Irony Alert!

An Australian woman suffered a psychotic breakdown before leaping to her death from an office window in front of horrified co-workers, two days after she had completed an intense self-help course, a coroner ruled today.
The coroner's findings come four years after 34-year-old Rebekah Lawrence's death in Sydney, providing a sense of relief to family members who had long argued that she would not have killed herself had it not been for her participation in a seminar called The Turning Point.
"The evidence is overwhelming that the act of stepping out of a window to her death was the tragic culmination of a developing psychosis that had its origins in a self-development course known as The Turning Point," the deputy state coroner Malcolm MacPherson said as he read his findings.

Unholy row threatens Holy Sepulchre

By Wyre Davies
BBC News, Jerusalem

An unholy row is threatening one of the most sacred places in Christianity - the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The centuries-old site, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.

A recent survey says that part of the complex, a rooftop monastery, is in urgent need of repair, but work is being held up by a long-running dispute between two Christian sects who claim ownership of the site.

Within the main building, dark-robed monks with long beards chant and swing incense as they conduct ceremonies in the many small chapels and shrines.

There has been a church on this site for 1,700 years. Over the centuries it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times - but some parts are very old indeed.

Collapse risk

Various Christian denominations - Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Catholics, among others - have always jealously defended and protected their own particular parts of the site.

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Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Disputes are not uncommon, particularly over who has the authority to carry out repairs.

For example, a wooden ladder has remained on a ledge just above the main entrance since the 19th Century - because no-one can agree who has the right to take it down.

The latest row is potentially much more serious.

The Deir al-Sultan monastery was built on part of the main church roof more than 1,000 years ago.

The modest collection of small rooms has been occupied by monks from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church since 1808.

But a recent engineering report by an Israeli institute found that the monastery and part of the roof were "not in a good condition" and that parts of the structure "could collapse, endangering human life".

Ownership of the monastery, however, is hotly disputed between the Ethiopians and the Egyptian Coptic Church, and the dispute is holding up much-needed repair work.

Although the Ethiopian monks have lived there for more than 200 years, after losing many of their rights within the main church, the Copts were in overall control of the monastery.

From a vantage point overlooking the disputed monastery, I discussed the "situation" with Father Antonias el-Orshalamy, General Secretary to the Coptic Church in Jerusalem.

"The Ethiopians were always there as our guests, but then they wanted to take control," says Father Antonias - referring to the night in 1970 when Coptic monks were all attending midnight prayers in the main Sepulchre church.

With the help of Israeli police, the locks in the Deir al Sultan monastery were changed and the keys given to the Ethiopians.

Subsequent Israeli court rulings, ordering that control be handed back to the Copts, have effectively been ignored - drawing accusations that Israel has shown political bias in favouring the Ethiopians over the (Egyptian) Copts.

Whatever the political and religious arguments, the Ethiopians remain in control of the ancient monastery and refuse to budge.

They will not entertain any suggestion that the Copts should have any say over repairs to the monastery and rooftop courtyard.

In that vein, no one from the Ethiopian Church would speak to us.

'Unedifying'

Coptic and Ethiopian monks have come to blows in the past but they are not the only ones who have allowed tensions to boil over.

Fights between monks from different sects in the Sepulchre are not uncommon and passions run high, particularly on important holy days.

Father Jerome Murphy O'Connor is a professor at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem.

"The whole spectacle is unedifying and totally un-Christian in nature", says the affable Irish priest, who has witnessed all sorts of church disagreements during his 40 years in the city.

"I'm not hopeful - either for peace in the Middle East or for peace in the Holy Sepulchre," laughs Father O'Connor.

The impact of age and of so many pilgrims visiting the rooftop monastery and the Sepulchre Church is taking its toll.

While the main church is said to be structurally sound, many parts of the roof in particular are in need of extensive repair.

The Israeli government says it will pay for the work to be carried out if the Copts and Ethiopians can resolve their differences. But after decades of hostility neither side is rushing to compromise.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7676332.stm

Published: 2008/10/19 10:50:55 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Well, this is embarrassing!

'Free Tibet' flags made in China

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.
The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.
But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

Tibet independence

The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.

Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.
Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping.

Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there this week.

Known as the Snow Lion Flag Introduced in 1912 Banned in mainland China

The authorities have now stepped up the inspection of cars heading to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and onwards to Hong Kong.

The Olympic torch is due to tour Hong Kong on Friday. It will then travel to a series of cities in mainland China before reaching Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games in August.
Its progress around the world has been marked by pro-Tibet demonstrations in several cities - including Paris, London and San Francisco.

Rallies began in the main Tibetan city of Lhasa on 10 March, led by Buddhist monks.
Over the following week protests spread and became violent - particularly in Lhasa, where ethnic Chinese were targeted and shops were burnt down.

Beijing cracked down on the protesters with force, sending in hundreds of troops to regain control of the restive areas.

But it has since agreed to resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7370903.stm

Published: 2008/04/28 13:01:37 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Joins the CT Crowd

Ahmadinejad: 9/11 'suspect event'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York as a "suspect event" and queried the death toll.

"A building collapsed and they said 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names," he said in a speech in the holy city of Qom.

He did not mention the planes hijackers flew into the twin skyscrapers.

On the fifth anniversary last year, the names of 2,749 people killed in New York were read out at a ceremony.

"Four or five years ago a suspect event took place in New York," President Ahmadinejad said.

"Under this pretext they [the United States] attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and since then a million people have been killed only in Iraq," he said in the speech broadcast on state-run television.

Estimates of the number of lives lost in Iraq vary.

A World Health Organization survey in January this year suggested that 151,000 civilians had died between March 2003 and June 2006.

This was roughly in line with Iraqi government estimates, although one study in the Lancet medical journal put the toll at 655,000, while a UK-based polling agency suggested in September 2007 that up to 1.2m people may have died because of the conflict.

The Iranian president made similar remarks about 9/11 last week, on the country's national nuclear day.

"How is it possible that with the best radar systems and intelligence networks, the planes could crash undetected into the towers?" he asked.

Mr Ahmadinejad did not say on Wednesday who he believed had been behind the attacks.

In November 2001, his predecessor as Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, condemned "the horrific terrorist attacks" of 9/11 in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York.

They had, he said, been carried out by "a cult of fanatics who had self-mutilated their ears and tongues".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7350830.stm

Published: 2008/04/16 16:05:08 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

--Snip--

Do you really need any more proof that Conspiracy Theorists are Cuckoo For Coca Puffs?

Iran anti-vice chief 'in brothel'

Tehran's police chief, who was reportedly discovered in a brothel, has been arrested, it has been confirmed.

Local media have reported that General Reza Zarei was found with six naked women in a house of prostitution in the Iranian capital last month.

He has been taken to jail while his case is investigated, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary said.

Gen Zarei was in charge of enforcing Iran's strict anti-vice laws, which include a ban on prostitution.

State media had recently reported that Gen Zarei had been replaced as police chief in Tehran, but had not explained why.

Sex taboo

Iran has tough punishments for unmarried couples who have sex or behave in a manner considered immoral.

Young people have been jailed or flogged for dancing together at house parties.

The public dress code can be tightly enforced, with women barred from showing their hair or wearing make up or colourful clothes and men from wearing their hair long.

For years the hardline Iranian establishment never admitted that prostitution existed.

They now acknowledge the problem, though, and prostitutes are becoming more visible on the streets, correspondents say.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7350165.stm

Published: 2008/04/16 09:50:05 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

--Snip--

So is the anti-vice guy going to get flogged like every other law breaker, or better yet will he be executed in the square? So much for guardians of Islamic morality. Hypocrisy knows no limits as to color, creed, faith, or national origin.

Could Gore Be The Nominee?

By Taegan Goddard | March 8, 2008 9:25 PM at Political Insider
It's clear that for either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic presidential nomination, they'll have to win the majority of superdelegates at the convention. But what if the superdelegates split right down the middle like Democrats across the nation?

Talk of a joint ticket -- Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama -- might be an elegant solution to the problem. But what if Clinton wins the popular vote and Obama wins the majority of delegates? What if the next two months of campaigning turns so ugly they can't stand each other? Would either candidate willingly step aside to take the number two spot?

The answer might be for someone else entirely to step into the race at the convention. The most likely candidate would be Al Gore. Most Democrats think he was robbed of the presidency in 2000 by the Supreme Court and could be the only one to unite the party.