Witchcraft is viewed with varying degrees of acceptance and legality, and while it is in creasingly accepted in the West, things appear to be getting progressively worse for magical practitioners- and those simply suspected of practicing- in other parts of the world.

In Delhi, India, a man who suspected black magic in the death of his wife led a mob to torch the home of two women he believed responsible.

In Papua New Guinea, AIDS deaths are routinely blamed on witchcraft, and the suspects, invariably women, are often tortured to gain confessions.

Practitioners of magic in Israel won't be burned, but they can be prosecuted:the practice of magic in Israel is punishable by a sentence of up to five years.

In the US, most magical folk are accepted in most places, albeit often grudgingly, and the biggest obstacles are ornery neighbors and antique fortune-telling laws.

Still, it is England's witches who are the most heavily persecuted. (not) Imagine- the builders of a multimillion dollar development wanted to name their new shopping center the "Highcross Quarter," which, if you listen carefully, has the vaguest similarity to the phrase "cross-quarters," the technical term referring to the spacing of holy days in the Neopagan calendar. In some places, witches are persecuted, but in others, the few do their best to make the rest look like idiots.