USA: WND threatens U.N. with suit over Copenhagen coverage

World Net Daily | Attorneys for WND today threatened the United Nations with a lawsuit for its refusal, thus far, to issue press credentials for coverage of the global climate-change convention next month in Copenhagen.

WND's senior staff writer Jerome Corsi has been seeking the credentials from the U.N. Framework Convention for Climate Change for weeks – providing all of the documentation requested and establishing his bona fides as a full-time reporter for the largest independent English-language Internet news organization in the world.

USA: Kennedy: Barred from Communion

John E. Mulligan, Journal Washington Bureau | ... Their dispute comes against the backdrop of the national debate about whether U.S. taxpayers should subsidize abortions in the new health-care system that President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have labored for months to create.

The episode adds another volatile element to a highly emotional dispute that has complicated Mr. Obama’s pursuit of his top legislative priority.

For Catholics, the debate could scarcely be more visceral. The church holds that abortion is a taking of human life that is intrinsically evil. Exclusion from the Holy Eucharist — bread that the faithful believe to have been transformed into the body of Christ — is a rare and serious penalty to impose on any Catholic.

USA: Is America at war, or not?

Are we at war – or not?

Patrick Buchanan, WorldNetDaily | For if we are at war, why is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed headed for trial in federal court in the Southern District of New York? Why is he entitled to a presumption of innocence and all of the constitutional protections of a U.S. citizen?

Is it possible we have done an injustice to this man by keeping him locked up all these years without trial? For that is what this trial implies – that he may not be guilty.

And if we must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that KSM was complicit in mass murder, by what right do we send Predators and Special Forces to kill his al-Qaida comrades wherever we find them? For none of them has been granted a fair trial.

When the Justice Department sets up a task force to wage war on a crime organization like the Mafia or MS-13, no U.S. official has a right to shoot Mafia or gang members on sight. No one has a right to bomb their homes. No one has a right to regard the possible death of their wives and children in an attack as acceptable collateral damage.

Conscious but paralysed: Belgian 'coma' case not unique

AFP, France 24 | The story of a Belgian patient wrongly diagnosed as comatose for 23 years revives the debate on care for those considered in a vegetative state, with the astonishing case far from unique according to a recent study.

Rom Houben, the victim of a road accident in 1983, was believed to be in a vegetative state but was in fact paralysed and unable to communicate.

...Using a specially-adapted computer to type messages, Houben has been able to describe the ordeal he endured. "I would scream, but no sound would come out," he said, "I will never forget the day they finally discovered what was wrong -- it was my second birth."

He could hear what was being said around him throughout, but was unable to respond.

VIDEO NEWS: Fallen Pastor Ted Haggard Plans to Lead Worship Again

Ted Haggard fell from favour in 2006 after it was revealed that he'd had sex with a male prostitute. At the time he told of his lifelong war against sexual immorality and subsequent fall.

Three years later, with the support from his wife, Cheryl, and his children, Ted is opening up his home again and stepping out in faith.

Exodus International Sends Letter Opposing Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Exodus International sent a letter to Uganda's President Museveni opposing The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 currently being considered in the Parliament. The bill would criminalize and prosecute homosexual behavior and would require pastors, missionaries, health care providers and counselors to report those suspected of such behavior.

Exodus International, along with its board members and broader network, opposes this legislation as it inhibits the global Christian church's mission to share the life-giving truth of the Gospel and extend the compassion of Christ to all.

Obama: Hopefully He Wins

Ron Ross | President Barak Obama may be about to score big points for his diplomacy programme. Many are waiting for the controversial US president to fail but there are signs that seem to be working in his favor.

Recenlty Obama has had talks with the Russian leadership. Russian President Medvedev announced Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would introduce a new economic plan early in the new year.

Exodus International Sends Letter Opposing Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Exodus International sent a letter to Uganda's President Museveni opposing The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 currently being considered in the Parliament. The bill would criminalize and prosecute homosexual behavior and would require pastors, missionaries, health care providers and counselors to report those suspected of such behavior.

Exodus International, along with its board members and broader network, opposes this legislation as it inhibits the global Christian church's mission to share the life-giving truth of the Gospel and extend the compassion of Christ to all.

North Caucasus (Southern Russia): Church Struggles Amidst Terror            

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin, Elizabeth Kendall | I The Caucasus Mountains stretch from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. Running along the ridge is the western edge of Russia's southern border. To the south lie Azerbaijan and Iran on the Caspian Sea, as well as Georgia and Turkey on the Black Sea. The Russian republics north of the border are known as the North Caucasus. From east to west they are Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Adygea and have been part of the Russian Empire for more than 200 years. Historically they have been populated by various non-Slavic secular and 'folk'-Muslims, including Turkic, Indo-Iranian, Ingush, Chechens and Circassians.

The PA Ready to Declare a Palestinian State

Ron Ross | The Palestinian Authority (PA) is on the verge of declaring statehood. PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat made the announcement. “Now we mobilze,’ he told the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam. The proposed state will embrace borders from 4 June, 1967, he said.

A sequence of events by the PA senior leaders has clearly shown a new aggressive unilateral action plan was under way.

Senior PA Central Committeee member Mohammed Dahlan told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot November 11 the PA intends to seek UN Security Council support for the declaration of the Palestinian State.

Beware the UN’s Copenhagen plot

Syrian Presidential Advisor Buthayna Sha'ban: Israel's Crimes Are a Mark of Shame on Humanity

Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) | In her weekly column in the Syrian government daily Teshreen, on November 2, 2009, Dr. Buthayna Sha'ban, political and media advisor to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, wrote that Israel is trying to exterminate the Palestinian people by methods such as starving them, poisoning their food and water, raping prisoners, and running over children with vehicles. She went on to harshly criticize international organizations, and the West, for not doing enough to protect the Palestinians from Israel.

"[And as] all this [is happening], the 'enlightened' Western world keeps silent, completely supporting the Israeli government and ignoring the barbaric crimes carried out every day by the Jewish settlers and the Israeli army in the plain sight of the entire world. The world's silence is a crime against the Palestinian people, for it enables the politicians and army generals who run Israel, and their allies, to continue their barbaric crimes against civilians and their violations of the Geneva Convention and international law...

NOTE: MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian,Turkish, Urdu-Pashtu media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

UK: Parents lose right over sex education

05/11 The Telegraph, UK | Pupils in England will be given classes in sex and relationships from the age of five under Government plans to cut teenage pregnancies. Children will learn about parts of the body, the facts of life and puberty in primary school. At secondary school, they will be taught about pregnancy, contraception, HIV and homosexual relationships, it was disclosed.

All mothers and fathers will be able to keep children out on moral and religious grounds but will lose the right of withdraw when they turn 15. The ruling will affect 600,000 pupils a year.

The controversial move is designed to ensure pupils get at least 12 months of sex education before finishing compulsory schooling.

But parents’ groups said the decision risked “infringing parents’ rights” and claimed the Government was attempting to legislate in family life.

Faith schools will also be forced to teach all aspects of the new-style curriculum, including same-sex relationships, contraception and abortion, although ministers insisted they could stage lessons within the “tenets of their faith”.

UK: Britain delivers lesson in dangers of freedom lost

Paul Diamond, The Australian | I HAVE seen the future and it doesn't work. The debate in Australia over a charter of rights is similar to the debate in 1998 in Britain. We were told that we were the only country in the world without a constitution or bill of rights, that we had nothing to fear as the European Convention protected freedom of religion and we were exaggerating the detrimental impact.

At the time, I was instructed as a barrister to assist Baroness Young to draft an amendment to the Human Rights Act that became Section 13 of the act (heightened protection to religious organisations) and it didn't take long for British courts to ignore it.

There was an uncertainty at the time: How can human rights be bad? Who wants torture? But I know now that we were correct to resist the act. The Human Rights Act (or the Charter of Rights) has contributed to some of the most significant reversals in freedoms in Britain. We are considerably less free in 2009 than we were in 1998. I am sure you can remember that we had no freedom of speech or religion in Britain before 1998! This is because of the hostility of the Human Rights Act to Judeo Christian values. It grants liberal toleration to tolerant liberals only.

It is also because of the expanding use of anti-discrimination laws and the use of hate-speech laws to silence messages that are disapproved of.

The question is whether Australia will be immune from the effects of human rights legislation. Are you so different from Britain, Canada and New Zealand, or are you fundamentally a Commonwealth society under the Westminster model of governance?

Child rapist to be beheaded, crucified

04/11 The Australian | A SAUDI court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert, newspapers reported today.

AUSTRALIA: Training tomorrow's leaders

There is a great need in this nation to assist those students and recent graduates who demonstrate a high potential to become influential leaders for Christ across strategic areas of our nation including politics, law, media, science, education, arts and philosophy.
The Compass program, an eight-day course in Christian worldview, aims to address this need.

The inaugural program kicks off this Sunday with 40 students at the University of Queensland. For more information and to register interest for 2009, please go to www.compass.org.au .

Lyle Shelton
National Chief of Staff , Australian Christian Lobby