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In the News

  • World Watch Monitor: Christianity contracting in MidEast, Africa
    October 16th, 2015
    Christianity is fast disappearing from entire regions, most notably a huge chunk of the Middle East, and could vanish from Iraq within 5 years, according to a new report by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.
     
    Released in the UK’s House of Lords on Tuesday, the report, "Persecuted and Forgotten?" says Christians are migrating away from areas in the Middle East and parts of Africa where, a generation ago, they were both numerous and influential.
     
    ‘Christians are fast disappearing from entire regions – most notably a huge chunk of the Middle East but also whole dioceses in Africa,’ the report says.
     
    The growing threat of militant Muslim groups ‘is a primary cause in the contraction of Christianity – changing from being a global faith into a regional one, with the faithful increasingly absent from ever-widening areas’.
  • Guardian: Don't interfere on human rights, says Chinese envoy before Xi's UK visit
    October 16th, 2015
    China’s president, Xi Jinping, would feel offended if his five-day state visit to Britain was used to raise the subject of Beijing’s human rights record, China’s ambassador to the UK has said.
     
    Liu Xiaoming said Britain was fast becoming the leader of the western countries with the best relations with China, and said he expected Xi’s visit to “herald a golden era for the relationship”.
     
    But Liu suggested the president would not respond well if reprimanded on human rights during his visit.
     
    Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has already promised to raise human rights issues next week, probably at a state banquet organised by the Queen. He has also been afforded a meeting with the Chinese leader at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening before the banquet.
     
    No 10 will be desperate that Corbyn does not make his views known in a way that offends the Chinese or jeopardises much-needed Chinese investments in UK infrastructure, including its nuclear power plants.
  • Times (£): New rules 'pose huge threat to press freedom'
    October 16th, 2015
    Laws to regulate the newspaper industry from next month pose the “most substantial threat to press freedom in the modern era” and are a great danger to local publications, campaigners have warned.
     
    A report by freedom of speech experts said that the new press regulation legal framework, which will give judges the power to impose exemplary damages on publishers, was a huge threat.
     
    Leveson’s Illiberal Legacy argues that local newspapers could be crippled by the financial burden the laws impose. The report urges the government to repeal sections of the Crime and Courts Act and annul the royal charter set up to underpin new press regulation.
  • Mail: Gay couple divorce so they can include THIRD man in their relationship
    October 15th, 2015
    Two married men have revealed how they got a divorce just one year after tying the knot – so they could include a third man in their relationship.
    Adam Grant and Shayne Curran, from Nova Scotia, Canada, said 'I do' in 2011 after dating for more than two years.
     
    However, they met Sebastian Tran in a nightclub in September 2012 and immediately hit it off – and decided to end their marriage so they could make a commitment to each other as a threesome.
     
    The trio, who all work in the medical profession, now live together and are hoping to start a family someday – with help from Seb's and Shayne's sisters who will act as surrogates and egg donors.
     
    Although being married to more than one person is not legal in Canada, the trio say they have spoken lawyers who can draw up paperwork to make sure they are 'equally bound and obligated to each other in the eyes of the law'.
  • Christian Today: Sunday trading proposals contradict The Big Society and will damage families, says Church of England
    October 15th, 2015
    The Church of England has criticised Government plans to devolve responsibility for Sunday Trading regulations, saying it contradicts David Cameron's idea of The Big Society.
     
    'Keep Sunday Special' is a coalition of organisations campaigning against the devolution of Sunday trading laws.
    The mission and public affairs council of the Church of England firmly opposed the plans in a document submitted to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
     
    Current laws restrict opening hours for large stores on a Sunday but smaller stores can open all day. The Government's proposal is to allow local areas to decide the Sunday trading rules for themselves.
     
    However the Church of England's response argued this would damage community and family life.
     
    "We believe that proposals to extend Sunday shopping hours are directly contradictory to the Government's desire to build more resilient local communities and to encourage social capital to take the place of the state in creating good neighbourhoods," the Church's response read.
  • Telegraph: Girl must stay in touch with two 'fathers' after 'extraordinary' High Court case
    October 15th, 2015
    A 14-year-old girl who was born as a result of donor fertilisation and is embroiled in an "extraordinary" High Court case has been ordered to stay in touch with her two "fathers".
     
    The teenager, who has been at the centre of litigation between her two "fathers" and two "mothers" for half her life, was represented by a lawyer at a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court and invoked provisions of the 1989 Children Act in a bid to persuade a judge she should be left to "reach her own conclusions".
     
    But Mr Justice Cobb has ruled against the youngster and decided that it is in her best interests to have a "limited form of relationship" with her fathers.
  • Guardian: Trojan horse teachers 'gave pupils handout saying wives cannot refuse sex'
    October 14th, 2015
    Teachers at a school embroiled in the Trojan horse scandal distributed a document to male pupils claiming wives could not refuse sex from their husbands, a professional disciplinary hearing has heard.
     
    A former teacher at Park View school in Birmingham told the hearing she was “absolutely horrified” when she was made aware of the document.
     
    The teacher, who can be identified only as Witness A, said it was given to the pupils by three male staff members who were teaching sex education lessons at the school, including Akeel Ahmed and Inamulhaq Anwar, who are facing disciplinary hearings by the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL).
     
    Ahmed and Anwar – who both taught at Park View, one of the state schools at the centre of the Trojan horse allegations of a conspiracy to promote conservative Islamic practices – are alleged to have taken part in “unacceptable professional conduct” as part of a group attempting to impose “an undue amount of religious influence in the education of pupils”.
  • Telegraph: French court sets EU precedent by recognising 'gender neutral' person
    October 14th, 2015
    A French court has set a European precedent by granting a 64-year-old the right to write 'gender neutral" on official forms.
     
    But the state prosecutor has appealed the ruling in Tours, central France, over fears this will lead to spate of legal cases across the continent demanding recognition of a “third sex”.
     
    The case was brought by an “intersex” person born with both male and female attributes producing no sexual hormones and referred to as “ile” – a cross between the third person “he” and “she” in French.
  • US Department of State: The 2014 International Religious Freedom Report
    October 14th, 2015

    In 2014, non-state actors committed some of the world’s most egregious abuses of religious freedom and other human rights. Government failure, delay, and inadequacy in combatting these groups often had severe consequences for people living under significant and dire restrictions on, and interference with, their exercise of freedom of religion. Other concerning trends over the year included significant increases in the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents, and increasing restrictions on religious liberty imposed under the pretext of combatting terrorism and violent extremism.

  • Life News: Police raid abortionist’s home, find 14 plastic containers of aborted babies in his car
    October 14th, 2015
    Local police have raided the upscale West Bloomfield, Michigan home of abortionist Michael Roth after acting on evidence that Roth may be performing illegal abortions — doing abortions either out of his home or in the private homes of his customers. In the course of the raid, police found what they believe are 14 containers that possibly contain the bodies of aborted babies along with other human tissue.
     
    The trunk of Roth’s car also contained medical equipment used for abortion procedures. Investigators confiscated  medical “materials” in bags and boxes at Roth’s home. Now, Roth is now under investigation by the Michigan Attorney General.