Beauty queen rejected as pageant judge for being witch

Miss Toronto Tourism officials reject reigning Miss Canada Plus because she reads tarot cards

She might be a witch, but Stephanie Conover says that's no reason for officials at an upcoming Toronto beauty pageant to reject her as a potential judge.

Conover, who was crowned winner of the Miss Canada Plus Pageant last year, said she was recently invited to be a judge at the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant on Feb. 2.

"I said I'd definitely be there," Conover told the Star yesterday.

"Then, last week, on Monday, they asked me for a biography. I told them everything I do, how I'm an entertainer and a singer and a dancer. I talked about my charity work and I said I also have hobbies, including songwriting, knitting, painting, yoga, reiki and tarot cards."

That's where things got sticky.

"We just got her bio a week ago and we don't agree with it," said Karen Murray, Miss Toronto Tourism pageant director. "We want someone down to earth, not someone into the dark side or the occult."

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Muslims are flying into Mecca in their thousands for the Haj, but many followers in China have been grounded by bureaucratic hurdles and political obstacles.

In the streets of Khotan, where the aroma of roasting mutton kebabs and cardamom tea fill the bazaar, one young Muslim merchant was despairing. His parents made the pilgrimage several years ago – before officials introduced character checks on would-be pilgrims. He said: “Now the Government is afraid that when we go abroad we will say bad things about them. So they want to be careful who they allow.”

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Egypt Copt jailed 45 years after father's conversion

An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for three years because her father's brief conversion to Islam 45 years ago made her legally a Muslim while her official papers said she was Christian, her lawyer said Thursday.

Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was charged with fraud for stating Christianity as her religion on her marriage certificate, unaware that her father's conversion to Islam in 1962 had made her officially a Muslim, Michael Maurice told AFP.

Nagui Ibrahim left home in 1962 when daughter Shadia was two years old, converted to Islam and took on the Muslim name Mustafa.

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This is the sort of thing you could expect if the Christians have their way and convert the US to being a "Christian" country. Abuse, oppression, loss of liberty. SUPPORT SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!

Calls to pardon 'UK's last witch'

Helen Duncan was tried under the Witchcraft Act

The family of the last person in the UK to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act will mark the 50th anniversary of her death by calling for her pardon.

Medium Helen Duncan, who was born in Callander, Perthshire, was imprisoned using the law during World War II.

She was targeted by the government after revealing to a séance audience that a warship had sunk before the news had been released to the public.

Her grand-daughter is particularly angry at the accusations of treason.

Mary Martin, of Edinburgh, said Mrs Duncan had been accused of being a traitor.

Spiritualist churches

"When she first came back home after prison she was never the same.

"She always had a bit of a glow about her but she seemed to have lost that.

"Some people said it was treason. My grandmother had two sons and two son in laws in the forces ... and there is no way she would have given anybody information."

Mrs Duncan became one of the most famous mediums of her time, heading a network of spiritualist churches.

During the war she lived in Portsmouth, the home of the Royal Navy.

She has put us on the right side of the law by bringing in the 1952 act Mary Armour Medium

At a séance in 1943 it was claimed that the spirit of a sailor from the HMS Barham appeared.

The vessel was only officially declared lost several months later.

She was arrested in 1944 and sentenced to nine months in prison at the Old Bailey for crimes under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

While in prison she was visited by Winston Churchill.

When he was re-elected in 1951 the Witchcraft Act was repealed and three years later spiritualism was officially recognised as a religion.

Campaigners to pardon Mrs Duncan have set up an online petition.

The campaign is backed by the British Society of Paranormal Studies.

Medium Mary Armour, who wrote her biography, said: "She has put us on the right side of the law by bringing in the 1952 act."

Muslims Politicos Demand Special Treatment of Islamic Employees at Airline

Rabat, Morocco - A senior government official denied on Thursday Islamist charges that Morocco's flagship airline had trampled on employees' rights by banning them from praying at work and forcing pilots to eat during Ramadan.

The main legal opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) this week stepped up its criticism of the moves by state-owned Royal Air Maroc (RAM), calling them an abuse of religious freedom.

"More than 50 Islamic states have airlines but we have not heard of such bans other than here," Mustapha Ramid, a leading figure in PJD, the third largest party in parliament, said in an interview.

Government officials accused PJD of stirring up the 4-month-old issue to try to influence parliamentary polls next year.

"Since July, Air Maroc has banned its workers from praying in their offices to enforce work discipline, but the airline workers are allowed to pray at two mosques nearby," said Bourara Khadija, top adviser to Transport Minister Karim Ghellab.

"It is a shame that the decision was branded as a crackdown on religious freedom," she told Reuters. "It is wrong to claim that RAM abuses the religious rights of its workers."

Khadija said RAM had to enforce discipline at work as it faced stiff competition from foreign airlines after Morocco signed an open sky agreement with the European Union.

Another senior government official, who declined to be named since he was not authorised to talk to the media, said the PJD was "stirring up the debate in parliament and in the press to try to embarrass the government ahead of 2007's elections."

Islamist parties are growing in popularity in Morocco, with the PJD poised do well in the elections, unsettling business and urban elites who fear Islamist politicians want to reduce women's liberties and other social freedoms in the north African kingdom. The Islamists deny the charge.

Khadija said RAM had banned its pilots from fasting while flying during the holy month of Ramadan because plane simulation tests showed possible security risks.

"Aviation authorities proved that a fasting pilot can not fully control a plane's gears and equipment after spending some hours flying," she said.

PJD deputy Noureddine Gherbal told reporters some female RAM employees had also complained to him in writing about being barred from wearing Islamic headscarves.

But Khadija said RAM had acted fairly.

"There is no veil issue here at all. Only two female workers were asked to move from a front desk to a RAM call centre if they wanted to wear veils and they obeyed the order," Khadija said.

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Why Small Towns Suck

Via South Knox Bubba and Smijer and Buck: I've lived in a lot of small towns, and to be honest, I tend to prefer them to large cities. I hate big-city traffic, media, crime, noise, and the general bullshit you get from living in a major metropolis, and I really do like most of the people you meet in small towns. Thanks to the Internet, you can get all the information you'd get in a big-city paper, and the lack of gigantic shopping malls is lessened when you can order what you need off the 'Net.

But small towns are boring, and when some people in small towns get bored, they start looking for someone they can destroy, like the local nightclub that runs an alternative/goth night.

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