By Christy Barritt

Man Looks for Stranger with Ex-Girlfriend’s Name

A Canadian man will go on a world trip with a stranger bearing the same name as his ex-girlfriend.

Jordan Axani, 28, had booked the trip of a lifetime with his then girlfriend, Elizabeth Gallagher, back in May of 2014. When the two broke up, Axani had plane tickets booked and didn’t want the hassle of changing the names on several airline tickets.

He put out a call on social media for people named Elizabeth Gallagher and received thousands of responses before finally choosing a 23-year-old student from Nova Scotia to accompany him. Axani said he and his new travel partner have a totally platonic relationship, but he thinks they’ll become friends on the three-week trip to Italy, France, India, and Thailand.

Axani said he received some bizarre responses, including several people who offered to legally change their names in order to go on the trip. After he received worldwide media attention, Axani started a charity called A Ticket Forward that aims to fund trips for underprivileged people.

Firing Someone For Weight Is Discriminatory in Europe

A top court in Europe ruled in December that obese people can be considered as disabled, meaning that they’re covered by a European Union law barring discrimination at work.

The lawsuit was originated by a Danish man named Karsten Kaltoft, who weighs approximately 350 pounds. Kaltoft said he lost his job because of obesity. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that EU employment law did not specifically prohibit discrimination on the grounds of obesity and that the law should not be extended to cover it. However, it said that if an employee’s obesity hindered “full and effective participation of the person concerned in professional life on an equal basis with other workers” then it could be considered a disability.

According to the World Health Organization, roughly 23 percent of European women and 20 percent of European men are obese.

Global Population Living Longer 

Global life expectancy has risen by more than 6 years since 1990, thanks to falling death rates from cancer and heart disease in wealthy countries and better survival in poor countries.

Health researchers with the Global Burden of Disease Study said that while life expectancy is rising almost everywhere in the world, the one notable exception is southern sub-Saharan Africa, where deaths from HIV/AIDS have erased some five years of life expectancy since 1990.

A focus on fighting a variety of illnesses such as diarrhea, measles, tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria has had an impact on the survival rates in many countries. According to the report, people in Nepal, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Niger, Maldives, East Timor, and Iran are now living on average 12 years longer.

Two Hawaii Churches Sued over Rent

Two atheists have brought a lawsuit against two Hawaii churches for defrauding the government. The lawsuit claims that the churches committed fraud by paying substandard rent to the public schools in which they meet, even though the school districts themselves agree that the churches have consistently paid all agreed-upon rent.

The atheists, Mitchell Kahle and Holly Huber, filed their suit under the state’s False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors. However the lawsuit cites no evidence of the churches submitting any false statements to defraud the government.

Kahle and Huber have since moved to Michigan and have initiated complaints to stop several activities there that are related to Christianity.

Christy Barritt is an award-winning author in Chesapeake, Virginia (christybarritt.com). She and her husband, Scott, have two sons.