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Three British Christians who argued that their beliefs saw them wrongly disciplined by their employers for actions such as refusing to counsel same-sex couples have lost their legal battle at the European court of human rights . Shirley Chaplin, Gary McFarlane and Lillian Ladele   had their appeals to the Strasbourg court rejected in January  as part of the same ruling as that in which Nadia Eweida , a British Airways check-in attendant, won her fight against being banned from wearing a cross at work. The three sought to resolve the matter in the court's grand chamber, its final arbiter. However,  judges at the court have rejected the request , in effect ending the legal battle. The success for Eweida, who was awarded €2,000 (£1,600) in compensation after a seven-year struggle with the airline – a decision welcomed by David Cameron among others – partly overshadowed the contrasting judgment in the cases of Chaplin, McFarlane and Ladele. Chaplin, 57, a geriatri...

David Cameron's picture on the 10 Downing Street website (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Fifteen years ago, hoteliers Peter and Hazelmary Bull made some mocking headlines when reporters noticed their stodgy guest policy: No double rooms for unmarried couples. "You have got to have principles," Mrs. Bull told the Mirror at the time, under the headline "You Couldn't Make It Up." The Bulls had been turning away unwed mini-breakers from their Cornish guesthouse since 1986, and no one had sued them for it yet. It was, after all, no crime to be the least-cool B&B in England. That appears to have changed. Last month a British appeals court upheld a £3,600 ($5,800) fine against the Bulls, who in 2008 turned down Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy for a double room despite their being joined in a civil partnership. The British government has recognized such unions since 2005; the Bulls, born-again Christians , do not. Messrs. Hall and Preddy sued on the grounds that t...