Not The BBC News: 29 November 2013

The UK Government’s new Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs), which were intended to complement ASBOs but to be easier to grant, have been criticised by religious and civil liberty campaigners from across the political spectrum. The injunctions can be granted if someone “has engaged or threatens to engage in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance.” Christian groups have pointed out that IPNAs could in theory be used to remove street preachers or carol singers.

There have been various reactions to the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal by Christian bed and breakfast owners against being fined for their “married couples only” policy. Some praised the couple for their dignified stance: “I expected to find thinly disguised homophobia, but instead found a couple bewildered to be on the wrong side of the law for merely practising what they believe,” wrote one journalist. The Independent took a harder line, claiming that the couple could not be considered to be ‘martyrs’ because practising what the Bible says regarding homosexuality is ‘mediaeval’. And a barrister identified a key judicial problem with this decision: “The problem here is, as John Stuart Mill put it in On Liberty (1859): ‘The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.’ But the only harm [identified in this case] was that when the Bulls’ house rules were explained to Preddy and Hall, they found it ‘upsetting’ and ‘very hurtful’. Even in the touchy-feely twenty-first century, where self-esteem is seen as so important and so fragile, this is pretty lame.”  

A Labour MSP who voted against the Same-Sex Marriage (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament has said that “Since indicating that I did not intend to support the redefinition of marriage, my religion’s been disparaged, I’ve been branded homophobic and bigoted, I’ve been likened to the Ku Klux Klan and it was suggested that I be burnt at the stake as a witch.”

A survey within the European Union discovered that 96% of people believe it is vital to protect intellectual property rights, but 42% also believe it is acceptable to download music and films illegally for personal use; 9% admitted having done so in the past year. There were marked differences in illegal downloading according to age, gender and education; the most prolific downloaders are young (15-24 year olds approximately 13x more likely than over-55s); well-educated (those with higher education are 4.5x more likely); and male (2x more likely).

In football, the allegations about match-fixing in England have focussed on three non-league teams from Essex. One of them, Billericay Town, played a league game that was attended by just 408 spectators, but over $1 million was staked on the game on Asian betting exchanges – more than was gambled on Barcelona, who were playing on the same evening.

And finally, a new book by a neuro-scientist reveals how he unexpectedly discovered that someone he knew very well was a psychopath. He was reviewing brain scans of murderers, schizophrenics and depressives to see if their scans showed low activity in areas linked to empathy, morality and self-control. One day, he turned from these scans to another set of scans taken from his own family for a study on Alzheimer’s, and he noticed one scan that was “obviously pathological.” It was from his own brain. He could find no fault with the scanner, but he did find (at his wife’s suggestion) seven distant relatives who were alleged murderers. He admits to being “obnoxiously competitive”, but has now changed his views on how people’s genetics determine their path in life.

Not The BBC News: 28 November 2013

A panel of Church of England bishops, chaired by a former civil servant, has recommended that the Church should perform blessings of gay marriages. The panel also repeatedly called on the Church to ‘repent’ of the way that homosexuals had been treated in the past, and even suggested that the Bible is inconclusive on the subject of homosexuality (though one bishop dissented from this statement) by warning against “attempting to pronounce definitively on the implications of Scripture for homosexual practice”. While the report’s accompanying statements are unlikely to promote unity on the report’s conclusions, several Church of England clerics who were formerly strongly opposed to gay marriage or same-sex relationships have moderated their public statements recently; for example, the Archbishop of York has observed that “the Church of England offers special prayers and services to bless sheep and even trees but not committed same-sex couples.”

Survivors of a three-week battle between Muslim rebels and Government forces in the southern Philippines in September have been describing their experiences. The rebels carefully selected Christians as hostages, freeing any Muslims they captured, and used some of the hostages as human shields. In the three-week battle, grenades and mortars were used; thousands of homes were destroyed; and 200 people died, including 166 rebels. One former hostage appeared resigned rather than angry in an interview with Al Jazeera: “What good will hate bring me? So best to just accept it. I was born here; we are used to armed conflict.”

In the US state of Indiana, where abortion clinics are required to report any abortions carried out on children of 13 and under so that the authorities can investigate possible charges of statutory rape, an undercover investigation found that between 58% and 75% of such abortions were not reported. A 13 year old girl who approached one clinic found that the clinic actively helped her hide her proposed abortion from the authorities; she was advised not to take the abortion pill at home because “she might miscarry and it would be harder to conceal”, and she was told which neighbouring U.S. states were allowed to carry out an abortion without requiring reporting or parental consent.

The United States has announced plans to re-locate its embassy in Vatican City to the grounds of the U.S. Embassy to Italy. The reasons given are security concerns and cost savings; however, critics see it as a significant downgrading of the relationship between President Obama’s government and the Catholic church.

More details have emerged about the Chinese authorities’ arrest of the pastor of a legally registered church. The local government has been harassing church members by requiring government institutions and schools to open on Sunday, forcing some church members to work instead of attending church;  by telling students to tell their parents not to attend church or to petition higher authorities regarding the arrests;  and by searching the church’s second largest site and ordering all employees to vacate the premises. The pastor’s daughter, who has fled the county and is in hiding, says she has received telephone calls threatening death to her entire family if she keeps talking to international media about the situation. However, church members who remain in the county have hired a leading human rights lawyer.

In sport, six men have been arrested as part of an enquiry into the ‘fixing’ of football matches in England by betting syndicates. The investigation included an alleged fixer correctly predicting to an undercover reporter  the score of three matches involving the same team. The team name has not yet been revealed because of ongoing enquiries, but some UK bookmakers stopped taking bets on certain teams in the Conference division earlier this year. The fixer added that it is more expensive to fix matches in England than in other countries.

And finally, an 18 year old Pittsburgh man stole more than $8,000 worth of cash, cigarettes, sweets and cheques from a shop – and then posted a picture on Facebook of himself and his three teenage accomplices with their haul. He is in jail awaiting trial, and his accomplices have been charged in juvenile court.

Not The BBC News: 27 November 2013

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has today dismissed an appeal by the Christian owners of a bed and breakfast in Cornwall against their conviction and fine for refusing a bed to a gay couple (in a civil partnership) because they had a “married couples only” policy. The Court’s key reasons were that it is in the public interest to encourage long-term stable relationships; the Equalites and Sexual Orientation Act makes it illegal to discriminate between homosexual and heterosexual relationships; the Equalities Act has a “carefully tailored” exception for religious organisations, which does not apply to a bed and breakfast establishment; and while the Equalities Act does interfere with the human right to freedom of conscience, this is seen as a “proportional means of achieving a legitimate aim: the protection of the rights and freedoms of [homosexual couples].” A Christian spokesman said, "“Parliament needs to reform these one-sided laws to allow a more reasonable approach which balances competing rights. Otherwise, Christianity will become the belief that dare not speak its name.”

A head teacher at a school in south Staffordshire sent a letter to parents last week explaining that a field trip to a workshop on Islam was mandatory. She added, “Refusal to allow your child to attend this trip will result in a Racial Discrimination note being attached to your child’s education record, which will remain on this file throughout their school career.” The local MP described the letter as “unfair, heavy-handed and slightly bonkers”; the Council said it has “strongly advised” the head teacher to reassure parents about their right to withdraw children from religious activities; and the head has now apologised for “inaccuracies” in the letter, and told parents to “disregard” a section of it.

A US pro-choice advocacy group has just completed a “week of action” aimed at shutting down pro-life crisis pregnancy centres. They asked supporters to contradict pro-life claims about the health risks of abortion procedures (to the mother) on Twitter or Tumblr, and to post fake negative reviews of pro-life centres on Yelp – despite the fact that “astroturfing” (posting fake reviews  purely to cause someone a gain or a loss) is illegal in some US states, and New York recently fined 19 offenders a total of $350,000 for such actions. (It’s also illegal in the UK under the Fraud Act 2006).

The American Humanist Association sent a letter to a school threatening legal action, saying the collection by school children of Christmas gifts for disadvantaged children was a breach of the separation of church and state. The gift collection was organized by a  Christian charity which subsequently added a gospel message to each gift before distributing them. The school consequently banned the collection, but students and parents vowed to carry on with the gift appeal outside the school gates.

China has decided to relax its one-child policy; the former rules only permitted couples to have two children if both parents were an only child, while the new rules only require one parent is an only child. This policy has been responsible for the largest number of state-enforced abortions by any country. One reason for the policy being relaxed is that many abortions have been sex-selective, resulting in China having roughly 13 men for every 10 women.

In sport, Australia thrashed Fiji 64-0 in the Rugby League World Cup semi-final. New Zealand narrowly beat England in the other semi-final, scoring the winning try in the penultimate minute. New Zealand’s rugby union team left it even later to beat Ireland in a tour match, scoring their decisive try in injury time. The All Blacks have thus set a new record as the first ever national team to win all their Test matches in a calendar year.

Also in sport, Sebastian Vettel won the Brazil Grand Prix for a record-equalling ninth consecutive Grand Prix victory.

And finally, the Russian Winter Olympics committee has come up with a  novel idea to advertise the importance of sport for everyone. They have installed a ticket machine at a Moscow underground station which grants users a free ticket if they complete 30 squats inside 2 minutes. A video can be seen here.

Not The BBC News: 21 November 2013

The BBC has been accused of withholding information about (and failing to verify) a murder confession, in order to screen a television programme that was supportive of assisted suicide at the time of maximum impact. Ray Gosling confessed to BBC work colleagues in autumn 2009 that he had smothered his gay lover with a pillow because the lover was suffering from AIDS and was in “terrible, terrible pain.” Instead of reporting this to police, the BBC included the confession in a (pre-recorded) episode of the programme ‘Inside Out’. It was broadcast in February 2010, just one week before the Director of Public Prosecutions published his policy for prosecuting cases of euthanasia. Furthermore, it later transpired that Gosling’s confession was entirely false (Gosling was out of the country when the man died), and Gosling was recently given a 90-day suspended prison sentence for wasting police time.

The Marriage and Civil Partnerships Bill (Scotland) has passed the first of three votes in the Scottish Parliament, despite concerns that it provides insufficient protections for freedom of speech for those who oppose the Bill, and despite the results of the Scottish Government’s public consultation on the issue (which produced a record response, 2/3 of whom were opposed to gay marriage). MSPs were given a free vote on the issue, and supported the Bill by 98-15.

The Supreme Court of India is to give an opinion on whether yoga is a religious activity. Yoga has roots in Hindu worship, but modern yoga is split into different varieties; some place no emphasis at all on spiritual aspects. Last month, a petition was presented to the court to make yoga compulsory in schools for health reasons. However, Indian  state schools are officially secular. The court said it was uncomfortable with the idea, and will gather the views of minority groups in the coming weeks.

A pastor from the state-sanctioned Three Self Church in Nanle, Henan, China has been arrested without warrant after attending talks with local officials, along with about 20 workers from the church. Others who protested at the arrest outside a police station were reportedly beaten. It has been suggested by some that the pastor upset the local government because  he had been elected to be a leader in the Three Self movement, and because of his much-respected community activities; others see it as a message from central government that complete religious freedom is not permitted in China. The pastor’s current location is unknown.

A British man who belonged to the “Jews for Jesus” charity recently visited Israel on a tourist visa, where he was arrested by immigration officials while holding a large banner saying “Yeshua”.  He was questioned for four hours in the immigration centre and then jailed. Tourist visas prohibit the holder from working in Israel but carry no other restrictions on activities.

In sport, Sebastian Vettel won his eighth consecutive Formula 1 race at the weekend, setting a new record for consecutive wins in a single season. The record for consecutive wins across multiple seasons is nine, and Vettel has one race left this season, in Brazil in early December.

And finally, the World Cup victory by France over Ukraine was so unexpected in France that several public figures who had placed unusual bets against France winning had to perform their forfeits this week.  A news presenter presented his report in English, while “dressed as an Englishman” (brown and yellow checked jacket over a blue cardigan with a floral tie); a producer of pornographic films made all his films free to download for the entire night (his website crashed);  a national radio host jumped into a bath in the studio with another presenter; and one MP went to the National Assembly in flip-flops, another in a French football jersey. But the greatest interest surrounded a female weather reporter who had promised to present the weather “à poil” (i.e. naked) if the French team qualified. At first, she appeared to be trying to escape the bet by presenting the weather report “à Poil” (i.e. in the village of Poil); but she was pictured at the end of the report racing across the local fields wearing nothing but her boots.

Not The BBC News: 19 November 2013

Google has promised a worldwide block on search results linked to child abuse, despite previously arguing that it was not possible to do so. They have developed algorithms to block pathways to illegal content; to block auto-complete features which prompt terms relating to child abuse; and to identify new code words used by paedophiles. Microsoft and other search engine providers are expected to announce similar measures soon. There is some scepticism about the effectiveness of these measures as much of the illegal material is hosted on the “dark Web” which Google does not index, but it is being seen as a positive step.

The retiring Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, once considered an evangelical front runner for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, has used his valedictory address to call for Anglicans to accept same sex relationships. His argument is that “on a number of major moral issues the church allows a large space for a variety of nuances, interpretations, applications and disagreements” and believes that issues of sexual ethics should be considered as acceptable disagreements so that “nothing should distract us from our mission.”  However, a Christian commentator has compared such views to “situation ethics” which teach that moral principles can be cast aside if an alternative course of action would result in more love; in contrast, Jesus’ love was often accompanied by a call to moral change (“Go and leave your life of sin”; “Give all you have to the poor”) and always upheld, or exceeded, the laws of the Old Testament (“You should have practised the latter without neglecting the former”; “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery”). The commentator also notes that the founder of situation ethics started teaching these beliefs as a priest at a divinity school, but ended his life as an atheist, a humanist, and a supporter of eugenics.

A Dutch charity created a computer-generated image of a ten year old Filipino girl called Sweetie and gave ‘her’ an Internet chat page as bait for paedophiles. Around 1000 men contacted Sweetie and tried to persuade her to undress or to perform sex acts on webcam. The conversations were recorded as evidence, and the charity then spent months identifying suspects by cross-referencing suspects’ e-mail or Skype addresses with social media profiles and other public information. They have passed to Interpol details of men from 71 countries, including 254 from the USA, 110 from the UK, 103 from India, and around 50 from each of Australia, Canada and Germany.

Thousands of Spaniards took to the streets on Monday in 46 cities throughout the country to ask the government to repeal the current abortion laws, which were approved in 2010 by the previous  government. The current premier announced he would reform those laws in January 2012, but still hasn’t done so. The rallies went peacefully except for five topless Femen activists, some with slogans painted on their bodies, who briefly interrupted the march in Madrid. The protesters were spray-painted red by pro-life demonstrators, and later arrested without further incident.

At the time of the last general election, Premier Christian Radio was due to air a 30 second advert which requested information on whether Christians had been sidelined at work, in order to “help make a fairer society”. But the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre stopped it from being broadcast, claiming that it was “directed to a political end”. The case went to the Court of Appeal, which this week decided by a majority verdict that “helping to make a fairer society” was indeed a political goal, and upheld the decision. A spokesman for Premier Radio said, “The public interest cannot be best served by preventing people from gaining information and we believe that such a ban represents an attack on freedom of speech for everyone.”

In sport, several countries qualified for football’s World Cup via play-offs. The biggest surprise was France coming back from a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Ukraine to win 3-2, albeit with one goal that should have been disallowed for offside. Portugal, Croatia, Greece, Ghana and Algeria also qualified, at the expense of Sweden, Iceland, Romania, Egypt and Burkina Faso.

And finally, the Earth is to get a celestial light show in the next month that hasn’t been seen for 225 years. Comet ISON is to pass a mere 1 million kilometres from the Sun on November 28; if it isn’t destroyed by the Sun’s heat it should be visible to the naked eye thereafter, perhaps even during the day. It’s already visible as a tiny speck with a long wispy tail; look to the south-west just after sunset.

Not The BBC News: 17 November 2013

Not The BBC News: 17 November

The head of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, a charity which carries out more than a quarter of all the abortions in England and Wales, has claimed that the law does not prevent women from choosing an abortion on the grounds of the gender of their baby. Her argument is that “while it is true that the sex of the foetus is not a legal ground for abortion, nor is rape, or incest, or being 13 years old. Nor is being homeless, or abandoned, or just feeling there's no way you can bring a child into the world... yet they are all reasons why a doctor may believe a women has met the legal grounds of abortion [because] the pregnancy would damage the mental health of the mother."

Meanwhile, a pregnant 17-year old in Louisiana has been charged with second degree foeticide after her cocaine use led to the death of her unborn child, say police. She is being charged because the foetus had passed the legal limit for abortion in Louisiana. She said she snorted cocaine after her boyfriend broke up with her, several days prior to the baby’s death. An autopsy showed the baby was developing normally but had traces of cocaine.

The Catholic bishop of Springfield, Illinois will lead prayers of supplication and exorcism “in reparation for the sin of same-sex marriage” at his cathedral on November 20 as Governor Pat Quinn signs a state law redefining marriage. The bishop says he was inspired by Pope Francis, who had condemned same-sex marriage as a “machination of the Father of Lies” in 2010 when Argentina was preparing to redefine marriage.

At a recent meeting of the United Nations, an interpreter who was unaware that her microphone was switched on said to a colleague, “I think when you have… like a total of ten resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there’s gotta be something, c’est un peu trop, non? [It’s a bit much, no?] I mean I know… There’s other really bad shit happening, but no one says anything about the other stuff.” Her words were broadcast to every UN delegate, and to a live webcast audience worldwide.

Britain faces a growing shortage of schools. The Catholic church had previously said it was willing to provide new school places to help meet demand, but has now said it will not open any new ‘academy’ schools until the Government’s cap on children from a particular faith background (50% if the school is oversubscribed) is removed. Catholic officials describe the cap as “perverse”, effectively forcing schools to turn children from Catholic families away to meet a quota of non-Catholics.

In sport, Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test cricket innings produced a score of 74 before he was caught in the slips. A commentator described his final shot as a “one day cricket shot “ – i.e. the kind of shot that is effective in one day cricket, when the field is usually set differently. India won the test against the West Indies by an innings and 126 runs, thus denying Tendulkar the opportunity to bat again.

Also in sport, England beat France 34-6 in the quarter finals of the Rugby League World Cup to set up a semi-final against  New Zealand, who comfortably beat Scotland 40-4. The other semi-final will see Australia, who beat the USA 62-0, face either Samoa or Fiji.

And finally, there is a new phone app that can act as a remote control for a home full of smart devices. The app is compatible with items like Yale electronic locks, Philips Hue bulbs, the Nest thermostat, and the Sonos Playbar sound system, as well as motion sensors and plug sockets. It can program actions when a particular event occurs, such as you arriving home; the system simply recognizes your GPS location and sends separate commands to each device. However, the $299 app currently only works on iPhones; has a limited range of operations for each device; and makes no mention of what to do if the app somehow crashes (or gets hacked), locks you out of your house, and turns on cheesy music at full blast.

Not The BBC News: 14 November 2013

Israel's gay community has filed a criminal complaint of incitement against an ultra-Orthodox mayor after he said there were no homosexuals in his town and that homosexuality should be dealt with by the health ministry or the police. They claim that comparing gays to lawbreakers or public health dangers constitutes incitement under the Israeli criminal code.

Activists from the group Occupy Wall Street have set up a group called Rolling Jubilee whose goal is to set people free from debt. They do this by buying up bad debts from debt recovery companies at a fraction of the debt’s original value, and then cancelling the debt. They expected to spend $50,000 to buy $1 million worth of debt; in fact they have been able to buy debt at half that price, and so far they have spent $400,000 to buy and cancel nearly $15 million worth of (mostly US medical) debts.

In East-Central Nigeria, what originally appeared to be a weekend raid by Fulani Islamists against a Christian village has seemingly developed into a sustained offensive by over 5000 armed men – too many of the Nigerian security forces to repel. Almost 40 people have been reported killed, and thousands displaced.

A UK Government minister has claimed that Christians faced “extinction” in their ancient homelands. Baroness Warsi said, “Terrorists are subjecting Christians in the Middle East to “collective punishment” for American foreign policy. Worshippers are now regarded as newcomers and agents of the West, despite having lived there for centuries. Christian populations are plummeting. In Iraq, the Christian community has fallen from 1.2m in 1990 to 200,000 today. In Syria, the horrific bloodshed has masked the haemorrhaging of its Christian population." The Baroness, a Muslim, called on other Muslims to defend Christians, as recently happened in Tahrir Square in Egypt. ”A bomb going off in a Pakistani church shouldn’t just reverberate through Christian communities; it should stir the world,” she said.

In technology news, two mobile phone networks which can be carried in just four suitcases each have been sent to the Philippines by Vodafone to help those affected by Typhoon Haiyan. The portable network, which is powered by generators, consists of an antenna, a foldable mast, an industrial computer and a base transceiver station. Vodafone say that more than 1,000 text messages are being sent a minute and that thousands are travelling to the two sites to make telephone calls.

In sport, Scotland scraped through qualifying group in the Rugby League World Cup and now face New Zealand in the first knock-out round. England will tackle France at the same stage. Co-hosts Wales, however, concluded a disastrous performance with a third qualifying defeat, against the Cook Islands who had not won any of their five previous RLWC games.

Also in sport, Sachin Tendulkar is currently playing his 200^th and final cricket test for India.

And finally, a chase involving members of the public dressed as Batman and Robin, a Smurf, David Hasselhoff, Robin’s dad and some police officers has led to an arrest in a Tesco supermarket in Musselburgh, East Lothian. Police made the arrest last Friday after 'Robin' was assaulted outside the supermarket. A tweet subsequently appeared on an official police Twitter feed stating: "Thank you to Batman, Robin, Robin's Dad, a Smurf, and the Hoff for helping us on Friday night. #Tesco, sorry about the toilet roll aisle."

Not The BBC News: 8 November 2013

Three American states elected new governors this week. The key race was considered to be the one in Virginia, where Republican Ken Cuccinelli faced Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Virginian voters are considered to be equally divided between Republican and Democrat, so the result was seen as a predictor of the next presidential election. The key issues were the Obamacare health legislation (Cuccinelli opposed it; McAuliffe avoided the subject but is on record as saying it doesn’t go far enough) and abortion (McAuliffe, who supports late-term abortion, painted pro-life Cuccinelli as an extremist).  McAuliffe raised and spent $15 million more that Cuccinelli on TV adverts and other campaigning materials (including at least $1 million from commercial abortion providers  Planned Parenthood) and won the election, but by a margin of only 1%.

In the US Senate, a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks (with exceptions for rape, incest, or saving the mother’s life) has been introduced, nearly 5 months after it passed in the House of Representatives. The 20-week limit is based on scientific evidence that unborn children can feel pain after this point. The bill’s sponsor admitted that the bill will probably not pass the Democrat-controlled Senate (or President Obama’s threatened veto) in this legislative session, but points to other pro-life bills that progressed slowly through the legislature before eventually becoming law.

Meanwhile, the new Democratic mayor of New York has promised to expand abortion facilities in the city, in partnership with Planned Parenthood. He also wants to close down pro-life crisis pregnancy centres (which offer pregnant women financial and logistical help to keep their babies); his stated reason is that because they do not offer abortions, they are not offering legitimate health care.  New York State already has the highest abortion rate in the US (41% of all pregnancies are terminated); New York City accounts for 7% of all abortions in the USA.

David Cameron has announced plans to issue a Sharia law financial bond in the UK, which would make it the first non-Muslim country to offer one. One aspect of Sharia law is that the bond would charge no interest. Cameron also announced plans for a new Islamic index on the London Stock Exchange.

Councillors in Liverpool have called for the banning of high-stakes gambling machines from betting shops in the city. The machines allow people to bet up to ₤100 every 20 seconds, and have proved highly addictive. City leaders want the Government either to ban the machines or to give local councils the power to ban them.

In sport, Scotland won their final group match in the Rugby League World Cup to remain unbeaten. However, they will only qualify for the next stage if Tonga beat group leaders Italy. And Jermaine Defoe became Tottenham Hotspur’s record scorer in European competitions with his 23^rd goal.

And finally, police in north London received a 999 call from a house and, when there was no reply to their return call, decided to break down the front door. Once inside, the only occupant they found was a cat hiding in a cupboard. “She must have been playing with the phone, and then been scared by the incoming call,” said her owner.

Not The BBC News: 6 November 2013

The Irish government has announced that it plans to hold a referendum on whether same-sex marriage should become legal (among other issues) in May 2015.The Labour Deputy Prime Minister has also said that he plans to legalise gay adoption before that date.

A new law in Italy requires all teachers to receive “gender equality” training to pass on to their students “respect for diversity and equal opportunities and overcoming gender stereotypes.” It comes hot on the heels of a bill against homophobia, and it is feared that the two laws may be used together to prevent schoolteachers presenting  views that a family consisting of a man, a woman and children is “natural”. Homosexual lobbying at European level is being blamed for the new laws.

A documentary film has been released in the USA that presents a very positive view of late-term abortionists. The documentary was given a highly positive review in the Washington Post. The key to the reviewer’s praise seems to be that the documentary presents late term abortionists as “compassionate, morally inquiring, and deeply caring” who “grapple [with decisions about late-term abortions of health babies] openly and thoughtfully.”

A number of pro-life websites in the USA were hacked this week to make them unavailable. A pro-life commentator responded that it is encouraging that pro-choice activists find pro-life information to be uncomfortable.

An engaged couple in Texas have complained that the new Texan law that restricts abortions has “taken their constitutional rights away, ” even though they first sought an abortion at 6 weeks’ gestation, well inside the legal time limit; they had the means to travel to another state for an abortion if necessary; and they showed no signs of having considered other options, such as adoption. The part of the law which is at issue is that abortion clinics must have admitting privileges to a hospital less than 30 miles away, in case of medical emergencies; this has resulted in about a third of Texas’ abortion clinics closing.  Planned Parenthood has already appealed to the Supreme Court against this part of the law; critics say the appeal is based on commercial interests rather than the best interests of women.

A Messianic Jewish student (i.e. a Jew who believes that Jesus is the Messiah) who had evaded customs duties decided that, because of her faith, she ought to return the tax that she should have paid, despite living on student funding. The surprised customs official whom she contacted not only forgave her  the debt but also contacted an Israeli newspaper so that they could publish a story that showed the good side of the Israeli people.

The weekend’s Premier League football matches produced a variety of strange incidents.  Stoke City’s goalkeeper scored a goal with a 98-yard wind-assisted clearance kick after just 13 seconds of their game against Southampton; Newcastle beat front-runners Chelsea; Sunderland conceded an own goal, lost their goalkeeper to injury, and had two players sent off (all in the first half), but still managed to lose to Hull by only one goal; and Manchester City beat Norwich 7-0, with goals from seven different players.

In the Rugby League World Cup, England beat Ireland 42-0, thus effectively eliminating Ireland from the tournament. Wales (the competition’s co-hosts) were also eliminated  after an unexpected defeat by the USA, who are unbeaten. Scotland drew 30-30 with Italy and can technically still qualify. England also beat Australia in a rugby union tour match.

And finally, in 2010 German customs officials carried out a sweep against German citizens with undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland, and they stopped an 80 year old man on a train from Switzerland to Germany who was carrying 9000 euros.  When they searched his flat, they found floor to ceiling piles of tinned food – and behind the food, 1500 artworks that were believed to have been lost in the Second World War. It emerged that the man was the son of a Munich art dealer who had been employed to dispose of art looted from Jews by the Nazis. The haul includes works by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir and Chagall.

Not The BBC News: 2 November 2013

An American mega-church leader has resigned from his position because of an ‘inappropriate’ relationship with a woman. Doug Phillips’ ministry was very family-oriented, but was criticised for its teaching on Biblical patriarchy, which effectively made women inferior to authority to men (and preached that the God-ordained ‘sphere of dominion’ for a woman was running a home).

A Hungarian man and British woman, both aged 25, are under arrest for running a human trafficking and prostitution operation from their Internet café in central Croydon. Police have established the identity of 50 victims, all from Hungary, but fear there may be more. The pair were caught when the man’s car was stopped and found to contain two Hungarian girls, along with adverts giving contact details for one girl and listing sex acts. Three other Hungarian men are also on trial, two in their absence after they fled from justice.

In southern Jakarta, there have been protests from Muslim groups because a Christian woman has been appointed as city governor over a largely Muslim district. The Muslims argue that it is offensive for them to be ruled by a Christian, and that she cannot take part in the district’s traditional religious ceremonies; she has replied that she was not invited to take part, and was advised not to do so. The regional governor has so far refused to relocate or replace her.

The Scottish Secular Society has made a Freedom of Information request to every school in Scotland, asking 24 questions about their chaplaincy services. The questions included whether material disagreeing with homosexuality has ever been distributed in the school; whether a humanist speaker has visited the school within the last year; and whether external service providers (i.e. chaplains and visiting speakers) are monitored by staff.

Britain won five medals including two gold sin the World Track Cycling championships. The best performance came from the four-woman 4km pursuit team; having broken the world record when winning in Holland last month, they broke it again in their qualifying heat, and again in the final. Their winning time was so fast that they would almost have qualified for the final of the men’s event.

In the Rugby League World Cup, England lost their opening game to Australia 28-20, and must now beat Ireland and Fiji to qualify for the next stage. Fiji beat Ireland using “battering ram” tactics; New Zealand defeated France 48-0; the USA won their first ever Rugby League World Cup match, against the Cook Islands; and Scotland surprisingly defeated Tonga, 26-24.

And finally, a British man in his 50s and a British woman in her 60s have been temporarily banned from Facebook for enthusiastically discussing faggots. The woman posted a picture of the traditional British food dish, which resembles a large cheap hamburger, and the man responded that he liked them. Facebook has said that the word had been misinterpreted.