CP World Report: Obama at Holocaust Museum, PCUSA, Sudan Church Burning, Netherlands
Alberta's long-ruling Progressive Conservatives have won a majority government in a landslide. Pollsters and naysayers had insisted that the so-called "upstart" Wildrose party would take a major victory. PC Alison Redford becomes the first elected female Premier in that province after the most contentious campaign in recent memory. She defeated Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, who managed to keep her seat. A record number of Albertans reportedly came out to vote.
The Dutch government has collapsed after Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned. He made the move when Geert Wilder's party for Freedom – considered far-right – withdrew its support for his government. Early elections are now expected in the Netherlands, as early as this summer. Lawmakers are meeting today to decide how to go forward. Queen Beatrix has asked Rutte and his ministers to stay in their positions until new elections.
The man on trial for the Norway massacre of 77 people has said no one would have asked for a psychiatric examination if he was a quote "bearded jihadist." Anders Breivik, who has admitted to the killings insists he is sane, and describes his rampage on July 22nd as an act of self defense. He called himself a militant nationalist, protecting his country from the damaging effects of immigration. If found sane, Breivik faces 21 years in jail. Two psychiatric examinations of him have reached opposite conclusions.
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Hundreds of Muslims incinerated a Catholic church complex in the Sudanese capital – Khartoum – amid growing hostilities between the Arab-dominated Muslim government of Sudan and the predominantly Christian South. The church complex included a school and dorms and was mostly used by citizens of the South. South Sudan seceded from the north last year after decades of civil war. However, tens of thousands of Christians and animists from the South remained in Sudan.
President Obama paid his respects at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. He discussed his administration's strategy to prevent and respond to mass atrocities and address America's pledge to never again allow genocide to happen. And, he announced the creation of the new Atrocities Prevention Board……
The largest Presbyterian Church in Colorado has voted to leave the denomination over theological differences. First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs made the break largely due to the church's decision to allow the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals. The 4,000-strong church now joins the recently created Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians.
A Florida church has found a new home in an unusual place. Some major renovations have turned a strip club into a house of God.
