The family of a brain-dead pregnant woman in Texas is to sue
to allow her life support to be switched off. Texas has a law that prevents
withdrawal of “life-sustaining treatment” from a pregnant woman until her baby
is viable to be delivered, but her husband argues that this shouldn’t apply to
a woman who is technically dead. He also argued that the foetus would have been
damaged by the treatments given to the mother in an attempt to revive her,
although tests show the baby’s heartbeat is normal. The woman’s mother, who
supports the husband’s actions, said, “No family should have to go through
this. It’s been pure hell.”
Another UK Government Bill which is being campaigned against
by Christian groups and others has recently been amended. The Bill restricts
spending by political lobbying groups, and its spending limits have been raised
by recent amendments (though for some reason, lobbying groups in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland have a limit that is half that of groups in
England). However, opponents say further changes are needed; for example,
lobbying groups must include staff costs in their total spending whilst
political parties are exempt from this.
A gang in El Salvador is suspected of killing six Christians,
including one child, as they were leaving church on Saturday night. No motive
for the killings is currently known. El Salvador has one of the highest
homicide rates in the world; eight other murders were reported at the weekend.
A pastor in the Appalachian hills of Tennessee whose church
takes literally the verses in Mark’s Gospel about “handling snakes and
scorpions and not being harmed”, and who appeared on a National Geographic
series called “Snake Salvation”, was charged with 53 counts of owning reptiles
that are illegal in Tennessee. His case was sent to a grand jury trial, where
he was found not guilty, apparently on the grounds that the snakes were used
within religious practice. However, the surviving snakes, including
rattlesnakes and copperheads, will not be returned to him.
In sport, the organisers of the Melbourne Open tennis
tournament have been criticised for allowing matches to go ahead in
temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature
was so high that Caroline Wozniacki’s water bottle melted; Jo-Wilfred Tsonga’s
shoes softened; Jelena Jankovic suffered a burn from sitting on a chair; and
Canada’s Frank Dancevic and a ballboy fainted. Afterwards, Dancevic said,
“Until somebody dies, they just keep … putting matches on in this heat.”
And finally, the winner of a competition for first-time
crime novelists was a man who turned out to be a convicted killer serving an
indefinite sentence in South Carolina. Alaric Hunt was jailed in 1988 because
he and his brother started a fire to distract police while they robbed a
jewellery shop, and a 23 year old woman died of smoke inhalation. His novel
involves a woman who is murdered and a boyfriend who is falsely accused. It is
set in New York, where he has never been; he says he pieced together a
knowledge of the city from watching the TV show Law and Order.
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