| June 8, 2009 | - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidential election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the election results a “divine miracle,” but fraud and voter irregularities were reportedly rampant; Ahmadinejad's main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, asked the ayatollah for an investigation into the results. “They didn't rig the vote,” said an official with Iran's interior ministry, which conducted the election. “They didn't even look at the vote. They just wrote the name and put the number in front of it.” Iranians protesting the results took to the streets, where they were attacked with clubs, metal batons, baseball bats, stones, and teargas. “He ran a red light,” said Ahmadinejad of Mousavi, “and he got a traffic ticket.” During the campaign, Mousavi advocated increased engagement with the United States and accused Ahmadinejad of being “superstitious” and “brazenly staring at the camera and telling lies to the nation,” citing September 2005 footage in which Ahmadinejad discussed being surrounded by a mysterious light during an appearance at the United Nations: “I felt the atmosphere changed,” he said, claiming that, for 27 minutes, his audience did not blink. “I’m not exaggerating,” he continued, “when I’m saying they didn’t blink.”
| Source 1:
Bloomberg
Source 2:
New York Times
Source 3:
CNN
Source 4:
New York Times
Source 5:
New York Times
Source 6:
Times Online
|
| December 4, 2008 | - In the Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom, police arrested a man who claimed to have killed 110 witch-children, although the man later insisted that he had only exorcised the children of their witchiness.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| September 3, 2008 | - The Victorian Aboriginal Education Association warned Australian girls not to play the didgeridoo because it was “men's business” and could lead to infertility.
| Source:
Yahoo
|
| August 5, 2008 | - It was discovered that a woman who paid a South Korean company to create five clones of her pitbull Booger was Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who escaped British authorities in 1977 after abducting a Mormon missionary, securing him to a bed with mink-lined handcuffs, and raping him three times. “They are perfectly the same as their daddy,” said McKinney, in Seoul, of Booger's clones. “I am in Heaven here.”
| Source 1:
Salt Lake Tribune
Source 2:
Daily Mail
Source 3:
The Register
|
| July 24, 2008 | - Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade and awaits imminent extradition to The Hague, where he will face charges of genocide for his role in the Srebrenica massacres and the siege of Sarajevo. The former Bosnian Serb president, a psychiatrist and poet who in 1991 pledged to drive Bosnian Muslims down “the highway of hell and suffering,” had been living in the Serbian capital as a New Age guru, promoting alternative medicine and “Human Quantum Energy” under the name “Dragan David Dabic.” Serbia hoped the arrest would hasten its campaign to join the European Union, and it was reported that Ratko Mladic, the general who led Bosnian Serb forces during the war and is believed to be in hiding in Serbia, is protected by two bodyguards under orders to kill him in the event of his arrest.
| Source 1:
Telegraph
Source 2:
New York Times
Source 3:
Reuters
Source 4:
Telegraph
|
| February 2, 2008 | - Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, signalling six more weeks of winter.
| Source:
Pennsylvania groundhog sees six more winter weeks
|
| September 16, 2007 | - A dismissed trial-court judge in the Philippines was fighting to be returned to the bench along with his three elves, Angel, Armand, and Luis the Avenger.
| Source:
The Wall Street Journal
|
| September 3, 2007 | - Previously unpublished letters by Mother Teresa revealed that beginning in 1948 and continuing until the end of her life in 1997 she was unable to sense the presence of God. “Repulsed—empty—no faith—no love—no zeal,” she wrote. “Heaven means nothing.”
| Source:
Time Magazine
|
| August 20, 2007 | - The American Psychological Association ruled that many of the interrogation techniques used against detainees at U.S. facilities—including mock execution, simulated drowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, hooding, forced nakedness, exposure to extreme heat or cold, physical assault, and the use of mind-altering drugs—are immoral.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| June 22, 2007 | - Lydia Playfoot, a 16-year-old English schoolgirl, went to the High Court to protest her school's ban on wearing “purity rings” (used to symbolize chastity), which she characterized as discrimination against Christians.
- Lydia Playfoot, a 16-year-old English schoolgirl, went to the High Court to protest her school's ban on wearing “purity rings” (used to symbolize chastity), which she characterized as discrimination against Christians.
| Source:
BBCNews
|
| May 29, 2007 | - In New York, a psychologist named Gordon Gallup announced that semen may be a powerful and addictive antidepressant for women.
| Source:
Psychology Today
|
| May 27, 2007 | - In Bombay, several thousand untouchables converted en masse to Buddhism.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| May 9, 2007 | - The Pope traveled to Brazil, where he canonized a nineteenth-century friar who healed people by giving them written prayers in pill form.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo
|
| April 28, 2007 | - Sony apologized and admitted that it might have been “inappropriate” to promote a new videogame based on Greek mythology by holding a launch party in London featuring topless serving girls and guests eating offal from the stomach of a decapitated goat.
| Source:
thisislondon.co.uk
|
| April 20, 2007 | - The Vatican revised its teachings on limbo, raising hopes that the souls of unbaptized dead babies could be saved.
| Source:
Catholic News Service
|
| April 3, 2007 | - Dr. Zahi Hawass of Egypt dismissed the Exodus story of the Jews as a “myth.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 22, 2007 | -
Russian peasants were refusing to collect their pensions because the payment slip barcodes contained Satanic symbols.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| March 21, 2007 | -
Al Gore returned to Capitol Hill to testify that global warming is a planetary emergency. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts called Gore a prophet, and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan addressed him as “Mr. President.” Joe Barton of Texas, the leading Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told Gore he was “totally wrong” and that, if need be, Republican lawmakers would stay late for an “all-out cat fight” with Democrats. Ralph Hall, also of Texas, speculated that Gore's attack on the energy industry could result in war “when and if OPEC nations abandon the U.S.A.,” and Roscoe Bartlett (R., Md.) said that he thought it was “probably possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot.”
| Source 1:
AP vie Breitbart
Source 2:
Huffington Post
|
| March 3, 2007 | - An Indian
numerologist forecast that Hillary Clinton would win the 2008 election because her birth number is eight; he claimed he had also correctly predicted Princess Diana's death, Bush's election, and that America would lose the Iraq war.
| Source:
Asian Tribune
|
| January 29, 2007 | - A mob of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem overpowered policemen and stole a woman's corpse to prevent an autopsy but later gave it back.
| Source:
news24.com
|
| January 29, 2007 | - U.S. and Iraqi forces in the Shiite holy city of Najaf killed at least 200 members of an apocalyptic cult.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| January 25, 2007 | - The perjury trial of former vice-presidential aide I. Scooter Libby began. Cathie Martin, former communications director for Vice President Dick Cheney, testified that the government often releases bad news late on Friday. “Fewer people pay attention to it,” she explained. CIA official Craig Schmall testified that Libby had met with Tom Cruise to discuss the treatment of Scientologists in Germany. Libby “was a little excited about it,” he recalled; Schmall said that he too had been excited.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
|
| December 5, 2006 | - Several U.S. cities were complaining that they had too many churches.
| Source:
Christian Science Monitor
|
| November 23, 2006 | - A college student in Portland, Oregon, was expelled after questioning a classmate's belief in leprechauns.
| Source:
Portland Mercury
|
| November 21, 2006 | -
Indian officials announced that they would establish seven vulture havens in order to relieve shortages at the Towers of Silence, where Zoroastrians leave their dead to be eaten.
| Source:
Mumbai Mirror
|
| November 20, 2006 | -
Tom Cruise married Katie Holmes in a Scientology ceremony in Italy.
| Source:
Canada.com
|
| October 30, 2006 | - Grieving Maya in Mexico exhumed the bodies of their beloved in order to clean them.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| September 5, 2006 | - An Orthodox Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada
flight because his praying made other passengers nervous.
| Source:
CBC
|
| August 30, 2006 | - A study revealed that the brains of nuns “flicker” in the presence of God.
| Source:
Daily Mail
|
| August 29, 2006 | - Warren Steed Jeffs, who reportedly has 80 wives and 250 children and serves as the leader of a polygamist Mormon sect, was arrested in Nevada on suspicion of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.
| Source:
AP via New York Times
|
| August 13, 2006 | -
Scotland banned the sale of swords, with religious swords exempted.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| July 27, 2006 | - A large praying mantis statue was frightening children in Tokyo.
| Source:
NDTV.com
|
| July 21, 2006 | -
Somalia declared an “all out holy war” on Ethiopia.
| Source:
Somalinet.com via Google News
|
| May 13, 2006 | - In Lynchburg, Virginia, at Liberty University (which fines its students $500 if they engage in witchcraft), Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) stood next to Jerry Falwell and spoke in support of the Iraq war.
| Source 1:
The New York Times
Source 2:
Liberty University
|
| May 12, 2006 | - A Baptist church in Britain was planning to wash cars with baptismal-font water.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 20, 2006 | -
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited with President Bush in Washington, D.C. A Falun Gong protester interrupted the welcoming ceremony; President Bush apologized to Hu, and also called on Hu to appreciate the value of the yuan.
| Source 1:
AP via Yahoo! News
Source 2:
BBC News
|
| April 20, 2006 | -
Malaysian wildlife officials denied reports that they had captured a baby Bigfoot.
| Source:
All Headline News
|
| April 7, 2006 | - A dead, noseless, cyclops kitten was sold to a creationist museum in New York.
| Source:
KSAT.com
|
| March 29, 2006 | - There was a total eclipse of the sun.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| March 23, 2006 | - An Arkansas
science teacher was ordered not to tell his students the actual age of stones.
| Source:
Arkansas Times
|
| March 20, 2006 | - A poll found that Americans trust atheists even less than Muslims, recent immigrants, and lesbians.
| Source:
UMN News
|
| March 19, 2006 | - Tresa Waggoner, an elementary school music teacher in Bennett, Colorado, was suspended from her job after local parents complained that she was a lesbian devil worshiper; the parents drew this conclusion after learning that Waggoner showed her classes a videotape of the opera Faust performed with sock puppets.
| Source:
The Los Angeles Times
|
| March 4, 2006 | -
Wal-Mart announced that it would begin to sell the morning-after pill, but would not require pharmacists to fill prescriptions if the pill offends them.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| February 24, 2006 | - At least 140 people were killed in Iraq during fighting that broke out after the Al Askari mosque, a Shiite
shrine in Samarra, was bombed. Sunni leaders said that 184 mosques had been attacked in the fighting, and a daytime curfew was in effect in Baghdad. "If there is a civil war in this country," said Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi, "it will never end."
| Source 1:
Democracy Now!
Source 2:
Reuters
|
| February 24, 2006 | - In Iowa a sex offender refused to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet because he belongs to a church that believes electricity can cause people to disobey God.
| Source:
UPI
|
| February 5, 2006 | - Riots erupted over newspaper cartoons, printed first in Denmark and subsequently throughout Europe, that caricatured the prophet Muhammad. Demonstrators rallied in Syria, where they attacked the Danish and Norwegian embassies, and in Lebanon, where they set the Danish embassy on fire. "They should have respected our religion," said a Lebanese protester. Iran recalled its ambassador from Denmark, and protesters outside the United Nations in New York City chanted, "shame, shame."
| Source 1:
BBC News
Source 2:
Newsday
|
| January 24, 2006 | - A Senate committee investigating the government response to Hurricane Katrina criticized the Bush Administration for ignoring the findings of a hurricane-preparedness exercise called "Hurricane Pam," which had warned that New Orleans would be flooded. "It is apparent that a more appropriate name for Pam should have been 'Cassandra,'" said Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine).
| Source:
USA Today
|
| January 13, 2006 | -
Pat Robertson apologized to Ariel Sharon's son, Omri, for being “inappropriate and insensitive” when he said that Sharon's illness was God's punishment. It remained unclear, however, whether Robertson would once again be permitted to build a theme park by the Sea of Galilee.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 13, 2006 | - In Saudi Arabia 345 people were trampled to death while attempting to finish the “stoning-of-the-devil” ritual of the Hajj. “This was fate,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, “destined by God.” Officials said that they were working out a plan to allow 500,000 people to stone the devil per hour.
| Source:
The Seattle Times
|
| January 5, 2006 | - Three Christian ministers claimed that they had sneaked into a Senate hearing room to anoint with oil the chairs used during Samuel Alito's Supreme Court confirmation.
| Source:
Salon.com
|
| December 11, 2005 | - A religious studies professor at the University of Kansas was beaten up on a roadside after he mocked creationism in an email.
| Source:
CantonRep.com
|
| November 30, 2005 | - A theological commission planned to ask Pope Benedict XVI to eliminate limbo—where unbaptized infants are thought to go after death—from the catechism.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 27, 2005 | -
Singapore fired its executioner, Darshan Singh, after his identity was revealed in the media. Singh, who conducted more than 850 hangings over 46 years, said that his last words to condemned prisoners were always: “I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you.”
| Source 1:
Sky News
Source 2:
News.com.au
|
| November 24, 2005 | - A 1,600-inmate faith-based
prison opened in Crawfordville, Florida.
| Source:
Gainesville.com
|
| November 21, 2005 | - The community council of Perthshire, Scotland, forced a developer to change the layout of his housing development so that it would not disturb fairies.
| Source:
Times Online
|
| November 21, 2005 | - The Kansas Board of Education had redefined “science” so that it is “no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.”
| Source:
The Independent
|
| November 20, 2005 | - President George W. Bush visited China, where he went to church.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| November 18, 2005 | - The Vatican announced that Intelligent Design was not science and did not belong in science classrooms.
| Source:
KSAT.com
|
| November 10, 2005 | - An Iowa judge ruled that a security guard be given unemployment benefits after he was fired for seeing ghosts.
| Source:
CNews
|
| November 9, 2005 | - Eight pro-Intelligent-Design members of the Dover Board of Education in Pennsylvania were voted out of office and replaced with pro-evolution candidates. Pat Robertson suggested that God would forsake the people of Dover if disaster struck their town. “If they have future problems in Dover,” said Robertson, “I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.”
| Source 1:
Post-gazette.com
Source 2:
The Miami Herald
|
| September 14, 2005 | -
Pope Benedict XVI spoke to an exorcists' convention, encouraging the audience to "carry on their important work."
| Source:
IOL.co.za
|
| August 22, 2005 | - Proponents of the theory of "intelligent design" continued to insist that their ideas regarding the origin of life had merit.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| July 28, 2005 | - The Boy Scout National Jamboree was held at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. The Senate passed the Support Our Scouts Act of 2005, guaranteeing the Boy Scouts the right to use federal land whether the organization discriminates against atheists and gays or not. The Senate also noted that holding the Jamboree on a military base gave U.S. soldiers the opportunity to practice the “preparation, logistics, and leadership” needed in combat. At the Jamboree four scout leaders were electrocuted while setting up a tent, and three hundred people were treated for heat-related symptoms. In California, a scoutmaster and a thirteen-year-old scout were killed by lightning.
| Source 1:
CNN.com
Source 2:
SWNebr.net
Source 3:
WBOC16
Source 4:
Thomas.loc.gov
|
| July 27, 2005 | - Ultra-nationalists in Israel held a “pulsa denura” ceremony to call on the angels of destruction to kill Ariel Sharon.
| Source:
Haaretz
|
| July 15, 2005 | - Prayer was found to be no help for heart patients.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| June 21, 2005 | - A member of Britain's parliament identified himself as a Jedi.
| Source:
Parliamentary Record
|
| June 21, 2005 | - Twenty-one thousand people gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice.
| Source:
The Age
|
| June 18, 2005 | - A nun in Romania, undergoing exorcism, died after she was tied to a cross, gagged, and left alone for three days in a cold room. “I don't understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this,” said the priest who organized the exorcism.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 27, 2005 | - A mob in India lynched and beheaded two women for witchcraft.
| Source:
The Courier-Mail
|
| April 14, 2005 | - A Christian radio talk-show host was fired for questioning whether the dead pope would go to heaven.
| Source:
Local6.com
|
| March 29, 2005 | -
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika insisted that he was not afraid of ghosts but did not comment on reports that one of his predecessors had often been visited by mysterious dwarfs.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 20, 2005 | - Seventy-eight percent of Americans believe that Christ
rose from the dead.
| Source:
Newsweek
|
| March 18, 2005 | - A woman in Zimbabwe testified that she had paid an advisor $5,000 to fly four invisible mermaids, named Emma, Charmaine, Sharvine, and Bella, from London to Zimbabwe.
| Source:
Boston.com
|
| March 15, 2005 | - In Malawi, two journalists were arrested for reporting that President Bingu wa Mutharika was scared of ghosts.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| March 12, 2005 | - The president of Malawi refused to sleep in his palace because it is haunted with evil ghosts.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| February 15, 2005 | - In Hong Kong, the bough of a lucky “wishing tree” broke off, scratching a four-year-old boy's head and breaking a man's leg.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 14, 2005 | - The last witness to the miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary at Fatima died, and
| Source:
The Daily Telegraph
|
| December 26, 2004 | -
Italian police used computer software to create a composite sketch of Jesus Christ at age 12, based on the Shroud of Turin. The sketch shows that Christ had blue eyes, fair skin, and dirty blond hair.
| Source:
New York Timesimes
|
| December 23, 2004 | - A study found that nearly three quarters of doctors believe in miracles.
| Source:
WorldNetDaily
|
| May 10, 2004 | -
Russian legislators hired a Siberian shaman to purge the parliament building of "negative energy."
| Source:
Ananova
|
PDF
FREE TEXT
IMAGES
