The issue of sex-selective abortions in the UK has been
raised once again by an investigation by
the Independent newspaper. Looking at census records, they found that within
certain “immigrant groups” (notably mothers born in Pakistan, Bangladesh or
Afghanistan), the ratio of girls born to boys was much lower than expected.
They estimate that between 1500 and 4700 girls have ‘disappeared’, even after taking
into account the possibility of families continuing to try for children until
they have a boy.
An American cable TV channel has said it will produce a 10 part
mini-series based on the Ten Commandments. Each episode will focus on a single
commandment and will be shot by a different director. Directors committed to
the project so far include Gus van Zant, Jim Sheridan and Wes Craven.
A study in northern Texas has found that teen pregnancy rates
fall dramatically when Planned Parenthood leaves town. Planned Parenthood’s activities
include sex education and family planning, but it refuses to teach sexual
abstinence, preferring instead to teach “safe sex” and hand out condoms; in
2009 it benefited significantly from central government funding at the expense
of programs that teach abstinence. The study, using data from 1994 (when the
first protests against Planned Parenthood began in Texas) to 2010 (when the
last Planned Parenthood clinics in the region closed) showed a 45% drop in
teenage pregnancies in the region over that period.
An Afghan man has been granted political asylum in the UK on
the grounds that he is an atheist, and there is a risk that he could face
religious persecution for abandoning Islam if he was forced to return to
Afghanistan.
In sport, England’s men’s hockey team beat Belgium 1-0 to
qualify for the semi-finals of hockey’s World League. They will play either Argentina
or New Zealand. England’s biggest rivals, however, are the Australians, who
(like England) topped their qualifying group.
In technology news, the US rate-and-review site Yelp, which
has recently purchased a similar UK website (Qype), has started taking
proactive measures to identify fake positive reviews. Not only do they use a
secret algorithm to identify suspicious reviews, they also check trading
websites such as Craigslist to see if anyone is offering cash or other
incentives in return for online reviews. If so, they pretend to be willing
reviewers, identify the establishment offering the incentive, and then post a
prominent warning about that establishment on their site which stays for 3
months.
And finally, a British Catholic woman sued her lawyers for
failing to tell her that finalising divorce proceedings would end her marriage.
She alleged that they failed to take her faith into account sufficiently or to
recommend judicial separation, which brings an end to marital obligations but
not to the marriage itself. The suit (and a subsequent appeal) were dismissed.
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