» Continued from Part 1
=== Hate Groups
11. Former Klan leader Duke in Moscow to promote anti-Semitic book
12. Rally strengthens Skokie resolve
13. $25,000 bail set for alleged Klan chief
14. Group seeks to halt gift to neo-Nazi
15. Soldiers linked to neo-Nazism
16. Extremists can serve in forces: defence chief
17. Agency Urges Bertelsmann to Curb Nazis on Napster
18. Experts discuss threat of Internet antisemitism

=== Other News
19. Rod Ferrell is moved from death row
20. Rasta drug may be a human right, says judge
21. Two Rajneeshee members plead guilty
22. Wills' Chile leader is in 'brainwashing' sect
23. McMartin Case's Legal, Social Legacies Linger
24. The Victims Can't Be Counted (McMartin case)
25. Dutch to recognise gay weddings
26. Astrologers tell India to beware its neighbours


=== Hate Groups

11. Former Klan leader Duke in Moscow to promote anti-Semitic book
AFP, Dec. 17, 2000
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A former leader of the racist Ku-Klux-Klan group has arrived in Moscow to launch a new book which has Russian human rights activists up in arms.

David Duke, founder of the US-based National Organisation for European American Rights, defended his book 'Ultimate Supremacism: An Examination of the Jewish Question', and his opinions, the NTV independent television reported Saturday.

''It's not about hating other people, I don't hate other races, I don't hate other peoples. But I feel great love and appreciation for our European culture,'' Duke said on the NTV channel.

However, on his Internet site Duke lauded Russia as the bulwark of the white race, which he intends to use to set up domino-effect of ''racial awareness'' around the world.

''Russian people also have a much greater knowledge of the power of International Zionism and the dominant Jewish role in orchestrating the immigration and multiculturalism that is undermining the West,'' he said.

Duke said he devoted his time and money to making sure that the book, a Russian version of which is being printed here, would appear as soon as possible.

''I think Russia is so important to the worldwide efforts for our people that the new book will actually have its first printing in Russia a few weeks before the English edition will appear,'' he said.

Russian human rights activists are revolted by the book and its clearly spelled anti-Semitic message.
(...)

Anti-Semitism has long been a painful issue in Russia, where radical organisations espouse anti-Semitic rhetoric, and anti-Semitic literature is freely sold in stores.

Anti-Semitic demonstrations and attacks on the Jewish community have forced many Russian Jews to emigrate, some to Israel.
(...)

During his last visit to Russia in August, Duke met with Albert Makashov, a politician infamous for his wildly nationalistic rhetoric, and Alexander Parakhanov, chief editor of the anti-Semitic Zavtra daily.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» David Duke's hatred documented by his own words

12. Rally strengthens Skokie resolve
Chicago Tribune, Dec. 18, 2000
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Indian-born Omprakash and Usha Kamaria have spent the last 12 years in Skokie, and they'll do whatever it takes to preserve the welcoming character of the north suburban village where they plan to raise their children.

Sherialyn Byrdsong feels much the same way. After white supremacist Benjamin Smith fatally shot her husband, former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong in 1999, she could have moved away. She decided to stay: Skokie, she said, is a community that values racial and ethnic differences.

On Sunday, 1,400 people gathered at Niles West High School to celebrate that diversity in the wake of Saturday's Ku Klux Klan in the village. While Skokie's rich cultural patchwork is a source of strength and pride, political and religious leaders said it also makes the village a target of anti-ethnic feeling.

''This is the kind of community hate-mongers fear,'' said U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) at the Peace and Harmony counter-rally. ''So I say to them: Skokie is your worst nightmare. We are speaking with more force and power than any pathetic rally they could have.''

About 250 people attended a Ku Klux Klan rally Saturday on the steps of the Cook County Courthouse, 5600 Old Orchard Rd. While about 20 Klansmen demonstrated, clashes broke out between counter-protesters and about 20 people were arrested.

Police confiscated baseball bats, knives and crowbars from members of the crowd. William Robert Moore, 29, of Woodlawn, Tenn., was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of ammunition after police found a semiautomatic handgun in his car.

Police were still searching for skinheads who attacked a black couple leaving the rally, punching the woman and knocking her down, said Sgt. Michael Ruth. Several police officers also were hurt in the scuffle.

Planned since the Klan applied for a rally permit a few days before Thanksgiving, Sunday's event balanced a weekend fraught with anger, frustration and pain, residents said.
(...)

Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said the rally gave residents a chance to express their feelings about the weekend's events--and to peacefully fight back.

''When a group promotes hatred and bigotry, we must let it be known that when one of us is attacked, as a group or an individual, we consider it an attack on all of us,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. $25,000 bail set for alleged Klan chief
Chicago Sun-Times, Dec. 19, 2000
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/skok19.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
An alleged grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan from Tennessee was being held in Cook County Jail after police said he brought a semiautomatic handgun and 16 rounds of ammunition to a KKK rally in Skokie this past weekend.

William Moore, 29, was held Monday on $25,000 bail after he was booked on a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon.

Moore, dressed in camouflage pants and a white T-shirt, fidgeted while prosecutors said he told police he was carrying the weapon because ''he did not who he'd meet up with at the rally.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. Group seeks to halt gift to neo-Nazi
Telegram & Gazette, Dec. 13, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=16684602&ID=newsreal&scategory=Internet
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Publication date: 2000-12-13
Arrival time: 2000-12-19

PLYMOUTH -- A land conservation group in Duxbury has gone to court to try to stop a $500,000 inheritance from being paid to a Louisiana church headed by a neo-Nazi.

The Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts filed for the injunction in Plymouth Probate Court. The group seeks to stop the executor of Richard J. Cotter Jr.'s will from paying a bequest to the New Christian Crusade Church of Chalmette, La. The Wildlands Trust is named in Mr. Cotter's will, along with the NCCC and two other charitable organizations.

Together, the four organizations stand to divide more than $2 million. The other two groups are the Cura Visiting Nurses' Association and the Thornton W. Burgess Society, which pays tribute to the famous children's author.

However, the injunction request argues that the New Christian Crusade Church does not qualify for the inheritance because it is not a legitimate charitable organization under the Internal Revenue Service code, which is explicitly required by Mr. Cotter's will.

The church is headed by James K. Warner, who, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is a founding member of the American Nazi Party and a close friend of David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader.

In a recent interview, Mr. Warner called Jews ''satanic people.''

Mr. Cotter, a Duxbury millionaire, also left $25,000 to William Pierce, leader of the National Alliance, a pro-Nazi group, and the author of ''The Turner Diaries,'' the book that hate group experts say inspired Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

Mr. Cotter also left $100,000 to Ernst Zundel, a Canadian Holocaust denier, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Soldiers linked to neo-Nazism
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia), Dec. 19, 2000
http://www.abc.net.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The deputy chairman of a parliamentary committee on defence, Roger Price, has expressed surprise and shock that a small number of soldiers from an elite parachute regiment were linked with neo-Nazi views.

The Defence Force says three soldiers were members of 3-RAR, while playing in a heavy metal band which had a civilian leader, who had right wing political links.

A Defence Force spokeswoman says members were investigated, but there was no evidence to suggest they were promoting their views or recruiting in the workplace.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Extremists can serve in forces: defence chief
The Age (Australia), Dec, 20, 2000
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2000/12/20/FFXGOGUFWGC.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Australia's Defence Force chief yesterday defended the rights of soldiers to support Neo-nazism and other forms of political extremism, saying they should not be expelled over their beliefs.

Admiral Chris Barrie said the community would be affronted if the forces had a system to weed out people on the basis of their political views.

His comments followed revelations that three former members of an elite army regiment were in a hard-rock neo-Nazi band, Blood Oath.

Admiral Barrie said two of the band members had left the elite 3rd Battalion of the army's Royal Australian Regiment while the third was no longer in the army.

He said the ADF was apolitical. ''We don't make a statement about people's political beliefs. Australia is a country that's recognised throughout the world for its freedom of belief and the freedoms we give our ordinary people.''
(...)

A racist website, Blood and Honor Australia, names the former military members of Blood Oath as Harry, Shane and Brain. The fourth member, a civilian, is Gideon McLean, revealed in 1998 as a member of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

In an interview published on the website, the band members describe themselves as ''white power'' musicians, while Mr McLean and Shane list Adolf Hitler as a hero.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. Agency Urges Bertelsmann to Curb Nazis on Napster
Business Week/Reuters, Dec. 19, 2000
http://www.businessweek.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HANNOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's internal security agency called on media giant Bertelsmann Tuesday to help stop its online song swap partner Napster from being used to exchange music by extreme right-wing bands.

''Napster is a particular challenge because with it, everyone has access to skinhead and Nazi music with its incitement to hatred and its appalling anti-Semitic content,'' said Ruediger Hesse, an agency spokesman in the state of Lower Saxony.

Given the difficulty of tracing the origin of music exchanged over the Internet, online service providers had a responsibility to prevent abuse of their platforms, he said.
(...)

Andreas Schmidt, head of the Bertelsmann eCommerce Group, the unit that handles the German media giant's alliance with Napster, condemned the use of the platform for the exchange of Nazi music but said the company was powerless to prevent it.

``Music on the Napster network is not stored on a central computer but on the computers of more than 40 million users,'' he said in a statement.

``Napster is, like any Internet provider or the post office, merely the transport platform,'' he said, noting that Bertelsmann was a strategic partner of Napster but not its owner.

Bertelsmann spokesman Frank Sarfeld said users swapping Nazi music on the platform broke Napster rules and could be excluded, which opened up one avenue of possible cooperation with the authorities. But this would depend on the user being detected.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Experts discuss threat of Internet antisemitism
Jerusalem Post (Israel), Dec. 13, 2000
http://www.jpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
JERUSALEM (December 13) - The Internet, heralded as the brightest technological breakthrough of this generation, connects people to people and has turned the world into a global village. What is being overlooked by many, however, is that the World Wide Web has also become a tool of vast influence wielded by forces of good and evil alike.

It is into this dark side of the Internet that experts delved this week at a conference in Jerusalem on Confronting On-Line Terrorism and Antisemitism, co-sponsored by the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and the Anti-Defamation League.

The conference came as the cyber battle between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian hackers continues to wreak havoc on the 'Net and the question of controlling the unwieldy World Wide Web is becoming more pressing.

In the hands of hate groups and terrorists, the Internet can be seen as the ''potential curse of modern technology,'' said Rabbi David Rosen, director of ADL Israel. ''The Internet has the ability to link extremist, racist, bigoted groups that a decade ago we would have said have no consequence and now have been given the opportunity to galvanize together to disperse their filth,'' he said.
(...)

The efficiency with which antisemitic messages reach wide audiences was made quite clear in the first weeks of the current intifada, when antisemitic attacks reached unprecedented numbers globally.

The violence has since subsided, but the lesson has been learned.
(...)

Most dangerous to Israel is the attempt to turn the Mideast conflict over territory into a religious battle where ''my God is against your God,'' said Melchior, who called for inter-religious dialogue to counter this phenomenon.

The religious battle, or jihad, is promoted in thousands of Islamic Web sites that demonize the Jew as the spearhead of a conspiracy against the Moslem world, said Reuven Paz, academic director at ICT.

The hatred of the Jew, Judaism, Israel, and Zionism is blurred together with the religious tracts on these sites that target the young, secular Moslem population in the West, said Paz. ''Hostility is becoming more rooted in Islam through these sites, which are viewed by this young population as the only true interpretation of Islam.''

This is of particular concern, noted Paz, because the median age is dropping in the Moslem world: ''Internet influence on the next generation of Internet users, especially in the West, will be great so that the influence of this content is liable to become very strong.'' Such hatred-spouting sites are hard to fight, given the liberal policies and free-speech laws of the West, said Paz.

Even if laws are in place barring the posting of threats on the Web, terrorists have found ways to bypass local boycotts. Saudi terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, for example, has set up his virtual headquarters in Sao Paulo and Caracas; Hamas runs its Web site from Lebanon.
(...)

Global conventions that will allow transnational prosecution of hate crimes on the 'Net will be hard both to draft and to enforce, said Christopher Wolf, chairman of the ADL Internet Policy Committee and co-chairman of the Internet Practice Group, Proskauer Rose LLP. First of all, Wolf noted, ''in the US, where the vast majority of the information comes from, there is a First Amendment guarantee.'' There are also issues of privacy to contend with, he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

19. Rod Ferrell is moved from death row
Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 19, 2000
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TAVARES -- A judge Monday signed an order moving vampire-cult killer Rod Ferrell from death row to the general state prison population.

Lake County Circuit Judge Jerry Lockett had no choice. The Florida Supreme Court commuted Ferrell's sentence to life without parole in November after ruling in another case that 16-year-olds are too young for execution.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Rasta drug may be a human right, says judge
The Times (England), Dec. 19, 2000
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Rastafarians should use the Human Rights Act if they want to prove that British drug laws are incompatible with a right to smoke cannabis as part of their religion, a Crown Court judge recommended yesterday.

Judge Charles Gibson said that a High Court challenge could lead to a declaration that the law was incompatible with the Act. He said that the Rastafarian practice of selling cannabis could even be seen as comparable to fund-raising fairs held by Christians.

The judge said that British Rastafarians should bring proceedings to the High Court if they felt they had a case, after he rejected an appeal by a cannabis dealer to change three guilty pleas to not guilty. Rasta Brown, 39, had pleaded guilty to one count of possessing the drug and two of possessing with intent to supply when at Camberwell Magistrates' Court in South London four months ago.

He was due to be sentenced at the Inner London Crown Court last month but applied to change his pleas following the introduction of the Human Rights Act. Brown, of Stockwell, South London, claimed that he was entitled to sell and smoke marijuana because it is accepted as part of Rastafarianism, which has protection under the Act. Article nine says that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» European Court of Human Rights
» News articles about the act

21. Two Rajneeshee members plead guilty
The Oregonian, Dec. 16, 2000
http://www.oregonlive.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Two high-ranking officials in Oregon's once notorious Rajneeshee cult pleaded guilty Friday to 15-year-old federal wiretapping charges, canceling international warrants that effectively confined them to Great Britain.

Sally-Anne Croft and Susan Hagan, formerly known as Ma Prem Savita and Ma Anand Su respectively, came to the United States voluntarily to clear up the remaining charges against them, said Barry Sheldahl, assistant U.S. Attorney.

Judge Malcolm F. Marsh gave them suspended probationary sentences, agreeing that the women had led meaningful lives since their April 1998 release from federal prison where they served time for conspiring to kill the former U.S. attorney for Oregon, Charles Turner.

Croft and Hagan were among thousands of followers of the late Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, an Indian guru who created a cult devoted to a religious practice made up of bits and pieces of several religions and philosophies. Between 1981 and 1985, the group lived on a 64,229-acre commune called Rancho Rajneesh, which sprawled across Wasco and Jefferson counties.

Despite having served time on the murder plot, Croft and Hagan were wanted on a 1985 indictment for their roles in establishing and operating an elaborate telephone taping system that recorded thousands of calls to and from homes and offices in the commune. The system was put in place following fears that insiders were plotting to murder the Bhagwan.

''It started off with paranoia and it turned into something like the KGB,'' Sheldahl said. ''It was an intelligence gathering unit.''
(...)

Federal agents had seized more than 3,000 cassette tapes of recorded telephone conversations during an investigation into immigration fraud by the Rajneeshees, Sheldahl said. The group was arranging sham marriages to help Rajneesh and his followers stay in the United States.

The Bhagwan's closest advisers, including Croft, Hagan and Sheela Birnstiel, who called herself Ma Anand Sheela, fled the country amid accusations of the wiretappings and other crimes, including the 1984 spread of salmonella germs in salad bars of restaurants in The Dalles that made about 750 people ill.

Plot uncovered
The investigation into the salmonella outbreak eventually uncovered the plot to kill Turner. He was never attacked, but a group of the Rajneesh's followers assembled a hit team in 1985. They bought guns, watched Turner's home, office and car, and discussed ways to assassinate him. They hoped his death would derail the investigation.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Wills' Chile leader is in 'brainwashing' sect
Mail on Sunday (England), Dec. 18, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The young woman who has supervised Prince William during his gap- year expedition to South America is involved with a controversial movement accused of 'brainwashing' followers with bizarre teachings.

Marie Wright, 29, who was project leader of the ten-week Chilean adventure with the charity Raleigh International, quit a successful career to travel after she became involved with the Landmark Education Forum.

Landmark, a global concern with its roots in the 'mind transformation' teachings of a used-car salesman, has come under fire both in Britain and America for allegedly causing professionals such as lawyers and bankers to suffer breakdowns, split with their partners and turn away from friends.

Marie ran her own recruitment agency in London with her New Zealand-born husband, Stephen, 32, but gave it up soon after her first Landmark meeting a year ago.

Family friends told last night how the 'happy-go-lucky, down-to- earth, warm and loving' woman's personality changed after she became involved with Landmark.
(...)

But last night a friend said Marie and her husband had both shown signs of Landmark's influence long before the South American trip.

'They came out with strange terms and repeated the same lines,' he said. 'I dismissed it as management claptrap, then I realised it was too strange for that. I got bored with them preaching to me.

Apparently, they went travelling to ''find themselves''.' The Landmark Education Forum is the latest manifestation of the EST group set up in America in the Seventies by car salesman Werner Erhard. He left his wife and children in 1960 and adopted 'consciousness- expanding' disciplines.

After claiming to have had a 'life transformation' while driving over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, he set up Erhard Seminars Training (EST).

This spawned an empire which, after several changes of ownership, is now the Landmark Education Forum.

It is said to have assets of 36 million, 43 offices around the world, 420 full-time staff and 7,500 volunteers. It is believed to offer 2,000 courses and seminars a year.

From its North London offices, seminars are organised for British followers, costing from 65 for a basic introduction to 1,200 for 'The Wisdom Programme'.
(...)

Mrs Creed said: 'She simply wanted to see more of the world. She got involved with this group called Forum and is still involved with it. I don't know what it's all about. I wouldn't say it has changed her.' But Rick Ross, a leading American expert on cults, has had hundreds of pleas for help from participants in Landmark seminars and their families. He says Landmark practises techniques described by some as similar to 'brainwashing and mind control'. 'The seminars are potentially very dangerous and can result in serious mental problems,' he said. 'I wouldn't recommend Landmark Education under any circumstances.

'These people want to recruit everyone they meet and they particularly try to involve anyone in a position of authority or influence.' Last night, all Press inquiries were directed to a Landmark spokeswoman in America who said she did not know of Marie Wright 'but she may have attended some of our educational programmes'. No one at Raleigh International was available for comment last night.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. McMartin Case's Legal, Social Legacies Linger
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 18, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Reaction: Peggy McMartin Buckey's death recalls searing questions brought on by the 1980s prosecutions.

Day-care operator Peggy McMartin Buckey and her family became the closest things to witches that Southern California had in the 1980s.

For years, Buckey had led a quiet existence, helping her family operate the McMartin Pre-School in the seemingly idyllic seaside community of Manhattan Beach. Then, in 1983, she suddenly found herself plucked from obscurity and vilified as an embodiment of evil--accused, with other family members, of molesting toddlers in her care.

Her acquittal on the charges, after the longest trial in the nation's history, provoked searing questions about how to protect children and to guard against the kind of sex-abuse hysteria that can lead to false accusations against caregivers.

Authorities are still groping toward answers for these fundamental questions, which have now outlived Buckey, pronounced dead Friday at age 74 at a Torrance hospital after paramedics found her unconscious in her home.

But her case, and several like it across the country, have left a legacy. They have changed the ways in which alleged victims are interviewed by authorities and the ways in which teachers and day-care providers interact with their young charges.

The case against Buckey and her family was the first in a series of high-profile nursery school sex abuse prosecutions in the 1980s and early 1990s that collapsed for lack of persuasive evidence.
(...)

A key problem in the McMartin case was the suggestive way in which children were questioned.
(...)

In the aftermath of the failed nursery school prosecutions, psychologists demonstrated the high degree to which small children, in particular, are susceptible to incorporating others' suggestions.

Elizabeth Loftus, a University of Washington psychology professor and leading memory expert, said Sunday that ''the 1990s were full of concerted efforts on the part of psychological scientists to find out how far you can go with kids without contaminating them.''

She said she co-authored several studies ''showing that you could get kids to [falsely] believe that they got their hand caught in a mousetrap and had to go to the hospital to get it removed, or that when they were younger they fell off a tricycle and had to get stitches in their leg. All it took was some suggestive interviewing.''

Perhaps the most far-reaching consequence of the prosecutions was in the alarm they conveyed and the changes they promoted among teachers and in the child-care industry.

Many teachers have adopted no-touch policies--worried that an innocent hug could be interpreted as a sexual embrace.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. The Victims Can't Be Counted
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 18, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) For size, for price, for outrage and outrageousness, you just couldn't beat the McMartin Pre-School case. Seven years in the making (and unmaking), 208 counts of child molestation right out of the pedophile's encyclopedia, seven defendants, 41 children--it was the Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza of criminal cases.
(...)

It was unimaginable that within the bright rooms, behind the kindly faces, dark things happened at the Manhattan Beach preschool. A secret cave for sexual games (investigators couldn't find it). Rabbits butchered on a church altar (no traces of blood turned up). Airplane rides for in-flight molestations (no records were found). Strangers molesting children (almost absurdly, children picked photos of actor Chuck Norris and city Controller James K. Hahn).
(...)

There were no convictions. None. Five of the seven defendants didn't even go to trial. Of the two who did, Ray Buckey, the only man among the defendants, had a hung jury in his first trial. He had a hung jury in his second trial. There was
no third trial.

The other defendant who went to trial was his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, who died over the weekend--daughter of one defendant, mother of another and a defendant herself.

No one won in this case: not the children, not successive district attorneys, not the late Peggy McMartin Buckey, in spite of her acquittal. She spent her life savings on attorneys. One of them won a slander case against one of her accusers. She got a dollar.
(...)

I was new to The Times' newsroom, but not to molestation stories. Three years before, I'd written about a man wrongly convicted of molesting two boys.
(...)

Call it manipulation or zeal, doing the wrong things for the right reasons can be as corrosive as ignoring the problem itself and hurting the very children we seek to help. When perspective gets lost, so does the truth. We see it in the drug wars, the zero-tolerance policies that expel a Texas girl for having Advil, a West Virginia boy for giving a cough drop to a friend, but seem not to discourage cocaine smugglers from trying to use a submarine to get their goods to market.

The victims of McMartin Syndrome cannot be counted:

The preschool students themselves, damaged perhaps by sexual abuse and surely by the prosecuting of it. Americans from the San Joaquin Valley to small-town Tennessee, caught up in a decade of McMartin copycat witch hunts. Legitimate victims of abuse whose less flamboyant truths were lost in the backwash of skepticism about any such childhood horrors.

And McMartin is still making victims. Every weeping child who wasn't even born in 1983, who can't get a hug from a teacher who is too afraid of being accused of molestation, is one more victim of the McMartin Pre-School case.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Dutch to recognise gay weddings
CNN, Dec. 19, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Same sex marriages have received final approval in The Netherlands, putting it at the international vanguard of gay rights.

Activists were jubilant about the legislation, which will take effect in April after the upper house of parliament passed two bills -- strongly opposed by Christian parties - which had been approved by the lower house in September.
(...)

The Dutch senate said in a statement: ''As far as possible, homosexual marriage will have the same consequences as heterosexual marriage.''

Two years ago, the Netherlands enacted a law allowing same-sex couples to register and claim pensions, social security and inheritance, but they did not have the same rights with regards to adopting children.

The upper house statement added: ''A child that is looked after and raised in a lasting relationship of two men or two women is entitled to protection, including legal protection, within that relationship.''
(...)

The new laws do not permit Dutch couples to adopt children from abroad nor foreigners not resident in the Netherlands to wed there.

Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland have systems of registered partnership but the Senate warned that married Dutch homosexuals should not assume their union would be recognised abroad.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» News and facts about Holland

26. Astrologers tell India to beware its neighbours
AFP, Dec. 18, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A convention of South Asian astrologers and Hindu sages has warned India not to get ''over-friendly'' with its regional rivals, Pakistan and China.

At least 500 well-known astrologers and sages from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka gathered in the Assam state capital Guwahati at the weekend for the 40th International Jyotish Maha Sammelan (International Astrologers Meet) to discuss issues ranging from war and peace to the relevance of mysticism.
(...)

Most of the astrologers said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's coalition government would see out its full five-year term, despite some ''hiccoughs'' along the way.

''The planetary positions favour the prime ministers march towards a full term despite some rough patches in-between,'' said Swami Gitanand Saraswati, a Hindu astrologer specialising in Islamic scriptures.
(...)

A number of Hindu sages who attended the meet said that despite developments in science and technology, many in the Indian sub-continent came to them for guidance in resolving personal problems and family matters.

''What modern science and astrologers cannot do, the tantrics (Hindu sages) are capable of doing,'' said Amarjit Sharma, a well-known astrologer and tantric medium.

''A tantric is capable of changing the life of an ordinary men and make him a king, although not literally,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]