Tag Archives: Category: Global

AP: The Socialists, who finished second in Bulgaria’s election this month, were asked to form a new government Thursday, after the front-running party was unable to.

BBC: In Husby, more than 80% of the 12,000 or so inhabitants are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the Middle East and Somalia.

The Sun: Last night Muslim sources identified Adebolajo – who is claimed to be from a devout Christian family but converted to Islam in 2003 – as the man in The Sun’s video taken minutes after the soldier was hacked to death.

Telegraph: A study by the Marriage Foundation calculates that cohabiting couples who have children are more than twice as likely to split up as those who had tied the knot beforehand.

Zero Hedge: As the NYT reports, in just the past two years, the numbers of Greeks engaging in prostitution as a last course source of income has more than doubled: according to the National Center for Social Research, the number of people selling sex has surged 150 percent in the last two years.

LankaWeb: According to our Press Department, U.K., on 18 May 2013, the Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat and Fifth Khalifa, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, addressed a Special Reception held to celebrate the opening of the one of the biggest Mosque – Baitur Rahman Mosque in Vancouver, Canada.

Christian Institute: The Church of Scotland has voted to allow practising homosexual men and women to become ministers.

LifeSiteNews: Euthanasia is hardening from a medical option into an ideology. Belgium’s euthanasia doctors even believe they are being humane because they are liberating people from their misery. Fundamentalist humanists go further and describe euthanasia as the ultimate act of self-determination. The opinion of the patient’s family has no weight whatsoever.

LifeSiteNews: Nearly 2000 people converged on the Quebec Capital on a brilliant spring Saturday afternoon to March against a government plan to legalise euthanasia in the province.

LifeSiteNews: As North America’s largest Catholic school board prepares to vote Thursday on a motion to ban homosexual activist groups in the schools, LifeSiteNews.com has learned that school officials tried to block the move when it was brought forward in April.

LifeSiteNews: An Estonian pro-family organization delivered over 38,000 signatures opposing same-sex “marriage” to the country’s parliament last week.

Fox News: The American pastor jailed in Iran for his Christian faith has managed to get a letter out to his global supporters, thanking them for their prayers while confirming the brutality of his conditions.

Andrew Harrod of Front Page at The Legal Project: Speaking at a conference in Milan, Italy, on May 8, 2013, that city’s archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Scola, called for the abolition of blasphemy laws worldwide.  Such a step would significantly help protect globally the freedom of speech and religion desperately needed by Christians in particular while countering Islamic fanaticism with freedom.

Volokh Conspiracy: Lenta.ru so reports. The bill would criminalize “actions in public, demonstrating clear disrespect to society and committed with the intent to insult the religious feelings of believers,”

AP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that a decision by election overseers to disqualify his top aide from next month’s presidential race is an act of “oppression” and that he will take the case to the country’s supreme leader.

Catholic Culture: In recent weeks, Islamist rebels who assumed power in the Central African Republic in March have kidnapped the rector of the cathedral in the nation’s capital as well as the archdiocesan chancelloor.

Paul Coleman at Bell Towers: For several decades the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has taken an evolutive approach to the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the notion that the Convention is “a living instrument” now appears to be uncontested. Nevertheless, the Court’s evolutive approach towards assisted suicide and euthanasia is remarkable.

eNCA: A Methodist minister who was fired from her church for marrying her same-sex partner, has taken her fight to be reinstated to the courts.

ABC (AP): The legislation, backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, passed by a vote of 366 to 161 on Tuesday. The bill will now move to the House of Lords . . .

BBC: Plans to legalise gay marriage in England and Wales are to proceed unimpeded in Parliament after ministers reached agreement with Labour.

Paul Coleman at the Christian Post: The United Kingdom’s multitude of “equality” provisions will protect nearly anyone born with a disability, although it is perfectly legal to prevent disabled people from being born, up to the point of birth (simply because they have a disability). The U.K.’s abortion law is therefore an example of the most blatant and basic form of discrimination imaginable.

AP: A Myanmar court sentenced seven Muslims to prison Tuesday – one of them to a life term – in the killing of a Buddhist monk amid deadly sectarian violence that was overwhelmingly directed against minority Muslims but has not led to any criminal trials against members of the country’s Buddhist majority.

AP: Senior members of the Church of Scotland voted Monday to let some congregations choose ministers who are in same-sex relationships – an important compromise that must still pass further hurdles before it can become church law.

Christian Institute: In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 17 ministers and one archbishop expressed their concern about the consequences if the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill is passed in its current state

Catholic Culture: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called for a “firm and constant commitment” to battling prejudice against homosexuals, as Italy observed “Anti-Homopobia Day” on May 17.

Breitbart: The United States on Monday denounced what it called a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia, pointing to restrictions and violence against Muslims including the faith’s minority sects.

CNSNews: As the State Department prepares to release its annual report on international religious freedom Monday, a key issue for many Americans concerned about religious persecution is whether it will blacklist a handful of particularly egregious violators – or, as in previous years, ignore the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

AP: Czech President Milos Zeman is being criticized for refusing to grant a university professorship – the nation’s top academic title – to a critic of his, allegedly because the man is also a gay rights activist.

The Blaze: Mothers and fathers, beware: Your days of honor may soon be expiring. An elementary school in Nova Scotia has made a curious decision to cancel Mother’s Day and Father’s Day celebrations and to, instead, replace them with a more benign “Family Day” commemoration.

The Independent: report published by the Office for National Statistics revealed that the percentage of people following a Christian faith dropped from 71.7 per cent in 2001 to 59.3 per cent in 2011. More than one in 10 under 25s in the UK now describe themselves as Muslim.

The Raw Story: “Raising a child today costs millions of dollars,” he told AFP. “In this modern world, people enter into relationships and don’t necessarily want to have a child and so should not be burdened with the costs of raising a child.”

“Society should protect and strengthen marriage, not undermine it. That’s the belief of the people of France. This redefinition of marriage has been pushed through at great speed without their support. Millions have taken to the streets in protest, but the government has not responded by listening to the people. Instead, it has sought to silence them with police brutality.”

Devex: The legislators called on heads of state gathering at both meetings in June to recognize family planning and sexual and reproductive health rights as “fundamental” to gender equality and development. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health and the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development last week gathered over 50 parliamentarians from across the world to show a united voice in making sure the powerful clubs of wealthy countries talk about family planning during their meetings next month.

AP: Thousands of anti-gay protesters, including Orthodox priests, occupied a central street in Georgia’s capital Friday, with some threatening to lash with stinging nettles any participant in a gay pride parade which was to take place there.

Forum 18: China does not allow religious communities to run schools for children, even though regulations do not forbid the provision of religious education to minors. Nor is religious education provided in state schools. For students beyond school age, only state-approved religious groups affiliated with China’s five state-backed monopoly faiths are allowed to apply to set up institutions for the study of their faith or training of clergy, Forum 18 News Service notes. Restrictions are especially tight in Tibet and Xinjiang. The state limits the number of such institutions and their size. Establishing new colleges is cumbersome and long drawn out, even when successful. Their curricula must include “politics” and “patriotic” education, as defined by the state. The state also discourages religious activity on general university campuses. These restrictions reflect the authoritarian state’s desire to control religious groups, including by intervening in the training of their leaders and the level of education of their members.

AP: Portugal’s Parliament has passed a law allowing same-sex married couples to adopt their partners’ children, but lawmakers rejected legislation granting gay couples the same adoption rights as heterosexuals.

NPR: There’s growing pressure in Australia for the government to legalize gay marriage after New Zealand became the 13th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage earlier this month.

Reuters: In France, the path to radical Islam often begins with a minor offence that throws a young man into an overcrowded, violent jail and produces a hardened convert ready for jihad

Middle East Forum: The lost history of Christians forced to convert to Islam—or die—is reemerging, figuratively and literally. According to the BBC: “Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony [last Sunday] at the Vatican—a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.”

AdelaideNow.com: During consultation the council received feedback from 119 residents, through written submissions and a survey. About half (61) wanted the prayer to remain while 58 respondents wanted the reference to the “Almighty Father” removed.

Catholic Culture: Halki seminary, opened by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1844 and closed by the Turkish government in 1971, remains closed despite calls by President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and others to reopen it.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: The AP reports on a US Apeals Court decision to leave a family of homeschoolers at the mercy of the German Government, even though the Court found that the US Constitution forbids the state from prohibiting homeschooling. The family faces impossible fines and loss of custody of their children if they are returned to Germany. They should have just pretended to be gay.

CNSNews: Two months after the Obama administration released $250 million in aid to Egypt in what Secretary of State John Kerry called “a good-faith effort to spur reform,” the country is witnessing a surge of anti-Israel sentiment, much of it stoked by the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: Jonathan posted earlier today about Romeike v. Holder (6th Cir. May 14, 2013), which reject German homeschoolers’ asylum claim. The opinion is quite readable and persuasive, and I recommend it to those interested in the subject. But here’s my general thinking (reprised from 2010 post on the original immigration judge decision in the case), and stressing that I’m not an expert on asylum law:

Catholic Culture: US embassies abroad are preparing to celebrate Gay Pride Month in June, even in countries where homosexual behavior is outlawed.

Catholic Culture: During a visit to China, Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has been urging government officials to approve the Russian Orthodox Church as a “recognized religion.”

Catholic Culture: Islamists who recently marched on the nation’s capital wish to “topple the government” and “trigger chaos by means of violence,” the nation’s leading prelate told Aid to the Church in Need.

AP: Brazilian notary publics must register same-sex civil unions as marriages if the couple requests it, the country’s National Council of Justice said Tuesday.

Christian Institute: The Government is not going to offer armed forces chapels the same protections as the Church of England in its plans to redefine marriage.

LifeSiteNews: France’s “Terri Schiavo” shall live. A young man left to die of hunger because his doctor decided his quality of life after a car accident would no longer improve is being fed and hydrated again since Saturday, when his father and mother and two of his siblings obtained an emergency ruling. That ruling ordered the hospital where he is staying to restore all normal care.

Jonathan Adler reports on the ruling at the Volokh Conspiracy: The relevant legislation applies only to those who have a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A). There is a difference between the persecution of a discrete group and the prosecution of those who violate a generally applicable law.

AP: An Egyptian Christian teacher detained over charges of insulting Islam has been released on bail on Tuesday, her lawyer said.

AP: An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide. | Gross v. Switzerland, 67810/10

Telegraph: A British schoolgirl was murdered by health workers in India in a failed attempt to harvest her organs, her parents have claimed.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Family planning agents are investigating China’s most famous film director for reportedly having 7 children with 4 women. If guilty of breaking China’s laws, Zhang Yimou could face $27 million in fines.

Christian Concern: The Court of Appeal is this week hearing the cases of two paralysed men who are seeking to change end of life laws.

Christian Institute: An MP has praised a cross-bench Peer’s attempts to curb the growth of quasi-legal systems in the UK, which discriminate against women.

Guardian: A group of Conservative MPs has proposed a referendum to allow the public to vote on gay marriage in one of several amendments aimed at watering down the bill to legitimise same-sex weddings. More than 100 MPs may support the call for a referendum, sources said.

Washington Post: Egyptian security officials say a Coptic Christian who stabbed his wife for converting to Islam has killed himself by jumping out of a fourth-story courthouse window.

LifeSiteNews: Some 40,000 pro-life marchers at the March for Life in Italy received a surprise when Pope Francis joined them — driving down the street in his popemobile where the Marcia per la Vita was taking place.

CNSNews: Hong Kong’s top court granted a transgender woman the right to marry her boyfriend Monday in a watershed ruling that falls short of allowing same-sex marriage.

Religion Clause Blog: Naharnet today reports that a court in the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar has sentenced two men for helping a young woman, identified only as “the girl of Khobar”, convert to Christianity and flee to Sweden.

Boston Globe: Amnesty International has called on Egyptian authorities to release a Coptic Christian schoolteacher held for contempt of Islam.

CNN: Zambian police rearrested two men this week on charges of engaging in homosexual acts “against the order of nature,” a rights group said.

Public Discourse: Uncover and halt the activity of illegally functioning places of worship”; “Uncover and halt the distribution of religious literature and informational materials of religious content in non-approved locations”; “Uncover and halt the carrying out on the territory of the country of illegal missionary activity.” These are three of 74 measures in a draft Plan to implement Kazakhstan’s proposed new State Programme to Counter Religious Extremism and Terrorism for 2013-2017, in its final stages of preparation and seen by Forum 18 News Service. The State Programme with its Implementation Plan would require video-cameras in all places of worship and teaching on “traditional religions” to become a compulsory school subject. The General Prosecutor’s Office in the capital Astana – which is preparing the State Programme – refused to discuss it with Forum 18. “Religious activity across the board will be more and more restricted,” one member of a religious minority told Forum 18.

Christian Post: The mass exodus of millions of Christians from one part of the Islamic world to another as the result of persecution by Muslims has reached epidemic proportions, says a Middle East and Islam expert. In fact, Christians may completely disappear from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt, warns the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Global Post: A Conservative MP says anti-abortion activists need to support political candidates who share their views if they want abortion laws changed.

Christian Institute: A Christian-run GP surgery has been criticised for posting a notice saying some of its doctors do not prescribe the morning-after pill on grounds of conscience.

Charles C. Camosy at Washington Post: The church, in part because Catholic institutions would be compelled to do these abortions, has reacted strongly against the measure. The Irish Bishops, for instance, point out that abortion, “is never a remedy for suicidal ideation and therefore should never be cited as a justification for the direct killing of an innocent human being.” There is even talk of excommunication of Irish lawmakers depending on how this all plays out.

C-FAM: Lawyers and doctors last week denounced the highest human rights court in the Americas for meddling with science and failing to protect human life. Last December, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights struck down a Costa Rican ban on in-vitro fertilization, known as IVF. In order to rule that way the court had to weigh in on the law and science of when human life begins. It decided the IVF ban infringed the right to privacy, personal autonomy and sexual and reproductive health.

World Magazine: In the spot, broadcast over major channels in the East African nation during commercial breaks until it was pulled in March, two Kenyan women walk to a market and linger over vegetables, talking about their families. One complains that she is tired of putting up with her alcoholic husband who does not satisfy her sexually. She confesses she has a lover on the side, who even has a name in the ad, Mbugua. Her friend advises her to always use condoms with Mbugua—leading to the campaign slogan “Weka Condom Mpangoni” or “include a condom in your planning” in Swahili.

Rod Dreher at the American Conservative: Do, do, do read Andrew Doran’s TAC essay today about how US Mideast policy toward Iraq and others is destroying Christianity in the land of its birth. Note well this . . .

Baptist Press: Alan Sears, president of Alliance Defending Freedom, noted that a key benefit of ADF’s involvement in helping defend religious freedom overseas is “the crucial perspective it gives us” for defending legal rights in America.”

Baptist Press: More than 52,000 letters have been written to American pastor Saeed Abedini, commending him for his strong demonstration of faith as he languishes in an Iranian prison. The Web-based campaign was launched by the American Center for Law and Justice ahead of Abedini’s 33rd birthday May 7.

The Telegraph: Terminaly ill patients will be able to ask their doctor for a lethal dose of drugs to end their lives as part of a major new push to change the laws on assisted suicide.