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David Cameron has threatened to withhold UK aid from countries that do not reform legislation banning homosexuality. The UK prime minister said he raised the issue with some of the states involved at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia. (snip) Mr Cameron said he had spoken with "a number of African countries" and that more pressure had been applied by Foreign Secretary William Hague, who deputised for him during parts of the summit. Some 41 nations within the 54-member Commonwealth have laws banning homosexuality. Many of these laws are a legacy of British Empire laws. The discussion...

PERTH, Australia - The Conservative government has agreed to put new legislation before Parliament to give Canada's consent to change the 300-year-old rules of British succession that, among other things, favour male heirs to the throne over female ones. Canada is one of 16 of Queen Elizabeth II's realms that met here Friday and agreed to changes proposed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to update the laws of succession set out in the 1601 Acts of Settlement. "Put simply, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a little girl, that girl would one day be our queen," Cameron...

Gay Couples To Be Allowed Civil Ceremonies In Church Homosexual couples will be able to take part in civil partnerships in church and other places of worship from next month, it will be announced. It is estimated that about 1,500 civil partnerships a year would take place in religious settings once the ban is lifted. By Andrew Porter, and Martin Beckford 01 Nov 2011 Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, will say that the ban on the ceremonies in religious surroundings will be lifted on Dec 5. The move has been championed by David Cameron but is likely to be opposed...

Traditional words 'father' and 'mother' will be replaced with official terms Parent 1 and Parent 2 in Britain. The terms will be used in official documents. The authorities decided to make such a "politically correct" move to accommodate same-sex couples. Experts are sure, though, that the matter is not about the requirements of certain social groups. The decision is another step towards the destruction of traditional families. The words 'father' and 'mother' will be removed from British passport applications before December 2011. This became an achievement of Stonewall group, which defends the rights of sex minorities. The US State Department...

FRIDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- One in six cellphones in Britain may be contaminated with fecal matter that can spread E. coli, likely because so many people don't wash their hands properly after using the toilet, a new study contends. The findings also suggest that many people lie about their hygiene habits, according to the researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London. The study authors went to 12 cities and collected 390 samples from the cellphones and hands of volunteers, who were also asked about their hand-washing habits. Ninety-five percent...

Midnight on St Mary Street in Cardiff and everything is exactly as expected. Half a dozen young women slump in a gutter, men urinate outside a health-food shop and, as hordes stagger between nightclubs, someone lifts up a blow-up doll with a sex toy protruding out of it. The street smells of urine and lager, police struggle to break up a fight outside the Walkabout bar and a paramedic bundles a comatose girl on to a wheelchair. But it's a quiet night for 20-year-old Naomi Jenkins. She has 'only' drunk three shots of peach schnapps, cider and three shots of...

Britain's most prominent pro-family lawyer told activists they had better fight now or it will be too late. His message was blunt: "You've got to stop this now in America while you still can." Diamond compared today's U.S. society to Britain's in 1997. "We thought it was stable; we'd had centuries of religious tolerance," he said. Then in 1997 came a huge change in the political culture. "Human rights, equality, and non-discrimination" became buzz words backed by law, and began to be forcefully enforced against Christians by the courts. Now 14 years later, a British couple cannot be foster parents...

Police in Lancashire have told the owner of a Christian café to stop displaying Bible texts on a video screen, because it breaches public order laws. Officers attended the Salt & Light Coffee House on Layton Road, Blackpool, on Monday 19 September, following a complaint about “insulting” and “homophobic” material. The café’s owner, Mr Jamie Murray, says the officers did not specify which Bible texts had caused the offence. BreachHe says the officers told him that displaying offensive or insulting words is a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, and told him to stop displaying the Bible....

Police in Lancashire have told the owner of a Christian café to stop displaying Bible texts on a video screen, because it breaches public order laws. Officers attended the Salt & Light Coffee House on Layton Road, Blackpool, on Monday 19 September, following a complaint about “insulting” and “homophobic” material. The café’s owner, Mr Jamie Murray, says the officers did not specify which Bible texts had caused the offence. He says the officers told him that displaying offensive or insulting words is a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, and told him to stop displaying the Bible....

Thousands of Muslims gathered in London on Saturday at a rally "to fight extremism and promote a moderate, inclusive version of Islam." The event's organizers, Minhaj-ul-Quran International, said prior to the event that some 12,000 Muslims are expected at Wembley Arena. The group's founder, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, told journalists that killing innocents is forbidden in Islam and Muslims must integrate into the societies in which they are living.

Britain’s coalition government is aiming to legalize same-sex “marriage” before the next federal election in 2015, announced Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone on Saturday. The move comes after the “personal intervention” of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, reports the U.K.’s Daily Mail. Same-sex couples in Britain have been able to access comparable benefits to married couples since 2005 when the country legalized same-sex “civil partnerships.” The government’s latest effort would focus strictly on changing the perennial definition of marriage. Mike Judge, head of communications for The Christian Institute, warned that the change will have vast implications for British society, particularly in...

The Home Office is considering changing British passports to allow transgender people to opt out of identifying themselves as male or female. The proposed moves follows pressure from the Liberal Democrats who claim it is necessary to avoid problems encountered by people who are undergoing sex change operations. Currently everybody with a passport must identify themselves as male or female on the document. But the Home Office has begun a consultation on changing the system to allow a category for the small minority of people who are unable to tick either box. Supporters claim it will avoid problems at passport...

Ten-year-old Livvy James loves her new school uniform, particularly the smart, grey skirt with two pleats and pockets decorated with hearts. ‘Walking to school on my first day back, I was nervous and excited, but most of all I just felt like shouting ‘‘Yeay!’’ ’ says Livvy, who wore her shoulder-length blonde hair that day in a swishy pony-tail. ‘I was so excited that I didn’t care what people thought about me. Even if people looked at me or were saying nasty things, I didn’t care. I felt happy because I could be me and didn’t have to pretend any...

It's an issue that has been discussed - and continues to be discussed. Last Friday, the UK decided to lift the ban on prohibiting gays from donating blood. From Times Of India: UK Lifts Ban, Says Gays Can Donate BloodLONDON: Britain said Thursday it was lifting a ban on gay men giving blood providing they have had not had sexual intercourse within a year. A lifetime ban on blood donation by gay men was introduced in Britain in the 1980s as a response to the spread of AIDS and HIV.But a review by a panel of leading experts and patient...

Postal workers refused to deliver CDs of Bible readings after deciding they were ‘offensive material’. Several churches had paid for discs with recordings of St Mark’s Gospel to be produced to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. They were due to be delivered to all households on the Channel Island of Jersey, but church leaders were stunned when they were told postal workers would not handle the 45,000 CDs.

A member of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is calling for a ban on marriages at Christian churches if they refuse to also perform same-sex unions. “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples, there will be inequality,” wrote Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade, in an August 21 letter to Cameron. While Weatherley’s proposal is currently a “minority view,” it “could quickly become a main stream point of view,” warned Neil Addison, national director of the U.K.‘s Thomas More Legal Centre. The U.K.‘s 2004 Civil Partnership Act, which legalized...

Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove, has called for churches to be banned from holding marriages if they refuse to perform civil partnerships for gay couples. He says that the idea will bring more equality for gay couples. In a letter (see below) to prime minister David Cameron, Mr Weatherley wrote: “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples there will be inequality. “Such behaviour is not be tolerated in other areas, such as adoption, after all. “Until we untangle unions and religion in this country we will struggle to find a fair...

It's been more than two years since Britain banned entry to American talk-radio phenom Michael Savage, along with a short list of terrorists, neo-Nazis murderers and other vile scum. It was in May 2009 that the British government released a list of 16 persona non grata – banned so as to protect the country from provocateurs of violence. Today we should ask London how that deal is working out for them. It would seem apparent, however, that Britain has made less-than-perfect choices about whom to allow into the country and whom to keep out. Let me put it another way:...

Britain must confront a culture of laziness, irresponsibility and selfishness that fueled four days of riots which left five people dead, thousands facing criminal charges and hundreds of millions in damages, Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged Monday. As rival political leaders staked out their response to England's unrest, Cameron pledged to deliver a raft of new policies by October aimed at reversing the "slow-motion moral collapse" which he blames for fostering the disorder. "This has been a wake-up call for our country. Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face," Cameron told an audience at...

LONDON — “I came here to get my penny’s worth,” said a man who gave his name as Louis James, 19, a slightly built participant in the widening riots that have shaken London to its core. With a touch of guilt on Tuesday, Mr. James showed off what he described as a $195 designer sweater that he said he looted in Camden Town, a gentrified area of north London. ... In many ways, Mr. James’s circumstances are typical. He lives in a government-subsidized apartment in northern London and receives $125 in jobless benefits every two weeks, even though he says...