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Harry Potter and "the Death of God" - by Michael D. O'Brien Special to LifeSiteNews.com Editor's Note: LifeSiteNews.com, the news service which first put online the letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - against the Harry Potter books, is proud to present Michael O'Brien's latest essay on the Potter series.  The author, North America's foremost Potter critic, has written many articles that analyze in detail the Harry Potter novels. Here he reflects on the significance of the series as a whole. Well, July 21st has come and gone and the world is muggling onward. The date,...

Lesson 34: The First Commandment "Come let us praise the Lord with joy:  let us joyfully sing to God our savior.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  For in His hand are all the ends of the earth:  and the heights of the mountains are His.  For the sea is His, and He made it:  and His hands formed the dry land.  Come let us adore and fall down:  and weep before the Lord that...

JEDDAH Muslim clerics are warning Saudis against a new Satanic phone-gang who prey on people by telling tall tales over the telephone and trying to frighten them into parting with thousands of riyals. The criminal gang, whose leader goes by the name Abdullah Al-Senegali, randomly phones unsuspecting members of the public, armed with knowledge about their lives which some victims believe to come from satanic sources. The scam is similar to the common fraudulent e-mail solicitations in which people pose as an official from a foreign country seeking a business transaction, but in reality want banking information from potential victims....

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzanian police arrested two men accused of killing a 9-year-old boy and selling his skin for 20,000 shillings ($18) to make sorcerers' get-rich-quick charms, a senior officer said Friday. Police said they arrested Martin Kalunga, 25, and his associate Nico Benson, 31, in Lilwa village in southern Tanzania Tuesday after neighbors overheard Benson accusing Kalunga of plotting with their buyer to skin him as well. The identity of the buyer was unclear. "The two were arrested after they had a loud quarrel, because Benson suspected Martin of colluding with their buyer to skin him," Suleiman...

Browsville — John Allen Rubio told police he killed his 3-year-old daughter because she was possessed by his dead grandmother, according to a videotaped statement presented in court Tuesday. Rubio and his common-law wife are accused of suffocating, stabbing and decapitating Julissa Quezada, 3; John Stephan Rubio, 1; and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months. "She started talking in, like, demonized — like, she was looking at me, like, weird. And then Julissa told me that she was my grandma," Rubio, 23, told detectives Jurors in the capital murder trial heard Rubio speak for the first time, via the videotaped statement....

The selection of sticks belonging to Martin Nagoagoumi, a “witchcraft” detective, does not bode well for Stephanie as she stands accused of sorcery at the police station in Bangui, the Central African Republic’s capital.Stacked under the dusty scales of justice are long, thin canes for beating children, metal poles with flattened tops, and a long wooden stave punched with nails for use on adults who refuse to “confess”.Stephanie, 13, an orphan, shakes at the sight of the sticks and tells the detective that she was tricked into becoming a “witch”. A neighbour, she says, gave her a bowl of soup...