Canada
The Conservatives are pushing for passage of a bill that would raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 although Justice Minister Vic Toews has attempted to dull criticism that the Tories would criminalize “puppy love” with a close-in-age exemption. The exemption applies to 14-16 year olds who have intercourse with another who is no more than five years older. The NDP indicated that they will support the bill but Liberals claim there is sufficient protection against child exploitation … Justice John Hamilton sentenced an unidentified 38-year-old Scarborough man who had raped his own daughter more than 100 times beginning when she was 13 to 10 years in prison … Opposition MPs are urging the Conservative government to review Canada’s prostitution laws. Liberal MP and leadership contender Hedy Fry said the “rights” of hookers should be “protected,” as should their “safety and security” … Using an Access to Information search, the Toronto Sun has discovered that the former Liberal federal government recognized polygamous marriages for the purpose of spousal support and inheritance payments. Federal documents stated that the purpose of doing so was“for limited purposes” to enforce the financial obligations of husbands … In Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944, a new book by Max and Monique Nemni, long-time friends of the late Pierre Trudeau, it is reported that the former prime minister was an anti-Semite, an admirer of fascist dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and advocate of Quebec’s separation … According to military documents, the Canadian Armed Forces distributed 300,000 publicly paid for condoms in each of the last two years … Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have found that 33 per cent of Ontario adolescents played cards for money in 2005, an increase from 24 per cent in 2003 … School boards in Halifax and Toronto are sending a survey to employees that ask them their sexual orientation. The Toronto board explained that its employee census, which asks five other questions, all of which are designed to make the board “more inclusive” by beefing up its “equity policies.”
International
The Columbia Constitutional Court approved abortion in certain circumstances. By a 5-3 vote, the court permitted abortion in cases of rape and incest or when the unborn child has congenital abnormalities … Ecuador’s Constitutional Court unanimously upheld a lower court decision prohibiting the sale of the morning-after pill … According to Cuba’s Public Health Ministries Health Statistics Yearbook, 11 women died in 2004 from complications related to surgical abortions … South Dakota’s abortion ban, passed by the state’s legislature earlier this year, will face a referendum in November after pro-abortion groups collected more than 20,000 signatures in an attempt to have the ban reversed … Rod Tyers and Jane Golley of the Australia National University predict that China’s labour force will begin to shrink within a decade and that to avoid long-term economic chaos, Beijing should relax its coercive one-child policy … While some typically pro-abortion politicians, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have sent signals that they seem supportive of calls by religious leaders to review the 24-week limit on abortions in England and Wales, Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society to Protect Unborn Children, warns: “Pro-abortion MPs want a radical widening of the law to accompany any review of 24- weeks.”… The English House of Lords defeated a pro-euthanasia bill by a vote of 148-100 … The Daily Mail reports that “terminations” after the 24 week limit on abortions “are being carried out for minor, treatable birth defects” in the United Kingdom, including on babies with club foots, webbed fingers and extra digits. Michaela Aston of the pro-life LIFE organization, said, “If, as a society, we are truly committed to equality for people with disabilities then such blatant discrimination against the disabled unborn must stop” … The European Parliament voted 284-249 to fund both embryonic and somatic (adult) stem cell research … The Spanish daily La Opinion de la Coruña, reports that the use of the morning-after pill in northern Spanish schools is out of control with some young women taking the drug up to seven times a month. The paper stated: “The practice of turning the post-coital pill into the principal or only contraceptive method is spreading among adolescents” in the Galicia region … Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott denied accusations by pharmaceutical companies that he threatened them against marketing the RU-496 abortion pill … The number of abortions committed in New Zealand has decreased for the second straight year, decreasing by 3.7 per cent in 2005
Entertainment
The New York branch of the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum stated that it would throw its weight behind a campaign to save singer Britney Spears from her husband Kevin Federline and her “relentless fertility.” The 25-year-old entertainer is expecting the couple’s second child … DC Comics are resurrecting Batwoman, a superhero that was killed off in 1979, as a lesbian crime-fighter.