Fanatic Hijacked Mexican Plane After 'Revelation'

MEXICO CITY — A Bolivian religious fanatic briefly hijacked a jetliner from the beach resort of Cancun as it landed in Mexico City on Wednesday, police said. All passengers and the crew were released unharmed.

The Bible-carrying hijacker used a juice can he said was a bomb to hold the 103 passengers and crew on the tarmac for more than an hour. Masked police stormed the aircraft with their guns drawn and escorted several handcuffed men away without firing a shot. Police later said there was only one hijacker.

Jose Flores, 44, told investigators he hijacked Aeromexico Flight 576 after a divine revelation, according to Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna. Flores said Wednesday's date — 9-9-09 — is the satanic number 666 turned upside down.

Flores, speaking to reporters after he was detained, said he took control of the aircraft with "a juice can with some little lights I attached."

"Christ is coming soon," he added, smiling.

As the plane was landing, Flores stood up and showed his contraption to a flight attendant, saying he and three others were hijacking the plane, Garcia Luna said. Flores later told police his three companions were "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

He ordered the pilot to circle over Mexico City seven times and asked to speak with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, saying he wanted to warn him of an impending earthquake, Garcia Luna said.

Garcia Luna said Flores is a drug addict who was convicted of armed robbery in Bolivia, and has lived in Mexico for 17 years. Flores described himself as a pastor in southern Oaxaca state who had gone to Cancun to preach.

He is also a Christian music singer who in videos posted on YouTube sings of leaving drugs and finding God.

"I was in jail, I was a despicable drug addict, but Christ freed me a few years ago," Flores sings along with recorded norteno music to a crowded stadium.

In other videos, Flores, who goes by the stage name Josmar, is seen playing with nunchackus and shooting a coin he tosses in the air.

At the Uncionmusic Web site, a Christian music distributor based in Oakland, California, that sells Flores' music on the Internet, he is described as "an international evangelist with a shocking testimony on how God rescued him after his family sent him from Bolivia to Mexico City on a one-way ticket ... because of his addiction to cocaine and alcohol."

Saul Bueno, of Uncionmusic, said that he doesn't personally know Flores and that his music has sold poorly since they began offering his CDs two years ago.

"As a Christian I think about what was going through his mind, because that's not the way to get attention," Bueno said.

The attorney general's office said it was opening an investigation into terrorism and kidnapping.

U.S., French and Mexican citizens were among the passengers, according to a U.S. official in Washington who was briefed on the situation. The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. Embassay spokesman said at least 14 U.S. citizens were on the plane and they were being interviewed by Mexican authorities at the airport.

Passenger Rocio Garcia told the Televisa network that the pilot made an announcement after landing in Mexico City that the airplane was being hijacked.

"These were scary moments," she said.

Passengers said the hijacker stayed in his seat throughout the incident and the pilot came back from the cockpit to negotiate with him.

Mexican officials negotiated the release of women and children through the pilot before sending in the police. The plane was isolated at the end of a runway in an area designed for emergencies and the airport remained open.

The most recent hijacking attempt in the Americas occurred April 19, when a man with a handgun tried to commandeer a Canadian jetliner in Jamaica. The standoff ended before takeoff at Montego Bay's airport when military commandos burst onto the plane and disarmed the man, who was described as "mentally challenged."

Pastor's Obama Rants 'Incomprehensible'

TEMPE, Ariz. - The sermons at this east valley church are stirring controversy and for some, causing alarm. Pastor Steven Anderson says he's a man of God, but some are horrified at what he's preaching.

Anderson is standing by his controversial sermon, entitled "Why I Hate Barack Obama." Video of the sermon has hit YouTube, and he's taped explaining why he hates the President and praying for his death.

Sunday at church, Anderson told FOX 10, "I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today."

Anderson is continuing to encourage his parishioners to pray for the president's death, but says he doesn't condone killing.

"I will not take the law into my own hands. I will not take up any arms. It's a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare."

Sunday, about 30 parishioners of the Faithful Word Baptist Church were met by a handful of protesters.

"A pastor, a man of the cloth, doesn't condone assassinating people. He's not a pastor, he's a pas-turd," said protester Bill Demski. Some of the protesters tried to go into the church, but were denied.

"I find it incomprehensible that someone can say they believe in the message of Jesus and preach hate," added protester James Jones.

Tempe Police patrolled the area to make sure tempers didn't get out of hand, while many parishioners walked into the church carrying guns on their hips.

One of them was Christopher Broughton, who got national attention when he brought an AR-15 assault rifle to an Aug. 17 rally outside the Phoenix Convention Center where President Obama was addressing veterans.

We asked him if he wanted to clarify what the impact of Pastor Anderson's sermon was on his decision to bring a gun to the rally, but he had no response.

Anderson says his sermon about wanting Obama to die was not meant to rile people up. "If anything, I was talking him down," he said, "Not riling him up."

Pastor Anderson says his hatred of Obama and former president Bush stems from his views on abortion and the Iraq War.

"Look up the word hate. Look up the word abhor, the word loathe. You'll see there are a lot of people that God hates, and so we should hate. But see, I didn't write that, that's in the Bible."

The pastor says that since his sermon on Obama was posted on YouTube, he and his family have received death threats.

"If people want to wish deaths on me I don't have a problem with that. But when people say, 'I'm coming to kill you and your family within the next 36 hours,' that's different than them hoping or wishing something in their mind," said Anderson.

The White House had no comment.

Suspected Kidnapper's Blog Reveals Religious Fanaticism

People who knew kidnapping and rape suspect Phillip Garrido said he became increasingly fanatic about his religious beliefs in recent years, sometimes breaking out into song and claiming that God spoke to him through a box.

"In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him," said Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window Inc. in Pittsburg, Calif., who bought business cards and letterhead from Garrido's printing business for the last decade.

Three times in recent years, Garrido arrived at Allen's showroom with two "cute little blond girls" in tow, he said.

In April 2008, Garrido registered a corporation called God's Desire at his home address, according to the California Secretary of State. During recent visits to the showroom, Garrido would talk about quitting the printing business to preach full time and gave the impression he was setting up a church, Allen said.

"He rambled. It made no sense," he said.

In a blog titled "Voices Revealed" that appears to have been maintained by Garrido, he wrote that he had hired a private investigator to verify his ability to speak to people using only his mind. In an "affadavit" posted there, he said he had the ability to "control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena."

Using the alias THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND, the first post, titled Disclaimer, says, in all caps: "This all began by God removing a problem from my shoulders that behavioral scientist believe is not possible to remove. since then my life has seen major improvements allowing me to stand here today a free man."

Since his arrest, the blog had been overrun with negative comments from readers. By Friday morning, there were more than 300 comments, many of them with religious references.

"When the voices tell you to kidnap and rape children, it's not God. It's your own crminal self, Mr. Garrido! I hope you rot in jail and burn in Hell." - dejablues

"The Man Upstairs is going to have something to say about you making all these claims of being connected to Him while you were perpetrating such horrendous crimes against a child. Human judgment and divine judgment are both going to be swift and harsh." - silverladder

Baby-killing Mom Otty Sanchez of San Antonio Claims 'Devil Made Me' Do It

DALLAS - Police said they found a 3 1/2-week-old infant stabbed and decapitated in a Texas home on Sunday and his mother "screaming that she killed her baby" after the devil told her to do it.

The mother, Otty Sanchez, 33, of San Antonio, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds to her chest and stomach, said San Antonio police spokesman Joe Rios.

Investigators took a sword, a machete and a kitchen knife from the home.

Officers also found two children unharmed at the home, though it wasn't immediately clear where they were taken.

Sanchez will be charged with capital murder, Rios said. A spokeswoman at University Hospital in San Antonio said she couldn't release information on Sanchez's condition, but Sgt. Wes McCourt said her wounds didn't appear to be life threatening.

Rios said that when police arrived, Sanchez was sitting on the couch "screaming that she killed her baby." Police said the baby was Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez.

"She mentioned that someone or something told her to do it, she was hearing voices. So that leads us to believe that she was experiencing some type of mental crisis," Rios said. "The baby had obviously been decapitated."

McCourt said she told investigators that the devil told her to kill her son.

Church Bus Crash Kills 1 In Miss., Leaves 27 Hurt

MERIDIAN, Miss. — A coroner says a bus carrying a church youth group from Louisiana to Georgia flipped Sunday in Mississippi, killing one person and injuring 27 others.

The bus overturned three times around 10:20 a.m. on Interstate 20 near Meridian, Miss., and trapped some people underneath, Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler III said. Teenagers and adults were on the bus from First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La. A group of National Guard soldiers was on the highway at the time and helped rescue the injured.

The wreck was first reported by television station WTOK in Meridian.

One person died at the scene, Cobler said. One person was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, while the other 26 injured were taken to three hospitals in Meridian, the coroner said.

Heaven's Door

One more reason I don't believe most people are consistant in their religious beliefs:

In death, their loved ones would be welcomed to Heaven. This is the ultimate goal. Therefore, death would be celebrated. It would be a happy time for all who truly care about the one they lost. Yet, funerals are full of mourning and sadness. Tears flow regularly.

If people truly believed in Heaven, and that their loved ones end up there, they would not see death as such a sad event.

But they do.

And that is because they don't truly believe what they claim to believe.

8-year-old Kentucky Boy Found Dead In Church Elevator

STURGIS, Ky. — The body of an 8-year-old boy was found with his head pinned in a church elevator as his family was cleaning up after his grandmother's wedding reception, authorities said Monday.

No foul play is suspected in the death Saturday of Zachary Waddell at First Christian Church in Sturgis, Kentucky State Police said in a statement. The church's pastor, the Rev. Nate Harper, found the boy's body in the doorway at the lower level of the shaft connecting the church's first and second floors, authorities said.

Union County Coroner Stephen Shouse said the boy died as a result of compression asphyxia, meaning he couldn't breathe after the elevator came down on him. He said the elevator was purchased in 1963 and is similar to a freight elevator. The Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press reported that Shouse is a distant cousin of the boy's mother.

State Police said the boy was pronounced dead at the church. State Police gave few details and did not return telephone messages to The Associated Press about the circumstances.

The boy was found with his head pinned between the walls of the elevator and the shaft and his body was outside the elevator car, Shouse said.

Harper told the newspaper that the discovery was the "worst thing" he's ever experienced.

"It was really hard for us, but more than anything else our hearts go out to that family," he told the newspaper. He also said he did not know a lot about the elevator, "but to our knowledge, we believe it was up to standards."

"There's a family that needs prayer," Harper told the AP on Monday afternoon. "They've suffered a great tragedy."