Free Republic

Two men were publicly flogged in Indonesia after they were found guilty of sexual relations by a court operating under strict Islamic law. While gay sex is not illegal elsewhere in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation -, it is outlawed in the conservative Aceh province, which imposes a version of sharia, the Islamic legal code. The flogging began before midday on Thursday at a park in provincial capital Banda Aceh, with one man accused of instigating the relationship lashed 82 times and the second man 77 times. Both were caned with a rattan stick as dozens watched...

Riyadh (dpa) - Two Saudi men were to receive 7,000 lashes each for committing ``homosexual acts,'' Saudi Okaz newspaper reported Thursday. Saudi authorities started executing the court order Tuesday, which had been divided into separate phases, the report added. Another Saudi man, meanwhile, was to receive 470 lashes separately for doing drugs and resisting the security forces. The Saudi judiciary system is based on the strict principles of Islamic sharia law.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- What would happen if an astronaut came unglued in space and, say, destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard? That was the question on some minds after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak, arrested in Orlando this month on charges she tried to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for another astronaut's affections. It turns out NASA has a detailed set of written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say...