Charity Founding Members Sentenced to 65 Years

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Two founding members of the charity organization The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development were sentenced to serve 65 years in prison. They and 3 others were charged with funding programs for schools and social welfare controlled by Hamas.

Schools are for the education of children, and social welfare is to help those in need. In places where people are leading desperate lives, and where the society is in perpetual economic turmoil, offering help through charity is normally considered to be a laudable act.

Were these charity organizers seeking to help children in need of schooling and those desperate for welfare, or were they intending really to render aid to a terrorist group that they should deserve such punishment?

Aung San Suu Kyi's Trial | John Yettaw Gives Evidence of Divine Vision

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John Yettaw had a divine vision to save Aung San Suu Kyi.

Yettaw told the court that he had a dream of a terrorist plot to assassinate Aung San Suu Kyi. In order to warn her, he travelled all the way from Missouri. He said God asked him to go to Myanmar to deliver the warning to her and to the government, which in his vision, was blamed for the assassination.

Yettaw, a 53 year-old Mormon,insisted on his story of divine inspiration.

On May 4, he swam across a lake to Aung San Suu Kyi's home, and was allowed to stay after complaining of leg cramps. In November 2008, he had also paid a visit to her house, and she reported the matter to the authorities.

Yettaw is himself charged with entering the country illegally, trespassing and contributing to the violation of the conditions of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest. It's reported that Yettaw swam twice to her house, and delivered a Bible to her. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Buddhist.

Obama Asks for Release of Aung San Suu Kyi as Trial Continues

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President Obama has issued a statement calling for the unconditional and immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi. But no effect can be discerned from the authorities in Myanmar, as her trial continues.

The American intruder, John Yettaw, who caused all the problems by swimming to Aung San Suu Kyi's home, is expected to testify in her trial. Aung San Suu Kyi is alleged to have broken the terms of her house arrest by letting an outsider to stay in her house. Yettaw claims that he had dreamt of her being assassinated and wanted to warn her about it.

Most observers feel that Aung San Suu Kyi will be found guilty. The best that her supporters can realistically hope for is that she will not be sentenced to as long as a five year term. They have been praying for her.

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Swine Flu Hotel Hell in Hong Kong

Swine flu has taken its toll on more than 270 people in Hong Kong. Not that they got infected - well one was - but they have been quarantined in the Metropark Hotel where a Mexican tourist was found to have contracted swine flu last Friday.

The Hong Kong authorities took no chances, and immediately confined guests and staff at the hotel. They are monitored daily for any symptoms.

The inmates are fed, but complain of the monotonous regime of rice and more rice.

Some business guests are furious because their confinement means big business losses.

Meanwhile in China, all tourists with Mexican passports are also being detained, much to the annoyance of the Mexican government. The Mexican government is arranging planes to whisk them away and China is counteracting by picking up Chinese citizens from Mexico.

In Mexico itself, the epidemic appears to have eased, and the government is gradually lifting restrictions by reopening restaurants.

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