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A young female form lying crumpled on a sidewalk. Blood flowing from multiple stab wounds. Police cars. Ambulances. Flashing lights. Emergency personnel working frantically to save an innocent life that had barely begun. It is a scene that is becoming all too common in Western Europe with its growing Muslim population, as the northern German city of Hamburg experienced in May yet another horrifying honor murder of a young female.

Sitting with bowed heads behind a bullet proof glass, Michel Fourniret and wife Monique Olivier were put on trial for the rape and murder of 7 girls and young women. They went virgin hunting and would rape and then murder their victims. Charleville-Meziers, France has in its court a notorious, self admitted serial killer. Dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes" Fourniret said that he and his wife Monique Olivier met in 1980 and made a pact with each other. Fourniret would kill Olivier's first husband. In return, Olivier would go hunt for virgins for Fourniret. He said that he beat...

Virgin Galactic today unveiled the design of its new space launch system based on SpaceShipOne, which successfully flew into space for the third time in October 2004 and won the $10m Ansari X Prize. The construction of the White Knight Two (WK2) mothership, or carrier aircraft, is now very close to completion at Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA and is expected to begin flight testing in the summer of 2008. White Knight Two will be the world's largest, all carbon composite aircraft. It is designed to have the capability of launching SpaceShipTwo -- carrying six passengers and two pilots --...

Bruce Dickson a contestant on American Idol Dallas, Jan 24, 2008 / 02:07 am (CNA).- A 19-year-old contestant for the “American Idol” singing competition faced scrutiny from judges and celebrity commentators after revealing he is a virgin who has never kissed a girl, Cybercast News Service reports.Bruce Dickson, a show contestant from Bostrop, Texas, at the American Idol Dallas auditions was asked to share something interesting about himself.   He told the judges he had never kissed a girl."What?" Randy Jackson asked. "On purpose?" “On purpose," Dickson said. "On my wedding day, that will be my first kiss." Jackson's advice to...

Branson tells strikers to resign Sir Richard Branson has told Virgin Atlantic staff who are threatening to strike over a wage deal offered by the airline to consider working elsewhere. In a letter to 4,800 cabin crew, the Virgin boss warned he would not be meeting pay demands. Workers' union Unite called the letter from Sir Richard "provocative". It comes after union members voted to strike in January in protest over pay levels they say are lower than at other airlines, including British Airways. The 48-hour strikes are scheduled for 9 and 10 January, and 16 and 17 January. The...

When Aisha Salim marries her fiance in Pakistan next March, it will be the wedding of her dreams. Wearing a veil and gown, she will be every inch the fairytale virgin bride and as befits her strict Muslim religion, after the ceremony, she will hand her blooded wedding-night sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity. But far from being the traditional untouched bride that many Muslim families demand, she is a modern-day university graduate who has smoked, drunk, made love to - and even lived with - a previous English boyfriend. To disguise the fact that she has...

On her wedding night, Aisha Salim will hand her blooded sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity, according to a story in The Daily Telegraph of Australia. But there’s one problem. Being a modern English university graduate, she is far from the traditional untouched Muslim bride. Like most woman her age, Salim has smoked, drank, had sex and even lived with one of her past boyfriends. However, if the devout Muslim family of her soon-to-be husband – or even her own family – knew this, she could be murdered. Aisha has opted to have her virginity surgically restored...

Ave Maria! In the Tuesday-Wednesday, July 30-31 Italian Edition of the L'Osservatore Romano on page 4 an article appeared called Enamored of The Virgin by Fr. Giovanni Velocci which gave a strong promotion of Marian Coredemption and Mediation of all Graces. This breaks a five year silence on the issue and ... is so resoundingly positive.Based on St. Alphnoses de Ligouri's The Glories of Mary Fr. Velocci argues on a thomistic basis relating and conjoining Mary's participation in the redemption to her Divine Maternity and specifically as Mother of the Redeemer. Here are my rough translations of excerpts from the...

Scientists: Hammerhead has 'virgin birth' in zoo's shark tank By David Fleshler South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 23, 2007 A hammerhead shark captured in Florida Bay gave birth without sex, according to scientists who said they used genetic analysis to account for the mysterious appearance of a pup in a tank of female sharks. The research was to be published today in the British journal Biology Letters. The phenomenon, known among biologists as a "virgin birth," had been observed before among some snakes, lizards and birds, but never a shark, the scientists say. The issue arose in late 2001 at a...

This qualifies as one of the outrages of the year: Virgin Atlantic Airlines is showing the evil, dishonest 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change as inflight entertainment.

Muslim women in France regain virginity in clinics Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:20AM EDT By Alexandra SteigradPARIS (Reuters) -- Sitting in a cafe near the Champs Elysees, the 26-year-old French-born woman of Algerian descent looks like any other Parisian. But two months ago, she did something none of her friends have done.She had her hymen re-sewn, technically making her a virgin again."I'm glad I had it done," said the woman, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. "I wanted to reconstruct part of my life, to reconstruct myself so that I could feel better about myself."This 30-minute outpatient...

Burt Rutan, the iconoclastic aerospace designer behind Virgin Galactic's fleet of suborbital spaceships, is fond of saying that NASA (or "Naysay," as he jokingly pronounces it) stands for "No Adult Supervision Apparent." His California-based company, Scaled Composites, and the Virgin Galactic team have been cast as nimble mammals, running rings around the dinosaurs of the traditional space establishment. Was there ever an instance of mammals and dinosaurs helping each other out? Well, in the space business there is: Today NASA announced an agreement with Virgin Galactic to collaborate on items ranging from spacesuits to spaceships. NASA's news release said a...

An agreement signed this week by NASA and Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, could lead to "very exciting" collaborations in the future, NASA officials say. But it's too early to know how big a presence Virgin Galactic will have at the NASA Ames Research Center at Mountain View's Moffett Field. The details of what sort of projects might be developed at the research center will be determined during negotiations on a "space act agreement," a formal document that will serve as a blueprint for how Virgin Galactic and Ames will work together, said NASA spokesman Michael...

HERE'S a sobering thought: Sir Richard Branson getting around at three times the speed of sound. If you thought the Virgin founder was already packing a lot in lately, wait until he goes galactic. In a dizzying past few weeks, Sir Richard, 56, has launched a new health bank to store the stem cells from babies' umbilical cords; sprayed the Virgin Media logo all over cable group NTL and produced a $US25 million ($32 million) prize for whoever cracks extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Virgin Lobster Fails to Spawn By Bill Ray Published Friday 19th January 2007 07:02 GMT Virgin mobile has sold "considerably less" than 10,000 of their mobile-TV-enabled Lobster handsets, despite Pamela Anderson’s advertising and cutting the price to below a hundred quid, according to The Guardian. Virgin won't confirm the figures, but it's clear that sales are disappointing. This should not come as any surprise: the Lobster was never an attractive handset, and in a business largely driven by owning the coolest-looking handset it was always going to be a hard sell. How this reflects on the viability of mobile video...

Virgin Galactic is in discussions with the spacesuit industry and preparing to release a request for proposals. As work continues on its Scaled Composites-designed SpaceShipTwo (SS2) vehicle, the UK suborbital tourism provider wants a fallback position for environmental control. It envisages a lightweight suit with no hard points and perhaps a moveable face plate. "We want the safest possible system. We are pursing our own pressure suit [as an option]. I'm going to pursue both [a spacesuit and a shirt-sleeve cabin environment]," says Virgin Galactic chief operating officer Alex Tai. Under US Federal Aviation Administration rules published on 15 December,...

Below are all the biblical references to Mary, the mother of Jesus that I could locate. Anything beyond Scriptural references is conjecture, the philosophies of men and not God. Would anyone care to construct a Scripturally accurate portrait of Mary, leaving behind extra-biblical sources? Please include your Scriptural references in support of your description. Isaiah 7:13-14 Matthew 1:13-25; 2:11, 14, 20-21; 12: 46-50; 13:54-56 Mark 3:31-35; 6:3 Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-7, 16-19, 27, 33-35, 39, 41-51; 8:19-21 John 2:1-12; 6:41-42; 19:25-26 Acts 1:14

CHESTER, England - As Christmas approaches, a virgin mother is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her offspring. She’s Flora, the Komodo dragon. In an evolutionary twist, Flora has managed to become pregnant all on her own without any male help. It would seem the timing is auspicious: The seven baby Komodo dragons are due this festive season.

Yes, I would like to commit to a rosary for Our Lady's Victory over the Culture of Death and renewal of a Culture of Life! (enter your name and e-mail address at the link above or below)

British business mogul Richard Branson on Thursday pledged to invest about $3 billion over the next decade to combat global warming and promote alternative energy, saying that it was critical to protect the environment for future generations. Branson, the billionaire behind the multi-platform Virgin brand, said the money would come from 100 percent of the profits generated by his transportation sectors -- trains and airline companies. It will be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources in an effort to wean the world off oil and coal. The so-called "rebel billionaire" -- wearing a dress coat with no...

NEW YORK - British business mogul Richard Branson on Thursday pledged to invest about $3 billion over the next decade to combat global warming and promote alternative energy, saying that it was critical to protect the environment for future generations. Branson, the billionaire behind the multi-platform Virgin brand, said the money would come from 100 percent of the profits generated by his transportation sectors — trains and airline companies. It will be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources in an effort to wean the world off oil and coal. The so-called "rebel billionaire" — wearing a dress...

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has committed £1.6bn over 10 years to fight global warming.... will hand over all the profits from the Virgin Group's transport business to support the cause. (snip) [Branson] said the profits from Virgin's train and airline businesses would be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources.

British business mogul Richard Branson said Thursday he would invest about $3 billion to combat global warming over the next decade. Branson, the billionaire behind the multi-platform Virgin brand, said the money would come from 100 percent of the profits generated by his transportation and airline sectors. It will then be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources in an effort to wean the world off of oil and coal. Branson made the announcement on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual conference of business, political and nonprofit leaders hosted by former President Clinton. "Our...

SIR RICHARD BRANSON has joined forces with two of America’s top venture capitalists to slake California’s thirst for environmentally friendly fuels. Branson has injected more than $60m (£32m) into Cilion, a company that will make bioethanol from corn. He is investing alongside Vinod Khosla, the renowned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Ron Burkle, a Los Angeles billionaire who counts Bill Clinton among his advisers. The project is the start of a move by Branson’s Virgin empire into environmental businesses, a plan known internally as the Gaia Capitalism Project, after the environmental theory developed by the British scientist James Lovelock. Virgin Fuels,...

Only the first, of 72!

LONDON (AP) -- Designer Philippe Starck, former soap star Victoria Principal and ``Superman Returns'' director Bryan Singer have booked their flights for tourist trips in outer space, an official from the company selling the galactic voyage said Monday. Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group company, has sold some 200 tickets to passengers for suborbital flights, starting in 2008, said Will Whitehorn, the company's president. It has collected 8.5 million pounds (US$15.6 million, euro12.4 million) in deposits for the flights that cost 109,000 pounds (US$200,000, euro158,000). "Right now we're headed right on schedule," Whitehorn said. "Things are looking good from our perspective."...

July 14, 2006 Memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin Psalm: Friday 29 Reading 1Hos 14:2-10 Thus says the LORD:Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;you have collapsed through your guilt.Take with you words,and return to the LORD;Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity,and receive what is good, that we may renderas offerings the bullocks from our stalls.Assyria will not save us,nor shall we have horses to mount;We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’to the work of our hands;for in you the orphan finds compassion.”I will heal their defection, says the LORD,I will love them freely;for my wrath is turned away...

April 29, 2006 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church Psalm: Saturday 18 Reading 1Acts 6:1-7 As the number of disciples continued to grow,the Hellenists complained against the Hebrewsbecause their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,filled with the Spirit and wisdom,whom we shall appoint to this task,whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayerand to the ministry of the word.”The proposal...

IT USED to be the stuff of science fiction, but now tourist trips to space are to be launched from Scotland, under new plans being considered by Sir Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galatic. Last month the company directors announced that they would launch their first commercial flight into space in 2008 from New Mexico and have already attracted 167 bookings at a cost of £115,000 per person. A number of celebrities including Sigourney Weaver, star of the Alien films, Paris Hilton, the socialite, and Victoria Principal, the former star of Dallas, the TV soap opera, have bought tickets for the...

SIR Richard Branson is taking a giant leap for mankind by drawing up plans to build the worlds first space hotels, his space flight company Virgin Galactic has told The Business. Alex Tai, its operations director, who will pilot Virgins first commercial space flight in 2008, has held talks with US hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow about the project, Virgin Galactics president Will Whitehorn confirmed. Bigelow Aerospace is developing inflatable pods it believes could receive the first space travellers by the end of the decade. Branson, Virgin Galactics chairman, revealed the space hotel discussions in Dubai last week. Branson said: We...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Richard Branson's Virgin Group is on track to become the world's first commercial spaceline, with suborbital flights for space tourists due to start in 2008, the British billionaire said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters in Dubai, where his Virgin Atlantic (VA.UL: Quote, Profile, Research) airline began flights from London this week, Branson said other companies offering space travel had not matched the progress made by the Virgin Galactic venture. "A number of companies around the world are offering space travel but they haven't tested and built any space ships. They certainly haven't had test flights...

Celia Medina said that the first time she went to the base of the Interstate Highway 74 bridge across the Rock River, she saw lots of things--cars and trucks rumbling along, streetlights casting a glow over the water, night falling over the city of Moline in western Illinois--but not the vision she had hoped to see. That visit was about 8 p.m. on March 19. Relatives had told her if she looked hard enough at one of the bridge supports poking out of the river, the shadows cast by streetlights above would reveal the outline of a veiled Virgin Mary,...

ABC News Sexless and Proud Asexuals Say They're Misunderstood in a Sex-Obsessed World March 23, 2006 — - David Jay has had plenty of girlfriends. But despite the 23-year-old Californian's success in dating, he's a virgin -- and he plans to stay that way. He's not joining the priesthood or taking any vow of celibacy; he said he simply has no interest in having sex -- ever. "I'm sure that life is really, really great when it's all about sex. But life is also really, really great when it's not about sex," he told "20/20's" JuJu Chang. Keith Walker of...

"Slippage." That was by far my favorite word in the letter Andover's West Middle School Principal Denise Holmes e-mailed to parents regarding their children's attire, or lack thereof, at school. Her note was prompted by the outfits a group of girls was wearing on Valentine's Day, with skirts so short that ... well, let Ms. Holmes explain. "This one girl had the cutest pink underwear on," she said. "I shouldn't have known that." Well, no. But she's not the problem. The problem is that all the boys knew it as well. So Holmes sent out a gentle reminder. Very gentle....

According to the tracking page at the Global Flyer webpage (link above), Steve Fossett has made it across the Atlantic, and is currently over southwestern Ireland. He will be landing at Kent International Airport in England in 2-3 hours.

SANTA FE— Our fleet is not as big as his, but that didn't stop New Mexico from using its new jet to fly billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson here last week for his space tourism pitch. Branson, known for brash antics such as inscribing aircraft with a "Mine is bigger than yours" slogan, owns several of his own airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Express and Virgin Blue. But a New Mexico economic development spokeswoman, Katie Roberts, said there will be no taxpayer cost for flying Branson here on the state's $5.5 million Cessna Citation Bravo. Branson came to New Mexico...

For her 17th wedding anniversary, Jeanette Yarborough wanted to do something special for her husband. In addition to planning a hotel getaway for the weekend, Ms. Yarborough paid a surgeon $5,000 to reattach her hymen, making her appear to be a virgin again. "It's the ultimate gift for the man who has everything," says Ms. Yarborough, 40 years old, a medical assistant from San Antonio. Hymenoplasty, a controversial medical procedure known mostly for its prevalence in the Middle East and Latin America, is becoming popular in the U.S.

New Mexico's plan to build a $225 million spaceport calls for the state Legislature to contribute $100 million in new money over the next three years — the "cornerstone" of an effort that could open up outer space to thousands of paying customers over the next decade, Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday. The balance would come from state funding already approved, as well as federal and local funds, said Rick Homans, New Mexico's economic development secretary. New Mexico's political leaders said the investment would bring a return in the form of thousands of new jobs as well as heightened prestige.

An agreement with British airline tycoon Richard Branson will put New Mexico on the map as the launch pad for personal spaceflight worldwide, the state's economic development secretary says. State officials plan to announce a major agreement next week with Branson, but Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans declined to discuss the details with the Albuquerque Journal on Tuesday. Branson is to join New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Dec. 14 to announce the agreement with Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, Homans told the Journal.

Virgin Airlines is to offer frequent-flyer "Space Miles" that passengers can put towards flights in space with the company's soon to be launched Virgin Galactic. Richard Branson says customers who collect two million points will be entitled to be among the first commercial astronauts when his space plan takes off in two years. "There are already 30 people in the world who have collected enough air miles to fly into space," Mr Branson said. "We do think there will be a lot of Virgin Atlantic people who will want to travel into space." Mr Branson in July formed a company...

Movie night turned into fright night for an Ottawa man and his 12-year-old daughter on Sunday when when they were handed a roll of Christmas wrapping paper showing two angels locked in a naughty embrace. As Alan Dean, his girlfriend, Andrea Cochrane, and Dean's daughter, Cailin McDowell, left the 5:30 showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at the Coliseum, an employee handed them a roll of promotional Christmas wrapping paper. But it wasn't until Dean and Cochrane returned home after dropping Cailin off at her mother's house that they realized the paper was more naughty than nice....

Indian millionaire Vijaypat Singhania today broke the world record for the highest flight in a hot air balloon, reaching the fringes of space, his son claimed. Singhania, 67, hit 21,000 metres a little more than two hours after taking off in his 40-tonne balloon, and has started his descent, his son Gautam said. "We have the world record at 69,000 feet" (21,000 metres), said Gautam Singhania. "We're bringing him down now." The previous world record was 19,811 metres, set by Sweden's Per Lindstrand in Plano, Texas, in June 1988. Singhania lifted off from downtown Bombay at 6.45am (1215 AEDT) enclosed...

Taddeo CrivelliItalian, Ferrara, about 1469 SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA VIRGIN, MARTYR C. 310 A.D. Feast: November 25 From the tenth century onwards veneration for St. Catherine of Alexandria[1] has been widespread in the Church of the East, and from the time of the Crusades this saint has been popular in the West, where many churches have been dedicated to her and her feast day kept with great solemnity, sometimes as a holy-day of obligation. She is listed as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of mankind among the saints in Heaven; she is the patroness of young women, philosophers,...

November 22, 2005Memorial of Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr Psalm: Tuesday 50 Reading IDn 2:31-45 Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,very large and exceedingly bright,terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.The head of the statue was pure gold,its chest and arms were silver,its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,its feet partly iron and partly tile.While you looked at the statue,a stone which was hewn from a mountainwithout a hand being put to it,struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,fine...

Virgin Galactic still has major design decisions to make for the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital craft, which is planned to enter service in 2008 carrying seven tourists and two pilots. The Virgin Group company says SS2 will have wing spoilers and a redesigned hybrid rocket engine, but solutions to subsonic wing flutter and g loading are still being sought. The UK company wants to find a way of reducing the 5g that the Scaled Composites-designed SS2 will experience during re-entry and is working with NASA and Qinetiq to achieve that. The addition of wing spoilers will improve handling at lower speeds,...

A small piece of the 'American Paradise' can be found in Afghanistan, as Virgin Island reservists bring their distinctive island music to their deployment. FORWARD OPERATING BASE ANED, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2005 — Land-locked Afghanistan, with its dry, mountainous, dusty climate, in no way resembles a tropical island, yet Reggae and Calypso music and that certain accent associated with small islands in the Caribbean can be heard drifting from one room in the barracks on Forward Operating Base Aned, Afghanistan. That room is the temporary home away from home for eight members of the 652nd Engineering Detachment, a reserve unit...

THINK you are upset about high gas prices? Maverick British entrepreneur Richard Branson is so furious he wants to build his own oil refinery. Like the rest of the airline industry, Mr Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways has been stung by higher jet fuel prices and was forced to raise fuel surcharges for the second time in four months. Hurricane Katrina sent oil prices soaring to $US70 a barrel because it shut several US Gulf Coast refineries, which turn crude oil into products like diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. "If we don't start now to get more refineries built then fuel...

A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of MaryMost Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of...

August 9, 2005Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Tuesday 35 Reading IDt 31:1-8 When Moses had finished speaking to all Israel, he said to them,"I am now one hundred and twenty years oldand am no longer able to move about freely;besides, the LORD has told me that I shall not cross this Jordan.It is the LORD, your God, who will cross before you;he will destroy these nations before you,that you may supplant them.It is Joshua who will cross before you, as the Lord promised.The LORD will deal with them just as he dealt with Sihon and Og,the...

Qolo: Assumption Entrance Hymn Tune: Fsheeto Alleluia! O Mother who gave Life to us, petition on our behalf the Son who appeared from you: may he remove from us the blows of punishment, and keep away divisions and disputes. May he lead us in the path of life in which we journey at all times. On your memorial day, we sing praise to your only Son. Alleluia! Blessed are you, O Mary, for God, who feeds all creatures, was nourished by you and rested on your breast. O Wonder! The Son of God was nourished by a human creature! He...