Posts Tagged ‘Egypt’

News & Submissions 2/17/2011

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Demand for uranium threatens Grand Canyon biodiversity
The natural beauty and unique species of the Grand Canyon are “in the crosshairs” because of renewed interest in the region’s uranium reserves. That is the warning from critics of the mines, ahead of the release of a government report on Friday on the potential impact of fresh mining.

Mining has been banned within the Grand Canyon national park since President Roosevelt declared it a national monument in 1908. But since 2003, foreign companies have submitted 2,215 claims to prospect on the edge of the canyon.

Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, temporarily withdrew 1m acres of land from exploration in 2009 to allow time for an environmental assessment. Salazar must decide by July whether to ban “mineral entry” for two-thirds of the claims for the next 20 years.

Uranium deposits mineralise in 2,000-feet deep “breccia” pipes, a geological feature common to the world-famous golden brown sedimentary rock in the canyon. When left alone, the uranium is not harmful. But once dissolved in water, it can leach into springs and aquifers that then feed into the Colorado river, which ultimately supplies 18 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The water can remain contaminated for decades after a mine shuts. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

How a ‘teen witch’ found the Church
My parents bought me a cauldron for my 16th birthday. Providing no explanation, I had asked for that and a chalice. At a loss, mum suggested it would look nice outside with the geraniums.My interest in Wicca began as I entered my teens. Wicca and Witchcraft: Understanding the Danger, the booklet I wrote recently as part of the Catholic Truth Society’s Explanations series, condenses – after some factual basics about the philosophy and practice of “white” witchcraft – the conversations I had with a Catholic friend and her family that eventually led to my conversion to the Catholic faith. The booklet has caused controversy on the blogosphere: it sold out on Amazon.com and cropped up on the websites of the Telegraph and Daily Mail. What began as a small document to inform Catholics about the realities of Wicca – eg that it isn’t Satanism – appears to have re-ignited the persecution complex among Wiccans that I was hoping to diffuse.

I am concerned that as a culture, perhaps as a Church, we can too easily dismiss the spiritual needs of young people. In my family, religion was something to explore and debate. Both my parents are Oxford graduates and historians, my father a Doctor of Maths and Philosophy. His atheism prevailed over my mother’s Anglicanism, and neither I nor my sister were baptised. Read full story from catholicherald.com

Ancient druid tradition workshops to be held this weekend
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Druidry means following a spiritual path rooted in the green earth, according to www.druidry.org.

It’s also known as a “mysterious school of the ancient Celts, one that has been successfully revived by modern practitioners,” say organizers of a Druid workshop and ceremony series happening this weekend.

Its connection with nature is part of what drew Annie Caskey of Grand Junction to study the ancient tradition for the past three years.

She and her husband are “ovates” the second level of study, between a bard and a druid. Read full story from gjfreepress.com

Statue of Akhenaton, Other Stolen Egyptian Antiquities Recovered
CAIRO –  A Cairo teenager found a priceless statue of Pharaoh Akhenaton near a garbage bin after it was stolen from the Egyptian Museum during anti-regime protests, Egypt’s antiquities chief said Thursday.

The museum’s world-renowned collection was burgled and several artifacts went missing last month, including statues of King Tutankhamun and Pharaoh Akhenaton — and many of the looted antiquities have been returned or discovered, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said.

In addition to the Akhentaon statute, the missing Heart Scarab of Yuya was recovered near the museum gardens, where wooden fragments belonging to a damaged coffin were also found. A search team found one of the eleven missing shabtis of Yuya and Thuya underneath a showcase. Fragments belonging to the statue of Tutankhamun being carried by the goddess Menkaret have been found; all the located fragments belong to the figure of Menkaret. Read full story from foxnews.com

What caused the revolution in Egypt?
When interpreting something like the Egyptian upheaval, people tend to project their own passions on to the screen. The twitterati see a social media revolution, the foodies see food price hikes at its core, others see a hunger for democratisation, human rights groups see a backlash against routine torture and abuse. So I thought I’d try to pull together and categorise the full range of different “drivers of change” involved in bringing about a revolution.

First, consider the demographics: an explosive mix of high population growth, leading to a “youth bulge”, combined with urbanisation, jobless growth partly linked to structural adjustment, and the rapid expansion of university education has produced what the BBC’s Paul Mason calls “a new sociological type, the graduate with no future”. Two-thirds of Egyptians are under 30, and each year 700,000 new graduates chase 200,000 new jobs. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Senate Passes Bill To Teach Bible In Ky. Schools (video)
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Bible classes could be taught in Kentucky public schools under a bill that’s made it halfway through the legislature.

State Senator Joe Bowen wants Kentucky public school students to have an opportunity to take classes about the bible.

“No doubt about it, the most important book ever written and obviously, it’s had so much influence on our society and all of western civilization,” Bowen said. Read full story from wlky.com

Solar flare eruptions set to reach Earth
Scientists around the world will be watching closely as three eruptions from the Sun reach the Earth over Thursday and Friday.

These “coronal mass ejections” will slam into the Earth’s magnetic shield.

The waves of charged solar particles are the result of three solar flares directed at Earth in recent days, including the most powerful since 2006.

The biggest flares can disrupt technology, including power grids, communications systems and satellites.

The northern lights (Aurora Borealis) may also be visible further south than is normally the case – including from northern parts of the UK.

“Our current view is that the effect of the solar flare is likely to reach Earth later today (Thursday GMT), possibly tomorrow morning,” said Alan Thomson, head of geomagnetism at the British Geological Survey (BGS). Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Montana governor threat: shoot wolves now, ask questions later
(Reuters) – Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer declared on Wednesday he was ready to order state game officials to kill off entire wolf packs in defiance of federal protections under the Endangered Species Act.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the two-term Democrat cited his authority as governor to uphold citizens’ rights “to protect their property and to continue to enjoy Montana’s cherished wildlife heritage and traditions.”
Schweitzer said he was driven to act out of an urgent need to assist ranchers and sportsmen left unable to control wolves posing a serious threat to livestock and elk herds.

“If there is a dang wolf in your corral attacking your pregnant cow, shoot that wolf. And if its pals are in the corral, shoot them, too,” Schweitzer told Reuters in a telephone interview. Read full story from reuters.com

Delivered in a Daydream: 7 Great Achievements That Arose from a Wandering Mind
The ability to concentrate on a task is a prized skill—the secret to success, many claim. But recent research suggests that intense focus on a problem does not always usher the fastest progress or, at least, such focus is not always sufficient for the necessary brainstorm. Insights often occur subconsciously while the mind wanders, reports Josie Glausiusz in the March/April Scientific American MIND. Albert Einstein, for example, came up with his theory of relativity only after letting his thoughts stray from the mathematics itself. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

MPM brings mummies to life: Better than zombies?
The Milwaukee Public Museum is hosting what is considered the largest exhibition of mummies and related artifacts ever assembled.The purpose of the exhibition is to show viewers the various processes of mummification, and how and why today’s researchers study mummies. Throughout the exhibit, several scientific techniques are described, such as the use of MRIs, radiocarbon dating, and rapid prototyping, a process that allows three-dimensional replicated models of the specimens to be created. These tools help researcher study the dead without disturbing their natural state.

Representatives of U.S. religious, university, and medical organizations assisted in developing the exhibition. The mummies and artifacts on display are from 20 museum and university collections around the world, according to information provided in the exhibit. Read full story from thedigitalnp.com

Dr. Phil exposes suspected Chimayo cult (source krqe)

Dr. Phil exposes suspected Chimayo cult: krqe.com

Sunday Morning Post

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Valentine’s Day: Love… actually?
Valentine’s Day didn’t begin with a pair of star-crossed lovers or a hallmark greeting card campaign — it started with a bunch of half-naked Romans running through the streets  whipping women with strips of goat hide to cure their infertility.

In ancient times February 15 was the Roman feast of Lupercalia, which also included one other rather interesting  tradition: a lottery in which young men would draw the names of teenage girls from a box. The lucky, or not so lucky, girl would then be the fellow’s sexual partner during the remaining year. Often the lady would receive a gift or a greeting in the name of Juno, a Roman goddess. Was this the precursor of the Valentine’s Day card?

Unsurprisingly, the church didn’t quite like all this carrying on so they did what they usually did with deeply ingrained pagan festival — they rebranded it. The date was changed from February 15 to February 14, and the lottery was expanded to allow girls to pick names as well. Now, the names were of Christian saints and the lucky ones who drew the names had to imitate the saints’ actions for the rest of the year. It didn’t catch on. Read full story from tribune.com.pk

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Imagine, for just one minute, that vampires, witches and so on really do exist. Where would they go to meet each other? What sort of jobs would they do? In her day-job, Deborah Harkness is an academic historian of science; her novel started, she says, the day she asked herself that question. The resulting opus is 600 pages long, the hit of the 2009 Frankfurt book fair, the first volume in a projected trilogy; I don’t think we need even mention Dan Brown or Stephenie Meyer, or the entire walls of our suffering local libraries given over to “urban fantasy” and “dark romance”.

It probably is worth noting, however, that as a historian, Harkness specialises in the 17th century, the time when, as her novel puts it, “astrology and witch-hunts yielded to Newton and universal laws”; and that she decided, in answer to her own question, that nowadays vampires and witches would probably work, like her, as academics. Vampires would stick to science – the long hours in chilly labs would suit them. Witches would do well in the humanities. It’s a neat concept, and easy to see why the publishers were hooked. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Spelling victory with magic
Supermen love superstition. Or so it seems in Karnataka politics. Yeddyurappa — named after a god; benefactor of temples; pilgrim of occult exotica from the sites of donkey sacrifice to the famous Rajarajeshwari temple in Taliparamba in Kannur district, Kerala — fears black magic is afoot, to bring him to a grisly end; if not politically at least personally. His nemesis and Voldemort is none other than senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah who is so offended by what he calls “character assassination” by the Karnataka chief minister he has threatened to drag Yeddy to court.

The shadowy world of politics has always been inhabited by dubious practitioners of the occult, upon whose advice, it is whispered in the corridors of power, politicians perform nocturnal rituals and pujas, wear saris to bed (as the late NTR did), wear talismans and visit powerful temples. Remember Dhirendra Brahmachari and Chandraswamy?

These days, the action has shifted to Karnataka; the current occult calendar going back to the eve of the trust vote on October 10, 2010. Within the Vidhana Soudha premises surfaced a voodoo doll, a lemon pierced with nails, chopped chicken heads and entrails, eggs, blood, vermillion and strings of coloured thread strewn all over. Read full story from expressbuzz.com

Build respect and tolerance
A WEEK before Chinese New Year, the Prime Minister and his family sent me a Salam 1Malaysia e-mail wishing me Gong Xi Fa Cai.

For those who haven’t received the message, he said this in his e-mail: “May the Year of the Rabbit bring blessings of much happiness, good health and prosperity always. With new beginnings comes new opportunities and as we usher in the Lunar New Year, it is my sincere hope that you achieve success and satisfaction in all your undertakings. Your accomplishments are reflective of our nation’s triumphs, and may we always excel beyond expectations!”

As a Christian, I credit the many blessings in my life to God. But as one who had a multi-ethnic education at the Methodist Girls’ School in Ipoh I accept his sincere greetings and look forward to getting a Salam 1Malaysia e-mail at Christmas too.

The fuss that was made by a non-Muslim aide in the Prime Minister’s Office over a cross at the annual Christmas tea party for Najib last year has not helped his 1Malaysia campaign.

The aide later apologised but the incident led to rumblings the next time the Prime Minister or one of his Cabinet members called on Malaysians to fully embrace the philosophy of 1Malaysia. Read full story from thestar.com.my

Gay couples may soon be able to tie the knot in church
The Coalition government is considering a change in the law to allow gay people to have marriage-style ceremonies in places of worship.

Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone is expected to announce later this week that a ban on civil partnerships being conducted in religious venues is to be lifted.

The move, which could also allow hymns and readings from the Bible, is likely to be welcomed by gay rights groups but met with strong opposition from traditionalists within the Church of England, other mainstream religions and the Conservative party.

However minority religious groups such as Unitarians, Liberal Jews and Quakers, who already carry out ceremonies for gay people, will be sympathetic to the move. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

The revolution that has given Egypt new hope, pride and confidence
Akhem Hassan came so late to the revolution he thought he might have missed it, but on Saturday he discovered that it is far from over. For days, Hassan watched events unfold on television. Or rather, he fumed as the state broadcaster spewed forth a stream of lies about the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

“They said the demonstrators were paid by foreigners and agents of Israel,” said the 41-year-old driving instructor. “They said they only went to Tahrir Square because there was free Kentucky [Fried Chicken]. But we Egyptians were afraid of the government since the day we were born and no one would go against it just for free Kentucky.”

It took Hosni Mubarak‘s television address, though, to get Hassan down to the square. Like many of his countrymen, he had been expecting the Egyptian president to quit on Thursday night. When he didn’t, it was too much.

“I decided that for my sons’ future, I too must be brave,” he said.

Hassan arrived in Tahrir Square on Friday morning as the growing crowd seethed with anger at what was widely regarded as the regime’s duplicity after the near euphoria of the day before at statements from the army and politicians that Mubarak was about to quit. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief, VS Naipaul, Picador
VS Naipaul travels through Africa to gauge and gain input on the beliefs of the continent. Much of Africa has changed because of the white man’s touch and the evangelical campaign. The natives are getting farther and farther away from their ‘paganism’ to embrace the new religion, which brings them ‘prosperity.’ India has received and withstood the onslaught. Africa seems to be shriveling under it. As Naipaul, the master of words travels from Uganda, to Ghana, to Nigeria and then finally South Africa, he observes unmistakable similarities of the practices of magic.

“To believe in the traditional African religion was to be on the defensive. There was no doctrine to hold on to; there was only a sense of the rightness of old ways, the sacredness of the local earth,” says Naipaul, whereas the new religions, Islam and Christianity, offered a philosophical base, a book, one god and global connectivity. Read full story from organiser.org

The boy who ‘went to heaven’
“MANY people all over the world would love for this to be their worst day.”

It’s tough advice from your dad to contemplate when your six-year-old has been left paralysed and fighting for life after a car crash you caused.

Incredibly, father of four Kevin Malarkey has not only seen more good come out of the horrific accident that almost cost his son’s life – but if he had his time again, he would not change a thing.

The story of Alex Malarkey, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, has not only made the New York Times’ best seller list, but has attracted interest from people around the world, particularly in Australia.

After hearing of his plight on the internet, people as far away as Afghanistan began praying for the little boy who suffered the most severe spinal injury, a broken pelvis and traumatic brain injury. Read full story from dailymercury.com

Horse owners warned plaiting could be for theft or rituals
A worried horse owner has issued a warning for people to be on their guard after she discovered one of her animals with a plait in its mane.

The owner, who lives near Shepton Mallet, but does not want to be named for fear of reprisals, fears her horse could have been targeted for theft by gypsies or travellers after similar incidents were featured in the equestrian press.

Horse owners claim the plaiting of a mane carried out by an intruder in daylight could be a signal for horse-stealers returning under covering of darkness. Feeling the plait in a mane could indicate the horse has already been checked as not being branded or micro-chipped and so is free from any identity coding that could prove it stolen when it later comes up for sale.

But other comments on websites say it could be a plague of My Little Pony fans just wanting to plait horses manes. And another correspondent states: “If they’ve got time to plait a mane they’ve got time to steal the horse.” Read full story from thisissomerset.co.uk

News & Submissions 1/31/2011

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Mummy fried – woman sets fire to house while trying to reanimate long-dead sister
A night fire in an apartment block has been caused by a woman who tried to reanimate her long-dead elder sister with electricity.

The horrific story happened in Ekaterinburg, the biggest city in the Urals.

The suspected arsonist, 69, apparently was not completely of sound mind, judging by her mental health record. Read full story from rt.com

Whales return to New York City: Massive mammals appearing again in seas near city; draws sightseers
Whales, dolphins and seals have made a triumphant return to the waters just outside New York Harbor – and the comeback has even sparked whale and seal-watching tours.

Tom Paladino, captain of two ferry boats from the Rockaways, says pods of aquatic mammals off the city’s coast have “increased tenfold.”

“We used to see 10 whales a year – now we see 100,” he said. “We saw dolphins almost on a daily basis between June and September.” Read full story from nydailynews.com

The Muslim Brotherhood may gain power in Egypt by default
The spread of the contagion of protest across north Africa, from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond, has not just been exhilarating, it has also given the lie to the myth that people in Muslim countries have a different mindset to those in the west, and that democracy and secularism are western concepts alien to the political culture of Egypt or Jordan or Yemen. What the demonstrators in Cairo and Tunis have been demanding is not an Islamic state, but a more open, democratic society, with freedom of expression and the protection of individual liberties.

For many, however, the worry remains that the fall of Hosni Mubarak may lead not to a secular, democratic Egypt but to one in thrall to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood; the fear, in other words, that Egypt in 2011 could go the way of Iran in 1979. The outcome of change – especially change as dramatic and anarchic as in Egypt – can never be certain. It could be that the Muslim Brotherhood grasps the reins of power in a post-Mubarak Egypt. But if it does so, it is as likely to have been because of the bad faith of secular politicians as of popular support for Islamism. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

‘Ghost Hunters International’s’ Kris Williams Compares Foreign and Domestic Haunts
As the newest member of Syfy’s  “Ghost Hunters International” team, Kris Williams is among the few paranormal investigators qualified to answer the question of whether stories of hauntings are alike or different in North America and other parts of the world.

She says, “There is a difference in that there is so much history overseas.”  With the domestic version of “Ghost Hunters,” “The 1700s seemed old.  But, well, for example we walked into a castle in Germany and asked how old it was, and they very matter-of-factly said it was built in 1190.  Also, you hear more stories of torture.”  Ew.

Williams says the team has been exploring stories of hauntings that date back to World War II and World War I as well.  Next Wednesday’s (2/2) show has the team “at a fort in Serbia that dates back to the late 1600s, but there was a settlement at the same location that goes back thousands of years.  There were some battles.  There was an execution wall where they’d line up prisoners.  It was creepy.  People felt like they were being watched.  There were lights and apparitions.” Read full story from bethsmithhollywood.com

Jeffs’ pre-trial hearing scheduled for today
Leader of breakaway church accused of sex assault, bigamy
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing today as his trial date for sexual assault is less than a month from now.

Jeffs is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child and bigamy.

“Pretrial motions will be heard beginning at 9 a.m. in preparation for trial scheduled for Feb. 21,” said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the state attorney general’s office.

The venue of the trial has not been determined.

Jeffs has undergone five pretrial hearings since November, when he arrived to Texas. Read full story from gosangelo.com

Great Pyramid has two secret chambers: French architect
A French architect campaigning for a new exploration of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza said on Thursday that the edifice may contain two chambers housing funereal furniture.

Jean-Pierre Houdin — who was rebuffed three years ago by Egypt in his appeal for a probe into how the Pyramid was built — said 3-D simulation and data from a US egyptologist, Bob Brier, pointed to two secret chambers in the heart of the structure.

The rooms would have housed furniture for use in the afterlife by the pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops in Greek, he told a press conference.

“I am convinced there are antechambers in this pyramid. What I want is to find them,” he said.

In March 2007, Houdin advanced the theory that the Great Pyramid had been built inside-out using an internal spiral ramp, as opposed to an external ramp as had long been suggested. Read full story from physorg.com

Tools Suggest Earlier Human Exit From Africa
A cache of stone tools found on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula has reopened the critical question of when and how modern humans escaped from their ancestral homeland in eastern Africa.

The present view, based on both archaeological and genetic evidence, holds that modern humans, although they first emerged in Africa some 200,000 years ago, were hemmed in by deserts and other human species like Neanderthals and did not escape to the rest of the world until some 50,000 years ago.

An archaeological team led by Hans-Peter Uerpmann of the University of Tübingen in Germany now reports the discovery of stone tools 127,000 years old from a site called Jebel Faya in what is now the United Arab Emirates, just south of the entrance to the Persian Gulf. If the new tools were made by modern humans, as the researchers assert, then modern humans got out of Africa much earlier than believed. Read full story from nytimes.com

Did Vikings navigate by polarized light?
A Viking legend tells of a glowing “sunstone” that, when held up to the sky, revealed the position of the sun even on a cloudy day. It sounds like magic, but scientists measuring the properties of light in the sky say that polarizing crystals–which function in the same way as the mythical sunstone–could have helped ancient sailors to cross the northern Atlantic. A review of their evidence was published January 31 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

The Vikings, seafarers from Scandinavia who traveled widely and settled in swathes of Northern Europe, the British Isles and the northern Atlantic from around 750 to 1050 AD, were skilled navigators, able to cross thousands of kilometers of open sea between Norway, Iceland and Greenland. Perpetual daylight during the summer sailing season in the far north would have prevented them from using the stars as a guide to their positions, and the magnetic compass had yet to be introduced in Europe–in any case, it would have been of limited use so close to the North Pole. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Is UFO orb over Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem a context communication by ET?
A second independent video and news report emerged today on January 30, 2011 confirming the authenticity of the UFO orb over Mount Zion and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem at 1 AM on the morning of January 28, 2011.

On January 28, 2011 at 1 AM, a UFO orb appeared over the Mount Zion and the Dome of the Rock-Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  A video of the UFO orb states, “Two men capture a film of what might be one of the most interesting UFO clips ever caught.

“Witnesses noticed the large oval shaped UFO suspended on the night skyline. At about one minute into the clip the UFO descends almost to ground level directly over the Dome of the Rock-Temple Mount. The oval UFO hovers there for a short while, flashes lights into surrounding buildings then shoots upwards at an incredible speed.  Witnesses were totally taken back and amazed at what they had just seen.” Read full story from examiner.com

Ancient Treasures Looted, Destroyed in Egypt’s Chaos
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, reports that several of the country’s museums have been attacked by looters taking advantage of the political turmoil in the country. Read full story from nationalgeographic.com

Video appears to show police using CS spray on protester
Video footage has emerged that appears to show the moment a police officer used CS spray on protesters at Sunday’s UK Uncut protest.

Hundreds of people staged sit-ins at high street stores around the country as part of a day of action designed to highlight companies it says are avoiding millions of pounds in tax.

In London, protesters successfully forced a Boots (one of the companies campaigners accuse of tax avoidance) branch in Oxford Street to close when police tried to arrest a woman for pushing a leaflet through the store’s doors. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

News & Submissions 12/08/2010

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

The Cancun “Green Dragon” Freak Out!
Remember how I mentioned the invocation of the Mayan goddess Ixchel at the opening of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico? At the time I noted that it would most likely confirm the greatest fears of those conservative Christians who see environmentalism as a stalking horse for Pagan religion, a “Green Dragon” that must be opposed. Read full story from wildhunt.org

Pagan prisoners and press prejudices
The Metro‘s news room yesterday must have echoed to the sound of the bottom of barrels being scraped, as the paper chose to put a story about the rights of Pagan prisoners on today’s front page (7 December).

Pagan prisoners are to be allowed four religious festivals off work each year, in a similar way to Jewish, Muslim or Christian prisoners. This is a welcome recognition of the right to freedom of religion. Many offenders have abused others’ freedom, but a civilised society responds by upholding human rights for all, not denying them. Read full story from ekklesia.com

Two maids jailed, to be lashed for sorcery
A Saudi court gave heavy jail sentences to two Indonesian housemaids and ordered them lashed 700 times with a whip on charges of practising witchcraft to extort money from their employers, a local daily reported on Monday.

The two maids, aged 33 and 25 years, had used clothes and other personal items to cast a spell on the man and his family in Riyadh since they started working for him nearly three years ago, ‘Alyoum’ newspaper said.

The court in the Saudi capital was told that the two maids used their magic skills to control the family’s life and drain their employer’s financial resources. Read full story from emirates247.com

Retreating Mountain Glaciers Pose Freshwater Shortage
Norway said yesterday it will spend $12 million to expand monitoring of Himalayan glaciers and help the region’s communities adapt to climate change.

The Hindu Kush-Himalayas Climate Impact Adaptation Assessment Programme will run for five years, carried out by Norway’s Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research, the U.N. Environment Programme and the Katmandu, Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

“The overarching theme is people plagued by either too much or too little water in these regions,” said Bjorn Brede Hansen, deputy director-general of the Section for Environment and Sustainable Development within Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “This is really the framework for everything — agriculture, livelihoods … [the role of] women.” Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Embattled N.Y. imam launches initiative to bridge discord
New York (CNN) — The controversial head of a Muslim congregation in New York announced the launch of a “multinational, multifaith movement” meant to improve understanding and build trust between “people of all cultures and faith traditions,” according to a statement released Tuesday.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the public face of a recent political firestorm surrounding the construction of an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, is now spearheading what he calls the Cordoba Movement.

The initiative is meant to broaden his groups’ work in promoting religious tolerance and “expand learning among Muslims, Jews, Christians and people of all faiths,” the statement said.

“We must retake the discourse among religions and cultures from the hands of the extremists around the world who benefit from hatred and violence,” Rauf said in the statement. “We must stop this downward spiral of hatred, mistrust and misunderstanding if our world is to have a peaceful future.” Read full story from cnn.com

Divine dispatches: a religion roundup
Don’t know about divine dispatches but I could certainly do with some divine inspiration. Maybe it will bite me on the bum while I’m writing this. Am suffering from a terrible bout of existential angst.

✤ Retailers in Japan have pulled a Nazi costume from their stores following a complaint from a US-based Jewish group. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre wrote a letter asking the Don Quixote discount chain to remove the uniforms “replete with swastikas” from its shelves. Rabbi Abraham Cooper said: “I note also your corporate guidelines which states in part, ‘Besides following the law as a member of the corporate citizen, we believe taking social responsibility is true compliance … We do not accept any unreasonable requests from antisocial sources’.” The outfits consisted of a black jacket with a red swastika armband in a package featuring an illustration that resembled Adolf Hitler, while also carrying the phrase “Heil Hitler” in Japanese characters. The outfit cost £38 and was available in at least two stores in Tokyo.

The company making the product said it had never received a complaint in seven years. “This was meant purely as a joke, as something that would easily be recognisable. If we have complaints we will certainly stop sales,” said a spokesman for Aico. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Sufi’s mark annual ritual in Egypt (source cnn)

Skeptic Michael Shermer on Atheism, Happiness, and the Free Market(source ReasonTV)

Christians Hire Stalker-Truck for Atheist Bus Ads (source AtheistMediaBlog)

News & Submissions 4/15/2010

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Witches to Open New Museum in Salem, Massachusetts

Salem, MA (PRWEB) April 15, 2010 — Witches opening a new museum in Salem, Massachusetts, aka The Witch City, wouldn’t seem to be newsworthy, as there are many quality museums in the city already. What makes The World of Witches Museum different is that its exhibit will be dealing with real world witches and operated by practicing witches. This Museum will be a place of learning for and about the global Witch movement, and will tell their story. With Witchcraft, Witches, and Wiccan cultures on the rise worldwide, the World of Witches Museum tells the story of their struggles, history, and beliefs from a witch’s point of view. The museum, under its curator Rev. Donald Lewis, will tell the story of Witches from the past, present, and those Witches who are walking among us today. Read full story from prweb.com

Witch Magick
Did you know that if a witch sees or spots a black cat or black dog that this is a good omen for a witch to see.

A long time ago, black cats wore destroyed as they wore thought to be devils, and this is why the Christians would kill them. Read full story from modernghana.com

Tomb Of Ken-Amun, Royal Scribe, Unearthed In Egypt
Dating to the 19th Dynasty B.C (1315-1201 BC), the burial is the first ever Ramesside-period tomb uncovered in Lower Egypt, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Wednesday. Read full story from discovery.com

Breaking: Some Psychics May Be Frauds
Last year, psychic to the stars Azra Shafi-Scagliar was convicted of grand larceny. Then a couple of months ago, Sylvia Mitchell of Zena Psychic was accused of tricking her customers into giving her large sums of money by telling them that they needed to cleanse their spirits. Then “psychic investment adviser” Sean Morton was charged by the SEC with fraud. And now, “intuitive” psychic Laura Day is being sued by her ex-boyfriend, Princeton Review founder Adam Robinson, who claims that she manipulated him into writing her best-selling book for her out of “virtually unusable” notes and then used her powers of intuition against him. Read full story from mymag.com

Rosemary For Remembrance
A sprig of Rosemary worn in the lapel on Anzac Day is a form of remembrance to those who have served this country in times of conflict. In fact, the commonly used phrase is ‘Rosemary for Remembrance.’ Read full story from narrowminenewsonline.com

Brunswick commissioners may abandon insistence on prayers
The consideration of changing from an opening invocation to a moment of silence comes after a StarNews report on a late-night board meeting in which commissioners vehemently opposed Commissioner Charles Warren’s request to allow outside clergy to pray before the board meetings. Traditionally the commissioners have given the invocation. Read full story from starnewsonline.com

Massive fireball reported across Midwestern sky
(CNN) — Authorities in several Midwestern states were flooded Wednesday night with reports of a gigantic fireball lighting up the sky, the National Weather Service said. Read full story from cnn.com

News & Submission 11/13/2009

Friday, November 13th, 2009

NASA finds ‘significant’ water on moon
(CNN) — NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening “a new chapter” that could allow for the development of a lunar space station. Read full story from cnn.com

Oz Muslim students bully 11-year-old kid for eating a salami sandwich
Melbourne, Nov 13 (ANI): A Sydney couple has withdrawn their two children from a public primary school because Muslim students bullied their 11-year-old son for eating a salami sandwich during Ramadan. Read full story from yahoo.com

Vanished Persian army said found in desert
The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology’s biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers. Read full story from MSNBC.com

More on the Pagan Angle to those “I Believe” Plates
Remember how I said a couple days ago that the entire process that led to South Carolina’s “I Believe” license plates being ruled unconstitutional was haunted by Pagans? It turns out that I’m not the only one who thinks so. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, who is currently running to become the state’s next governor, released a video two days after the license plate ruling to decry the imagined assaults on “freedom of religion” in his state stemming from the Great Falls Darla Wynne case. Read full story from The Wild Hunt

Regardless of religion, radicalism is wrong
The Westboro Baptist Church is at it again. According to the Huffington Post, the organization has recently been holding protests at Jewish temples and Washington D.C. area schools – including Sidwell Friends, the school President Barack Obama’s daughters attend. Read full story from westerncourier.com

Elderly Mexican man accused of ‘witch’ killing
Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) — Mexican authorities have arrested a 78-year-old man on charges he killed a woman he believed was a witch who had put a spell on him. Read full story from cnn.com

Wiccan New Year ritual at Snug Harbor Cultural Center: Missed it? Check it out here
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Thanks to Kimbra Eberly, a member of MyStatenIslandLife.com, for posting this video of the recent Wiccan New Year ritual and educational presentation at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. Read full story from silive.com

The healing power of herbs
HERBS CAN BE HELPFUL:Did you attend the Collingwood Horticultural Society meeting at which herbalist Heather Bakazias, R. N., of Rob Roy was the speaker? Read full story from theenterprisebulletin.com

It’s Friday the 13th!
There are a ton of myths, legends and other hullaballoo surrounding this date. For example: Read full story from paganwiccan.about.com

Friday the 13th Superstitions
Today is Friday the 13th, which might bring to mind the spooky Friday the 13th superstitions, movies, black cats and a variety of superstitions. Since 13 is my lucky number, I never get worried about Friday the 13th superstitions. What made Friday the 13th a traditional day to fear? Read full story from gather.com