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Even before he was elected governor in 2002, Rod Blagojevich and three of his closest friends schemed about ways to enrich themselves by controlling state government, the former governor's former chief of staff alleged as part of a plea agreement today with federal prosecutors. When Blagojevich took office, his three friends became key players in his administration and met repeatedly with the governor to share moneymaking ideas and get updates on their plans to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars that they could split up later, former top aide Alonzo "Lon" Monk alleged. Monk, who also was a groomsman...

Justo Gallego Martínez is building his very own Cathedral in Mejorada del Campo near Madrid, Spain This is no "model" cathedral and he is neither a qualified architect, nor engineer, nor bricklayer -- he is a farmer. "The plans have only ever existed in my head" and have evolved over time in response to opportunity and inspiration. Nor does he have formal planning permission from the authorities of Mejorada del Campo -- the town in which it is located (20 km from Madrid under the flight-path to the Barajas airport).Nor does he have the benediction or support of the Catholic...

SPRINGFIELD -- A key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris died in an automobile accident Monday, authorities in far west-suburban Kendall County confirmed Tuesday. John Ruff, of Sandwich, Ill., was killed shortly before 3 p.m. when his 2001 BMW convertible crossed an oncoming lane of traffic and collided with a tree while he was driving eastbound on Rogers Road near Oak Brook Road in unincorporated Plano, said Kendall County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Pearson. John Ruff, a key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was killed in an automobile accident Monday in Kendall...

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies. The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced. Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades. The indictment comes four months after Blagojevich was arrested and charged with engaging in pay-to-play politics in a sweeping federal complaint that accused him of trading state jobs, contracts and regulatory favors for campaign contributions. The...

The Vatican has dismissed as a heretic a mystical medieval monk apparently cited by Barack Obama as a moral authority and visionary. According to Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, the US President referred in campaign speeches to Gioacchino da Fiore, or Joachim of Fiore, as a ''master of contemporary civilisation'' who had sought to create a better world. Drawing on the Book of Revelation, Gioacchino envisaged a "new age of the Holy Spirit" in which the Church hierarchy would cease to exist and Christians would unite with infidels in an "Order of the Just". --snip-- He said...

Well, even though Adrian Monk couldn’t get the gun out of the gun safe at least the safe itself could be used as a weapon. This is one of the very few TV shows that have made fun of gun locks. Monk’s line, “Don’t move there is a gun in here.” is classic. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that, unlike most of the biased media coverage on guns, this humor gets across the research that gun locks actually make it significantly more difficult for people to defend themselves against criminals. . . .

After six years of getting his hands dirty and then vigilantly scrubbing them clean, Monk is gearing up—probably pretty carefully—for his last case. USA announced Friday that it has picked up its Emmy-winning detective series Monk for an eighth and final season that will air next summer. The "Characters Welcome" network has ordered up 16 episodes, and E! News is hearing that the finale will clue Monk in on who killed his dearly departed wife, Trudy, the tragedy that turned him into the OCD-addled mystery-solver who cable audiences have come to love. "By many measures, Monk is the most successful...

Since then, I have had numerous people ask me about what they should buy if they wanted to sample some jazz but do not know where to begin. As I am not a critic but just an aficionado of that American treasure. I recommend the following albums. Feel free to offer your own recommendations as I am no expert by any means. As there is still much jazz I have not listened to, I apologize for any omissions of albums that belong on such a list....

Broker turned monk focuses priorities Bulgarian monk Brother Nikanor, 32, looks inside the church of Tsurnogorski monastery, some 50 km (31miles) west of the capital Sofia, September 24, 2008. The Nasdaq broker turned monk advises his former colleagues, shattered by the financial crisis, to keep a jar full of soil on their desks to remind them about where we are all heading to and what really matters in life.

Chinese archaeologists on Wednesday opened a 1,000-year-old steel case that was believed to contain Buddhist relics. A pagoda top wrapped in silk emerged after archaeologists removed two steel panels of the cube-shaped case, which is 0.5 meter long, 0.5 meter wide and 1.34 meters high. Hua Guorong, vice curator of the Nanjing City Museum where the case was opened, said an initial analysis showed the object was a pagoda about 1 meter high. He said Buddhist relics, which were formed from the ashes of cremated Buddhist masters and were an important aspect of the religion, were likely to be under...

At first glance, Cesare Bonizzi looks like the archetypal Capuchin monk - round-faced, stout, with twinkling eyes and a long flowing white beard. But beneath his robes beats a heart of metal. Brother Cesare is the lead singer in a heavy metal band which has just released its second album. A former missionary in the Ivory Coast, he lives in a small friary in the Milan hinterland. The 62-year-old monk's love affair with heavy metal began when he attended a Metallica concert some 15 years ago. "I was overwhelmed and amazed by the sheer energy of it" he says. Brother...

"The kingdom of God is built up in SILENCE; it is, before all things, INTERIOR, and hidden in the depths of the soul. Undoubtedly grace possesses a virtue which nearly always overflows in works of charity, but the principle of its power is entirely within. It is in the depths of the heart that the true intensity of the Christian life lies, it is there that God dwells, adored and served by faith, recollection, humility, obedience, simplicity, labour and LOVE." "It is not our PERFECTION which DAZZLES God, since He is surrounded by shining Angels. No! It is our MISERY,...

YANGON, Myanmar - The military government banned assemblies of more than five people and imposed curfews in Myanmar's two largest cities on Tuesday, after thousands of Buddhist monks and sympathizers defied orders to stay out of politics and protested once again. On a day President Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against the junta, truckloads of soldiers converged on Yangon after the monks, cheered on by supporters, marched out for an eighth day of peaceful protest from Yangon's soaring Shwedagon Pagoda, while some 700 others staged a similar show of defiance in the country's second largest city of Mandalay. "The protest...

Buddhist monk arrested over child prostitution, A 25-year-old Buddhist monk from the Shogetsuin Temple in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was arrested Friday for engaging in child prostitution with a 15-year-old girl who he met through a cell phone dating website. According to police, Nobuhiro Suetsugu had sex with the girl at a hotel in Toshima ...

Buddhist monk cuts off penis and renounces refix Wed Nov 22, 6:23 AM ET BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai Buddhist monk cut off his penis with a machete because he had an erection during meditation and declined to have it reattached, saying he had renounced all earthly cares, a doctor and a newspaper said on Wednesday. The 35-year-old monk, whose name was withheld for privacy reasons, allowed medical staff at Maharaj hospital, 780 km (480 miles) south of Bangkok to dress his wound, but refused reattachment, hospital chief Prawing Euanontouch said. "We cleaned up the wound, gave him some stitches,...

I just saw the TV show "Monk." Rented it cause my Blockbuster is too cheap to stock up on very much. I like it. Don't have regular tv and never saw "Monk" before. I like that guy. He played Antonio Scarpacci in "Wings" and a funny alien pawnshop owner in Men In Black. Only, Episode 1 had a sniper using a Weatherby Fibermark. They could tell which model Weatherby from a recovered bullet? And they said it was a British firearm. I remember when Weatherby was made in Germany. And then in Japan. It's made in Britain? Quality must be...

When Father Solanus Casey died in Detroit in 1957, all he left after 86 years on this earth were a small crucifix, an old pair of sandals, several religious pictures, a wooden statue of St. Anthony, some dog-eared religious books, a knot of heavily darned socks and a framed, 40-year-old picture of his family. Bl. Solanus Casey (1870-1957) But he left another rich legacy — a long list of curious "favors" to an equally long list of devoted believers. Father Solanus Casey had come to Detroit to be a Capuchin friar. During his years as a priest he spent...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - The chief of Cambodia's Buddhist monks is cutting his charges some slack for the duration of soccer's World Cup: they may watch the matches on television, but no cheering or getting excited. And absolutely no betting. The country's holy men - more than 90 percent of Cambodia's 13 million people are Buddhist - normally aren't supposed to watch television, movies or artistic displays. According to Buddhism's strictest tenets, they should abstain from pleasurable activity. Gambling is a major no-no. But monks get as excited as anyone else at the chance to watch soccer's top stars,...

This column is called “The Edge,” so my topic choice this week might seem a little odd. I’m writing about one of the oldest institutions in Western civilization: the monastery. Monastic-type living stretches way back. It even pre-dates Christianity, possibly as far back as the Greek Pythagoreans, whose community some consider the first monastery in western culture. In Christianity, the monastic life started with St. Antony. In 285, St. Antony fled to the wastes of Egypt, there to live by himself in an old empty fort. He stayed there nearly 75 years, coming out only twice. People flocked to...

Ladakhis are not used to this: religious tension, clamping of curfew and the army marching through the place better known for its Buddhist chants, prayer flags fluttering between mountains and the arid, pristine moonscape. Old timers say Ladakh has not seen communal tension since the 1970s when Buddhists and Muslims went for each other's throat over minor incidents. This time, as the world burns in the Prophet cartoon row, the division between the two communities happened over the reported desecration of the Holy Koran in Bodh Kharbu. The picturesque village, which is mainly populated by Buddhists, is located in the...

When this Indian monk chanted, the West wondered how he created a choral effect. Ngawang Tashi Bapu or Lama Tashi—who mesmerised music lovers with his multi-phonic chanting—found a place in Grammy nominations and triggered a chain of vocal experiments, is changing track. He will now sing in monotone, in his “normal voice”. Last year, Lama Tashi took the US by storm with his solo album Tibetan Master Chants comprising 12 Buddhist mantras of compassion and tranquillity. On the eve of the 48th Grammy Award presentation — the “world’s biggest music show” — the 38-year-old Monpa monk from Arunachal Pradesh has...

Once again, convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti is trying to "lead" his people from inside an Israeli prison. If his win in primaries in the West Bank on Friday provides any insight into the Palestinian popular mood, it is that they are still addicted to terrorist "leaders" like Barghouti. According to the BBC: He [Barghouti] is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for the killing of four Israelis and a Greek monk. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said there was no chance of Barghouti getting an early release. Barghouti, 46, won 34,000 out of 40,000 votes - affirming...

For many Americans, the Thanksgiving holiday is about gorging on a sumptuous meal, spending time with family and gearing up for the busiest shopping day of the year. Of course, it's also supposed to be about expressing gratitude for all that we have in our lives, but that simple lesson often gets lost amid all these other activities. Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk who has written several books about the importance of gratitude, including "Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer" and "A Listening Heart," says remembering what we are thankful for is an essential part of daily living, one that's...

Here's something you don't see every day - not that I'm knocking the guy - but he IS kind of...different.

The remains of an ancient church dating to the early days of Christianity have been discovered beneath a Coptic Christian monastery, the Egyptian Gazette daily reported Sunday. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouq Hosni announced Saturday that archaeologists have found the remains of the church, built of bricks. It included a number of underground rooms which monks used for celebrating the liturgy. The church, uncovered beneath Saint Anthony's Monastery in the Red Sea area, was founded by disciples of Saint. Anthony, a hermit who died in A.D.356 and is regarded as the father of Christian monasticism. Archaeologists have also unearthed the bases...

In April 2005, an ascetic Buddhist monk who lived in the forest in Ka Li village tract, in Kun-Hing township, was tortured and beaten to death by SPDC troops from LIB524, at a cave called Tham Loi Mon about 2 miles east of Ka Li village. The monk, widely known as Zao Sin Man (meaning the one who firmly observes the Buddhist moral precepts), mostly lived in the forests and practised meditation in caves. He was a native of Murng Nawng village in Murng Nawng village tract, Kae-See township, and had assumed the monkhood since his teens many years ago....

Theological Student Delivers Eucharist By Jackie Spinner Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 8, 2004; Page A16 HASWAH, Iraq -- His flak jacket was covered in dried blood, his blood. Look at the stains, Marine Lance Cpl. June N. Ramos said, pointing. There were dark red smears all over the front of his camouflage vest. Ramos reached into the pocket of the flak jacket and pulled out a small silver tin wrapped in a plastic bag. He opened the container, which held a half-dozen Communion wafers. "Instead of putting a grenade in here," Ramos said, fastening the pocket of his...

FIVE Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said today. The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said. "When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I," the paper quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the north-eastern state of Nong Khai...

A celibate Buddhist monk has been cleared of trying to pick up a policewoman who was posing as a prostitute. Hoa Trung Nguyen, 47, from the Phap Bao Temple in Sydney, was convicted of soliciting last year. He maintained he asked the woman how much she charged out of human curiosity. And he has now been acquitted on appeal by Campbell District Court. His solicitor Quang Nguyen said his client was "extremely relieved" to have been proved innocent.

Father Joe The Man Who Saved My Soul By Tony Hendra Random House. 271 pp. $24.95 Tony Hendra will always occupy a warm spot in my heart because of his hilarious (and uncanny) imitation of John Lennon on "Magical Misery Tour," one of the selections on National Lampoon's 1972 LP Radio Dinner. Hendra was one of the founders of National Lampoon, and he recounts both his days there and how the Lennon send-up came about in Father Joe. But only in passing. For this is definitely not your usual show-biz memoir. True, by starting off with an account of how...

The Charlotte Observer Buddhist monk burns himself to death at temple Followers say act was a protest by man who wrote out final wishes ROBERT F. MOORE Staff Writer A Vietnamese monk, who had written his final wishes on a paper scroll, doused himself with gasoline and then burned himself to death as he kneeled in front of a Buddhist statue at a temple in east Charlotte Wednesday. Followers said Thich Chan Hy, 74, committed an act of self-immolation, a form of protest that first gained worldwide attention in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, a monk set himself on fire...

Shaolin Monks Fight to Protect the Temple's ReputationMonks of China's famed Shaolin Temple, which is commonly considered the birthplace of Chinese kung fu, a unique combination of Buddhism and Chinese martial arts, have been more and more aware of safeguarding the temple's reputation by legal means. "The Shaolin Temple is an important piece of cultural heritage for all human beings. To protect it, we must propose draft legislation to ensure appropriate action," said the abbot of the Temple, whose religious name is Shi Yongxin. Located in Dengfeng County in central China's Henan Province, the Shaolin Temple was built in the...

Sat Jan 4,12:23 PM ET World-famous Shaolin monk warrior group from central China's Songshan Shaolin Temple perform Hard Qi kungfu named 'Lying On Spears' during the Shaolin Charity Tour in Kuala Lumpur Saturday, Jan. 4, 2003. The Hard Qi kungfu is one of the Shaolin external kungfu works by directing the inner Qi to a certain part of the body to make this part produce extreme power. (AP Photo/Teh Eng Koon)

Divorce Trouble Among Details Emerging About Man Who Shot Two Monks, Self at Abbey CONCEPTION, Mo. (AP) - The man who killed two monks and wounded two others at a Roman Catholic abbey before killing himself had been upset with the church over his divorce, The Associated Press learned Wednesday. Investigators had been struggling to find information about 71-year-old Lloyd Robert Jeffress as they searched for a motive in his attack on Conception Abbey, a rural monastery in northwest Missouri. Jeffress' first victim, Brother Damian Larson, pleaded for his life before Jeffress shot him, Abbot Gregory Polan said Wednesday. "He...