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In the News

  • Breitbart: Park bench honoring toddler killed in hit-and-run removed for featuring Bible verses
    December 9th, 2015
    In Elkin, North Carolina, a bench honoring the memory of a 16-month-old boy who died in a hit-and-run car accident was removed from a municipal park because a bible verse and two crosses were engraved on it.
     
    On Saturday, Heather Roten, whose toddler son Mason died on September 6 when a black Chevy Impala pushed her husband Stewart Roten’s car off the road and into a tree, which fell, crushing Mason, was tearful as the bench was installed by alumni from Elkin High School.
     
    The bench, which the alumni made, sat near the playground at Elkin Municipal Park where Mason and his brother used to play every week, Roten recalled, adding, “They had a blast down here… He was just a joyful little boy.”
     
    But after the bench was removed Monday, Roten was shocked, saying sadly, “One day we come down here with this beautiful bench and tears of joy and now it’s being taken away as if we haven’t been through enough already. I just could not believe that they would take something away from my precious little baby like that.”
     
    Ben Whitecross, an Elkin High alumnus who knew the Roten family, asserted that he obtained permission from the town’s parks and recreation director, Adam McComb. Whitecross said that he was told the bible verse and crosses were the ostensible reason for the bench’s removal.
  • Guardian:Tyson Fury says 'I have the same opinions as the pope'
    December 9th, 2015

    Tyson Fury is facing criticism over comments he made about women and gay people since his heavyweight win. But on Wednesday he tells ITV News he is not concerned about being investigated by police – as his views are the same as the pope’s.

  • Life News: British Pregnancy Advisory Service put women's health at risk by not following safety protocols
    December 9th, 2015
    A British abortion clinic has been putting women’s health at risk by not following hospital transfer protocols, according to a new investigation.
     
    Inspectors with the British National Health Services discovered that a Twickenham abortion facility may not have been transferring patients experiencing complications to hospitals soon enough or reporting incidents of harm, according to the news website Local London.
     
    Investigators learned from hospital staff that they were “not always involved at an early enough stage” when there was a complication at the abortion clinic, the report states. Investigators also were “not assured that [the abortion clinic] staff routinely reported all minor and non-clinical incidents which could also cause harm, according to the report.
  • Mail: Police to quiz boxing champion Tyson Fury for appearing to link homosexuals and paedophiles
    December 9th, 2015
    Police are investigating comments made by Tyson Fury in which he appeared to link homosexuals to paedophiles.
     
    The world heavyweight boxing champion linked abortion and homosexuality with paedophilia, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday's Chief Sports Writer Oliver Holt.
     
    The interview took place before his big fight with Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany, last week.

    The self-proclaimed Gypsy King said: 'There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home.
     
    'One of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other is paedophilia. Who would have thought in the 50s and 60s that those first two would be legalised?...'
  • Guardian: Estranged lesbian couple's fight over child goes to supreme court
    December 8th, 2015
    The question of whether a seven-year-old girl, caught up in an international dispute between her estranged lesbian mothers, should be subject to British justice is to be decided by the supreme court.
     
    The child, known only as B, was conceived as a result of IVF and removed by her biological mother, who is her sole legal parent, to Pakistan in February last year.
     
    The second woman considers herself a “de facto” parent and has launched legal action, seeking to have her daughter made a ward of court and returned to the UK. The parents’ relationship broke down in 2011, three years after the girl was born. 
     
    The high court and the court of appeal declined to intervene. They considered that they did not have jurisdiction because B was no longer resident in the UK when the proceedings, brought under the Children Act, were started. 
     
    Supreme court justices have now been asked to consider exercising an ancient common law power, parens patriae. David Williams QC, who represents the second woman, said the rule gave the state responsibility for citizens who owed allegiance to the crown and would enable a judge in England to oversee the girl’s case. 
  • BBC: 'Trojan Horse' school 'renamed Easter eggs so they did not sound Christian'
    December 8th, 2015
    Teachers at a school linked to the Trojan Horse affair renamed Easter eggs to remove any links to Christianity, a former employee claims.
     
    Hilary Owens, a former teaching assistant at Adderley Primary School in Birmingham, told an employment tribunal they were rebranded "chocolate eggs".
     
    Another former staff member said Muslim pupils were put on lists to stop them going on Easter basket-making classes.
     
    Ms Owens is claiming unfair dismissal alongside three other ex-staff members.
  • Premier: Free Church calls decriminalising prostitution in Scotland "a regressive step for society"
    December 8th, 2015
    The Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland has described a bid by an independent Highlands MSP to decriminalise prostitution as "a regressive step for society".
     
    A consultation by Jean Urquhart MSP on her proposed law reforms on prostitution closes today (Tuesday 8 December). 
     
    The Free Kirk said it shared Ms Urquhart's compassionate concern to protect vulnerable sex workers from abuse but said it felt her suggested remedy of decriminalising the commercial sex trade would only "empower pimps and brothel owners and perpetuate the cycle of violence, coercion and subjugation".
     
    Instead, the denomination suggested greater Scottish Government investment in programmes like SACRO's 'Another Way', which seeks to change lifestyles and long-term behaviour. 
     
    Unlike Jean Urquhart, the Free Church believes that "any moral framework that would perpetuate the miseries of the sex trade regressive and harmful".
  • Christian Today: Sunday schools and youth groups to face Ofsted inspections warns Evangelical Alliance
    December 8th, 2015
    Sunday schools, home schooling, youth groups, churches and even Christian festivals could face Ofsted inspections under new government proposals, the Evangelical Alliance is warning.
     
    The Evangelical Alliance is calling on its members to respond to a government consultation on extremism which will require educational groups outside school to register with the Department of Education and have regular Ofsted inspections.
     
    Churches, youth groups, holiday clubs, church camps, Christian festivals, Bible-reading groups, homeschooling events or training courses for those under 19, lasting six hours or more per week, would be subject to registration and inspection by Ofsted under the current proposals, according to the alliance. "As it stands, a single one-off event lasting a day would also appear to require registration," the alliance warned.
     
    The government is "concerned" about educational settings, including supplementary schools and tuition centres.
     
    It has been estimated that there are more than 3,000 supplementary schools in England providing education and activities for children.
  • BBC: Police 'not properly prepared' to tackle honour-based crime
    December 8th, 2015
    Police in England and Wales are not adequately prepared to combat so-called honour-based crimes, inspectors say.
     
    In the first review of police responses, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary said three forces out of 43 were completely unprepared and only three were fully prepared.
     
    Well-trained officers capable of spotting victims were spread thinly across England and Wales, HMIC said.
     
    Police chiefs said they were doing all they could to end honour-based abuse.
     
    Honour crime is the name given to offences carried out by people claiming they are protecting their cultural and religious beliefs.
     
    The HMIC review of police preparedness examined police tactics for identifying and stopping forced marriages and female genital mutilation (FGM).
  • BBC: Hospital sorry for 'do not resuscitate' order on Down's syndrome patient
    December 8th, 2015
    A hospital trust has apologised for placing a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order on a patient with Down's Syndrome - and listing his learning difficulties among the reasons for doing so.
     
    The family of Andrew Waters was not consulted or informed and found out only after he was discharged from hospital in Margate, Kent, in 2011.
     
    East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust has admitted breaching his human rights.
     
    Mr Waters died in May, aged 53, but the order did not have a bearing.
     
    His family has never sought compensation over his death.

    However, BBC News can report the case surrounding the DNR order after getting a court order protecting Mr Waters' anonymity lifted, with the consent of his family.