The European Parliament has rejected a resolution that
proposed to make abortion a “fundamental human right” throughout Europe. The
Estrela Report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights also called for
mandatory re-education of doctors and medical students to promote abortion, and
mandatory sex education in primary schools. The Parliament voted by 351-319 to
send the report back to committee for “further study”. The head of the group
European Dignity Watch explained that the committee will be expected to
investigate “numerous problematic points
of this report, especially the fact that it was co-written by a commercial
abortion organisation, International Planned Parenthood Federation.”
In France, where marriage is normally celebrated with
separate civil and church ceremonies, the Constitutional Court has ruled that
mayors may not refuse to perform the civil ceremony for same-sex marriages on
the grounds of freedom of conscience. The reason given is that civil servants
are expected to act with neutrality, and so conscientious objection is not
allowed.
A nursery worker has been awarded damages for racial
discrimination by her former employer – because she is Polish. The employer
described Polish as a “weird language”, and the worker was instructed not to
speak Polish in the classroom, even to children whose first language was
Polish, nor to speak Polish to her colleagues in the staff room. Also, when it
became clear she was likely to raise a legal case over the issue, the nursery’s
owner wrote to her to discourage her from taking legal action or from
contacting potential witnesses.
The Scottish Secular Society has written an open letter to the
Scottish Education Secretary stating that “creationism and the denial of
evolution has been found in three separate Scottish schools in a very short
period of time. This confirms our belief that such views and excesses may be
endemic in the system” and asserting that “If this is left unchecked there is a
very real potential that such views can continue to affect this nation’s most
precious resource – our children.” An article in the Scotsman newspaper retorts
that “Education is not there to tell people what to think, but rather to teach
us how to think” and adds that “militant secularists have a witch-hunt
mentality and all the fervour of religious fundamentalists as they seek to root
out the heretics.”
In golf, a new rule change has led to an unexpected farcical
situation. Contenders for the lucrative Dubai Masters are required to play in
two of the three preceding World Tour events in order to qualify. Joost Luiten
arrived at the Shanghai Masters with an injury, but rather than withdraw and
let the reserve take part, Luiten teed off and then retired from the tournament
after one shot. Ironically, Luiten himself was first reserve at the recent British
Open championship, and was barred from playing because another injured golfer
attempted to complete his round, before withdrawing after 5 holes.
Four people were convicted this week for a human
trafficking/sham marriage fraud which involved tempting a 20 year old “unsophisticated
and vulnerable” woman from Slovakia to take a bus to the Czech Republic with
the offer of a job; drugging her and shipping her to Bradford; and then selling
her to an illegal immigrant, who was due to be deported from the UK within a few
weeks, so that he could “marry” her. She was kept against her will above his
uncle and aunt’s shop in Burnley until police freed her following an anonymous
telephone call. Her “husband” was given twelve years in jail for rape, battery,
trafficking and false imprisonment; two of the trafficking gang received sentences
of nine and ten years; and the aunt from Burnley received a suspended sentence.
The final member of the gang, a Slovakian woman, will be sentenced today.
And finally, the bare-breasted protest group Femen have
disrupted an event involving the Catholic Archbishop of Mechelen Brussels for
the second time this year. The Archbishop is known for his pro-life and
pro-family views, and had recently publicly opposed proposed laws on child
euthanasia. The protesters were wrapped in a rainbow flag; screamed pro-gay
slogans at the speaker at the event (which was a lecture opposing same-sex
marriage); and threw a pie into the archbishop’s face. However, the Archbishop
stole the show by calmly eating the pie.
No comments:
Post a Comment