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To men of a certain age, the very idea that the Star Wars films are not the greatest movies ever made is nothing short of heresy.
So, perhaps it was always inevitable that someone would try to have devotion to the ways of Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan-Kenobi and co declared a fully-fledged religion.
"No more Christmas celebration and/or lessons on Christmas including carol singing is permitted, effective immediately". An email on 13 December sent to about 35 German-funded teachers at Istanbul Erkek Lisesi (also known as Istanbul High School) saying that the National Ministry of Education had communicated that no more of these activities should take place.
A Muslim girl refused to shake the hand of the German president despite him visiting her school to praise students for integrating migrants so well.
Footage has emerged of the visit of Joachim Gauck to the Theodor Heuss School in Offenbach at the end of last month.
It shows him arriving at the school in his official car with students waiting for him at the entrance and holding up welcome signs in a variety of languages including German and Arabic.
An Isil smartphone app designed to indoctrinate young children as jihadists allows them to play games carrying out 9/11-style attacks on Western landmarks including Big Ben.
The computer app which also teaches youngsters to spell words like grenade and rocket is part of a wider attempt to pass the extremist ideology on to the next generation, the spokesman for the international coalition fighting the militants said.
Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, wants to make government employees swear an oath to uphold "British values". His record as a politician offers many clues about what he thinks these are, so we have trawled through it to imagine what Javid’s proposed vow might look like. All together now...
After 19 years together, Inés Acevedo and Yolanda Torres finally tied the knot last September, at a collective wedding in the Mexican city of Querétaro. But their marriage was tragically short lived: less than a month later, Torres suffered a fatal heart attack.
Her death triggered a period of intense grief for Acevedo – but also the start of a bitter legal battle to have the couple's legal rights respected. When Acevedo tried to obtain a certified copy of the marriage licence so she could process her pension, she was told the document didn't exist.
Only after a complaint to state human rights officials did the document appear – though the registry director told Acevedes that she was receiving it "due to extraordinary circumstances".
Britain's public heritage body has published its list of the most "fascinating" places of 2016. And a surprisingly large number of them have links to the nation's ancient Christian heritage.
Historic England has registered more than 1000 new places as "listed" this year, one of the ways that English sites and buildings of architectural and other special interest are safeguarded for the future.
Most churches and cathedrals are already listed.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has taken a strong stand against euthanasia. In a formal position statement approved by its board of trustees this month, it says:
The American Psychiatric Association, in concert with the American Medical Association's position on Medical Euthanasia, holds that a psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person for the purpose of causing death.
This implies that it is not ethical for a psychiatrist to help a non-terminally ill person to commit suicide, either by providing the means or by direct lethal injection, as is being currently practiced in The Netherlands and Belgium.
A Muslim cleric who allegedly celebrated the murder of a popular politician and who is banned in Pakistan is touring UK mosques.
Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri is speaking at events across Britain over the Christmas period.
Just 1 per cent of pupils in Catholic schools are opting out of religious classes, according to research conducted by bishops and school managers.
The findings are contained in submissions to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) on plans for a new curriculum on various religious beliefs in primary schools.
The vast majority of submissions from Catholic groups are hostile to the idea of a “religion, beliefs and ethics” course which, they argue, could undermine faith-based education and swamp an overloaded school curriculum.