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A teenage "chugging contest" in an upscale home near Burr Ridge turned into rape when a 16-year-old girl passed out and four young men performed sex acts on her--and scrawled offensive words on her body with a marker--while they videotaped their crimes, a Cook County prosecutor said Friday. The 20-minute videotape is in the hands of prosecutors, and they also have obtained written statements from the four defendants implicating themselves in the attack, said Peter Troy, supervisor of the Cook County state's attorney's office in Bridgeview. "We believe there were other people who turned the other way while this was...

TABLE width="750" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> Synthetic SkinCan robots, computers, and chip-making techniques save tissue engineering and bring internal organs to market?By William Leventon, Contributing EditorScott Burdette, all of nine years old, wanted to see what fire would do to a can of spray paint. When the can exploded, the left side of his body was covered with flaming paint. He was flown by helicopter to the Children's National Medical Center (Washington, D.C.), where his burned skin was replaced with a new covering of skin that quickly relieved his pain. He left the hospital eight days later and was back...

<p>HONOLULU — The military successfully launched and shot down a dummy ballistic missile during its ascent Thursday, the first in a series testing the Pentagon's plans to shield America from short- and medium-range missiles.</p> <p>The missile was launched at 2:30 p.m. from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands toward the Pacific Ocean and was intercepted within four minutes on the ascent by another missile launched from the cruiser USS Lake Erie, the Department of Defense said.</p>

<p>Northern Virginia voters defeated a transportation referendum, a political setback for Gov. Mark R. Warner and some motorists who were willing to pay a sales-tax increase to alleviate some of the country's worst traffic.</p> <p>The measure was defeated 55 percent to 45 percent. But Gov. Warner conceded the issue two hours after the polls closed.</p>

<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Call him a bushwhacker, back shooter, or rogue killer, but please do not call this gunman a sniper.</p> <p>Thousands of highly skilled military and law enforcement snipers wince at the comparison.</p> <p>I refer, of course, to the cold-blooded murderer whose bullets have struck 11 people, killing nine of them, in communities around Washington, D.C.</p>

<p>Maryland's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, has been hinting that restrictions on firearms ownership might have prevented the recent string of shootings that have terrorized the region and left at least six people dead. Although careful not to appear to be making political hay of the carnage, Mrs. Townsend nonetheless quipped not-so-elliptically the other day that there must be a new debate "about how best to protect our citizens," and that existing gun control laws "save lives."</p>

A Pastor’s Descant August 25, 2002 In a recent issue of Crisis Magazine, there was an interview with various prominent non- believers who were asked, severally, various questions about their perceptions of the Christian faith. It was interesting to read their responses to questions such as ‘What do you think of when you think of Christians?’, and ‘What are the questions you’d most like Christians to answer?’ I don’t intend to report here on all the interesting replies to these questions by the queried non- believers that included a law professor at Yale University, an editor of national monthly review,...

PLYMOUTH, Michigan, Aug 28, 02 (LSN.ca/CWNews.com) - Amidst pressure from his bishops and criticism from fellow priests, a priest asked forgiveness in his parish bulletin on Sunday for saying that being "pro-choice" on abortion was compatible with the Catholic faith.

BEHAWALPUR, Pakistan (AP) - Gunmen with ``bags of guns and bullets'' stormed into a Christian church in Pakistan during Sunday services and sprayed the congregation with gunfire, killing the minister and 15 others, police and survivors said. The attack - the bloodiest in memory against the country's small Christian community - took place during a Protestant service held at St. Dominic's Roman Catholic Church in the center of Behawalpur, a city in Pakistan's southern Punjab province. It was unclear whether the attack was related to recent unrest over U.S.-led airstrikes on Afghanistan (news - web sites). During the church ...

ANNAPOLIS — Gun rights and gun-control advocates clashed yesterday over Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposal to ban civilian possession of body armor and difficulties with gun regulations he pushed last year. Rest of article HERE