Peruvian faith-healers have gathered in Lima to predict the fortunes in 2010 of world leaders and celebrities, ranging from US President Barack Obama to football player Diego Maradona.

The shamans prayed for a better understanding among the Latin American nations. They performed rituals with the pictures of well-known figures, and wished them good luck for the entering year. The ceremony is normally performed each year at the San Cristobal hill behind the Presidential Palace in Lima.>>>

The ethnic Tais are a group of indigenous people of Southeast Asia whose town units, muang or principalities are said to date back 5,000 years. At present, some 90 million ethnic Tais live across the region and can be divided into 80 groups. They speak various forms of the Tai language, which, similar to their culture and music, is thousands of years old.>>>

Re: "Of course it's about Christ," by Sharon Gose, Letters/Dec. 20.

The letter in question demonstrates how utterly clueless some Christians are about the origins of so-called Christian holidays and customs. Dec. 25 is also the birth of Mithra the Persian sun god, which is Pagan in origin. Dec. 25 was chosen by the Catholic church to coincide with the Pagan pre-Christian Yule [yo'l -- old Norse], solstice celebrations in Northern Europe on or around Dec. 21.>>>

South Dakota State University research showed an intervention strategy based on the Native American spiritual concept of the Medicine Wheel brought positive changes for diabetics.>>>

High on its own island, floating on Lago Titicaca, is a towering white cake of a building: the five-star Libertador Hotel, its hundreds of windows blinking quietly in the sun. From these windows, at sunrise, one can see shreds of orange-red on the marsh while birds fly back and forth in the cold silence: a silence as wide and mysterious as the lake itself. An end-of-the-world hush surrounds the island.>>>