A new movie called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed advocates "intelligent design" and promotes itself as a film that uncovers the persecution of educators and scientists for challenging evolution. Starring Ben Stein as questioner - Michael Moore-style, except conservative - the movie banked $3.2 million on its opening weekend.

It has garnered plenty of criticism, and even a lawsuit from Yoko Ono who isn't happy about the movie's use of John Lennon's song "Imagine."

Renee Battle-Brooks is chief of the Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Unit at the Prince George's County (Maryland) State's Attorney's Office. She spoke candidly to Spectrum about the tough cases she deals with every day and how frustrating the job can be. But she sees that believing in people empowers them, and she keeps on fighting.

Question: How long have you been in your job and what led up to it? How did you pick this area of work?

Sarah Porter, with a career in international development ahead of her, recently accepted a job with ADRA in Yemen. A few weeks in, Spectrum asked her what the country is like and what her job is teaching her.

Q: How would you describe Yemen from your experience so far? How is it the same, or different, than you imagined? What are the Yemeni people like?

On a remote and beautiful peninsula in the Dominican Republic, forested and mountainous, small wooden cabins are being built as part of a quiet retreat.

There is no easy way to get to the mostly virgin land of the Samana Peninsula from the sprawling capital of Santo Domingo.

In 2005, Palgrave Macmillan published The Road to Clarity: Seventh-day Adventism in Madagascar. This social anthropological study, written after two years of fieldwork by Eva Keller, has been acclaimed by academics and read with interest by Adventists.

The study, which began as a PhD thesis for the London School of Economics in 2002, examines the intellectual life of Malagasy Adventists, and the reasons they remain members of the church.

Last year, Shi-Yeon Sung became the first woman to be named assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Working under the renowned James Levine, the 32-year-old South Korean is making the most of her two-year opportunity to work with some of the world’s best musicians and conductors.

In 2006, Sung won the prestigious Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt, Germany – the first woman to ever take home the top prize. She was given €15,000 in prize money and concerts with the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.

In almost exactly six months, Baker Park in Frederick, Maryland will be filled with colorful Brazilian costumes, exotic Brazilian food, traditional Brazilian dancers and crowds of people who want to find out more about life in their South American sister city.

At least 15,000 people are expected at the party.

Frederick, Maryland has adopted Aquiraz, Brazil as a sister city, and Brazil Day on September 7, 2008 is the biggest benefit event on the sister city calendar.

The Two Oceans Ultra Marathon is called “ the world’s most beautiful marathon”, and it’s doubtful anyone would disagree. Runners race along the perimeter of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula, a long finger of land at the tip of Africa pointing down into the Atlantic Ocean. They pass long white sand beaches, waves breaking in the blue sea, and houses perched on oceanside cliffs as they wind along 56 kilometres (34.8 miles) of road.

Marianne Thieme is a Dutch politician, animal activist and publicist. She is the chair and political leader of the first animal rights party in history that is represented in a national parliament. She is also a Seventh-day Adventist.

Last year, Southern Adventist University students and faculty released a feature film based on an Arthur S. Maxwell book. The Secret of the Cave follows the story of Roy, a young American boy spending the summer in a tiny fishing village in the west of Ireland. While there, unexplainable events happen and the locals mention ghosts. But Roy, together with his new friends, looks for clues to solve the mystery and discover the secret of the cave.