Woman loses court battle in gender abortion case
A woman has lost her legal challenge to bring charges against two doctors accused of agreeing to perform abortions based on the sex of unborn baby girls. Aisling Hubert, a pro-life campaigner from Brighton, accused the Director of Public Prosecutions of making ‘politically motivated’ rather than ‘legally based’ decisions. Sitting in London, Lord Justice Burnett and Mr Justice Irwin refused Ms Hubert permission to seek a judicial review; they will give their full reasons at a later date. The case centred on the actions of two doctors facing the first-ever private prosecution on gender abortion charges after an undercover newspaper investigation filmed them agreeing to arrange terminations because of the gender of the foetus. Ms Hubert now faces a legal bill of over £22,000. Her barrister said, ‘The desire to choose whether people have boys or girls is creating problems and raising important issues which should be addressed by the courts.’
Damascus comments on UK air strikes on Syria
Thursday’s Damascus newspapers criticised the West's engagement in Syria. ‘Britain didn't ask permission from Syria's government,’ declares the state news agency SANA. ‘Cameron told lies,’ it says. Syrian officials insist Britain and its allies must follow Russia's example and co-ordinate their campaign with Syrian government forces. If they don't, they warn, they simply won't succeed. The deadlock over President al-Assad's future role will continue to block the formation of a unified command against a common enemy. It will also stand in the way of Britain's pledge that it will now also focus on finding a negotiated way out of this war. Syrian activists and opposition groups feel bitterly let down that the West did not give them this kind of military support to help remove Assad. Many Syrians, exhausted by war, want to believe Britain's promise that it is stepping up the fight to ‘win the peace’ - as hard as that is.
David Cameron and IS funding
Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown suggests David Cameron has failed to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to stop 'rich businessmen' from funding jihadists because of the 'closeness' between the Tories and wealthy Arabs. Speaking on the Radio 4 Today programme, he said there was a failure by the government to put pressure on Saudi and Qatar to stop funding the Salafists and the Wahhabists and also to remind them they need to play a larger military part in this campaign against Daesh. The last Saudi plane seen flying as part of the coalition over Syria was three months ago; the last Qatari plane was nearly a year ago.He also said, ‘The Government has refused to have a proper inquiry into the funding of jihadism in Britain; this leads me to worry about the closeness between the Conservative Party and rich Arab Gulf individuals’. See also this week’s Prayer Alert World article no 1.
Brussels: Christians ‘the most persecuted’
In a high-level meeting on religious persecution in Brussels, the President of the European Parliament (EP) said that Europe cannot afford to continue ignoring the fate of Christians, who are clearly the most persecuted group in the world. EP President Martin Schulz said that the persecution of Christians is ‘undervalued’ and does not receive enough attention, which also means that it has not been properly addressed. For Islamists, Christians are the new ‘crusaders’ of Europe. Because of Islamic persecution in the Middle East, more than 70% of Christians have fled from Iraq since 2003, and a further 700,000 Christians have been forced to leave their homes in Syria since the outbreak of civil war.
