This doesn't add up....

A member of the Jehovah's Witnesses religion, who had proclaimed himself as God, set himself on fire on Monday in the Moscow region, local police said.

The incident took place in the village of Nakhabino 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) outside Moscow on Monday after the man bought fuel, poured it onto himself and set himself ablaze. He is in critical condition with over 70 percent of his body burned, police said.

“According to the son of the injured man, his 43-year-old father had been a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses and considered himself as God,” the police also reported.

Investigators are probing into the cause of the man’s suicide attempt.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, which has some seven million followers worldwide and over 200,000 in Russia, have already been banned in a number of Russian regions and in some former Soviet republics.

The Jehovah's Witnesses branch in the Russian capital was dissolved by a district court ruling in 2004, but the European Court of Human Rights declared the decision illegal in 2011.

The religion is banned in China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and other countries.

RIA NOVOSTI

JW CO in Turkmenistan sentenced

Click on imageZafar Abdullaev, a 24-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector, is the latest to be handed a prison sentence for refusing Turkmenistan's military service, which is compulsory for all young men. He was given the maximum two-year prison term on 6 March at Dashoguz City Court, the court chancellery told Forum 18 News Service. He had already served a two-year suspended sentence on the same charges. Four other Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors are serving prison sentences, while a sixth is serving a suspended sentence.

DFed JW poisons elder and family

THE Adelaide Hills Jehovah's Witnesses community has been rocked by the alleged poisoning of a church official and his young family by a rival.

The extraordinary series of events, in which glyphosate weed killer was injected into food, milk and fruit juice cartons in a fridge, was uncovered only after the victim set up a hidden camera in his kitchen - apparently catching the culprit in the act.

Read more:NEWS.COM AU

US marshalls hunt for confessed JW pedophile

Police said that during March 2010, Luevano touched or applied force to the unclothed intimate parts of a child under the age of 12. Luevano is a member of the Jehovah Witness Church and confessed to elders in the church that he did touch the child, police said.

KFOX 14

Private prosecution gets thrown out of court

Traralgon kingdom hallToongabbie man's personal quest to hold a religion "to account" over its past "refusal" to comply with child protection legislation has been thrown out of court.

Carpenter Steven Unthank, a former Jehovah's Witness member, took his former religion to the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court in a private prosecution for failing to ensure its ministers adopted Working with Children Checks, as required by State Government legislation.

The prosecution, comprising a total of 35 charges against five organisations which make up the Jehovah's Witnesses structure, alleged religion elders had engaged "in child-related work at the Traralgon Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses ... knowing that (they did) not have a current 'Assessment Notice' as required under the working with Children Act 2005."

LATROBE VALLEY EXPRESS

27 of Jehovah's Witnesses Killed in Equador

QUITO – At least 27 people died and 30 others were injured Sunday in a bus crash in the northern Ecuadorian province of Imbabura, said Victor Bazantes, with the fire department in the city of Ibarra.

Based on the statements of survivors, Bazantes said that apparently the bus in which they were riding had a problem with its brakes and crashed into a wall, then rolled down an incline.

The accident occurred on the Ibarra-San Lorenzo highway linking the provinces of Imbabura with Esmeraldas, the latter on the border with Colombia.

Three children died in the crash, which occurred near the community of Cuajara, near the city of Ibarra, the capital of the same-named Andean province.

The injured were taken to nearby medical facilities, but two people were transported by helicopter to Quito, Bazantes said.

A relative of some of the victims told the daily El Comercio that the people on the bus were Jehovah’s Witnesses who were traveling to a church service in the parish of Lita.

LATIN AMERICAN HERALD TRIBUNE

Jehovah's Witnesses Raking in the Dough

Whether it’s Armageddon or soaring property values, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have decided to get the hell out of Brooklyn, and they are one property closer to cutting all Earthly ties to their home of a century. An adorable carriage house at 165 Columbia Heights was sold for $4.1 million, city records show.

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER

Jehovah's Witness jailed for sexual offenses

A JEHOVAH’S Witness has been jailed for three and a half years for “a catalogue” of sexual offences on two schoolgirls more than 15 years ago. 

Sentencing 40-year-old Paul Wood, formerly of Sudbury, Judge David Goodin said that not surprisingly the impact of the offences on his two victims was still affecting them.

During a trial last year Ipswich Crown Court heard that Wood had indecently touched the girls’ breasts while play-fighting with them.

One of the victims also claimed that further incidents had taken place in Wood’s car when he had got her to touch him indecently over his clothing and had touched her over her clothing.

EADT24

Jehovah's Witnesses transform office

More than a dozen volunteers wielding hammers, saws, and paintbrushes are busy renovating a former insurance office near downtown Toledo into a place of worship.

The Jehovah's Witnesses' Midtown Kingdom Hall, at the intersection of Cherry and Sherman streets, will be home to four congregations when it opens next month.

When one of those congregations meets, the entire service will be conducted in American Sign Language.

THE BLADE

North Park Kingdom Hall Torched, again

The non-injury fire at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the 2000 block of Adams Avenue was reported at midnight, according to a San Diego fire-rescue dispatcher. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to knock down the blaze.

10 news  

Vandals hit kingdom hall for the third time in two weeks

AZERBAIJAN FINES JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

Six Jehovah's Witnesses in Azerbaijan's second city Gyanja have been given heavy fines for meeting for worship without the compulsory state registration, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Only one of the fines was reduced at Gyanja Appeal Court today (14 December), leaving the total of the fines at 9,500 Manats (72,330 Norwegian Kroner, 9,300 Euros, or 12,090 US Dollars). This was described to Forum 18 as a "massive sum" by local standards.

READ MORE FORUM 18

Inquest over death of Jehovah's Witness

AN inquest hearing began this week into the death of a Jehovah’s Witness who died after a routine hospital procedure went tragically wrong.

An inquest at Bootle Town Hall heard on Monday (December 5) how grandmother-of-three Jean Gilman was admitted to Whiston Hospital in March 2009 after going to her GP complaining of shortness of breath.

X-rays showed that the 59-year-old had fluid on her left lung which needed to be removed by a pleural aspiration.

However, rather than follow British Thoracic Society guidelines and use an ultrasound machine to locate the fluid, a doctor instead attempted to guess where to insert the needle.

St Helens Reporter

Artificial Blood for Jehovah's Witnesses

Earlier this week, the New Scientist reported a new benchmark in the race to create an artificial substitute for blood. For the first time, some lab-developed blood was safely transplanted into a volunteer. The amount transferred was tiny—about 10 million red blood cells, or 2 milliliters of blood. Nevertheless, this is a remarkable advance because previous attempts to manufacture blood have bumped up against safety concerns.

“The results show that an unlimited blood reserve is in reach,” one researcher tells the New Scientist. Artificial blood would go a long way toward alleviating the perpetual shortages experienced both here and abroad—particularly in countries where blood-borne diseases like HIV/AIDS are more prevalent.

As with recent progress in creating synthetic meat, this advance raises an interesting ethical question: Would Jehovah’s Witnesses, who famously refuse to accept transfusions, permit the medical procedures if the blood came not from a man but from an artificial source? Digital Journal reports that a Jehovah’s Witness in India was able to undergo knee replacement surgery—which typically requires blood transfusions—by submitting to a workaround technique called an auto transfusion. A surgeon tells Digital Journal that in this procedure, a “patient’s blood get collected in a filtered reservoir connected to the replaced knee. This blood is then transfused back to the patient within six hours. This obviates the need for any blood transfusion thus minimizing the risks associated with it.”

SLATE

The Kid's Got Game

The NBA scout made his annual rounds, checking in with his sources about prospects.

Among his West Coast connections, he heard a similar story: There is a 7-footer, a lean and athletic kid who plays aggressively. Runs like a deer.

Los Angles Times

Russian Branch Overseer Guilty of Extremism

A regional court in Russia’s Altai region found the local head of the Jehovah's Witnesses guilty of extremism on Thursday and sentenced him to 100 hours of community service.

The Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization. Many representatives of more traditional religions consider it to be a totalitarian pseudo-Christian sect.

RIA-NOVOSTI

Jehovah's Witness forgives attackers

AN elderly grandfather who appealed to a judge not to jail two men who viciously attacked him said he blames himself for the incident that left him battered and bruised.

Michael Leech (74) said he forgave his assailants because he is a Jehovah's Witness.

He received a broken nose, black eyes, bruising and lacerations to his face and lost teeth after he confronted teenagers throwing bangers at cars in Athea on the Halloween night.

“If I hadn't gone over and grabbed him by the shirt and said: 'What the blooming hell do you think you're blasting well doing' -- it wouldn't have happened, would it?

Read more  -  INDEPENDENT IRELAND

Jehovah's Witnesses to sell Irish HQ

HE JEHOVAHS WITNESSES are to sell their Irish headquarters at Newcastle, Co Wicklow. Lucy Connolly of commercial property agents Mason Owen Lyons is quoting a guide price of €4.5 million for Watch Tower House, which extends to 2,915 sq m (31,380 sq ft) and stands on a site of 3.24 hectares (eight acres). It is about 30 minutes’ drive from Dublin.

The decision to sell the Newcastle facility has been prompted by a worldwide restructuring of the congregation. In future, the administrative functions will be taken over by the British branch and the growing number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ireland will be catered for in 115 separate units already functioning around the country. The congregation has about 6,000 members on both sides of the Border and baptised 140 new members last year, according to spokesman Darren Fuller. He said the sale of the HQ would not have any effect on their activities and it was hoped that the congregation would continue to grow in the future.

IRISH TIMES

Max Larson has died

Max Larson, president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, who helped to pioneer the printing operations and property acquisitions for Jehovah’s Witnesses at their world headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, died on Saturday, Sept. 24, in Brooklyn at 96.

Larson was well-known and highly regarded around the world by both Witnesses and non-Witnesses, not only for his strong work ethic and publishing expertise, but especially for the gracious and dignified manner in which he dealt with others. He was baptized into the Jehovah’s Witnesses on June 5, 1938, in Seattle, Washington. A few months later, he began his career as a member of the Witnesses’ headquarters staff in Brooklyn, where he was assigned to operate a printing press.

BROOKLYN EAGLE

Watchtower article creates furor in UK

The official magazine for Jehovah's Witnesses has described those who leave the church as "mentally diseased", prompting an outcry from former members and insiders concerned about the shunning of those who question official doctrine.

An article published in July's edition of The Watchtower warns followers to stay clear of "false teachers" who are condemned as being "mentally diseased" apostates who should be avoided at all costs. "Suppose that a doctor told you to avoid contact with someone who is infected with a contagious, deadly disease," the article reads. "You would know what the doctor means, and you would strictly heed his warning. Well, apostates are 'mentally diseased', and they seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings."

A copy of the magazine, distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses around the world, was given to The Independent by a current member of the church who has become unhappy with official teaching but is afraid to leave for fear of losing his family.

"Many like me remain associated with the Witnesses out of fear of being uncovered as an 'apostate' and ousted, not just from the organisation, but from their own friends and families," said the man, who would only give the name John. "I find I am now branded as 'mentally diseased' – giving any who discover my true beliefs free licence to treat me with disdain."

THE INDEPENDENT

THE TELEGRAPH reports police inquirey into Watchtower "hate speech."

Ponzi scam targetted Jehovah's Witnesses

The company collapsed into bankruptcy in 2009; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a civil complaint filed this week that founder Doris “Dee” Nelson raised about $135 million from more than 650 investors from 1999 to 2008. About 75 percent of the investors were members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination, court records say.

About half of those investors didn’t recover their initial investment, although many received interest payments on their investments, according to Bruce Kriegman, bankruptcy trustee. Some investors were able to withdraw their principal investment plus interest before the payday loan business failed. But about 50 investors have not received anything – the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme where early investors are repaid with deposits of new investors.

THE SPOKEMAN REVIEW