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Chiang Khong, Thailand — The 15-year-old aspiring “ladyboy” delicately applied a puff of talcum powder to his nose – an act of rebellion at the Thai Buddhist temple where he is learning to “be a man”. “They have rules here that novice monks cannot use powder, make-up, or perfume, cannot run around and be girlish,” said…

A British schoolteacher caught with 4,500 pornographic images — some of children as young as two — was told by the presiding judge that she understood his being attracted to children, but that other teachers with such urges keep them under control. The 63-year old substitute teacher David Armstrong was arrested after a colleague noticed files on Armstrong’s laptop with names…

Lisa Shimel, who is not Jewish, used to celebrate Christmas with her Jewish husband until their first child was born; now they’ve added Chanukah, reports Deb Morandi works at Jewish Family Services, where she introduces intermarried families to Judaism, though she is not Jewish. Pat Luftman was a committee co-chair in her son’s Jewish preschool,…

After sunset each day during the Islamic month of Ramadan, faithful Muslims are allowed to break their day-long fast with festive meals to which family, friends and neighbors are often invited. If you’re not Muslim, don’t worry — the Koran does not require fasting of you. Of course, if you are a Christian, the Bible does. But to Muslim faithful, fasting…

Comet Elenin is hurtling toward Earth — and will usher in the end of the world on October 16, say astronomy observers. October 16 is pretty darn close to the Rev. Harold Camping’s revised doomsday prediction. If you recall, this spring his followers plastered the U.S. with billboards while he thundered warning from his California radio network. The…

The world is coming to the end of a 50-year debt supercycle, John Mauldin says, and the austerity required to put us back on solid financial footing will hammer ordinary Americans. Mauldin, a financial analyst and the author of ENDGAME: The End Of The Debt Supercycle And How It Changes Everything, thinks that the the…

A former Buddhist novice has burned herself to death in an apparent act of devotion to a monk who also committed self-immolation last year to protest a Korean flood control project, according to Stephen Hong reporting for the internet Buddhist Channel. The body of the woman, who was in her 40s and only identified by…

“I propose that it is high time for the electorate to reject anyone who is strenuously devout,” writes David Barash in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s on-line blog “Brainstorm.” His proposed ban would include any candidate who is a”Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Shinto, Wiccan, or committed fundamentalist practitioner of any other faith…

Editor’s Note: For 14 Sundays in a row, police have forcibly detained any members of the 1,000-member Shouwang Church in Beijing who show up at an outdoor meeting place. The church’s leadership is under house address. Many members have lost their jobs, been evicted from their homes and forced to leave the Beijing area —…

When a 60-year-old grandfather woke up Sunday inside an undertaker’s refrigerator, he began yelling in protest. Two mortuary attendants ran out of the building in South Africa, convinced he was a ghost. The asthmatic man, whose name has been withheld, lost consciousness while asleep at his home in a rural village near Libode in the Transkei region, according to health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.…
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