Tag Archives: Category: Global

Breitbart.com: President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia could change its agreements for the adoption of Russian children with France and other Western states that are legalising gay marriage.

Financial Times: The Muslim Brotherhood is set to open offices inside Syria for the first time since the organisation was crushed there decades ago, in an apparent effort to capitalise on the increasingly Islamised rebellion.

Washington Post: Women who want to wear prayer shawls while praying in the women’s section of the Western Wall are not breaking the law, according to a landmark decision handed down Thursday (April 25) by the Jerusalem District Court.

C-FAM: European leaders pressing President Obama to fund African abortions argue that a novel interpretation of laws governing war should trump US restrictions on abortion funding. To make their case, they are elevating the views of a few experts from a different body of law—human rights.

Religion Clause Blog: As previously reported, last year in the case of R v. N.S., the Canadian Supreme Court held that whether a Muslim woman could be required to remove her niqab (full face veil) while testifying in court in a preliminary hearing should be decided by balancing concerns about trial fairness with religious freedom rights of the witness.

Christian Concern: Two Catholic midwives have won the right to be exempt from involvement in abortion procedures following a ruling by an appeal court in Scotland.
Judges in Edinburgh ruled that Mary Doogan (58) and Concepta Wood (52) could lawfully refuse to supervise and assist staff involved in abortions under the conscience clause in the 1967 Abortion Act.

Christian Concern: A special event has been held at the Council of Europe in relation to two UK Christians who are seeking a referral to the Grand Chamber in their religious freedom cases at the European Court of Human Rights.

Washington Blade: The Colombian Senate on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples couples in the South American country. Senators opposed the proposal by an 51-17 vote margin a day after they debated it.

LifeSiteNews: Just one week after the passage of gay ‘marriage’ legislation in New Zealand, it has been revealed that a group has been formed whose goal is to have group marriages recognised in law.

Religion Clause Blog: In Britain yesterday, in the House of Commons, MP Kris Hopkins opened a debate on Sharia Law, questioning whether the government planned to recognize and provide resources for Sharia councils.

MercatorNet.com: But Gotland (province) Social Services persisted, and managed to get a mid-level appeal court to overturn the district court ruling. Now the couple, with the aid of the US-based Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and the Alliance Defending Freedom, have taken their case to the Supreme Court of Sweden. They are being represented by Ruby Harrold-Claesson of the Nordic Committee on Human Rights. . . . Alliance Defending Freedom and HSLDA are encouraging concerned people from all over the world to participate in an HSLDA-sponsored letter-writing campaign that asks the Supreme Court of Sweden to accept the case Johansson v. Gotland Social Services and return Domenic to his parents.

LifeSiteNews: One of the top researchers in the field of stem cells has said that iPS (induced pluripotent) stem cells, the “embryo-like” cells hailed by many as the answer to the ethical problems presented by embryonic stem cells, are “probably” actually already embryos and have already, with the right conditions and treatment in the lab, developed into “complete animals” in experiments.

Christian Concern: Three Christians whose cases were rejected by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) earlier this year have requested a referral to the Grand Chamber.

Christian Institute: report for the Church of Scotland on same-sex relationships has suggested an order of service for a civil partnership blessing. The liturgy contains ideas for scripture readings, including passages about David and Jonathan, and Ruth and Naomi.

WorldNetDaily: Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, said Abedini’s physical condition is worsening amid the continued beatings from prison guards. “Following a brief visit from family members today, we have learned Pastor Saeed continues to suffer from the effects of a brutal beating one week ago and continues to be denied medical care,” Sekulow said.

AP: The legal adviser of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi resigned Tuesday, alleging that the Muslim Brotherhood has monopolized decision-making and encroached on the governing of the country.

Ed News: Up to 74 girls in Afghanistan have been treated after a suspected poisoning attack at their school, officials said yesterday.

EurasiasiaNet.org: The recent conviction of Turkish virtuoso pianist Fazil Say on charges of blasphemy is sending a troubling message to secular Turks that the Turkish government values religious expression only if it conforms to authorities’ views on religion.

Huffington Post: Home-schooling families in Europe have become a cause celebre for some U.S. conservatives. The Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom is working with two Swedish home-schooling families, including Christer and Annie Johansson, who lost custody of 11-year-old Domenic when they refused to enroll him in public school.

CBN (includes video): Alliance Defending Freedom and the Home-School Legal Defense Association have asked the European court of Human Rights to hear the case of a Swedish family heavily fined for home-schooling.

AP: The legislation also permit an heir to the throne to marry a Catholic, though Catholics would still be barred from succeeding to the throne.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: French parents who wish to pass on certain values to their children will clash in the coming months over the Republic’s education system, which the current Government wishes to reform, particularly in relation to the complementary …

NY Times: On Tuesday afternoon, France is expected to become the 14th country to legalize marriage for all couples, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Christian Science Monitor: Earlier this month, residents of a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala did something unprecedented when their settlement was attacked by Muslims: They fought back.

Daily Mail: Hymns have been dropped from assemblies at a Church of England school which has also introduced separate prayer rooms for girls and boys to cater to its mostly Muslim students. Daily assemblies at Slough and Eton Church of England Business and Enterprise College, where 75 per cent of pupils are Muslim, are not based specifically on the Bible, but may make reference to it alongside other religious texts.

Boston Globe: Hungary’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a modified plan to restrict the display of Nazi and communist symbols such as the swastika and red star.

Ken Blackwell at Townhall: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’s governing majority, is not actually crucifying the nation’s Christians. But they are nonetheless actively persecuting Coptic Christians who are said to be one-tenth of the population of the largest Arab country. A photograph of two young men set afire during recent demonstrations is pretty striking.

Doug McNeil at International Socialist Organization of NZ: The International Socialist Organization supported the campaign for equal marriage rights from the very beginning and, in a very modest way, we have done what we can, along with hundreds of other groups and individuals, to win this battle. We are proud of this. We will be all the prouder joining in the struggles to come. Working-class LGBTI people still have a world to win. I hope this victory so far away will give new energy and determination to everyone involved in the fight for equal marriage rights in the USA. Your fight is our fight. Our victory is your victory.

Wendy McElroy at Future Freedom Foundation: Many would disagree with Bonhoeffer’s simple and uncompromising Christianity but even those with no religious belief can find a rolemodel in his behavior. He and his family definitely disprove the theory of a German character flaw. They should make us pause before blaming a nationality or a race for the triumph of totalitarianism and make us consider, instead, the dynamics of how that tyranny came to be. As long as we blame only the character of individuals or defined groups, we will learn little about the more general institutional character of totalitarianism itself.

FT Magazine: Don’t misunderstand: this is not a tieless, first-naming internet start-up; these are courts of law, and based on hierarchy and deference. But the grandeur and remoteness that were inevitable when the court was an adjunct to the Lords have been swept away.

Washington Times: A Bush-era rule that forbids some federal AIDS money to go to groups unless they “explicitly” oppose prostitution and sex trafficking is heading to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

Richard Wolfe at USA Today: Fights against AIDS, sex traffic collide at high court At stake is a little-known provision in the law, intended mainly to combat HIV/AIDS, requiring most outside organizations that receive federal funds to have policies “explicitly …

Huffington Post: The United Nations offers a crucial, albeit under-acknowledged, platform for raising awareness about anti-LGBT bullying in terms of human rights and exchanging best practices to counteract the problem. Similarly, sports, with their exceptional capacity to straddle varying belief systems, serve as a universal language for communicating this message. In June 2011, for example, the UN Human Rights Council passed the United Nations’ first-ever resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity.

weden’s highest court is being asked to free an 11-year-old boy whom government officials have held in captivity for four years because his parents home-schooled him. Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom and the Home School Legal Defense Association are legal advisors to the parents, who are represented by Ruby Harrold-Claesson of the Nordic Committee on Human Rights.

CNA: A group of at least 14,900 French mayors has said it will not perform “gay marriages,” even if the government moves ahead with plans to legalize the practice.

AP: A look at recent major attacks attributed to the radical Islamic extremist network known as Boko Haram . . .

WorldNetDaily: Swedish parents Annie and Christer Johansson have launched what may be their last hope to see their son again – with an appeal to the Supreme Court of Sweden to overturn a lower court’s decision to end their parental rights over homeschooling . . . he HSLDA has been working on Domenic’s case, along with officials from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/homeschool-parents-have-1-shot-to-see-son-again/#vPLSHHFWFSdLzt1K.99

Alliance Defending Freedom and the Home School Legal Defense Association have asked the European Court of Human Rights to hear the case of a Swedish family heavily fined for home-schooling their daughter.

Reuters: Chanting “We don’t want your law, Hollande!”, some 50,000 protesters massed behind a banner reading: “All born of a Mum and a Dad” and said it was undemocratic to bring about such a fundamental social change without holding a …

LifeSiteNews: 77 people changed the institution of marriage in New Zealand from a conjugal union with the potential for generating children and providing them with the nurture of their own mother and father into “a union of 2 people regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity” with the potential for systematically depriving children of their mother or father, or both. All in the name of “love”. Starting in August.

Independent: Scuffles broke out in the French parliament in the early hours of as right-wing opposition to a gay marriage law becomes increasingly strident and ill-tempered.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: An international abortion advocacy group recently created a questionnaire as a way measure abortion stigma. However, a look at the series of questions reveals it’s not a neutral tool to measure people’s attitudes, but rather an implement of advocacy seeking to redirect stigma onto those who oppose abortion.

Christian Concern: A 57 year old man is seeking a court order that would allow doctors to end his life after joining forces with the family of Tony Nicklinson. The two cases will be heard together in the Court of Appeal on 14 and 15 May.

Meir Feder of Jones Day at SCOTUS Blog: The unanimous rejection of a view so firmly established in the lower courts may seem surprising. And yet, at the risk of indulging in 20/20 hindsight, I think that rejection was close to inevitable – at least once the Court decided in Sosa that the ATS did not make all international law violations actionable, and that any cause of action would have to be created “if at all, with great caution,” in a manner akin to the creation of federal common law and implied rights of action.

Christian Post: The Ministry of Awqaf’s decision was signed by Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Razik Abdel Hadi, the undersecretary for mosques, and Dr. Abdu Ali Meklad, senior undersecretary of the ministry. The decision prevents all departments across the country from having dealings with the Evangelical Church of Egypt.

Europe News: The Bavarian branch of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), has placed under state surveillance German activists accused of fomenting hate against Muslims due to their opposition to the construction of a mega-mosque in Munich.

Wesley J. Smith at NRO: Assisted suicide is not about terminal illness. It is about creating a legal right to be made dead. In the USA, this agenda is more hidden than elsewhere, but anyone with eyes to see can discern that truth.

Christian Concern: A Science teacher who was barred from teaching after expressing his beliefs on sexual ethics in the classroom has lost his case in the High Court.

Christian Institute: Over 1,000 cases of euthanasia were reported in Belgium in 2011 – a 4,620 per cent rise since the practice was legalised in 2002.

WorldNetDaily: The decision from the Supremes was that the Alien Tort Statute cannot be used to challenge foreign conduct in courts inside the United States. The ruling came down in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, but attorneys for Pastor Scott Lively say it means a claim brought against him by an organization called Sexual Minorities Uganda should be dismissed.

Reuters: Former President Pervez Musharraf fled a courtroom on Thursday after judges ordered his arrest to answer allegations he committed treason in 2007, an ignominious retreat for a man who once dominated Pakistan and had hoped to revive his political fortunes.

Ryamond Ibrahim at Middle East Forum: While it is easy to confuse the recent jihadi attack on Egypt’s St. Mark Cathedral in Cairo as just more of the usual, this attack has great symbolic significance, and in many ways bodes great evil for Egypt’s millions of Christians.

AP: Liberia’s new top judge is vowing to address concerns from human rights groups about lengthy delays for people facing trial.

NPR: More than 23,600 people were victims of human trafficking in Europe during a recent three-year period, according to a new European Union report that says the problem is growing worse. Its authors say the official figures do not come close to describing the crime . . .

Montreal Gazette: Specialists at Akdeniz University Hospital placed an embryo into Sert’s womb earlier this week in hopes she will become the first woman with a uterus transplant to give birth.

Irish Times: A new forum for communication between the judiciary and the Government has been formed, the Chief Justice has announced.

Christian Post: More than 500 Christian girls have been reported kidnapped in Egypt since the revolution began in January 2011, with the age of the girls kidnapped usually being between 12 and 14.

LifeNews: After legislators finally caved in to pressure from our president and Western NGOs to pass the anti-life Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, the Filipino people are coming together to make sure that candidates promoting and defending life, faith and family will be elected this May.

Christian Institute: People feel forced to say they agree with gay marriage because campaigners have created a society where disagreement is “abnormal” according to an atheist commentator.

Times of Zambia: Home Affairs Deputy Minister Steven Kampyongo said in an interview yesterday that the Government and Church mother bodies recently held a meeting and it was resolved that the country will not recognise any practice that abrogates the biblical, cultural and social norms of society. “We have just had a detailed consultative meeting with the church and top on the agenda was the issue of gay rights.

Christian Today: According to Barnabas Aid, the Religious Affairs Ministry in Sri Lanka has announced that it intends to introduce legislation enabling the authorities to take action against religious groups that are deemed cults in a move that threatens some of the country’s churches.

NY Times: gyptian activists have begun an online campaign against sectarianism in the wake of a deadly attack on mourners at Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral this month.

Express.co.uk: Fears that famine-stricken North Koreans are being forced to eat human flesh heightened earlier this year following claims a man was executed for murdering his two children for food.

WorldBulletin.net: While Muslims and Jews came to Mexico early in the colonial period as ‘false Christians,’ approximately half the Muslims in Mexico today are among the rising number of converts, or reverts.

Guardian: As popularity of rightwing party Hefazat-e-Islam grows, millions of female garment workers increasingly fear for their jobs.

LifeSiteNews: In at least three different marches organized in various cities of Peru in recent weeks, as many as 130,000 people have marched to express their support for the right to life and their opposition to the legalization of abortion, which is being heavily promoted in Peru by international organizations.

Iona Institute: The study titled “Does abortion reduce the mental health risks of unwanted or unintended pregnancy? A re-appraisal of the evidence” was published in the April edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

LifeSiteNews: Since last Friday, public demonstrations against same-sex “marriage” and adoption in France have been escalating, not only in Paris but also in remote provincial towns and even abroad among French expatriates. The Senate’s approval of the gay marriage bill (known as the “loi Taubira,” after the Justice Minister that proposed the text to the legislature) has sparked off a wave of anger, and groups of determined young people all over the country have decided to make their presence felt.

Religion Clause Blog: The court imposed a 10 month suspended sentence on Say, indicating that he would be imprisoned only if he commits a similar crime again within the next 5 years.

Gay Star News: The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has promised to lead a global campaign for LGBT rights. And he has told governments around the world that they have a ‘legal duty’ to protect gay and trans people and that ‘culture, tradition or religion’ could not be used as an excuse for failing to do so.

AP: Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage.

AP: Hungary has failed to reinstate judges and prosecutors it forced into early retirement in breach of EU law, the European Union’s justice chief said Wednesday . . .

SCOTUS Blog: Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum: What’s at stake, and for whom?

Nina Shea at National Review: North Korea’s Kim dynasty considers religion a hindrance to the nation’s socialist evolution. For 50 years, its secret police has waged a brutal campaign to eradicate religious belief. It has nearly succeeded. But the numbers of Christian believers are now slowly rising (maybe even in the low hundreds of thousands) and they must be prepared to pay with their lives for their faith.

Union Bulletin: Vietnam should legalize same-sex marriage immediately, the deputy minister of health was quoted as saying today by local media . . . The National Assembly is scheduled to discuss allowing same-sex marriage when the law is reviewed in May.