program with hopes of curing the girl's ''attachment disorder'' to her adoptive mom, according to David Savitz, a defense attorney.

Therapists Connell Watkins, 53, and Julie Ponder, 40; business manager Brita St. Clair, 41; and intern Jack McDaniel, 47, all face the charge of knowing or reckless child abuse resulting in death. Savitz represents Jack McDaniel.

Jeane Newmaker, of Durham, N.C., faces a hearing Sept. 6 on a lesser felony charge, criminal-negligence child abuse resulting in death. Candace Newmaker was being treated at Watkins' home, but Ponder was acting as the lead therapist during the April 18 rebirthing session because she was more experienced in that particular therapy, having gone through it herself more than once, said Obbema.

The two-week rebirthing session, and other earlier sessions, were videotaped. Obbema testified that Watkins told her: ''The video is going to hang us.''

And Ponder, according to Obbema, told a deputy at the scene: ''It's my fault ... I had no idea she stopped breathing.''

Ponder was in charge of monitoring the girl's breathing, Obbema testified.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Therapist Blamed Herself for Death
AP, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[Rebirthing]
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) - A therapist blamed herself when a girl stopped breathing after she was wrapped in a blanket meant to represent the womb, a sheriff's investigator testified Tuesday. The girl died a day later.

A second therapist predicted that a videotape of the session ``is going to hang us,'' investigator Diane Obbema said during a preliminary hearing.

As she spoke, the two therapists and two associates, all accompanied by their attorneys, sat quietly at the defense table in Jefferson County Court.

The hearing resumes Thursday, when a judge is expected to decide whether the four should stand trial in the death of Candace Newmaker, 10.
(...)

During an April 18 session at Watkins' home-based therapy center in Evergreen, the four used pillows to push against the blanket enveloping Candace and asked her to fight her way out of it to become ``reborn,'' authorities said.

Candace repeatedly told the adults she couldn't breathe and asked when she could ``come out,'' authorities said.

About 70 minutes after the session began, the therapists unwrapped the blanket; Candace was no longer breathing and was lying in vomit, according to the sheriff's department. She died of asphyxiation a day later at a Denver hospital.
(...)

A prosecution affidavit alleges that the videotape shows Candace frequently complaining of breathing difficulties and saying that she feared for her life. It said the therapists ignored Candace's pleas, and that one of them told the girl, ``You want to die? OK, then die. Go ahead, die right now.'' The document didn't specify which therapist said it.

The session was supposed to help Candace overcome ``reactive attachment disorder,'' in which children resist forming loving relationships and become unmanageable and violent.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

27. Girl of 10 in line to lead Brazilian religion
The Guardian (England), Aug. 14, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
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A 10-year-old girl is being tipped to become the spiritual leader of Brazil's most famous Afro-Brazilian religious community.

In Candomble, the animistic religion developed by slaves from west Africa, the house of worship known as Gantois, in the eastern city of Salvador, has a special significance. If Andrea Millet is named ''holy mother'' there, she would become an important national symbol of black culture.

The succession will be decided officially by the throwing of six seashells and seeing how they land, which in the religion's culture is how the gods make their choice known to the material world.

However, the tradition at Gantois has always been for leadership to be passed down to a close female relative. There is strong speculation that the gods will chose Ms Millet, the granddaughter of the previous holy mother.

Worshippers have just finished a week of ceremonies marking the 14th anniversary yesterday of the death of their penultimate leader, which clears the way for the new selection within 30 days.

Gantois is the best known community of Candomble. Services are often held in Yoruba, an African language, using songs that have been passed down over hundreds of years.

The importance of Gantois is due to Maria Escolastica de Nazare, known as ''Mother Little Girl'', who was holy mother there for 64 years before her death, aged 92, in 1986.

The country's most charismatic and longstanding Candomble leader, she oversaw the religion's transformation from a hidden cult to an accepted and cherished part of Brazilian heritage.
(...)

Despite Candomble's underground popularity in Bahia, its followers suffered persecution until a law requiring police permission to hold ceremonies was scrapped in the 1970s.

The liberalisation coincided with a dramatic growth in worship. In Bahia there are now 3,670 separate Candomble communities.
(...)

In Brazil overall, about 80% of the population is Catholic, making it the world's largest Catholic country.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Complete Remains Of the Stinemans, Bishop Recovered / Examination rules out another victim
The San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 15, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Authorities announced yesterday that they have retrieved complete remains for Ivan and Annette Stineman and Selina Bishop, ending their grisly search of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Rio Linda.

A forensic examination of the remains, including a ninth duffel bag containing body parts that was fished from the Mokelumne River on Saturday, has also ruled out the possibility of an additional victim in the case.
(...)

Friends of the suspects have said the brothers had trouble holding jobs, drifted away from the Mormon church and began experimenting with drugs and the occult.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. Priest Sought in Alleged Exorcism
The Associated Press, Aug. 14, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A Mexican judge has issued an arrest warrant for a Roman Catholic priest who allegedly led a bizarre exorcism rite that left several participants injured by being burned or beaten, news media reported Monday.

The Rev. Francisco Fuentes was charged with causing injuries to one participant in the rite, who was allegedly burned with candle wax to break a supposed demonic possession of her body.

Warrants were also issued Sunday for two other people suspected of supervising or carrying out the mass exorcism, the Mexico City newspaper Reforma said. Some witnesses have said Fuentes was only present and did not participate, Reforma said.
(...)

On Friday, seven people died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning during an alleged exorcism ritual in the neighboring state of Tlaxcala, after a local faith healer burned charcoal in a small room to cure the ``possession'' of a young man.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Filmmaker's Quest Opens Murder Case in Wyoming
Reuters, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/entertainment/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - A German filmmaker shooting a documentary about the disappearance of his cameraman in Wyoming has uncovered evidence that has led police to reopen the murder case, closed in 1996.

The police chief in Cheyenne, Wyo., where cameraman Allen Ross went missing in 1995 after making a film about Mississippi for German television, has credited the filmmakers with reigniting the case.
(...)

Filmmaker Christain Bauer was following leads into Ross' membership in a sect in Oklahoma, to whom the death is thought to be linked, while making the documentary ``The Man Who Became a Camera.''


31. The case of the missing filmmaker
Chicago Sun-Times, Aug. 6, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Whatever happened to respected independent filmmaker Allen Ross?

After five years, police may soon be providing some answers.

Ross disappeared in late 1995 after moving from Chicago to Guthrie, Okla., in 1993. He went there unexpectedly after marrying a mysterious woman he barely knew named Linda Greene.

People in Chicago didn't know it at the time, but Greene led a bizarre religious group in Guthrie called the Samaritan Foundation and ranted about vampires, zombies and perverts in her writings.

Friends of Ross-a smart, gentle, independent man, who would have turned 47 this year-couldn't figure out the attraction as they learned more about Greene. Most of his close friends never even met her.

In 1995, Ross moved with his wife to Cheyenne, and that year marked the last friends and family had seen him.

The mystery of Ross' disappearance pains his family, including his father, Laurids, who sits in the Naperville home where his son grew up and waits for the final word on his son's fate.

The mystery also has been the talk and sorrow of independent filmmakers in Chicago. Over the years, rumors swirled. Maybe he had joined a cult. Perhaps he was in hiding. Or maybe he had been murdered.

That last possibility compelled two of Ross' filmmaking friends to do what they knew best-investigate what happened by making a documentary.

Stanford credits the documentarymakers with reigniting the police investigation with their questions earlier this year.
(...)

Ross apparently came to know Greene after he and an ex-girlfriend became interested in a practice called dowsing. Users swing a pendulum, and its movements are supposed to indicate answers to life questions. Greene, a former nurse, gave lectures about the practice and that is how Ross' friends believe he came to know her.
(...)

While Ross would occasionally return to Chicago for work, he made Guthrie his home from 1993 to 1995.
(...)

Across the street stood what was once a jail, about a century old, that had fallen into disrepair. Greene was using it to house about 35 members of her Samaritan Foundation.
(...)

Residents don't know why the group chose Guthrie but said the people weren't bad neighbors. Police said they had no reports of crimes there.
(...)

''They reminded me of Moonies,'' said Kent Denham, owner of Guthrie Bicycles across the street from the jail. ''When they walked they had that faraway look, like they were looking toward the horizon.''

At the time, residents didn't know about a custody battle being waged by a Massachusetts man for his two children. Their mother had said she was taking them down for a seminar in Guthrie at the Samaritan Foundation but had refused to come home.

The father got custody, and in court documents, his attorney introduced writings by Greene to show the children were in danger.

In those papers, Greene writes that followers can be contaminated by vampires if they talk over the phone. She dubs President Clinton ''an animal mutant zombie'' while the first lady is ''a three virtue type zombie.''

The last time anyone saw Ross in Guthrie was when he was packing up to leave with his wife in April 1995, police said. The Samaritan Foundation seems to have broken up by then.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


32. Rastafarian Meeting Bans Marijuana
The Associated Press, Aug. 14, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) - There'll be no marijuana smoked at a meeting of Rastafarians, organizers promised Monday, following complaints about participants lighting up in front of Dominica's top law enforcement official.

The announcement came after local television on Friday showed people at the eight-day meeting's opening ceremony smoking marijuana during an address by acting Attorney General Bernard Wiltshire. Three police officers were also present but took no action to stop the smokers.

Rastafarians consider smoking marijuana a sacrament.
(...)

Rastafarians are members of a religious sect mostly in the Caribbean who believe in the divinity of former Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie.

Marijuana is illegal in Dominica as in other Caribbean countries, though officials largely turn a blind eye to offenders who use small amounts privately.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


33. Students Surrender Secret Cult Items to Police
This Day (Nigeria), Aug..14, 2000
http://www.allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Lethal weapons including three guns, 13 cutlasses, six UTC branded axes, a knife and another axe with seven secret cult regalia were Friday surrendered by the students of Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke (OSCOTECH) to the State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ganiyu Dawodu.

The students who claimed to have recovered the weapons and the regalia from about 300 suspected cultists following a clash between two rival cults on the campus last June during the institution's matriculation ceremony also disclosed that four black berets and a white banner belonging to Black Axe confraternity were recovered.
(...)

The students lamented that despite the huge amount released by the federal government to wipe out cultism, it was not effective as manifested in the last June cult clash in the institution.

The chairman, Campaign Against Cultism and Campus Violence under the umbrella of the National Association Students (NANS) Mr. Akinola Adenitan, said government could not solve the problem of cultism by mere pronunciation without getting to the root cause of the problem.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


34. South China Exhibition Exposes Evils of Superstition
Xinhua News Agency, Aug. 11, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
An exhibition aimed at exposing the tricks played by charlatans, fortune tellers and cult leaders opened today in this capital of south China's Hainan Province.
(...)

Superstitious beliefs have made a comeback in Hainan in recent years, said an official at the Hainan Provincial Association of Sciences, noting that a number of fortune tellers are operating secretly in the city.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


35. Kazakh authorities investigate cult
BBC, Aug. 14, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The authorities in the Kustanai region of north western Kazakhstan have started a criminal investigation into a religious sect which rejects Islam and Christianity.

Officials say members of the Ayat sect are suspected of being involved in unlawful religious practices.

An official Nagashybay Atshabarov said the sect puts people under hypnosis and prepares followers to commit suicide.

He said psychiatric disorders had been registered among some members.
[...entire item...]


36. Russians Criticize Missionaries
The Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian Orthodox Church criticized the Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday for sending missionaries to Russia, claiming they used promises of material wealth to tempt potential converts, a news report said.

The Council of Bishops, the church's highest ruling body, said non-Orthodox churches recruited believers from traditionally Orthodox areas using ``destructive missionary activity,'' the Interfax news agency quoted a church statement as saying.

The criticism of Catholic proselytizing was included in a resolution on Orthodox relations with other faiths. Orthodox leaders frequently have criticized other churches for their missionary work in Russia.
(...)

A Roman Catholic Church spokesman in Russia said Tuesday the church disagrees with the Orthodox contention and denies recruiting with promises of material well-being.

``It is not true that our attendance is increased at the expense of the Orthodox Church,'' the priest, known only as Father Bagdan, told The Associated Press.

``There are a few cases when people come to Catholicism from Orthodoxy, but it is very rare and you have to respect the decision of the individual person.''

The resolution said the Russian Orthodox Church respects freedom of worship for foreign churches in Russia, but only among ``those groups which traditionally belong to them.''
(...)

The resolution Tuesday called for forming ties between individual Orthodox and Catholic congregations, rather than among church leaders in Moscow and Rome, according to Interfax.

The two churches split in 1054 in the Great Schism. Current talks between Orthodox and Catholic officials have focused on resolving a dispute over churches in Western Ukraine that profess loyalty to the Pope but practice an Orthodox liturgy. That dispute dates to the 16th century.

The Council of Bishops opened Sunday in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, and was to consider key church business for the new millennium throughout the week.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Alternative Healing

37. Psychic surgeon eases man's pains
Ananova, Aug. 14, 2000
http://www.ananova.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A grandfather in the UK says he has been cured of excruciating physical pains by a psychic surgeon who claims he is possessed by the 2,000-year-old ghost of a doctor named Paul.

John Bundock, 53, from Brighton says he suffered pains in his stomach, arms, chest and legs for two years, but an exploratory operation at Brighton General Hospital found nothing wrong with him.

As a last resort, he turned to Ray Brown, a former bricklayer, the Brighton Evening Argus reports.

Mr Brown, who works under the 2,000-year-old ghost's name, performed five ''operations'' - laying his hands on Mr Bundock's stomach - a procedure which gradually reduced the pain.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


38. Study: Acupuncture effective treatment for cocaine addiction
CNN/AP, Aug, 14. 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut. (AP) -- Acupuncture is an effective treatment for those addicted to cocaine, Yale researchers found.

A study published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine reports that patients who received therapeutic acupuncture treatments, along with counseling, were more likely to have cocaine-negative tests than those who didn't.

''Our study shows that alternative therapies can be combined with the arsenal of Western treatments for fighting addiction,'' said Yale Medical School researcher Arthur Margolin.
(...)

While the scientific basis for acupuncture is unknown, the results are indisputable, said Daniel Iead, clinical coordinator for the Grant Street Partnership, a New Haven addiction services agency.

''We've been doing it here for years and it works,'' said Iead. ''The results are fantastic. Some of our most difficult cases have turned their lives around because of it.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]