Tag Archives: Global: Miscellaneous

AP: “Cuba and China are more peaceful than the United States, according to a global peace index published Thursday. The report, which says the world is becoming a more violent place, was prepared by the Sydney, Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace . . . ”

The Christian Institute: “Prisoners are converting to Islam to gain better food and the protection of fellow Muslims, according to an official report released today . . . Muslim Prisoners’ Experiences, which is written by Dame Ann Owers the Chief Inspector of Prisons, reveals that 30 per cent of the nation’s 10,300 Muslim inmates have taken up the faith whilst in prison.”

CP-24: “Ontario’s top court has overturned the acquittal of a man who claimed he collected more than 600 images of child pornography for artistic purposes . . . Katigbak was acquitted in 2008 of one count of possession of child pornography. In a judgment released Tuesday, the Appeal Court set that aside and convicted him instead, referring sentencing to the trial judge.”

BBC: “Most people in the UK associate Islam with extremism and the repression of women, a survey has suggested. The online YouGov poll found 58% of those questioned linked Islam with extremism while 69% believed it encouraged the repression of women.”

JURIST: “The Chinese government on Tuesday defended its Internet censorship laws in a report detailing Internet usage within the country. China reported that nearly 30 percent of its population currently has access to the Internet and that they expect that number to increase to nearly 50 percent in the next five years.”

Brett D. Schaefer writing at National Review Online: “How is the International Criminal Court getting along? To answer that question, the Review Conference for the ICC was convened in Kampala, Uganda, on May 31 and is scheduled to last through June 11. It was launched with an ambitious agenda to engage in a stocktaking exercise, assess the Court’s record since 2002, and consider three amendments to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. The organizers and supportive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had high hopes that the conference would result in a ringing endorsement of the Court and the adoption of amendments that would greatly enhance its power. Midway through the conference, however, that agenda is taking on water. Most surprising — and gratifying — is that concerns and objections raised by the Obama administration have been central to interrupting the momentum of the conference and, hopefully, stopping the adoption of the proposed amendments.” | International Criminal Court

LifeSiteNews: “Ten foreign diplomats, including ambassadors from the UK and U.S., signed a statement expressing ‘support’ and ‘solidarity’ with the Romanian homosexualist movement last month. The statement, which has been published on the website of the British Embassy in Bucharest, was issued May 20 to coincide with ‘Gayfest,’ the week-long annual festival organized by the national homosexualist lobby group.”

AP: “All but a handful of countries in the 27-nation bloc are violating EU deficit limits and their ability to reduce debt is critical to maintaining trust in their economies, keeping borrowing costs down, avoiding national defaults and restoring faith in the 16-country euro.”

Telegraph: “Divorced clergy are to be allowed to become Church of England bishops for the first time in a move which has been condemned by traditionalists . . . The Church is set to issue a statement announcing the new policy next month after legal advice made clear that there is no obstacle to a divorcee, or a priest married to a divorcee, being consecrated.”

Hudson New York: “As there are no actually verifiable statistics, the truth may be better — or worse. ‘The fact is,’ said one seasoned political consultant, ‘that with the adoption of the acquis communitaire as a necessary requirement for the Eastern bloc nations to become members of the EU, means [sic] that up to 90% of all new laws come from Brussels. With a Western European nation such as the United Kingdom, the percentage is more likely to be 60-65%, but this still means that the European Parliament does really have a voice and serious clout.’”

Telegraph: “High Wycombe Cemetery in Buckinghamshire currently has a separate Muslim burial section but this is due to run out of space in 2012 . . . The council have now settled on extending High Wycombe cemetery terracing to form new burial areas, walls, paths and steps for access at a cost of £150,000.”

CNN: “Both the upper and lower houses of Japan’s parliament elected Finance Minister Naoto Kan to be the nation’s new prime minister Friday, following the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama from the post earlier this week.”

Reuters: “A United Nations committee that decides which nongovernmental organizations can be accredited to the world body moved on Thursday to keep out the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.”

Catholic News Agency: “Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, was reportedly stabbed to death in Iskendurun, Turkey on Thursday by his driver, who also served as his aide.” | Vatican Radio

Washington Examiner: “The Mexican consular office in Los Angeles issued a flier, a copy of which was obtained by The Examiner, listing the Catalina Island Country Club as the location of its satellite office. It invites Mexicans to visit the office to obtain the identification, called matricular cards, by appointment.” | Update from the Examiner: “Mexican government officials have moved their satellite consular office from the Catalina Island Country Club to a Catholic Church – citing protection under the Geneva Convention – after it was discovered that they did not have the appropriate paperwork to issue the island’s illegal immigrants identification cards.”

AdelaideNow: “At a rally on the steps of Parliament House yesterday, Labor backbencher Steph Key announced she would introduce a private member’s bill to decriminalise the industry.”

AFP: “Australian Rules star Jason Akermanis has been suspended by his club over a controversial newspaper column in which he urged gay players to ‘stay in the closet’.”

Telegraph: “Germany’s President Horst Koehler resigned on Monday after being criticised for appearing to link military deployments in Afghanistan with the country’s economic interests.”

Nidhi Nigam and Neha Vaidya, Sex Trafficking as a Human Rights Issue (May 20, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1612383

“Multilateral treaties and customary international law condemn slavery. Since its inception, the United Nations has always been committed to the abolition or elimination of slavery.But despite a multitude of U.N. recommendations, decisions, and other pronouncements, slavery is not dead, and the traffic and sale of human beings for sexual exploitation are flourishing. Trafficking should be dealt with not as an immigration problem requiring exclusionary laws and practices, but as a human rights issue. Conceptual clarity with regard to trafficking is the only way we can prevent the enactment of laws and programmes to prevent trafficking that violate other human rights of women.”

AFP: “UN chief Ban Ki-moon persuaded Malawi’s president to pardon a gay couple jailed for holding a wedding, but his call to reform anti-gay laws poses a challenge to most of Africa.”

New York Daily News: “The fast-food giant McDonald’s wants to be seen as a company that welcomes everyone. Judging by a new advertisement running on French television, that includes gays.”

WSJ: “Watching China’s instant condemnation of the Israeli assault on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, South Koreans must be wondering more than ever when China will muster a clear response to their own nautical tragedy.”

Voice of America News: “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Tuesday referred repeatedly to the language in a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the acts which resulted in the loss of life . . . ”

Irish Times: “The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and Children at Risk in Ireland (Cari) were responding to RTÉ’s Primetime Investigates programme about the issue last night. The investigation found more than 1,000 individual computers in Ireland had, in one month alone, accessed images of children being abused.”

Interfax: “The Russian Orthodox Church welcomes solidarity between the government and society in rejecting sex minorities’ attempts to hold a gay pride parade in Moscow.”

Interfax: “Boroda highlighted that the Jewish community ‘is in no case willing to oppose any democratic rights, including the right to hold demonstrations,’ but organizers and participants of gay parades ‘insist on public demonstration of their life style’ – however, “normal people prefer to conceal their private and family lives from others.”

AP: “Turkey is demanding that the United States condemn the botched Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists . . . ”

Guardian: “The United States is sending a succession of envoys to engage with Hamas but lacks the bravery to talk to the Islamist movement openly, its leader, Khaled Meshal, said in an interview with the Guardian . . . ”

AFP:  ”Washington’s unprecedented backing for a UN resolution for a nuclear-free Middle East that singles out Israel has both angered and deeply worried the Jewish state although officials are cagey about openly criticising their biggest ally. The resolution adopted by the United Nations on Friday calls on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and urges it to open its facilities to inspection . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “Australia is now requiring visitors to the country to declare any pornography they are bringing with them . . . ‘It’s no different than what the authorities do now in terms of searching for illegal drugs, fruits and vegetables brought into the country against the law, etc. And so as they are randomly checking suitcases, if they find child pornography or adult pornography, which apparently they realize is harmful, they have every right to say, “This violates our law. We do not want this in our country,”‘ Trueman reports.”

Christian Post: “In a Pentecost letter released by the Anglican Communion News Service Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed that The Episcopal Church play a lesser role in certain dialogues. He stopped short of asking the U.S. body to leave.”

LifeSiteNews: “One of Italy’s most outspokenly dissenting Catholic priests, Domenico Pezzini, has been arrested for abuse of a male teenaged victim. Pezzini, a 73 year-old priest of the diocese of Lodi, was arrested Monday in Milan. Police also revealed that a large quantity of child pornography had been found after a search of Pezzini’s residence.”

The Moscow Times: “Gay activists on Thursday vowed to stage a weekend pride parade outside the European Commission’s building in central Moscow despite a court ruling upholding a City Hall ban on the gathering Thursday.” | For more information, see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/country-russia+topic-homosexual-agenda/

Times Online: “Britain will review its aid to Malawi if the Government refuses to free two gay men who were sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour this week . . . ”

UKPA: “Major Russian internet hosting companies have signed a declaration on joint policies aimed at fighting child pornography and hate speech.”

AP: “A Swiss man fined for nude hiking has won an appeal of the 100-franc ($87) penalty because a court decided that the charge of ‘indecent behavior’ did not apply.”

Taiwan News: “Russian and Western activists blasted European national governments and the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, for denying them permission for a gay parade on the grounds of an embassy. That would have greatly reduced the threat of violence to which activists are subjected while meeting in Russia.”

AP: “Two ultranationalist Israeli activists have been arrested for shouting insults at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The two men approached Emanuel Thursday as he was touring Jerusalem’s Old City with his family under heavy security.”

AP: “Some Japanese women who in their childhood were victims of pornography have written about their fears and anguish in being betrayed by adults they had trusted, and in imagining that lewd images of themselves as young children could be still circulating around the world on the Internet . . . ”

Breitbart (AP): “A Japanese government working group released a plan Thursday to have Internet service providers block access to child pornography sites as soon as they are found, without waiting for the operators of such sites to comply with requests to delete them.”

Interfax: “Moscow’s Tagansky Court has upheld a decision by the city’s authorities to ban a gay pride parade planned for this Sunday, the parade’s organizer Nikolay Alexeyev said.”

The Christian Institute: “The NHS in Glasgow has been lambasted for offering almost £22k a year for a hair removal specialist for transsexuals. Health officials in Strathclyde placed an advert for a full-time ‘Hair Removal Specialist – Transgender Services’, despite criticism that there may only be a handful of transsexuals in the area.”

The Christian Institute: “A Scottish newsagent has been fined just £53 for selling pornographic magazines on the bottom shelf, but critics are concerned the small fine will not restrain other shops from doing the same.”

MYFoxDC.com: “A 58-year-old British transsexual Tuesday lost her court battle over the state-funded health service’s refusal to pay for a breast enlargement, which she claimed violated her human rights.”

Times Online: “The number of children born to mothers in their forties has almost trebled in the past two decades and continues to rise, latest figures show. Nearly 27,000 babies were born to women aged 40 and over in 2009 — compared with the 9,336 live births in 1989. The total was also almost double the 14,252 babies born to older mothers a decade ago. The latest health data for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics yesterday, shows that the total number of live births dropped slightly last year — the first annual decrease since 2001.”

AP: “Britain’s top medical group ruled Monday that a doctor who claimed autism was linked to a childhood vaccine can no longer practice in the U.K . . . In a statement then, Wakefield said the medical council’s investigation was an effort to ‘discredit and silence” him to “shield the government from exposure on the (measles) vaccine scandal.’”

Religion Clause Blog: “They wrote to Emanuel: ‘We promise to accompany your son’s bar mitzvah events in Israel, we will make sure to receive you as you deserve to be received … with catcalls and disgust.’”

Telegraph: “By any legitimate measure, Greece was unworthy of eurozone membership. That it achieved card-carrying status was down to the sleight-of-hand skills of its Brussels fixers and the acquiescence of central bank bean-counters. Now we know the truth, jet-hosing it with yet more debt makes no sense. Another dose of funny money will delay but not extinguish the need for austerity. This is why the euro, in its current form, is finished.”

Times Online: “Britain will review its aid to Malawi if the Government refuses to free two gay men who were sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour this week. Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, came under pressure yesterday to begin withdrawing £19 million of British ‘budget support’ for the Commonwealth country’s Government.”

BBC: “David Cameron has told German leader Angela Merkel the UK will not agree to hand any further powers to Brussels. After talks in Berlin, the prime minister said there was ‘no question’ of him backing any treaty giving the EU more powers to shore up the eurozone.”

AFP: “French Muslims celebrated Thursday when work began to build the country’s biggest mosque in the southern port city of Marseille, a potent symbol of Islam’s place in modern France.”

ABC News | Radio Australia: “A new requirement that travellers to Australia declare any pornography they’re carrying is being condemned by lobbyists for internet freedom and the sex industry.”

Vatican Information Service: “Modern culture, particularly in Europe, runs the risk of amnesia, of forgetting and thus abandoning the extraordinary heritage aroused and inspired by Christian faith, which is the essential framework of the culture of Europe, and not only of Europe. The Christian roots of the continent are, in fact, made up not only of religious life and the witness of so many generation of believers, but also of the priceless cultural and artistic heritage which is the pride and precious resource of the peoples and countries in which Christian faith, in its various expressions, has entered into dialogue with culture and the arts.”

The Christian Institute: “A Government-run Jobcentre has been forced to remove adverts recruiting webcam strippers, following a flood of complaints. Last week it emerged that jobseekers were being offered up to £100 a day to perform ‘nude or semi-nude’ in front of webcams.”

AFP: “Moscow city hall has banned a gay pride march planned for later this month, citing security reasons, organiser Nikolai Alexeyev said Thursday.”

Courier Mail: “Football clubs are very different environments. Locker room nudity is an everyday part of our lives and unlike any other work place. I believe it would cause discomfort in that environment should someone declare himself gay.”

CNN: “A court in Malawi has found a gay couple guilty of gross indecency and unnatural acts, according to witnesses who heard the verdict Tuesday. Sentencing will take place May 20. The two young men face up to 14 years of hard labor.”

NPR: “The U.S. is giving $1.3 billion in military and judicial aid to Mexico to help Calderon’s battle against the drug mafias . . . An NPR News investigation in Ciudad Juarez — ground zero of Calderon’s cartel war — finds strong evidence that Mexico’s drug fight is rigged, according to court testimony, current and former law enforcement officials, and an NPR analysis of cartel arrests . . . In that border city, federal forces appear to be favoring one cartel, the Sinaloa (named after the coastal state in northwestern Mexico), which the U.S. Justice Department calls one of the largest organized crime syndicates in the world . . . ”

Related USA Today: Mexican president’s visit to focus on immigration

LifeSiteNews: “The president of Canada’s public broadcaster told the Senate finance committee that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which has gained a firm reputation in Canada for its heavy liberal slant, has commissioned a study on itself to determine whether its news is biased.”

Reuters: “HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men has hit alarming levels in Asia and most of them do not have access to services and care due to punitive laws which drive them underground, a U.N.-backed report said on Monday . . . ”

EU Observer: “A fresh survey by the International Lesbian and Gay Association has said that the predominantly Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian countries of eastern Europe have the worst track record on gay rights. Ukraine and Russia scored the lowest on the ILGA index, closely followed by Belarus, Moldova and Turkey. In the EU, Cyprus, Latvia and Poland are the least progressive. Belarus police on Saturday (15 May) cemented the country’s reputation by violently breaking-up a small, 20-person-strong Slavic Pride march.”

National Post: “HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men has hit alarming levels in Asia and most of them do not have access to services and care due to punitive laws which drive them underground, a U.N.-backed report said on Monday.” | United Nations Development Programme: Punitive laws limit access to HIV prevention and care services in Asia Pacific

Ottawa Citizen: “The criminal case against an Ottawa man has cast light on potentially unsafe sexual practices by some people in the gay community. Steven Paul Boone, 29, was charged earlier this month with nine counts of aggravated sexual assault for knowingly failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to another Ottawa man, now 18, who contracted the disease after the two had unprotected sex several times in January and February.”

B-92: “President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek has condemned homophobia as International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) is marked today. ‘The European Union is devoted to combating discrimination on any ground: homophobia is no exception. This commitment is enshrined in our fundamental legal texts: both in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and in the Treaty of the European Union,’ Buzek said.”

Interfax: “Representatives of sexual minorities in Minsk were prevented by police from holding an unauthorized rally, head of the GayRussia human rights project and co-organizer of the 2010 Slavic Gay Pride Parade Nikolay Alexeyev told Interfax on Saturday.”

Telegraph: “President Nicolas Sarkozy slammed his fist on the table and threatened to pull France out of the euro at a meeting of European leaders deciding Greece’s aid package last Friday, according to Spain’s El Pais newspaper.”

ABC: “Libya and Thailand are among 14 countries elected as new members of the UN Human Rights Council in a vote that rights advocates have criticised as stripping the meaning from the body. Angola, Mauritania, Uganda, Maldives, Malaysia, Qatar, Moldova, Poland, Ecuador, Guatemala, Spain and Switzerland have also been elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms on the 47-nation council, which is based in Geneva.”

The Gospel Herald: “Nigeria swore in its new president, a Christian, this week after months of leadership confusion while its elected president was receiving medical treatment. Goodluck Jonathan, who has been Nigeria’s acting president since February, officially became president of Nigeria on Thursday. His Muslim predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died on Wednesday despite extensive treatment, including a medical stay in Saudi Arabia.”

Interfax: “Gays in St. Petersburg intend to conduct an action entitled rainbow flash mob to mark the international day against homophobia on May 17, the organization Vykhod, which campaigns for the rights of gays and lesbians, told Interfax on Thursday.”

Breitbart (AP): “The Obama administration faces a delicate balancing act in human rights talks with China that began Thursday: It looks to pressure China to improve treatment of its citizens while not angering a country that is crucial to U.S. international interests . . . ”

Christian Science Monitor: “As with the 2006 World Cup in Germany, a rampant sex trade is of concern to human rights groups ahead of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, which kicks off next month. Prostitutes, many from impoverished Zimbabwe, are arriving to cash in on an estimated 500,000 visiting fans . . . ”

Pink News: “A trans woman has launched a legal challenge after her primary care trust decided she could not have breast implants funded by the NHS. The woman, named only as ‘C’, says her emotional well-being has been damaged by the refusal and claims it violates her human rights.”

Pink News: “Theresa May has been appointed home secretary and minister for equality, replacing Chris Grayling who was dubbed ‘homophobic’ by gay rights groups after suggesting that bed and breakfast owners should be able to ban gay couples. But analysis by PinkNews.co.uk reveals that Mrs May has voted consistently against gay and transgendered rights.”

BBC: “The Baltic republic of Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, is on course to adopt the euro in January 2011, the European Commission says . . . The Commission’s assessment covered: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Every two years the Commission judges whether their economic conditions meet the strict Maastricht criteria.”

NY Times: “The paperwork, recovered by the Mexican authorities from a suspected associate of the drug don, Joaquín Guzmán, show that he has a sophisticated counterintelligence operation and that he is a master at buying off top police officers and soldiers with his ample drug profits.”