His name is Matthew, he is 26 years old, and his supporters hope to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
But he won’t be able to give evidence on his own behalf – since he is a chimpanzee. Animal rights activists led by British teacher Paula Stibbe are fighting to have Matthew legally declared a ‘person’ so she can be appointed as his guardian if the bankrupt animal sanctuary where he lives in Vienna is forced to close.
The Bishop of Bradford, whose granddaughter was born before 24 weeks, has said MPs made a mistake by not voting to reduce the time limit a woman can have an abortion.
MPs on Tuesday threw out the first attempts for nearly 20 years to cut the 24-week time limit for abortions after a stormy debate.
Despite fierce lobbying by church leaders, they rejected an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to cut the limit to 22 weeks by 304 votes to 233, a majority of 71.
Today Bradford’s Bishop and the Bishop of Leeds both expressed their disappointment, saying 24 weeks was too late.
Some 12-16 named storms are expected, 6-9 of them hurricanes. 2-5 hurricanes are predicted to be major hurricanes.
A controversial new “right to die” card is being offered to the public that allows anyone to refuse treatment in a medical emergency. Who carries it, and why?
It’s a morbid question, but one that many of us have pondered at least once.
If I hadn’t just escaped that dreadful accident, where would I be now? Would I rather be dead than depend on others to keep me alive?
A new card seeks to address that very question. Available in pubs, banks, libraries, GP surgeries, even some churches, the Advanced Decision to Refuse Treatment (ADRT) card sits snugly in a wallet or purse and instructs a doctor to withhold treatment should the carrier lose the capacity to make decisions, because of an accident or illness.
The city of Canton is being overwhelmed by a literally growing problem — property owners who won’t use a lawnmower.
The city now cuts grass and weeds on more than 2,000 thousand privately-owned lots at a cost of a quarter million dollars a year.
Foreclosures are a big part of the problem. But most of the lots are owned by Canton residents.
Health Department officials are worried about creating hiding places for rats and breeding grounds for ticks.
But these days, it seems the only thing worse than embarrassment, is obscurity.
As prices at gasoline pumps and grocery stores rise U.S. consumers say they are driving less but they can’t cut down on eating, a new poll found.
Nearly half of respondents to a Reuters/Zogby poll of likely voters in the presidential election later this year said they are driving less to compensate for record U.S. gasoline prices, which hit a record average of $3.80 per gallon on Tuesday according to travel club AAA.
But only about 8 percent of the 1076 respondents in the national poll said they were eating less generally to cope with rising food prices, the poll said.
“People have more control over gasoline. they are driving less and driving smarter,” pollster John Zogby said by telephone.
Opening tonight at the elegant Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in the heart of Paddington is an exhibition of photographs by Bill Henson, featuring naked 12 and 13 year-olds….
Such images presenting children in sexual contexts are so commonplace these days they seem almost to have lost the capacity to shock.
The effort over many decades by various groups – artists, perverts, academics, libertarians, the media and advertising industries, respectable corporations and the porn industry – to smash taboos of previous generations and define down community standards, has successfully eroded the special protection once afforded childhood.
I will consider posting comments on this article submitted first by email to Kendall’s E-mail: KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.
Any moment now, the Iranian challenge will be added to the list of things too serious to be left to politicians.
“Iran, Cuba, Venezuela – these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union,” Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said. Factually, he is correct. They are much smaller in area than the Soviet Union was. That did not stop the Republican candidate, John McCain, from accusing him of “reckless judgment.” And Obama says: The minuscule size of these rogue countries makes easier the decision to talk with their leaders directly, because if the U.S. sat down with the USSR even at the height of the Cold War, why not Iran? And McCain says: That is a bogus equation. And he is right as well.
A fateful strategic issue – certainly for the State of Israel – became a plaything this week for the American election circus. The Iranian threat is now the Iranian debate: to threaten or talk, to attack or wait. On the one hand, it’s a fascinating discussion that clarifies the difference between the viewpoints and approaches of the two presidential candidates. On the other hand, it’s a barren discussion that underscores how disconnected the election campaign is from the reality determined in Tehran and Washington.
There has been much debate in the U.S. presidential campaign about which of America’s enemies the next president should deign to talk to. The real story, the next president may discover, though, is how few countries are waiting around for America to call. It is hard to remember a time when more shifts in the global balance of power are happening at once – with so few in America’s favor.
Let’s start with the most profound one: More and more, I am convinced that the big foreign policy failure that will be pinned on this administration is not the failure to make Iraq work, as devastating as that has been. It will be one with much broader balance-of-power implications – the failure after 9/11 to put in place an effective energy policy.
It baffles me that President Bush would rather go to Saudi Arabia twice in four months and beg the Saudi king for an oil price break than ask the American people to drive 55 miles per hour, buy more fuel-efficient cars or accept a carbon tax or gasoline tax that might actually help free us from, what he called, our “addiction to oil.”
The failure of Bush to fully mobilize the most powerful innovation engine in the world – the U.S. economy – to produce a scalable alternative to oil has helped to fuel the rise of a collection of petro-authoritarian states – from Russia to Venezuela to Iran – that are reshaping global politics in their own image.
Dramatic increases in food and gas prices are leaving some religious hunger-relief groups praying for relief.
Problems were already apparent in 2006, but U.S. churches now report increased difficulty getting meals to people who need them. Food distributors see a perfect storm: a huge jump in requests from new clients, decreased donations, and a thinning food supply.
Hunger activists are experiencing severe challenges in at least two areas — a new farm bill that they say is “inadequate” to meet current needs, and a drop in food supplies for local food pantries and soup kitchens.
The nearly $300 billion farm bill that cleared Congress Thursday (May 15) was deemed only “half a loaf” by the Rev. David Beckmann, president of the ecumenical anti-hunger group Bread for the World.
Kendall Harmon of Orkin Pest Control will present a program on pests.
—The Mississippi Star-Herald. It is not yours truly of course, but I can never get used to the fact that in a country of more than 300 million people there will be more than one person with the same first and last name. The John Smiths out there will no doubt extend no sympathy–KSH.
Prof. [Ian] Douglas said the unprecedented format for the once-every-10-year conference, which was first held in 1867, will be difficult for journalists to cover and for the public to follow because there is no “focal point of up-down decision-making.” He said the new format will not shy away from discussion of controversial issues, but it is not designed to offer statements implying that various issues have been resolved.
He suggested that rather than taking on these issues “head on,” they will be discussed face-to-face. “Is a process that creates winners and losers the best way to meet a problem head on?” he asked rhetorically. “It is incorrect to describe Lambeth as a closed shop. The design has allowed for and encouraged wide open hospitality.”
Bishop Jefferts Schori declined to elaborate on the statement issued by the House of Bishops after it was revealed earlier this year that an invitation to the conference would not be forthcoming for Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, but she did not think the lack of an invitation would hinder Bishop Robinson’s ability to have his voice be heard. Bishop Robinson will have an exhibit booth in what is called the “fringe” portion of the conference.
It may be the mother of all doom and gloom gas price predictions: $12 for a gallon of gas is “inevitable.”
Robert Hirsch, Management Information Services Senior Energy Advisor, gave a dire warning about the potential future of gas prices on CNBC’s May 20 “Squawk Box”. He told host Becky Quick there was no single thing that would solve the problem, due to the enormity of the problem.
Single women and lesbian couples won landmark parental rights last night as MPs voted to remove the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child’s need for a father.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will replace the rule with a “need for supportive parenting” after opponents were defeated in two votes by unexpectedly wide margins.
The Government had been prepared for defeat but won the free votes by majorities of 75 and 68. The decisions mean that the legislation will grant the most significant extension to homosexual family rights since gay adoption was sanctioned.
It will stop fertility clinics turning away lesbians and single women because their children will not have a father or male role model. While the current law does not block such therapy, it is sometimes used to justify refusals.
The 2008 Lambeth Conference is primarily an opportunity for bishops to get to know one another and to strengthen partnerships, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told media gathered for a May 20 news briefing at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.
Acknowledging that partnerships throughout the Communion have grown significantly in recent years, Jefferts Schori said her hopes for Lambeth and the Anglican Communion are “that we encounter each other as human beings working in vastly different contexts around the globe and that we build relationships.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has invited more than 800 bishops to attend the July 16-August 3 conference on the campus of the University of Kent in southeast England, and more than three quarters have accepted, planners have said.
Read it all and if you desire you can watch the press conference here.