President Michel Suleiman stressed that the parliamentary elections will be held on time, while emphasizing the government’s agreement on an electoral law based on proportional representation. He said: “The draft law was referred to parliament for discussion and the ministers should not violate the government’s consensus over the proposal.”   He made his remarks at […]

Washington D.C., Jan 16, 2013 / 04:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A U.S. citizen imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith could face execution if the government is not pressured to release him, warned an international religious freedom advocacy group. “As more individuals and governments around the world take notice of Pastor Saeed’s case, the pressure on Iran to release him and stop violating religious liberty will increase,” said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the Washington, D.C. – based American Center for Law and Justice. In a Jan. 14 post on the law center’s website, Sekulow explained that immediate action is essential “as the Iranian regime is clearly bent on rushing through a sham trial that leaves counsel unprepared and in the dark about the nature of the charges against their client.”

Pastor Saeed Abedini, 32, is a U.S. citizen who initially invoked the anger of the Iranian government by helping start house churches after converting from Islam to Christianity. However, the two parties arrived at an agreement in 2009 allowing the pastor to travel freely in the country if he stopped working with the underground churches. He instead turned his focus toward humanitarian efforts with non-religious orphanages. Nevertheless, the pastor was arrested in September during a trip to work with those orphanages and visit family, the American Center for Law and Justice said, and he has been imprisoned illegally for more than three months. Now, Sekulow warned, Abedini is scheduled to go on trial before one of Iran’s most notorious “hanging judges. He explained that Abedini’s lawyer was permitted to see the court file only one week before the Jan. 21 court date. The only charges that the attorney could decipher dated back to 2000, the year of the pastor’s conversion to Christianity.

“The supposed charge levied against him, actions against the national security of Iran, is a typical charged brought by the radical Islamic regime against those it wishes to persecute for their religious beliefs,” Sekulow said, adding that the court file “indicated that this national security charge was directly related to his work starting a house church movement in Iran.” In a recent letter, Abedini said that he has been beaten and told that he “will hang” for his “faith in Jesus.”

 It was the biggest performance in the short history of the Damascus Opera House. On Sunday, Jan. 6, a worldwide audience watched embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad take center stage and deliver a familiar monologue on the legitimacy, resilience, and victimization of his authoritarian regime. Assad has made four similar speeches since the beginning of […]

Demonstrators blocked the road outside the French embassy in Beirut on Monday after a French court postponed the release of Lebanese leftist militant George Abdallah, who has spent 28 years in jail, as Prime Minister Najib Miqati condemned the “unjustified” delay. Dozens of leftist protesters and supporters of Abdallah rallied in front of Paris’ embassy […]

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (Catholic Online) – Twin brothers living together in Belgium, deaf from birth, were told by a physician they would soon go blind. Supposedly unable to bear the thought of never seeing one another again, they chose euthanasia and were killed by lethal injection in a Belgian hospital on Dec. 14 of last year.  Doctors concluded the brothers were of sound mind and made the mutual decision fully aware of what they were doing, except perhaps from a moral standpoint.  Belgian law permits euthanasia to be carried out by doctors if the patients make their wishes clear and are suffering pain, which is unbearable.

According to national statistics, a full one percent of all deaths in the country are now the result of euthanasia. Most of those cases are for terminal cancer. The suicide of the twin brothers is unusual because neither man was dying and their pain was psychological rather than physical.  According to a report in the Telegraph, the brothers worked as cobblers. Neither of the men has been named.  RTL Television reported that doctor David Dufor "presided over the euthanasia." The doctor stressed that the men made the decision to end their lives "in full conscience." He also added that it was a "relief" to see them end their suffering.

Just prior to their euthanasia procedure, the brothers enjoyed cups of coffee, and spoke with their parents. Dufor described that conversation in positive terms, saying it was "rich." Despite the sanitary description of the euthanasia being offered by the doctor and the media, the horror story does not end with the ill-advised decision of these brothers. Instead, it takes a twist for the macabre as the legislature considers an amendment to the law, which could open the floodgates and allow euthanasia of Alzheimer sufferers and children.  For now, the amendment, offered by the Socialists, is tabled. The law would allow euthanasia of minors on the condition "they are capable of discernment, or beset by an incurable illness or suffering that cannot be alleviated." Of course, one must wonder how often children are truly capable of appreciating the ramifications of their decisions.  The forecast is that parliament will take up and eventually pass the amendment.  Physician assisted suicide is legal in a number of places including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and in the U.S. state of Oregon. These pockets of legalized euthanasia have given rise to a sick form of tourism, suicide tourism.  Most suicide tourists come from surrounding European countries.