The Secrets of Osama bin Laden's Medicine Cabinet
TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – ANDREW M BROWN: Did Osama bin Laden suffer from a dry skin condition? Hives, eczema, even psoriasis (which is aggravated by stress, interestingly)? Psoriasis really would be a wretched affliction for someone who’s cooped up 24 hours a day, a prisoner in effect, behind walls 15 feet high. Dennis Potter’s Singing Detective was a victim of it.

I ask about the skin condition because if you look at some of the video of the interior of the al-Qaeda leader’s compound you can clearly see a shelf, and on the shelf there’s a neat row of medicine bottles. In the foreground is a family-size jar of Vaseline lying on its side, or so it appears. Giving further credence to the possibility of a skin condition, there’s a big white jar just behind the Vaseline. It has an odd-shaped lid. It could be an inhaler – asthma, maybe, which goes with eczema sometimes? Perhaps, but it could also be a pump-action dispenser, and the contents of the jar something like aqueous cream, something you might want to slather onto an itchy or eczematous rash that was flaring up because you were bored and anxious, as I expect bin Laden was. Continue reading and comment » | Andrew M Brown | Thursday, May 04, 2011

Christian 'Homosexual Cure' Conference Sparks Protests
THE INDEPENDENT: Being gay is not an illness, say demonstrators as they picket Belfast church

Gay campaigners began a weekend of protests last night against an international conference in Belfast which promotes the controversial claim that homosexuality can be "cured" using psychotherapy and prayer.

The conference is organised by Core Issues, an evangelical Christian group in Northern Ireland which promotes so-called "conversion therapy" and claims to have "saved" numerous homosexual Christians. The star speaker is the Rev Mario Bergner, a Chicago-based Anglican preacher and leading proponent of conversion therapy, who claims to have been cured of Aids and homosexuality through prayer.

In response, a coalition of protesters has begun picketing Ballynahinch Baptist Church, where the conference began last night. The protests are being organised by the Queer Youth Network and the Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce (Scott), a new lobby group set up by gay journalist Patrick Strudwick. >>> Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Saturday, February 20, 2010