A ruling by a California appeals court that parents “do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children” drew harsh criticism from religious conservatives on Friday, one of whom said the decision makes tens of thousands of parents into criminals - “the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets.”

“The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,” James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, said in a press release responding to a three-judge panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeals, which ruled on Feb. 28 that parents without teaching credentials cannot home-school their children.

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Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who is making a 10-minute movie about Islam entitled Fitna (Arabic for “ordeal”), has felt compelled to cancel the March 28 press conference where he intended to show his film. The Nieuwspoort press center in The Hague, which is run by a board of journalists, publishers and government press officers, demanded that Wilders pay 400,000 euros for extra safety measures. “Apparently, you have to be a millionaire to organize such an event,” Mr Wilders said. “Even if I had the money I am not going to spend it on a press conference.”

No Dutch broadcaster, public or private, has been willing to show the film. There are indications that Fitna will also be banned on Youtube, which removed a clip featuring Mr Wilders two week ago, on so-called “ethical grounds”.

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A short film no one has seen is causing a lot of commotion in the Netherlands and parts of the Islamic world. Its creator is an extreme-right, anti-Islam Dutch Parliament member who compares the Quran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Geert Wilders claims his film will unveil the Muslim holy book as a how-to guide for committing terrorist attacks and other violence.

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***All opinions are the expressed opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of OPS***

As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children. In Belgium, authorities are resorting to an extreme measure: prison sentences.

Two sets of parents in Belgium were recently handed five-month prison terms for failing to vaccinate their children against polio. Each parent was also fined $8,000.

“It’s a pretty extraordinary case,” said Dr. Ross Upshur, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. “The Belgians have a right to take some action against the parents, given the seriousness of polio, but the question is, is a prison sentence disproportionate?”

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As parliament prepares to debate forced marriages, calls are mounting for more to be done to stop the practice, prevalent among some parts of the migrant community.

According to Lathan Suntharalingam, a local politician campaigning against such marriages, it is an integration problem which can’t be solved through “multicultural do-gooding”.

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n theory the European Parliament ought to be the most open and democratic of the EU institutions: it is, after all, composed of those who, unlike any other EU creature, have sought and won election via the ballot box. The Bovine & Ovine (European Branch) have, however, a refined Brownshirt flavour about them.

There will be those who cry out in faux shock at the comparison between Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and those nasty thugs who used to mete out physical beatings to those who opposed the Nazis at rallies, meetings or even in the street. To them and indeed to all I commend Daniel Hannan’s post on how some of those democratically elected personages have singled out fellow MEPs who took part in a demonstration recently against the Treaty of Lisbon within the curtilage of the EU Parliament for punishment.

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***All opinions are the expressed opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of OPS***

From Wessex Archaeology News

An amazing collection of 28 flint hand-axes, dated by archaeologists to be around 100,000 years-old, have been unearthed in gravel from a licensed marine aggregate dredging area 13km off Great Yarmouth.

The find was made by a Dutch amateur archaeologist, Jan Meulmeester, who regularly searches for mammoth bones and fossils in marine sand and gravel delivered by British construction materials supplier Hanson to a Dutch wharf at Flushing, near Antwerp, south west Netherlands.

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When Victoria Inness-Brown contacted me about “explosive information” concerning aspartame (Equal,NutraSweet) the controversial, artificial, chemical sweetener, I didn’t know what to expect. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence of aspartame’s danger to human health (tires have been recalled for less) it remains in 6,000 food, drink and medicinal products.

Who could imagine a private citizen would do an aspartame experiment with 108 rats for 2 years and 8 months?

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A British cruise ship captain was facing an inquiry after criticising passengers who reserved sun loungers with towels for “Germanic behaviour”.

Captain Wells apologised to Germans on board during the 15-day P&O Caribbean cruise last month, but now faces an inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over whether his remarks were racist.

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