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- Killing of women, child "witches" on rise, U.N. told
- Paraguayans Block Road, Demand Land Donated by Moonies
- John Travolta admits son suffered from autism, a medial condition not accepted by Scientology cult
- Iran police 'target mannequins'
- Polygamy charges thrown out against B.C. religious leaders
- Court could intervene on cult leader's fast
- House of parents convicted in daughter's faith healing death in foreclosure
- Man who allowed daughter to die in faith healing attempt freed from jail
- Church poster banned for suggesting that 'blessed oil' cured heart defect
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Murder and persecution of women and children accused of being witches is spreading around the world and destroying the lives of millions of people, experts said Wednesday.
The experts -- United Nations officials, civil society representatives from affected countries and non-governmental organization (NGO) specialists working on the issue -- urged governments to acknowledge the extent of the persecution.
Aides to U.N. special investigators on women's rights and on summary executions said killings and violence against alleged witch women -- often elderly people -- were becoming common events in countries ranging from South Africa to India.
And community workers from Nepal and Papua New Guinea told the seminar, on the fringes of a session of the U.N.'s 47-member Human Rights Council, that "witch-hunting" was now common, both in rural communities and larger population centres.
Hundreds of peasants from a town in western Paraguay on Tuesday blocked the national highway that runs to Argentina and Bolivia to demand the distribution of land donated by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.
The protest is the latest in a series staged by peasants from the Puerto Casado region in recent years against Victoria S.A., a company owned by the Moon cult.
While giving testimony in an extortion trial, John Travolta acknowledged publicly for the first time that his late son had suffered from autism.
The admission puts Travolta at odds with the Church of Scientology in which he is a leading figure. The cult, which among other things practices quackery, does not acknowledge autism as a real affliction.
Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports.
Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said.
"Un-Islamic behaviour" has been targeted since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005.
Criminal polygamy charges against B.C. religious leaders Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler have been thrown out.
Former attorney-general Wally Oppal did not have authority to appoint a second special prosecutor to the decades-long case after the first one declined to proceed, Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled.
Cult leader Wayne Bent is scheduled to be in court on Wednesday as a judge decides whether the state should force feed him.
Bent wrote letters to his cult in Union County letting them know that he will begin fasting on Sept. 1.
His fourth week of fasting is fast approaching, he will not have any food or water. Now the state is rushing a decision to intervene and force feed him with IVs and tubes.
Medical experts said that within seven days of no water, his organs will begin to break down.
Jeff Bent, Wayne Bent's son, said the state needs to accept his father's wishes and religious practices and not force him to eat.
U.S. Bank has filed foreclosure proceedings against Dale and Leilani Neumann in Marathon County Circuit Court, according to court records.
The Neumanns currently live in another home they own in the town of Weston.
The Neumanns were convicted of second-degree reckless homicide in separate trials this year in connection with the March 23, 2008 death of their 11-year-old daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann.
During the trials, the Neumanns said they chose to pray for the girl's recovery from undiagnosed diabetes instead of seeking medical help. Both are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 6.
A man who failed to provide medical care to his dying daughter in favor of attempts at faith healing has been freed from jail after serving six days short of two months.
Carl Worthington, who treated his dying 15-month-old daughter Ava with faith healing rather than taking her to a doctor, was convicted of second-degree criminal mistreatment.
Both he and his wife Raylene had originally been charged with charged with second-degree manslughter and criminal mistreatment.
The Worthington's are members of the Followers of Christ church -- theologically considered to be theologically a cult of Christianity that has left a trail of death children its wake.
The advert for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) featured a testimonial from a woman implying that her son's lung and heart defects were cured by oil that the church had provided.
UCKG's founder was recently charged with fraud.
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