Belgium: Liege reeling after killing spree
15 Dec 2011A gunman opened fire on passers-by and threw grenades in a central square of the Belgian city of Liege, fatally wounding at least four people and injuring scores more before apparently killing himself. Separately, on Wednesday police found a woman's body in a warehouse used by the gunman, who has been named as Nordine Amrani. Late on Tuesday a Liege hospital announced that a 17-month-old girl had become the fourth victim of the shooting spree, after two teenage boys and a 75-year-old woman were earlier confirmed killed. Officials said at least 120 others were also wounded in the attack. Daniele Reynders, the public prosecutor for Liege, told reporters ‘Amrani committed suicide with a bullet to the head. He left no message to explain his act’. Police had recently raided his Liege home seeking cannabis plants, but had found arms instead. In 2008, he was sentenced to almost five years in prison for illegal possession of arms and growing cannabis.
Pray: for all those caught up in this atrocity that God will bring them physical, spiritual healing and peace. (Col.1:2)
More: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/12/20111213125725322987.html
The Brussels Court of Appeal has ruled that parents may sue physicians who fail to diagnose ‘serious disabilities’ of pre-born children, assuming that had the parents known they would have had the disabled child killed through an abortion, reports LifeSiteNews.com. The September 21st ruling said, ‘certainly, the misdiagnosis did not cause the child’s disability, which existed before the error and which could not be remedied.’ But, the court said, ‘the injury [that] must be compensated is not the disability itself, but the fact of being born with such disabilities.’ The court commented that abortion is in the best interest of the child whose parents would have it killed, noting that since abortion was legalized, ‘the legislature must have intended to help avoid giving birth to children with serious abnormalities, having regard not only to the interests of the mother but also to that of the unborn child itself.’
Pray: that this ruling will be reversed and life would be honoured. (Is.42:5)
Belgium: Considers euthanasia for children
20 Jun 2013Belgium’s federal parliament is close to introducing a ‘right to die’ for sick children, according to reports in a Belgian newspaper. Der Morgen has said that a consensus is forming around proposed legislation which would allow children, whose situation is deemed dire enough, to opt for euthanasia. Euthanasia is already legal in Belgium. A law legalising the practice was introduced in 2002 but restricted it to people aged 18 or over. If the law passes, Belgium would become the first country to legalise euthanasia for children. The bill was introduced in December by the Socialist Party. It would lay out guidelines for doctors to assess on a case by case basis whether a child is mature enough to make the decision to end their life and whether the child’s illness is serious enough to warrant euthanasia. Leader of the Socialist party, Thierry Giet, said: ‘The idea is to update the law to take better account of dramatic situations.’ (See also Prayer Alert 01-2013)
Pray: that these proposed changes will not be accepted. (Ps.119:126)
More: http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/end-of-life/belgium-considers-euthanasia-for-children
Belgium is considering allowing children and Alzheimer’s sufferers to ask to be euthanized. The proposed changes to the country’s decade-old law were submitted to Parliament on Tuesday by the Socialist Party. The draft legislation calls for ‘the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate’. Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalise euthanasia, but it applies to people over the age of 18. The European Institute of Bioethics has already criticised the current law in Belgium, in a report reviewing ten years of euthanasia in the country. Dr Peter Saunders, director of campaign group Care not Killing, warned in response to the report: ‘The lessons are clear. Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide steady extension will follow as night follows day.’
Pray: that the Care not Killing response be listened to and these proposed changes would not be accepted. (Ps.119:126)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/belgium-considering-extending-euthanasia-law-to-children/
Belgium heightens terror alert level
18 Jun 2012The body that keeps tabs on the terrorist threat in Belgium, the OCAD, has just heightened the country's terror alert level from 2 to 3 across Brussels. The OCAD that analyses the security situation believes that there is now a greater terrorist threat following Friday night's stabbing of two police officers on the Brussels metro. The OCAD says that the terrorist threat in Brussels is now serious. Until yesterday alert level 3 only affected the Brussels borough of Saint-Jans-Molenbeek where the arrest of a woman wearing a full veil sparked rioting. Level 3 has now been extended to the entire Brussels Region.
Pray: that the situations which led to the terror alert rising would be calmed. (Ac.4:29)
More: http://europenews.dk/en/node/55495
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme resigns
19 May 2010Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme resigned on Thursday after a key Flemish party withdrew its support and toppled his coalition government, a senior minister announced. ‘There was no other choice but for the government to resign,’ Finance Minister Didier Reynders told reporters after the Flemish liberal Open VLD party pulled out of the five-party coalition. Open VLD were frustrated by the failure to solve a long-running dispute between Belgium's Dutch-speaking and Francophone communities.
Pray: for the Belgian peoples as they consider a new Prime Minister that there would be a meeting of minds. (Pr.3:13)
Religious communities in various parts of Belarus have faced visits, threats and warnings for holding meetings of worship which officials regard as illegal. On one Sunday in January, officials visited three Pentecostal services in separate villages. Pastor Vasili Raptsevich – who led worship in a church-owned house in a village in Brest Region for about ten disabled church members - was summoned to the police station. There he was told that he had violated the law by conducting a religious service away from its legal address without permission. Police threatened him with court proceedings and threatened to strip his Pentecostal church of state registration. In February, police in the capital Minsk - among them masked riot police - launched a mass raid on a cultural meeting being held in a Pentecostal pastor's home. 34 participants were taken to a police station, but were released two hours later without any explanation and without any official record being drawn up.
Pray: that God’s Church will be protected from persecution. (Ro.8:35)
Belarus: Praying in homeless shelter a crime
11 Jul 2013A young Catholic layman, who turned his home in a western Belarus village into a shelter for homeless people with a prayer room, is being accused of leading an unregistered religious organisation, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Aleksei Shchedrov - who says he has helped about 100 local people since December 2011 - is being investigated on criminal charges under Article 193-1, and faces a maximum possible sentence of two years' imprisonment. Shchedrov denies the authorities' accusation of founding an unregistered religious organisation. ‘I am a Christian and I started to help those who are in need,’ he insisted to Forum 18 on 24 June from the village of Aleksandrovka, Grodno [Hrodna] Region. ‘I give them food, a bed, a bath and clothes and I pray together with them. But this is no religious organisation, just charity.’ Local police launched the criminal investigation against the 28-year-old Shchedrov following raids on the shelter in February and April.
Pray: for Shchedrov that the authorities will release him and allow him to continue to care for those in need. (Rom.12:13)