Global Quickies: Devils, Debauchery, and Danger for Bloggers

INDIA
“An outspoken Indian rationalist scholar and college professor who had drawn the ire of religious groups for denouncing superstition and idol worship was shot dead by two unidentified assailants at his home in the southern state of Karnataka over the weekend.”

RUSSIA (From Critical Dragon)
Religious zealots have begun destroying ‘satanic’ art in Russia. “(…) a century old St. Petersburg facade of the mythical devil Mephistopheles was dismantled in plain daylight and chucked into a garbage by a religiously motivated group posing as construction workers.

INDIA
“An Indian politician’s comment that a condom advertisement with a well-known porn star will lead to a rise in rapes has caused outrage on social media.”

BANGLADESH
“Four secular bloggers have been murdered in Bangladesh this year, and many others say they do not feel safe. Fearing for their lives, some online writers have left the country, and others are working quietly to flee.”

UK
Woman loses legal bid to force NHS to provide homeopathic medicine. “The board decided in June 2013 that the money spent on giving people the substances would be better spent on conventional medicines.”

FRANCE
“A French woman has won a disability grant after telling a court she suffers from an allergy to electromagnetic radiation from gadgets.”

EGYPT
“A court in Egypt has sentenced two belly dancers to six months each in jail for inciting debauchery.”

SAUDI ARABIA
Last week women in Saudi Arabia were permitted to register to vote and women will be able to run for office, but without freedom of movement, Saudi women face an uphill struggle.

MIDDLE EAST
Unicef warns of lost generation of war children out of school. “War and upheaval across parts of the Middle East and North Africa in recent years have driven more than 13 million children from school — 40 percent of the affected area’s school-age population.”

Featured image: Destroyed Mephistopheles by Roman Vezenin / VK