A 13-year-old girl in Japan was suffocated by her father and a monk who were trying to expel an "evil spirit".

They allegedly strapped the victim to a chair with belts and doused her face with water.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

The official magazine for Jehovah's Witnesses has described those who leave the church as "mentally diseased", prompting an outcry from former members and insiders concerned about the shunning of those who question official doctrine.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

Now that the polygamist FLDS sect's leader and prophet Warren Jeffs has been jailed for life plus 20 years, cracks may be showing in the group's armor.

But life in the polygamist town of Colorado City hasn't become any easier.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

Polygamist sect members accused of child sexual assault and bigamy are looking at resolutions to their cases outside jury trials.

The resolutions could include plea deals.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

A 5th District Court judge authorized a warrant Wednesday for the arrest of William R. Jessop, who once worked as bodyguard for jailed cult leader Warren Jeffs.

Jessops is believed to be in Switzerland.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

A doctor and evangelical minister who used bogus herbal medications to offer false hope to dozens of people suffering from diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's was found guilty of nearly a dozen federal charges.

Twenty-eight victims or family members of victims who died while taking the products testified against Christine Daniel.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

Following testimony Tuesday in the latest case involving the death of a child whose parents are members of Followers of Christ -- a controversial Oregon City church -- a decades-old rift in the tight-knit religious group over using modern medicine has come to the forefront.

Several former church members left the church after seeing children die from illnesses that could have been remedied with medical care.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

Dale and Shannon Hickman are charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of their son, David, who was born two months early and lived less than nine hours.

They are members of the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City church that uses faith-healing rituals and rejects medical treatment.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

An official magazine for Jehovah's Witnesses that described those who leave the church as "mentally diseased" is at the centre of a police inquiry, it has emerged.

Detectives are investigating whether the article, published in July's edition of The Watchtower, is in breach of Britain's religious hatred laws.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

In a test case of religious intolerance in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, an Indonesian mayor is defying court rulings by pushing for a decree to block Christians from opening churches on streets with Islamic names.

Members of the Taman Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church in the West Java town of Bogor are, after three years, still forced to worship on the sidewalk outside their building, protected by police.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

In a handwritten motion, polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is asking for a new trial on sexual assault of a child charges in Texas.

The one-page motion is written in the same rambling, archaic style that characterized Jeffs' speech at trial after he fired his team of high-profile attorneys.

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •