News Briefs

The Court of Appeal in London has rejected an appliction by the Diocese of Middlesbrough, in northheast England, to appeal a court ruling of Nov. 9 that found it responsible for a $12.8 million claim by victims of child sexual abuse, perhaps the largest such award in English history. • Asia Bibi, 37, a Pakistani woman accused of denigrating the Prophet Mohammed, became on Nov. 7 the first Christian woman ever condemned to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. • Less than a month after Nebraska’s restrictions on abortions took effect, Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a late-term abortion provider in Omaha, Neb., announced plans for new or expanded clinics in Iowa, Indiana and near Washington, D.C. • The Cuban government missed a deadline to release 13 prisoners of conscience, but church efforts on their behalf will continue, said Bishop Arturo Gonzalez of Cuba on Nov. 8 in Miami. • Twenty-six Iraqi Catholics injured in an attack on the Baghdad cathedral on Oct. 31 were transferred to a hospital in Rome on Nov. 13; 35 others had been already transported to Paris on Nov. 10. • Australia’s bishops welcomed a ruling of Australia’s High Court on Nov. 11 that guarantees asylum seekers the same legal protections as Australian citizens and legal residents.