Bakery to appeal gay-bias conviction
LONDON — The owners of a Northern Ireland bakery who refused to bake a cake supporting gay marriage said Thursday that they would appeal their conviction for discrimination.
The Christian owners of Ashers Baking Co. were convicted last week after refusing an order from gay-rights activist Gareth Lee. He asked for a cake featuring Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie and the words “Support Gay Marriage.”
Belfast Judge Isobel Brownlie ruled that the bakery had discriminated against Lee on grounds of sexual orientation and political beliefs, and ordered it to pay $765 in damages, plus thousands in legal costs.
The judge said the bakery was a business, not a religious organization, and therefore had no legal basis to reject an order based on a customer’s sexual orientation or beliefs.
Members of the McArthur family, the bakery’s owners, said that “after much careful and prayerful consideration given to legal advice,” they had decided to appeal.
Same-sex marriages were legalized last year in the rest of the United Kingdom but remain unrecognized in Northern Ireland.
Move ill Russian activist, wife urges
MOSCOW — The wife of a Russian opposition activist who has been hospitalized in Moscow with a mysterious illness urged Thursday that he be evacuated to a hospital in Europe or Israel, saying his condition had not improved despite emergency dialysis.
The activist, Vladimir Kara-Murza, collapsed and lost consciousness Tuesday. He is the federal coordinator of Open Russia, a civic group founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former chief of Yukos Oil and critic of President Vladimir Putin who served 10 years in prison.
“His condition has not changed,” Kara-Murza’s wife, Evgenia, who lives with their three young children in the United States, wrote in an email to reporters. “His condition remains very grave. He has not regained consciousness.”
In an interview Wednesday, Evgenia Kara-Murza said she feared that her husband had been poisoned and that he remained in danger as long as he stayed in Russia.
Church, EU eschew Burundi elections
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Catholic Church leaders said Thursday that they no longer support the Burundi government’s decision to hold elections next month during political unrest over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. The European Union also said it was suspending its election observer mission there.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Burundi said in a statement that it is withdrawing from an earlier agreement with the government that would have seen priests monitoring elections across the country, piling more pressure on an administration that is facing international calls to postpone the elections.
In a statement Thursday, the EU said it was suspending its election observer mission in Burundi over concerns about restrictions on the independent media, excessive use of force against demonstrators, and the intimidation of opposition parties and civic groups.
Parliamentary elections are set for June 5, and presidential elections for June 26.
Thai calls boat people surge ‘alarming’
BANGKOK — Thailand’s foreign minister said today that the surge of boat people in Southeast Asia has reached an “alarming level,” and he called for governments in the region to address the root causes of the crisis — a reference to the swelling number of people who have fled persecution in Burma.
Speaking at the opening of a regional meeting in Bangkok aimed at tackling the issue, Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn said that “no country can solve this problem alone.”
He also added: “The root causes that motivated these people to leave must also be addressed.”
Anne Richard, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said “we strongly believe we have to save lives urgently. We have to develop better ways of discussing and meeting on these issues and taking action when people are setting to sea in boats.”
Today’s meeting includes representatives from 17 countries directly and indirectly affected by the crisis, as well as others such as the United States and Japan, and officials from international organizations such as the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration.