Articles for Month: July 2006

by Hilary White  LONDON, July 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr Colin McGuckin, a researcher at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, has shown that human stem cells derived from the usually discarded umbilical cord can be manipulated to become insulin-producing cells.  Dr. McGuckin, a long time advocate of umbilical cord blood stem cells, told the London Times, “Ultimately we will be able to achieve the same result from non-embryonic stem cells. Some 100m children are born every year, that is an awful lot of stem cells if you want to find a tissue type that matches you.”  The Times reports […]

By Gudrun Schultz VATICAN CITY, July 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A strongly pro-life U.S. bishop has been appointed to the Vatican’s Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, Catholic News Service reported yesterday. Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis to the court on July eighth. Archbishop Burke took an uncompromising stand in a drawn out battle during the 2004 U.S. federal election over the reception of communion by pro-abortion public figures. The Archbishop led a minority of Catholic bishops who said they would be willing to uphold Church Law by refusing communion to ‘manifest grave sinners’ […]

NEA president calls pro-marriage, pro-family groups 'divisive'

CHICAGO, July 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit today granted the request of Alliance Defense Fund and Christian Legal Society (CLS) attorneys to order officials with Southern Illinois University to reinstate the official registered status of the student CLS chapter at the university’s School of Law. Official recognition as a registered student group grants the CLS chapter the full benefits associated with that status while the case is pending in district court. “A religious student organization should not be required to sacrifice its integrity at the altar of political correctness,” said Litigation Counsel […]

By John Jalsevac VALENCIA,  Spain, July 10, 2006, (LifeSiteNews.com) – This past weekend Pope Benedict XVI attended the Fifth World Meeting of Families in Valencia Spain.   Leading up to his visit many had speculated that Benedict would likely come out with strong words against Spain’s extreme left wing government, which has brought into the historically Catholic nation—amongst other things reprehensible to the Catholic faith—so-called homosexual “marriage.”   When asked, however, about his opinions on the new Spanish laws pertaining to homosexual “marriage,” Benedict explained that his purpose in visiting Spain was not to criticize, but first of all to affirm […]

By Hilary White WARSAW, July 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The President of Poland and leader of the pro-life party, Law and Justice Party (PiS), Lech Kaczynski, has appointed his identical twin brother Jaroslaw as Prime Minister. The brothers had been prominent political activists during the communist period when opposition to communism could result in one’s death.  Outgoing Prime Minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, is expected to run for mayor of Warsaw on the PiS ticket. The powerful position was formerly held by President Kaczynski, and is one that is regarded as a springboard to the presidency.  Jaroslaw Kaczynski had pulled out of […]

By John Jalsevac COLORADO, July 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the editing of Hollywood films by third-parties desiring to make them more family friendly infringes upon copyright laws.   The decision will affect a wide-ranging collection of companies and distributors that specialize in the increasingly booming business of offering values-conscious parents and families the option of enjoying big-name Hollywood films without having to worry about jumping on the fast-forward button on time.   Nearly all of the major Hollywood film studios involved themselves in the lawsuit in some measure, including MGM, Time Warner, […]

By Hilary White    LINYI, July 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chen Guangcheng, the legal activist fighting China’s coercive one-child population control policy,  is finally to be prosecuted on July 17 by China’s communist government,  the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Chen is charged with destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic.   Chen has been in prison since September, and his wife, Yuan Weijing, told the Post, “There isn’t much hope.” Speaking by telephone from the family farmhouse, where she has been detained, Weijing said,  “Everything that has happened runs counter to [Chinese President] Hu Jintao’s talk of […]

By Gudrun Schultz   BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex “marriage” can be placed on the 2008 ballot, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled today.   In a unanimous decision, the Court said the Massachusetts’ constitution did not prevent citizen-initiated amendments from seeking changes to the state constitution, even if the changes would overrule previous court decisions, reported the AP today.   Family advocacy groups and faith communities had collected over 120,000 signatures on a petition to overturn the 2003 decision to recognize homosexual “marriage” in the state, nearly twice the 65,000 signatures necessary.  […]

By Gudrun Schultz   TORONTO, Ontario, July 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A recent study suggesting that homosexual orientation results from biological factors in the prenatal environment is based on severely flawed research and biased assumptions, a leading Canadian psychiatrist has charged.   Researchers at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, conducted the study entitled “Biological versus nonbiological older brothers and men’s sexual orientation.” The study suggested that male same-sex attraction results from an immune reaction on the part of the mother to the presence of the male child in her womb, a reaction the study’s authors suggest stems from the […]