* CASE AGAINST TRADITIONAL HEALER ACCUSED OF KILLING DAUGTHER POSTPONED - The case against a traditional healer who stands accused of killing her 12-year-old daughter for muti has been postponed.
Elizabeth Thabethe was arrested after she called police claiming her daughter had been murdered by someone else.
It is alleged Thabethe gutted her child to make muti as her business was flailing.
When police found young Nomsa Thabethe’s body, it was cut open from the sternum to just below the navel.
It is understood several organs were removed.
The woman claimed she discovered her daughter’s body in her back yard.
Investigators found several items linking the traditional healer to the murder in her house. The objects all contained traces of human blood.
She was arrested after confessing that she killed her child.
Thabethe appeared briefly in the Ga Rankuwa Magistrate’s Court.
She will remain in custody until her next appearance.
(Eye Witness News, 17 Aug 2009) (to index)

* BATTLE TO CONTROL BROTHELS IN SUBURBS - Frustrated Durban suburbanites have threatened to expose the men who frequent the brothels operating in their neighbourhoods.

Police Superintendent Anton Booysen, of the KwaZulu-Natal Human Trafficking, Prostitution, Pornography and Brothels task team, said: "The number of brothels in Durban seems to have decreased because of more police activity in the CBD, but it is a very profitable business so they are now appearing in residential areas."
Booysen said the secrecy surrounding the operation of brothels complicated police investigations.
"We only find out about brothels from the communities in which they operate. Then we must carry out surveillance at these places before we can do raids."
He said the task team was now serving notices on the owners of properties being used as brothels.

"Houses that are used as brothels are usually rented."
"Therefore we have been serving notice on landlords and owners, informing them that their homes are being used for illegal activities and they must evict their tenants. If the activities continue on their properties, then their houses can be forfeited to the state."

Booysen said that the police had to be cautious in approaching the brothels because some of the prostitutes could be human trafficking victims.
"Women do voluntarily work as prostitutes but sometimes, when we investigate further, we find ones who have been trafficked. These investigations can then become quite sensitive because we could be dealing with crime victims."

Community policing forums (CPFs) in Durban suburbs said residents were trying to deter the clients of prostitutes in an attempt to get the brothels out of their areas.
An advocate from the brothels task team said the clients should remember that they could be arrested and charged if caught with prostitutes.
"Once they are convicted, they will have a criminal record for using the services of a prostitute."
(Mercury, 28 Aug 2009) (to index)

* GRISLY BODY PARTS HARVEST CONTINUES - Visits to traditional healers are frequent in African culture. A common problem with the remedies handed out is that the ingredients remain unknown. People are dying from being poisoned by traditional medicines and they are being killed for body parts, which are used as ingredients in these concoctions. There is an ongoing myth that traditional medicines which include body parts, can make a person wealthy. Nobody can tell what the traditional medicine’s ingredients are and no-one knows how the body parts apparently bring wealth, but it is clear that these body parts are some of the ingredients being used.

In two recent tragedies in Ga-Rankuwa hospital, a traditional healer confessed that she killed and harvested body parts from her daughter to boost her business, and in Durban, three heads were found, detached from their missing bodies! This should be an eye opener to some department of health officials who have been advocating for the inclusion of traditional healers into the health sector, without considering the safety, efficacy and quality of the traditional medicines.

This is exactly what Doctors For Life (DFL) said will happen if traditional healers are absorbed into the healthcare system and have a legal channel to continue practicing.

It is for this reason that DFL is advocating for scientific testing and clinical trials in order to prove the efficacy and quality of traditional medicines, as well as to make known every ingredient involved in producing traditional medicine. From the extremely high incidence of muti-killings, it is clear that some potions sold as traditional medicines contain human body parts that somehow find their way to the consumer. It is important to know the ingredients used.

In a study that analyzed cases of acute poisoning over a 5 year period that were admitted to Ga-Rankuwa Hospital in Pretoria, poisoning by traditional medicines resulted in the highest mortality rate, accounting for 51.7% of all the deaths that were due to acute poisoning. Another study that analyzed the Johannesburg forensic database found that African Traditional Medicines were involved in 43% of all cases of poisoning.

DFL insists that the standards and guidelines for institutions, as well as methodologies for research into traditional medicine therapies and products, and guidelines for use during the manufacture of traditional medicine products, must precede the accreditation of any person(s) as a "traditional health practitioner". DFL is not ignorant of the role that plants and/or herbs have historically played, and still do play in the development of useful, safe and effective medications. DFL also does not advocate a western yardstick to evaluate traditional African medicines but that they should be based on empirical science.

* EVOLUTION, A CHANGE IN TACTICS - As empiricism fails them, notable evolutionists are retreating into arguments from analogy.

For years, many evolutionists have been making statements similar to this:

Actually, there is superabundant evidence for animals evolving under our eyes: British moths becoming darker since the Industrial Revolution (industrial melanization), insects evolving DDT resistance since World War II, malaria parasites evolving chloroquine resistance in the last two decades, and new strains of flu virus evolving every few years to infect us.

However, after years of withering fire being directed at the foundational structure of their evolutionary castle, it appears that Creationists and Intelligent Design proponents have finally caused enough damage to force some of evolution’s foremost promoters to change tactics. The outer wall reinforcing the "mound of empirical evidence supporting evolution" has collapsed, causing honest evolutionists to fall back behind "arguments from analogy", or "inference".

Is evolution "obvious"?

Fanatical atheist Richard Dawkins stated:

"Nobody has actually seen evolution take place over a long period but they have seen the after effects, and the after effects are massively supported. It is like a case in a court of law where nobody can actually stand up and say I saw the murder happen and yet you have got millions and millions of pieces of evidence which no reasonable person can possibly dispute."

For the world’s leading "evolutionary evangelist", this is actually a stunning statement! What is Dawkins saying? Well, there’s no observable evidence for evolution (which means it’s not empirical science, which means evolution is a hypothesis at best)! This is pretty earth shaking stuff for the average evolutionist that thinks they are standing on solid intellectual ground.

We need to realize that with a little knowledge we can defend ourselves against the average evolutionist’s arguments quite easily!

However, let’s be fair. Creationists have been arguing from analogy for years, so let’s give Dawkins the benefit of the doubt and go through his analogy of a court case to see if it holds up.

In a court of law there is usually a judge (to keep things fair), an unbiased jury (to weigh the evidence) and two sides (the prosecution and the defence) arguing from the same body of evidence, trying to prove their case.

But what kind of court system would you call it if only one side got to present their case? It would be a farce, of course, a travesty of justice. Now ask; "How many ways is the topic of origins explained in most public schools in the western world?" One way! Dawkins claims that when the evidence is analyzed, the case for evolution is so strong that no reasonable person could dispute it. However, is it any wonder that many people believe in evolution when they have only ever been indoctrinated from a materialistic viewpoint?

Far from the evidence speaking for itself, evolution must be forced upon people for it to be so "obvious". Evolutionists understand that if a two model approach was used in our education systems, evolution would be crushed relatively quickly by the overwhelming evidence of design in the universe. Even many staunch atheists have abandoned the materialistic worldview when exposed to alternative interpretations of the evidence.

Another example of empirical back-pedalling was Eugenie Scott’s (director of the evolution-promoting National Center for Science Education) talk "Science and Religion as Ways of Knowing" at Miami University (September 10, 2008). In it she chided creationists for 1) preferring direct observation to inferential explanation and 2) insisting evolutionists should provide observable evidence for their belief.

So instead of providing observable evidence for evolution (there is none) she attempted to make the point that scientists can figure out what happened in the past based on observations in the present.

She used the laughable example of cow dung on a road painted over with a highway stripe as an Illustration of how we can logically infer from the evidence conclusions about events never seen. The logical sequence, she explained was that a cow had defecated on a road and the highway crew came along and painted the stripe over top of it.

Well, this conclusion is quite obvious as it is based on what we do know, not what we don’t. Many people have 1) Seen cows "doing their thing", 2) Seen painted highway stripes, 3) Seen what happens when paint is applied over a piece of tape left on their wall for example.

Creationists have been citing this type of inference/analogy for years. For example, when you see something that has design features (a motor, a robot etc) you can assume there was a designer. And our universal experience has been that whenever we see information in the form of a code or language it originated in an intelligent mind. So when we see the same types of things in nature (like the ATP Synthase motor, Kinesin and DNA) it is scientifically valid to come to the same conclusions.

When we see originally organic material like fossilized trees standing upright through several meters of sedimentary rock layers we can assume the layers were laid down fairly quickly (before the tree rotted away). When we see unfossilized animal tissue (containing amino acid sequences) within fossils of dinosaur bones, we can assume those fossils to have been formed fairly recently (thousands of years ago, not millions) because of the chemical decomposition rates involved.

All of the logical conclusions based on the above analogies and inferences prove devastating to evolutionary presuppositions. They are direct evidence of an intelligent designer behind the design we see, and against the idea of "millions of years" required for evolution to work. So, for evolutionists to seek cover by retreating into arguments from analogy will prove suicidal for them eventually, as only the most diehard materialists will be willing to abandon their brains and deny such arguments.

The evolutionary strongholds are buckling! Now is the time to press the attack on the evolutionary stronghold and put the materialists on the defensive for a change. Get the information available from ministries like CMI and distribute it to the people in your community. Let’s turn the tide against atheism and point people to Christ!
(Creation Ministries International, creation.com, 18 Aug 2009) (to index)

* HOMEOPATHY NOT A CURE, SAYS WHO - People with conditions such as HIV, TB and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments, the World Health Organization has warned.

It was responding to calls from young researchers who fear the promotion of homeopathy in the developing world could put people's lives at risk.
The group Voice of Young Science Network has written to health ministers to set out the WHO view.
In a letter to the WHO in June, the medics from the UK and Africa said: "We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV.
"Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases.
"Those of us working with the most rural and impoverished people of the world already struggle to deliver the medical help that is needed.
"When homeopathy stands in place of effective treatment, lives are lost."

Dr Robert Hagan is a researcher in biomolecular science at the University of St Andrews and a member of Voice of Young Science Network, which is part of the charity Sense About Science campaigning for "evidence-based" care.
He said: "We need governments around the world to recognise the dangers of promoting homeopathy for life-threatening illnesses.
"We hope that by raising awareness of the WHO's position on homeopathy we will be supporting those people who are taking a stand against these potentially disastrous practices."

Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the Stop TB department at the WHO, said: "Our evidence-based WHO TB treatment/management guidelines, as well as the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care do not recommend use of homeopathy."

The doctors had also complained that homeopathy was being promoted as a treatment for diarrhoea in children.

But a spokesman for the WHO department of child and adolescent health and development said: "We have found no evidence to date that homeopathy would bring any benefit.
"Homeopathy does not focus on the treatment and prevention of dehydration - in total contradiction with the scientific basis and our recommendations for the management of diarrhoea."

Dr Nick Beeching, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: "Infections such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis all have a high mortality rate but can usually be controlled or cured by a variety of proven treatments, for which there is ample experience and scientific trial data.
"There is no objective evidence that homeopathy has any effect on these infections, and I think it is irresponsible for a healthcare worker to promote the use of homeopathy in place of proven treatment for any life-threatening illness."
(BBC News, 20 Aug 2009) (to index)

* MOBILE CARRIERS EXPECTED TO BLOCK PROSTITUTES’ PHONE NUMBERS IN LONDON - Aiming to reduce the number of women trafficked into the UK ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics Games, British authorities are asking mobile operators to block prostitutes’ phone numbers found on advertising cards left in London’s telephone boxes.

Carriers like O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, 3 and Virgin Mobile are expected to collaborate.

According to Times Online, a meeting at London City Hall has been scheduled for October, when CEOs of major telecom operators should discuss the matter with members from the Metropolitan Police Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, and representatives of various women’s organizations.

Criminal gangs reportedly make millions of pounds by promising well-paid jobs to young women, tricking them into coming to UK and eventually obligating them to work as prostitutes.

"The Mayor wants to see an agreement reached between mobile phone operators and the police that would see these numbers taken out of use as soon as they are identified, cutting off a key source of income for these gangs." said Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing.
(Unwiredview.com, 19 Aug 2009) (to index)