# Roundup: Interfaith events, oppressive countries, biodiversity, Syria, design, rendition, income control

> News from the Committee on Relations with Other Faiths.

7 February 2013 · News

Canonical: https://insights1.uca.org.au/articles/roundup-interfaith-events-oppressive-countries-biodiversity-syria-design-rendition-income-control/

## [Visit to Auburn Mosque, interfaith worship events](https://nsw.uca.org.au/relationswithotherfaiths/news_events.htm)

News from the Committee on Relations with Other Faiths.

## [Which countries are most free — and most oppressive?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/16/which-countries-are-most-free-and-most-oppressive/)

As Libya, Egypt and a handful of African countries have become more open and democratic in the past year, Mali and some of its neighbors have become dramatically less so, according to a new report from the democracy watchdog Freedom House.

## [Report says 54 countries helped CIA after 9/11](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/politics/report-says-54-countries-helped-cia-with-interrogations-after-9-11.html?ref=world&_r=0)

Some 54 countries helped facilitate the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret detention, rendition and interrogation program in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a new human rights report that documents broad international involvement in the American campaign against Al Qaeda.

## [Income control costs ‘more than it’s worth’](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/income-control-costs-more-than-its-worth/story-fn59niix-1226567750648)

Welfare groups are calling for both sides of politics to reconsider income management after the Auditor-General found that it cost more than half the value of the dole to administer.

## [Beacon of talent shines at DesignTECH exhibition](https://north-shore-times.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/beacon-of-talent-shines-at-designtech-exhibition/)

A floating beacon which can amplify lifesavers’ messages to swimmers at the beach has been included in this year’s DesignTECH exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.

## [Warning about deepening humanitarian crisis in Syria](https://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17948)

The United Nations humanitarian arm has warned that the ongoing conflict in Syria, which will soon enter its third year, will lead to a sharp spike in the number of people needing urgent aid, including food, clean water and vital medical services.

## [Is an ethic of biodiversity enough?](https://theconversation.edu.au/is-an-ethic-of-biodiversity-enough-11425)

If we are to save the biosphere we need to acknowledge that the biosphere requires ethical consideration in its own right, and that a mere ethic of biodiversity will not do the job.