* TEEN JEHOVAH’S WITNESS DIES AFTER REFUSING BLOOD TRANSFUSION - A few hours after a judge ruled that a 14-year-old Jehovah's Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse a blood transfusion — even though that refusal might kill him — the boy has died in a Seattle hospital.

Dennis Lindberg Sr., the biological father of young Dennis Lindberg of Mount Vernon, says his son died Wednesday night at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Hospital spokeswoman Teri Thomas said she could not confirm or deny anything about the case at the request of the boy's legal guardian, an aunt.

Earlier Wednesday in Mount Vernon, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer denied a motion by the state to force the boy to have a blood transfusion. The judge said the eighth-grader understood the decision he was making. (FoxNews, 29 Nov 2007) (to index)

* TURKS IN CHRISTIAN MURDER TRIAL - The trial has started in eastern Turkey of five men accused of killing three Christians earlier this year.
The Christians, who included a pastor and a German missionary, were stabbed repeatedly and had their throats cut.
The suspects, aged 19 and 20, were detained at the scene of the crime, a Protestant publishing house in Malatya.
The trial was adjourned after defence lawyers argued they needed more time to prepare. The hearing is now expected to resume in mid-January.

Turkey is a candidate for EU membership. The bloc has asked Ankara to protect the human rights of the country's ethnic and religious minorities, as a precondition for membership.
Germany has accused Turkey of "unacceptable intolerance" towards non-Muslims.
The murders prompted three Christian families to leave Malatya, in eastern Turkey.
The attack came months after the killing of the ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and a year after the killing of a Catholic priest in northern Turkey.
In all cases, the alleged killers were nationalist-minded young men or even teenagers.
Turkish nationalists often view missionaries as a threat, especially in remote places like Malatya, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul.
In Malatya, the defendants reportedly told police they were acting to foil a plot to undermine Islam and divide Turkey.

The killings were condemned by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The five suspects face three life sentences each, while two others are charged with membership of a terrorist organisation.
A lawyer acting for the victims' families earlier said he was concerned by the tone of the indictment against the accused.
More than half of the 31 files in the indictment focus on the missionary work of the men murdered. They include contact details of people they approached.
The lawyer believes that will help those accused plead provocation.
The town's Protestant community now numbers only about two dozen people.
There are only around 100,000 Christians left in Turkey - less than 1% of the population. (BBCNews/Europe, 23 Nov 2007) (to index)

* BIOTECHS IN FLUX AFTER CELL BREAKTHROUGH - Separate teams of researchers said they have "reprogrammed" adult cells to mimic the properties of human embryonic stem cells-side-stepping the controversy associated with their use in the search for cures of many diseases and afflictions.

"I believe that these results, while they don't eliminate the controversy, are probably the beginning of the end of the controversy," said Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a pioneer in the research of human embryonic stem cells and a co-author in one of the new studies.

Thomson's study, led by Dr. Junying Yu of the University of Wisconsin, discovered a way to change cells in adult skin tissue to become "undifferentiated" and "to exhibit the essential characteristics of embryonic stem cells," according to the report, which was published in the journal Science.

In other words, the reprogrammed skin cells could morph into other types of cells, such as the heart or nerves. Theoretically, their fast-healing and stem cell-like properties could be used to treat injuries and diseases to different organs.

"The idea of cells becoming things they don't normally become is very viable now," said Thomson, speaking in a teleconference with reporters. "Embryonic stem cells are cells that can divide forever."

Another study, led by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University in Japan, found similar "embryonic-like" results when reprogramming mouse and human cells. The study results were published in the journal Cell.

Dr. James Thomson, who in the 1990s became the first scientist to isolate human embryonic stem cells, said that reprogramming could eventually phase out the need for this type of cell and the controversy associated with it.

Stem cells from human embryos are often touted by researchers for their fast-healing properties and their ability to morph into many different types. But because they use human embryos, their use has been opposed on ethical grounds by those who oppose abortion rights - including President Bush.

Researchers insist that they only use human embryos that would otherwise be discarded as medical waste. Nonetheless, Bush in 2001 limited federal research funding to the use of human embryonic stem cells that existed at that time. In 2007, he vetoed a Congressional effort to eliminate his funding restrictions. (CNNMoney, 20 Nov 2007) (to index)

* ERITREA – AN "OPEN-AIR PRISON" - Eritrean government aggression against its own people continues unabated. It ranges from deliberate mass starvation to imprisonment without trial, torture, murder and disappearances. The aim is to crush any minimal claims or hopes for liberty and rule of law. The international media rights watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontiers, describes the country as an "open-air prison" under the most brutal dictatorship the African continent has ever seen.

The dictator, Isaias Afeworki, justifies his regime’s actions as a requirement until his border dispute with Ethiopia is resolved. No one is impressed by such an irresponsible ploy. Isaias’s core motive is to cling to power by all means possible. The fact remains Eritreans do not need tyranny and mass imprisonment to do what is right in defense of their homeland.

Two thirds of the population needs external food aid, according to the UN. But the regime continues to refuse aid under bogus self-reliance pretexts. The people are daily terrorized, intimidated and starved as a means of controlling them and preempting any popular uprising. The tyrannical regime treats every Eritrean as a potential enemy that must be controlled or liquidated.

Aggression is at its worst once an individual is arrested and imprisoned incommunicado for an indefinite period of time because of his/her political views or faith. Thousands – perhaps tens of thousands - of prisoners of conscience are rotting in gruesome conditions in prisons throughout the country.

Many are kept in dungeons and metal shipping containers under smoldering heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. Many die as a result, or become partially or fully paralyzed; one of the victims is the renowned Gospel singer, Helen Berhane. Sanitation is said to be mostly non-existent. There is no medical treatment for injured torture victims.

The Nobel Prize winning human rights agency, Amnesty International, has documented various forms of torture including widespread rape of young female prisoners. Amnesty has interviewed scores of refugees who managed to flee the country and sought protection in foreign lands.

The Isaia’s regime has unleashed a reign of terror against an entire population under the guise of defending the country’s territorial integrity. The fact remains territorial sovereignty is meaningless without first upholding the sovereignty and dignity of the people as human beings. (Awate.com, 24 Nov 2007) (to index)

* 700 PORTUGUESE DOCTORS SIGN PETITION URGING MEDICAL ASSOCIATION TO CONTINUE OPPOSING ABORTION - Members of the Portuguese Medical Association are circulating a petition on the Internet to urge the Association leadership to maintain its anti-abortion ethical code, asking it to "maintain with the greatest rigor and commitment the intransigent struggle for the ethical independence and autonomy of the medical profession."

The Portuguese government, which is currently headed by socialist president Jose Socrates, legalized abortion on demand earlier this year during the first trimester of pregnancy, and says it is now initiating legal proceedings against the nation's doctors for refusing to alter their code of ethics, which prohibits abortion.

The Code of Ethics of the Association states that "doctors must maintain respect for human life from its beginning", and "the practice of abortion constitutes a grave ethical failure".

Denouncing the "misuse of medical knowledge that various powers and pressure groups" are attempting to impose on the Association, the signatories compare the government's demands with earlier movements for "forced internments in psychiatric institutions, sterilizations, and elimination of human beings for eugenic or racist reasons".

The doctors remind the Association that the 2,500-year-old Hippocratic Oath exists to resist the moral fashions of the times, which have often been a threat to the dignity of human life. They wish to avoid "the subjection of this Code to a changing 'ethic', molded to the taste of the interests, conveniences, ideologies or convictions of those who happen to have power or influence at the time."

Over 700 Portuguese doctors have so far signed the petition, which is addressed to the Bastonario (official spokesman) of the Medical Association, Pedro Nunes. Nunes has repeatedly denounced the government's threats and has refused to capitulate. (LifeSite, 28 Nov 2007) (to index)

* PRO-ISRAEL ADVOCATE ‘TREMBLES’ FOR FUTURE OF AMERICA AFTER ANNAPOLIS SUMMIT - The head of a pro-Israel ministry says she's convinced there are dark days ahead for America if the Bush administration ultimately pressures Israel to give up more covenant land - including parts of Jerusalem - to the Palestinians.

Even though nothing substantive came out of the recently concluded Annapolis peace summit, the Bush administration is pleased that the two sides agreed to restart negotiations for a peace deal. More talks are being planned in the Mideast in the coming weeks. But many observers argue that the underlying goal of President Bush is to establish a foreign policy legacy with the creation of a Palestinian state. Plans for the Palestinian state would include a division of Jerusalem and Israeli surrender of the entire West Bank.

Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, says there are warnings in Scripture about what nations should and should not do to God's promised land.

"If we're going to take some of these warnings seriously, America has some very, very dark days ahead - and I'm not going to mince any words," warns Markell. "I believe we do have dark days ahead because of what we are doing with the nation of Israel in trying to carve up the land. If this so-called Annapolis agreement comes into being in the next year, I am just trembling for America."

Markell says God clearly gave the land to the descendants of Isaac, not Ishmael. "He [God] identifies in Leviticus 25; he said, 'The land is mine.' And then he gave it as covenant to the descendents of Isaac, the Jews - not [to] Ishmael," she says.