Italy steps up migrant boat patrols after tragedies
taly is stepping up sea and air patrols following the deaths of hundreds of migrants sailing in overcrowded boats from North Africa. Prime Minister Enrico Letta said an ‘air and naval package’ would start on Monday south of Sicily. On Friday at least 33 people died when their boat capsized between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa. Earlier on Friday, at least 500 other migrants travelling in separate boats were rescued in coastguard operations near the Italian island of Sicily. A week earlier, more than 350 migrants died in another shipwreck off Lampedusa. Italy has previously called for EU help in dealing with the thousands of desperate migrants who wash up on its beaches every year. Many are families fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East who hope for a better life in Europe. But the recent loss of life has led to further calls for EU action.
Pray: that the authorities will take action to safeguard the needs of migrants on unsafe boats.
Charlotte Church attacks 'sexist' music industry
The music industry has a ‘culture of demeaning women’ that forces stars to sell themselves as sex objects, according to singer Charlotte Church. Church said she was ‘pressurised’ into wearing revealing outfits in videos by male executives when she was 19 or 20. Now 27, the star said young female artists were routinely ‘coerced into sexually demonstrative behaviour in order to hold on to their careers.’ She made her comments during BBC 6 Music's annual John Peel Lecture. Her stinging attack on sexism in the music industry comes amid a heated debate over the sexual imagery used by pop stars like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna. The music business is ‘a male dominated industry with a juvenile perspective on gender and sexuality’ and increasingly wants ‘sex objects that appear child-like’, Church claimed. The star accused record labels of encouraging young singers ‘to present themselves as hypersexualised, unrealistic, cartoonish, as objects, reducing female sexuality to a prize you can win’.
Pray: against the sexualising of young women and for the protection of those at risk. (1Th.4:3)
Shining a light on corruption as bells ring out
The bells of St Paul’s Cathedral rang out across the city of London on Monday, October 14, 2013, as people gathered in the portico and on the steps of the ancient place of worship to ‘Shine a light on Corruption’. According to a news release, the Vigil marked the start of the global EXPOSED Week of Action highlighting the effect of corruption on the world’s poorest people. Lord Leslie Griffiths, leading churchman and member of the House of Lords, laid down the challenge facing not just government and church but all people of faith and conscience. ‘Our job is to see that we overcome evil with good. We expose the evil for what it is and then set our targets for overcoming that evil. I believe that this campaign is part of an orchestrated effort on behalf of good-willed people around the world to see that we have the kind of world that God wants us to live in,’
Pray: that the hundreds of EXPOSED vigils globally will focus God’s light on corruption. (Mt.5:16)
More: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2013/s13100068.htm
Christian campaigners still in danger from Lobbying Bill
Fears about restrictions for Christian campaigning have not been eased by Government changes to the controversial Lobbying Bill, critics have warned. The Electoral Commission, the body that will have to enforce the new rules, said that a key Government amendment ‘does not materially reduce the scope of what is covered by the Bill’. Ros Baston, a solicitor specialising in election law, said the Bill still catches issues-based campaigning and some of the amendments actually result in ‘new uncertainties’. Several faith groups, including the Evangelical Alliance, World Jewish Relief, Muslim Council of Britain and others, have raised fears that the Bill could have 'unintended consequences'. An open letter to David Cameron and Nick Clegg warns that the Bill will ‘curtail’ legitimate campaigns. It said: ‘We are concerned that this Bill does not adequately safeguard the activities of religious organisations and that there is a very real risk that non-biased political activity will be captured by the resultant Act.'
Pray: that the concerns shared following the changes to the Bill will be listened to and safeguards accepted. (Pr.12:15)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/christian-campaigners-still-in-danger-from-lobbying-bill/
