http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311928,00.html
Doctors Negotiating With Barricaded Doomsday Cult in Russia
Friday, November 16, 2007
MOSCOW -- Officials were talking Friday with more than two dozen
doomsday cult members holed up in a snowy forest near the Volga River
to await the end of the world, which their leader says will come in
spring.
The cult members have threatened to blow themselves up with about 100
gallons of stockpiled gasoline if authorities forced them out of what
officials described as a cave or bunker near the village of Nikoskoye,
about 400 miles southeast of Moscow, said regional spokesman Yevgeny
Guseynov.
"Any forceful action is dangerous," Guseynov said, but he added that
doctors and rescuers were nearby and trying to coax the cult members
to leave.
Self-declared prophet Pyotr Kuznetsov, who established his True
Russian Orthodox Church after he split with the official church,
blessed his followers before sending them into the cave earlier this
month, but he did not join them himself.
He was undergoing psychiatric evaluation Friday, a day after he was
charged with setting up a religious organization associated with
violence, Guseynov said.
Russian state television broadcast footage of Kuznetsov, a thin,
bearded man, speaking at the clinic where he was being examined.
Russia Cult Members Seal Themselves in Cave to Await Apocalypse,
Threaten Suicide He said cult members initially aimed to dig out small
refuges where they could spend a day or two in prayer, but that later
"we had the idea of making a big dugout for all of us to go to and
stay there, just to avoid acts of hooliganism by the local
population," according to the footage.
The 29 people -- including four children, one only 18 months old -- had
stocked the cave with food and other supplies.
Kuznetsov said in the footage, shown on the Rossiya channel, that he
had not gone into the cave himself because "I had to meet others who
were yet to arrive."
On Thursday, black-clad Russian Orthodox monks carefully descended
into snow-covered gully to try to make contact with the cult, but
members refused to speak with clergy. They were exchanging letters
with Kuznetsov, however, and were in contact with doctors and
officials, who promised food or medical supplies if needed.
Most of the adults in the cave were women, Russian newspaper Izvestia
reported.
Kuznetsov, 43, a trained engineer who comes from a deeply religious
family, declared himself a prophet several years ago, left his family
and settled in Nikolskoye. He began writing books, borrowing from a
mixture of established beliefs, and visited monasteries both in Russia
and Belarus, recruiting followers, Guseynov said.
Kuznetsov said his group believed that, in the afterlife, they would
be judging whether others deserved heaven or hell, Izvestia reported
Friday. Followers of his group were not allowed to watch television,
listen to the radio or handle money, media reports said.
Anna Vabishchevich said her 41-year-old son, Alexander, and his wife
and two teenage daughters were among the cult members. She said she
was sending two relatives from Belarus to try to convince him to at
least send the girls home.
She told The Associated Press that her son, a railroad worker, came
under Kuznetsov's influence several years ago. He stopped eating food
packaged with the universal product code -- which the cult regards as
the mark of the Antichrist, she said.
"My son was kind and now he is mentally ill, it's like he is
hypnotized," she said between sobs.
Alexander Dvorkin of the Moscow-based independent Center of Religious
Studies said Kuznetsov's followers were in serious danger and "any
wrong move" by authorities could cost lives.
"Their minds are being manipulated, they are under the strong
influence of their leader," Dvorkin said.
He said there were about 10 similar cults in Russia, most nominally
Christian and with members living in isolation. So far, he said,
authorities have done little or nothing about them.
Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Georgy Ryabov said the emergence of
Kuznetsov's cult was a consequence of "the absence of a system of
spiritual and moral education" in Russia.
"All Christians of Russia have to pray for them so they awaken and
understand their mistake," Ryabov said.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ifno5_SS0GmSMIyKEK4rC07IWflwD8SUTF001
Woman Convicted of Kissing Painting
AVIGNON, France (AP) -- A woman who left a lipstick kiss on an all-
white painting by the American artist Cy Twombly was convicted Friday
of "voluntarily damaging a work of art" and ordered to do 100 hours of
community service.
The court in Avignon, southern France, also ordered Rindy Sam, a 30-
year-old artist of Cambodian origin who lives in France, to pay
damages. She must hand over $1,465 to the painting's owner, $730 to
the Avignon gallery that showed it and $1.50 to the painter.
The owner, Yvon Lambert, had asked for more than $2.9 million in
damages, which included the value of the painting and the $47,000
restoration cost.
During the trial, Sam argued that she had committed an "act of love" --
not vandalism. "I didn't think," she said last month. "When I kissed
it, I thought the artist would have understood."
Sam was taken into custody after she kissed the painting at an exhibit
in Avignon on July 19.
Twombly is known for abstract paintings, some of which use repetitive
lines, graffiti, letters and words. Born in Lexington, Va., in 1928,
Twombly has lived in Italy for nearly a half-century. He won the
prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
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HOOROO
UNCLE WALLY
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