=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. AUM guru may undergo mental tests

=== Falun Gong
2. falungong leader savages ''wicked'' Chinese leadership
3. China's crackdown on falungong sect rooted in fear and ignorance: members
4. China Jails 13 More Falun Gong Activists

=== Unification Church
5. Ministers upset by Moon visit
6. Rev. Moon's event raises local hackles
7. In Oakland, Moon Stresses Family
8. Rev. Moon delivers message in Oakland
9. The Reverend Moon's Comeback

=== Islam
10. 2 Bamyan Buddhas completely destroyed, reports AIP
11. Taliban vows to keep thumbing nose at the world
12. Taliban close BBC Kabul office
13. The anti-Buddhist fury in Afghanistan

=== Catholicism
14. Ranking Congressmen Support Suspect Religious Group

=== Mormonism
15. Skinhead Church
16. 'It Isn't A Sunday Religion. It's A Lifetime Change.'

=== Hate Groups
17. FindLaw Forum: Court should have heard KKK case
18. Haider the Rightist Is Firing Up Vienna's Election With Slurs

=== Other News
19. Novato 'Diploma Mill' Shut Down by State
20. Leader Of Religious Group, Son Charged With Molestation
21. Man charged with DUI and fired after drinking kava sues employer
22. Elementary may be closed due to polygamists withdrawal
23. 'Fairy' pictures fetch £6,000

=== Faith-Based Initiatives

24. Christian leaders pan Bush's faith plan
25. Cult fear hits Bush plan to fund by faith
26. Poll: Americans approve of Bush
27. Delay on Faith-Aid Plan Puts Time on Bush's Side
28. Senate To Introduce Religion Plan

=== Human Rights Violations

29. Amnesty International Condemns Sentencing of 14-year-old Boy to Life Imprisonment Without Possibility of Parole

=== Noted
30. Hearing From Dearly Departed Proves a Hit on Sci-Fi Channel

=== Trends
31. Claim of 'Post-Denominational Era' Defied
32. It's chic to be a Protestant in France


=== Other News

19. Novato 'Diploma Mill' Shut Down by State
The San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 14, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Columbia Pacific University, a correspondence school accused by state investigators of being a ''diploma mill'' and a ''giant scam,'' has been shut down permanently by the Department of Consumer Affairs.
(...)

As part of the shutdown, Columbia Pacific has been ordered to pay $10,000 in penalties to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education and to permanently cease offering educational programs in California.

In addition, all students enrolled from June 25, 1997, to Dec. 1, 2000, must be notified of their right to a refund. Refunds must be paid within 30 days of a request.

Columbia Pacific was founded in 1978 and counts best-selling author John Gray (''Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus'') among its alumni. School officials say it had graduated more than 7,000 students.

But in court documents, state investigators alleged that the faculty was virtually nonexistent, that course work was ''laughable'' and that degree requirements were routinely ignored.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Ph.D.? Where Did John Gray Get His Ph.D.?

20. Leader Of Religious Group, Son Charged With Molestation
The Commercial Appeal Memphis, Mar. 11, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Followers of David Earl King, the Mississippi pastor accused of molesting boys on his church compound, sold candy to raise a small cash fortune, which King hid for himself under a staircase, prosecutors said.

The leader of the Valley of the Kings church, whose 30-40 disciples live in trailers surrounding the rural compound and its school, amassed more than $200,000, mostly through the sale of peanut brittle, Walthall County District Attorney Dunn Lampton said.

King, 66, and his 32-year-old son Nathan Paul King, were arrested last week on charges of sexual assault and tax evasion. The parents of a 14-year-old boy who attended King's school told authorities the men threatened to castrate their son with bull shears if he revealed their secrets.

Similar allegations have surfaced from at least five people from other states and are being investigated.

The case has been the talk of nearby Tylertown, where rumors of forced labor, speaking in tongues and witchcraft have swirled around the church for decades.

''I don't know if you would call it a cult,'' Sheriff Duane Dillon said. ''(King) has a lot of power over these folks. I don't know if they are brainwashed or whether he's strictly a control person.''
(...)

King denies the charges, which his attorneys say are based on unsubstantiated reports from disgruntled former church members, including his son's ex-wife.
(...)

Two raids on King's home turned up pornographic magazines, the castrating device and cash, Deputy Tony Rushing said.

The money was stashed inside a tire that had been tucked behind a staircase, Rushing said.

Authorities also confiscated a collection of guns and King's cars.

Lampton froze his bank accounts worth more than $100,000. He said King had recently transferred the title of his 58-acre compound to a daughter.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Man charged with DUI and fired after drinking kava sues employer
AP, Mar. 13, 2001
http://www.sacbee.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- A man who was charged with drunken driving after downing kava tea has filed suit against Federal Express, his former employer, for discriminating against his religious custom of drinking the brew.
(...)

Piutau, a native of the South Pacific island nation Tonga, admitted downing dozens of cups with a church group after a service that evening. Kava tea, used ceremoniously in the Pacific islands, is made with powder from a pepper plant called kava-kava or Piper Methysticum.

Prosecutors said the tea impaired Piutau's ability to drive.
(...)

Piutau's attorneys said his suspension without pay from Federal Express for more than a year after the arrest was a ''pretext designed to conceal'' the company's bias against his religious beliefs, practices and culture.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

More about Kava and Hoasca

22. Elementary may be closed due to polygamists withdrawal
The Star Tribune, Mar. 14, 2001
http://www.trib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - Phelps Elementary School in Hildale, its enrollment reduced by a polygamist sect's withdrawal from public schools, may have to close, Washington County School District officials say.

Phelps suffered a devastating blow when Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs asked followers to withdraw their children from public schools last August.

Enrollment plunged from 240 in the 1999-2000 school year to 74 at the start of the 2000-2001 year.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. 'Fairy' pictures fetch £6,000
BBC News, Mar.c 13, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
An 84-year old photographic archive relating to the celebrated Cottingley Fairies hoax has fetched £6,000 at auction - nearly twice as much as expected.

The collection of glass plates and other negatives, which fooled Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was bought by an unnamed buyer at the Bonhams & Brooks auction in London's Knightsbridge.

The hoax was carried out by Elsie Wright, 15, and her cousin Frances Griffiths, 10, in the village of Cottingley, near Bradford in 1917.

Elsie took pictures showing Frances with a troop of sprites dancing in front of her - they were made from paper cutouts, supported by hatpins that appeared to flutter by the movement of the breeze.

The two pictures convinced theosophist Edward Gardner and Conan Doyle, and as others became involved, the girls had little option but to stick to their story.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


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