Last week a massive global outcry stopped an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, from being stoned to death.

But Sakineh still faces hanging, and today, fifteen more people await execution by stoning -- people are buried up to their necks and large rocks are hurled at their heads.

Sakineh's brave children's international campaign shows that worldwide condemnation works. Let's turn this family's desperate appeal into a movement that ends stoning for good - sign the petition and send to everyone:

Link to Petition

Souce: Stop Stoning!

Australia doesn't know who Jennifer Knapp is and doubtless she prefers it that way. The reserved singer-songwriter moved to Australia from the US in 2002 amid rumours she was a closet lesbian.

Having your sexuality publicly questioned can be hurtful for anyone.

But it's particularly hurtful when you're the rising star of America's Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry and sold a million albums in just a few years.

It turned out the rumours were true. The Grammy-nominated artist - now an Australian citizen - has returned from her self-imposed exile and earlier this month released a new album in the US. On the publicity trail, she revealed she has been in a relationship with a woman for the past eight years.

The US media scrutiny on Knapp's admission was immediate and intense.

She appeared on Larry King Live and was congratulated for her bravery by Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton. She ignited a frenzy of debate about homosexuality in churches and newspapers across the country.

To some she's an emancipator for religious gays. To others she's living in sin and encouraging others to do the same.

Perhaps most challenging for Knapp's conservative critics is the fact she reconciled her sexuality with her faith.

"Many practicing LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] Christians will tell you that by honestly approaching their true sexual nature their understanding of their spiritual being has only increased," she told ABC Online.

"There are Christian churches that excommunicate the openly queer, as well as those churches that fully embrace and celebrate them.

"Despite the claim that the more conservative voices may express, the moment the religious discover they are gay, he or she doesn't magically lose their faith."

Christian music isn't a nothing industry in Australia. Hillsong regularly features atop the ARIA albums charts and tens of thousands of revellers attend Easterfest - formerly known as the Australian Gospel Music Festival - each year in Toowoomba.

But that's all fiddlesticks compared to the Contemporary Christian Music industry in the US.

The Winter Jam Tour - featuring Christian bands Third Day and Newsboys - was the second highest-selling tour in the world in the first quarter 2010. More than 400,000 people attended; only AC/DC sold more tickets.

Needless to say, the industry's relationship with homosexuality is fraught, and Knapp doesn't expect to see her new album stocked at Christian bookstores anytime soon.

Nevertheless she took to the road with a veteran Christian artist for her comeback tour.

Derek Webb is one of the few songwriters in the industry to reference the taboo of homosexuality in their music.

Last year he released the song What Matters More, in which he sings:

"You say you always treat people like you like to be. I guess you love being hated for your sexuality."

Webb's Christian record label refused to let him release it with his latest album, forcing him to post it on his website instead.

According to Knapp, her shows with Webb have been an eclectic mix of people including evangelical "hand raisers" and gay couples.

Knapp says she's had support from a number of other old industry friends too, but it's been limited.

"Just by talking with me, an individual whose livelihood depends on their perceived 'holiness' can come into question," she said.

"Publicly, I'm napalm, and I'm handled with care."

Knapp says debate about homosexuality is much louder and more passionate in the US than it is in Australia, which - despite some of its laws - is far friendlier towards gays.

"With Australia's 'fair go' attitude, it's easy to say that Australia has a leg-up on how I often feel perceived as a gay citizen," she said.

"Whether I've been in the outback or in the capital cities, I've always felt equal, even if the laws don't fully include me.

"I am concerned with the attitudes of my fellow man far more than I am concerned with their current legislation."

Knapp says in the US she is asked to give explanations for her sexuality and "what I'm going to do about it".

"No doubt my public history in the church is a factor, but even with my gay friends who have no celebrity it is very much on the surface of their daily lives," she said.

"There is still a heavy expectation upon LGBT individuals to supply a scientific, political or religious defence in order to justify their sexual orientation.

"Sometimes I feel as though I am a social problem to which public debate is still determining whether my sexuality deems me worthy of respect."

Knapp says while she is enjoying getting back to making music, she daydreams of returning to Australia, which she now calls home.

"I've spent serious time in the outback, up the Cape, in the High Country, the Snowies... I've been everywhere I've had the courage to go in my four-wheel drive," she said.

"I've discovered the life-changing effect of becoming a cricket tragic as well.

"I cried like a baby when I moved back to the States. I knew I loved my island home, but I had no idea I would miss my new love this badly."

And when she does return, no doubt she will enjoy the anonymity.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/

HOLLYWOOD—Adult movie icon Belladonna has signed on to star in her first non-adult motion picture, a horror film called Stripped being helmed by first-time director John Wildman and produced by, among others, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre producer Jeffrey Allard.

In a press release from the project's production company, Wildworks Productions, Wildman described Belladonna as a "dream choice" for the role of Ginger, a newcomer to the household of sadistic women who make up the movie's band of antagonists.

"She has an innate openness and warmth that you can't help but be drawn to," Wildman said of Bella. "It will be a thrill to introduce her to a whole new audience and re-introduce her to Belladonna's legion of loyal fans."

Belladonna told AVN she was hesitant about the project when the producers first approached her, but at the urging of husband/business partner Aiden, she read the script, and "by the end, I couldn't stop reading it. It was one of those that just sucks you in, and I couldn't get enough of it. I read the whole thing in a couple of hours, and I was just like, 'I want to be a part of this.'"

Though her character and the other central women are strip club dancers, Bella asserted, "Don't worry, it's not like Zombie Strippers! You go into it thinking, 'Oh, OK, strippers ... this is gonna be so typical.' But then once you get like halfway into the story, I was like, 'Oh my fucking god. This is gnarly.'"

Bella said she was excited about stepping foot into the mainstream realm, "because it's just another creative outlet. I feel like when you've done something for so long, it becomes so easy and it's like you could do it with your eyes closed, and acting, I'm so nervous about it still. I get all nervous like I used to when I first started shooting porn, and that makes you feel like, 'Oh my god, this is fresh and exciting,' and that's a feeling I always love to have. This is challenging and nerve-wracking and exciting all at the same time. So I hope to learn a lot from it, honestly, and maybe get other projects out of it by meeting people."

Though she's never studied acting in any formal sense, Bella said the acting work she's done in adult has taught her a few things about the craft. "I've learned over the years to really just learn your lines, and then you can go crazy with the part," she explained. "You don't have to worry about anything else but trying to just make it feel as real as possible and pretend that that's who you are. I feel like I put myself in these role-playing situations where I become that person. And I'm the type of person that even with porn, as long as I know what I need to do, I can show up and completely sink myself into it. So if I can somehow make my acting as good as my sex scenes, then I'll be a lucky person!"

Stripped is slated to begin shooting in July in Dallas, though production may get pushed back to October, Bella said, depending on pre-production elements being completed on time. Other members of the cast include Tiffany Shepis (Night of the Demons, Tromeo and Juliet), Farah White (Bandslam, Miss Congeniality), Samrat Chakrabarti (Finding Graceland, Kissing Cousins) and Michael Guarnera (Bruce Almighty, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle).

Source: http://business.avn.com/

China on Tuesday defended its right to censor the Internet, saying it needed to do so to ensure state security, and cautioned foreign governments to respect and obey its online policies.

The government's white paper on the Internet in China -- where more than 400 million people are now online -- comes after a very public row with Google over web freedoms which prompted the US firm to shut down its Chinese search engine.

The Google spat touched off a war of words with the United States over Internet freedom, at a time when ties were already suffering over US arms sales to Taiwan and a host of trade and currency issues.

"Within Chinese territory, the Internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty. The Internet sovereignty of China should be respected and protected," the government said.

Beijing operates a vast system of web censorship, sometimes referred to as the "Great Firewall of China". It blocks access to any content the government deems unacceptable, ranging from pornography to political dissent.

China said it "advocates the exertion of technical means" in line with existing laws and international norms "to prevent and curb the harmful effects of illegal information on state security, the public interest and minors".

It said such laws allowed the curbing of content on everything from "instigating racial hatred or discrimination and jeopardising ethnic unity" to gambling, violence and obscenity.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, China is among the worst nations in the world oppressing Internet bloggers, and had jailed 24 journalists as of December 2009, many of them Internet bloggers.

But China on Tuesday insisted it "guarantees the citizen's freedom of speech on the Internet as well as the public's right to know, to participate, to be heard and to oversee".

The white paper said China's leaders "frequently log onto the Internet to get to know the people's wishes" and participate in online chats with users.

Premier Wen Jiabao -- who has tried to forge a reputation as a man of the people, contrasting with his colleagues in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy who come across as much more staid -- has done two web chats since last year.

The government said it aims to make the Internet available to 45 percent of its 1.3-billion-strong population in the next five years.

Source: http://news.smh.com.au/

The world's oldest sex toy, a 30,000-year-old pre-historic siltstone phallus, was also used as a tool to ignite fires.

The relic, discovered in a cave in Germany, has marks suggesting it was used for striking against flints.

Experts at the University of Tubingen insist the purpose of the stone was to light fire apart from providing sexual pleasure, reports Independent Online.

It also features carved rings around one polished end.

The scientists joined the phallus from more than a dozen fragments found in the cave, reports the New York Daily News.

The multitasking tool had been discarded after being broken. (ANI)

Source: http://story.knoxvilletimes.com/