US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Iran to
release jailed Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini and two other jailed
Americans. Kerry acknowledged that Abedini was being held on charges relating
to his religious beliefs.
A Jewish family whose car was attacked with rocks while
driving through a West Bank village, breaking the windscreen and causing the
car to flip over, were rescued by Palestinian passers-by. The wife and baby
daughter were rescued with only minor injuries; the father, who was hit by a
rock, is in hospital with several skull fractures.
A sex abuse scandal in which Asian men groomed and abused
white teenage girls, recently uncovered in Rotherham, was allowed to continue
for many years because of “Left wing political correctness which interpreted
any accusations as racism,” according to MPs. The accusation is significant
because it has been made by several Labour members of parliament.
The maverick president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has
announced during a trip to China that he prefers to receive aid from the Chinese
rather than from the West because the Chinese don’t force him to accept
homosexuality. “Western aid always comes with conditions attached,” he said.
New regulations for abortion clinics in Texas have been
blocked by a federal judge. The regulations require abortion clinics to meet
the same health and safety standards as other walk-in surgical centres,
including having adequate plumbing, heating, lighting and ventilation; having equipment
that can properly sterilise surgical instruments; maintaining “sanitary” cleanliness
standards; and having doors wide enough to admit stretchers in case of emergency.
Although the regulations were announced a year before implementation, less than
half of abortion clinics have made the necessary upgrades; a pro-life spokeswoman
said, “What the clinics are really saying is: we don’t believe women are worth
the extra money it would cost us to increase our safety protocols.” The judge decided that the regulations were
too costly to adhere to and that the closure of more than half the state’s
clinics would impose an undue restriction on women seeking an abortion. However,
the same judge’s block on a previous set of regulations on abortion clinics was
overturned by the appeal court.
In sports news, Manchester United played on Burnley on
Saturday with their new ₤59.7 million pound signing, Angel di Maria, on the
pitch; that’s more money than Burnley have spent on transfers in their entire
history. United could still only manage a 0-0 draw, and their only comfort was
that rivals Manchester City lost 1-0 at home to Stoke City. Only two teams in
the Premier League have maximum points from their first three games: Chelsea
and Swansea City.
In technology news, Britain’s first residential solar
powered street light is to be installed in the Derbyshire village of Stanton
Lees. The reason is to remove an overhead power line which only powers one
street light. The small village of about 30 houses has two modest claims to
fame; it is the nearest village to the site of a major eco-protest ten years
ago against the re-opening of old quarries in the Peak District (the protesters
won); and its Brethren church is the site of an annual August bank holiday Bible
school that celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
And finally, the Russian government has complained to the
Bulgarian government because Soviet-style war memorials in the capital, Sofia,
are being repainted by graffiti artists in anti-Russian protests. Last year, a
monument was painted pink in an “artistic apology” for Bulgaria’s participation
in repressing the Prague Spring of 1968; earlier this year, a monument was
spray-painted in the colours of the Ukrainian flag; and recently, on the eve of
the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s anniversary celebrations, a monument was
decorated to make all the soldiers look like American superheroes (see
picture).
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