* FALWELL'S PASSING
* UNITED NATIONS ATTACKED FOR SPREADING CHRISTIANITY
* AL-QAIDA AT WORK IN BETHLEHEM
* HOSPITAL COMPLIANCE TO EUTHANASIA TO BE ENFORCED
* A CONTROVERSIAL LAW EFFECTIVELY BANNING PARENTS FROM SMACKING THEIR CHILDREN HAS BEEN PASSED BY NEW ZEALAND'S PARLIAMENT
* KING HEROD'S TOMB FOUND

* FALWELL'S PASSING - (USA) The Rev. Jerry Falwell collapsed at his campus office and died Tuesday after a career in which the evangelist used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty force in American politics. He was 73. The founder of the Moral Majority was discovered without a pulse at Liberty University and pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later. Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell's physician, said he had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality. Fellow TV evangelist Pat Robertson, himself a one-time GOP candidate for president, declared Falwell "a tower of strength on many of the moral issues which have confronted our nation." (15 May, AP) (to index)

* UNITED NATIONS ATTACKED FOR SPREADING CHRISTIANITY - A deadly attack against a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip was carried out by an Islamist extremist group, according to a statement faxed to WND claiming the U.N. was targeted because the international body was "spreading Christian missionary activity." "The UN is spreading Christian missionary activity. We will keep hitting them and trying to kill them. They are trying to convert our Muslims under the cover of an international organization," said the statement, signed by the group Jihadia Salafiya. Until now, Jihadia Salafiya has operated in Gaza as an Islamic outreach movement seeking to make secular Muslims more religious, but the overall leader of the organization, Abu Saqer, confirmed to WND today his organization recently opened what it called a "military wing" to target individuals, establishments and groups it claims are "corrupting Islam." (8 May, Worldnetdaily) (to index)

* AL-QAIDA AT WORK IN BETHLEHEM - Al-Qaida training videos and literature were recently distributed to Palestinians in Bethlehem, according to local sources speaking to Worldnetdaily. "The information prompted some leaders there to express deep concern about the growing trend of what they said was Islamic extremism and Christian intimidation in one of the holiest cities for Christianity. According to local sources, the al-Qaida materials were mass produced and were provided to young Muslim men in Bethlehem. The sources didn't know where the materials originated. Among the materials distributed was an al-Qaida video - screened by WND - in which the global jihad group teaches the viewer how to behead "infidels" and kidnap civilians and soldiers. Palestinian security officials in Bethlehem said some al-Qaida-like materials were recently confiscated from local Palestinians, but they fiercely denied the presence of al-Qaida in Bethlehem." (15 May, WND) (to index)

* HOSPITAL COMPLIANCE TO EUTHANASIA TO BE ENFORCED - The Belgian ruling party wants to force every hospital to install euthanasia protocols, and that they will be monitored to ensure "death service" is available to all patients. If a doctor is unwilling to perform euthanasia, it will become the hospital's duty to find one that will. The party says this shift from traditional medicine will be an "ethical achievement", protecting the doctrine of total personal autonomy, a key theory in allowing assisted suicide. The head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says the law not only creates pressure for a "duty to die" for the patient, but a "duty to kill" for the physician. Doctors unwilling to comply with this ideology will become ostracized and labeled as religious fanatics. (7 May, DFL) (to index)

* A CONTROVERSIAL LAW EFFECTIVELY BANNING PARENTS FROM SMACKING THEIR CHILDREN HAS BEEN PASSED BY NEW ZEALAND'S PARLIAMENT - The legislation closes a legal loophole that allowed parents to use "reasonable force" to discipline their child.
However, the new bill allows the police to use discretion over whether a parent should be prosecuted or not.
Supporters say the previous law was too lenient, but critics say the new rules intrude too far into family life.
The bill was passed overwhelmingly, with only seven MPs voting against it.
It amends the New Zealand's Crimes Act, to remove the provision of "reasonable force" for parents in the disciplining of their children.
Critics of the old law said such a provision had helped acquit parents in child abuse cases.
But the changes - first proposed in 2005 - stirred huge concern from conservative groups worried that it would make criminals of parents.
To allay fears, a clause was added giving police the power "not to prosecute complaints where the offence is considered so inconsequential that there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution."
Poor record
The bill's sponsor, Green Party MP Sue Bradford, said the aim of the new law is to stop child-beaters from using "reasonable force" as a legal defence - and not to prevent a parent from smacking a child.
Although police have the power to turn a blind eye to "inconsequential" incidents, opponents of the new law say it does not make clear what that entails.
"The problem with the bill is that while it will allow light smacking, it will do so under circumstances almost impossible to interpret," Winston Peters, of the New Zealand First Party, said.
Smacking is banned in some European countries, but is not in most parts of the world.
New Zealand has a poor record of abuse and neglect of children when compared with other developed countries.
PM Helen Clark has said in the past that she hoped the law would correct that.
"New Zealand has on its conscience that our rate of child death and injury from violence, including in the home, is appalling," she said. (BBC NEWS, Wednesday, 16 May 2007) (to index)

* KING HEROD'S TOMB FOUND - An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Hebrew University said late Monday.
The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod built a palace on the hill, and researchers discovered his burial site there, the university said.
The university had hoped to keep the find a secret until Tuesday, when it planned a news conference to disclose the find in detail, but the Haaretz newspaper found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.
Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 37 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem still stands, and he also ordered big construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Massada and other sites.
It has long been assumed Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations had failed to turn up the site. The 1st century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod's funeral procession. (7 May, CNN) (to index)