Tyrannosaurus rex lives.

Cartoon by Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner.

A clear victory for free speech in Canada.
The BC Supreme Court has ruled that the City of Powell River was wrong to threaten charges of defamation against three residents who dared to criticise the mayor and council over their handling of a controversial harbour development.
As reported by The Vancouver Sun’s Daphne Bramham, the decision forcefully [...]

The Hindu political party BJP has nominated for elective office a man now in police custody and accused of leading anti-Christian mob violence in Orissa state, India, that began last August.
Manoj Pradhan is the prime accused in last year’s ethno-communal riots in Kandhmal and currently behind bars. But that hasn’t stopped BJP from giving a [...]

Many Saudi Arabian women seek divorce through khula, a provision of Sharia law that requires the wife to provide financial compensation to her husband. Such compensation can entail repayment of the dowry plus other expenses incurred during the marriage.
Sara, a 32-year-old mother of three children, has been trying to secure a divorce from her [...]

The Canadian flag used to hang from the ceiling of Wyckham House, the student centre at Mount Royal College, Calgary. It was taken down during renovations, but the students’ association is apparently having qualms about restoring it to its former place of honour. Students will be surveyed.
“We want to be as fully representative [...]

Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN) reports that two Iranian Christian women were arrested and imprisoned earlier this month solely because of their faith.
On March 5th 2009, two Iranian Christian women, Miss Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad (30), and Miss Maryam Rustampoor (27), were arrested by the Iranian security forces. Their only crime is that they are committed [...]

Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation sixty years ago today, but it doesn’t seem to be a joyous occasion in St John’s.
No tributes, no ceremonies and no parties are planned to mark the 60th anniversary on Tuesday of Newfoundland and Labrador joining Canada.
Premier Danny Williams had planned last fall to hold a celebration to mark both [...]

A wrong-headed column in The Times of London contends that the G20 nations need to get beyond the “false dichotomy” of “free trade versus protectionism”.  Noreena Hertz of Judge Business School, Cambridge, notes rightly that Western leaders are hypocritically extolling free trade while implementing protectionist measures on the sly.  Then, however, she insists that protectionism [...]

The Tyranny of Nice in the UK.
Renowned political philosopher Kenneth Minogue remarks on a paradox at the heart of contemporary British society. For many years, government policies and public institutions have been based on compassion, empathy, and concern; yet, increasingly, the result is a society manifesting the opposite qualities—indifference, lawlessness, and violence.
Young offenders are [...]

French-language news site les quotidiennes reports on a UN-sponsored symposium on honour crime to be held in Geneva on Saturday, 4 April.  The translation posted below comes from Google, with some editing for intelligibility by this blogger.
According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 women and girls each year are victims of “honor crimes”. [...]

Innu from Quebec crossed into southern Labrador over the weekend to hunt endangered caribou. The hunting party has reportedly killed 18 of the 108 animals in the area. Officials from Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Natural Resources say all they can do is gather surveillance evidence to lay charges after the killing’s finished.
The party [...]

Erstwhile rock singer Courtney Love is being sued for messages she sent via that nasty new “social networking” tool Twitter.
Fans of Twitter say its beauty is that it allows users to upload their thoughts as and when they think of them. This can be a serious disadvantage for those of a belligerent disposition. Ms Love’s [...]

Susie, an American woman in Saudi Arabia, has made the shocking discovery that vice cops with the Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CVPVP) censor CD covers. She recently bought her son a copy of Kate Perry’s One of the Boys.
When he opened up the CD, we were both astonished [...]

Traditional parenting that emphasises parental authority, discipline, and high expectations, is most likely to lead to well-adjusted children, according to researchers from London’s Institute of Education.
The best parenting was characterised by high expectations that children would act with the maturity befitting their age. Supervision and discipline was also key, as was responsiveness to children’s needs.
‘Multiple [...]

Over a year ago in Guelendeng, southern Chad, a 14-year-old girl named Mariam was forced by her father to marry a 60-year-old man. Mariam tried to commit suicide by setting herself on fire.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.
“After the wedding, my husband told me he wanted me to sleep at [...]