Shawn Hornbeck: Freedom ‘feels like a dream’

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>> we're joined by shawn horn bourque and his parents craig and pam akers. good morning to you.

>> good morning.

>> shawn it's been six years before you were reunited with your family. before i ask you about what's happening in cleveland how are you doing?

>> i'm doing fantastic, working a full time job just living my life .

>> you have to obviously have had a strong reaction when you heard the story coming out of cleveland , these three women were held for ten years basically against their will under horrible conditions. can you give me a sense of what these first mornings of freedom might be like for those women?

>> i mean it kind of feels like a dream, a dream come true. they're just going to have to take every second and just watch it.

>> can you flip a switch on? i mean how do you go from years of being held against your will in captivity being a victim to being a survivor living in freedom?

>> it's difficult to do, but you just going to have to, you're going to learn how to adapt to it and it's not going to change the life of who they are.

>> i'm interested in hearing you say that. i heard somebody say something yesterday and curious your reaction and i heard someone react to the cleveland story yesterday and say these women will be scarred for life , and i'm sure there are people who said that about you when you were released or freed six years ago. is it possible not to be scarred for life by an event like this?

>> yes, i truly believe that it is possible not to be scarred. i wouldn't say that i'm scarred. you know, i've consulted a personal psychiatrist that i've talked to and just kind of helped me fight my battles within myself and it's just something that they're going to have to go through life and they can't let it bring them down.

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Shawn Hornbeck: Freedom ‘feels like a dream’

SA takes longer to achieve tax freedom day

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TAX freedom day this year in South Africa, falling on Thursday, comes four days later than last year and almost a month later than in 1993, when it was on April 13, says Garth Zietsman, statistician at the Free Market Foundation.

It points to the day when South Africans stop paying their tax obligations to the government and enough wealth has been produced to meet the countrys tax burden.

The foundation predicts that tax freedom day will be even later next year given government spending, the deficit and rising government debt.

Mr Zietsman said on Wednesday that the only way for the government to fund its spending was to raise taxes.

Tax as a percentage of South Africas gross domestic product (GDP) has increased from 24.4% in the 2009-10 tax year to 24.6% the following year and 25% in 2011-12. It is estimated at 25.5% in the current tax year.

South Africans achieved tax freedom on April 12 in 1994, on April 20 in 1999 and on April 24 in 2000.

"Studies consistently show that when government spending consumes more of total earnings, investment and growth rates drop and unemployment increases," said Mr Zietsman.

"Higher taxes result in less disposable income; less disposable income means less saving; less saving means less capital formation; less capital formation means lower labour productivity; and lower labour productivity means lower real wages."

He added the government was growing at such an alarming pace that it was using tax money for consumption spending rather than for core functions and capital projects.

Stiaan Klue, CEO of the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners, said the real test was not how long it took to pay ones share of taxes, but the value one got for it. He said even though taxpayers in developed countries such as Belgium might work eight months before reaching tax freedom day, one had to consider how their taxes were working from them.

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SA takes longer to achieve tax freedom day

Dame Mary Peters gets freedom honour

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8 May 2013 Last updated at 16:10 ET

The Freedom of Belfast has been conferred on Olympic gold medallist Dame Mary Peters.

Dame Mary competed in three Olympic Games and five Commonwealth games, her first when she was 18. She won gold in the women's pentathlon in 1972.

The freedom ceremony took take place on Wednesday Belfast City Hall.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dame Mary said she had one final dream - a sports museum for Northern Ireland.

Earlier 300 children, participated in pentathlon-style sports on the front lawns of city hall.

A motion to grant the freedom of the city to Dame Mary was passed by Belfast city council in November of last year.

SDLP councillor Pat McCarthy proposed the motion in recognition of the 73-year-old's contribution to the life of the city.

"Over the past 40 years she has served as an ambassador for Belfast across the world and has been tireless in her efforts to promote sport and the benefits it brings to young people," the motion stated.

"Accordingly, in the recognition of this service, the council agrees that Dame Mary Peters is hereby elected and admitted as a Freeman of the City of Belfast."

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Dame Mary Peters gets freedom honour

Iran a top persecutor in religious freedom report- OPINION: Mass exodus of Christians is underway

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The report specifically names Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a violator of religious freedom. (AP)AP

Religious freedom is in short supply in the Middle East, according to the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has issued a report finding Iran chief among the nations where spiritual beliefs can bring prison sentences or worse.

The commission, which reports to President Obama, named several nations including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, North Korea and China. But it singled out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the theocratic states Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for their harsh crackdown on non-Islamic religions.

Since becoming president, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for an end to the development of Christianity in Iran, noted the report in its section on the Iranian regimes gutting of Christian freedoms.

The report took 15 countries to task over their particularly severe violations of religious freedom, which the commission defined as systematic, ongoing, and egregious acts of torture, prolonged detention without charges, disappearances, or other flagrant denial[s] of the right to life, liberty or the security of persons. The exhaustive, 364-page report covered the period January 31, 2012 January 31, 2013.

- U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

"The government of Iran's increased persecution of religious minorities should raise alarm around the world, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told FoxNews.com. "I urge the administration to designate key Iranian officials as human right abusers -- starting with the judge who put American citizen and Pastor Saeed Abedini in prison for practicing his faith."

The commissions report cited the shocking case of U.S-Iranian pastor Abedini, who was sentenced in a January trial without due process to eight years in prison for threatening the national security of Iran for his activity in the Christian house church movement.

Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, hailed the commissions decision to highlight the plight of Abedini in its report.

As the 2013 Iranian presidential election quickly approaches, many in the religious minority communities brace themselves for the worst, said Sekulow, whose organization represents Abedinis Idaho-based family.Meanwhile, Pastor Saeed currently suffers in solitary confinement in Evin prison -- a place in which he said a single day passes like a 100 days. While we are grateful for the Commission's report and mention of Pastor Saeed, to see real change in Iran, countries around the global music raise a chorus of voices against these abuses."

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Iran a top persecutor in religious freedom report- OPINION: Mass exodus of Christians is underway