A Syrian refugee who recently arrived in Britain under David Cameron’s high-profile resettlement programme has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
In the News
-
June 7th, 2016
-
June 6th, 2016
Scientists attempting to grow human organs inside pigs will have to overcome significant hurdles before transplants can take place, geneticists have warned.
In a Panorama documentary showing on BBC1 on Monday night, researchers at the University of California, Davis, reveal how they have injected human stem cells into pig embryos to explore the possibility of growing a human pancreas inside a pig. The research could help to solve the current shortage of organs for transplant – a situation that, according to the NHS, leads to around three deaths a day in the UK.
-
June 6th, 2016
A deal to avert the break-up of the worldwide Anglican Communion risks collapse amid signals that African churches are reassessing ties with the Church of England over the issue of same-sex marriage.
The new leader of a powerful bloc of traditionalist bishops and archbishops - seen as representing the majority of the world’s estimated 80 million Anglicans - said the Church of England had recently crossed a “line” with a series of decisions seen as endorsing a more liberal stance on homosexuality.
The Most Rev Nicholas Okoh, the Archbishop of Nigeria, said many traditionalists now view the British branches of Anglicanism in a similar light to The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the US which has been accused of “heresy” for ordaining openly gay bishops and endorsing same-sex marriage.
-
June 6th, 2016
A team of experts has begun restoring the ancient tomb in Jerusalem where Christians believe Jesus was buried, in the first such works for 200 years.
The renovation in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre aims to reinforce and conserve the structure.
Rivalry between the three denominations that run the church has delayed work.
But clerics from the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian churches have put aside their differences, recognising the need to begin repairs.
-
June 6th, 2016
The Welsh government faces pressure to abandon plans that would force church youth groups to be inspected and outlaw "unregistered churches".
A coalition of evangelical charities issued a joint statement on Monday that blasted the proposals as an "unjustified restriction of religious liberty". The plans would require any out-of-school educational setting that taught children above a certain threshold to register with the government. Many church youth groups could fall above the threshold and therefore have to join the register and face inspections by government officials.
-
June 6th, 2016
Almost two-thirds of Scots believe the plan to introduce a named person for every child in the country is an “unacceptable intrusion” into family life, according to a poll.
The Survation poll of 1,024 adults for a national Scottish newspaper found 64 per cent thought the policy - which will assign a single point of contact such as a teacher or health visitor to look out for the welfare of children under 18 - was intrusive.
-
June 6th, 2016
Almost every day a new story appears detailing the latest shocking incidents of children in this country being subjected to indoctrination, misinformation, or radicalisation by fundamentalist religious teaching in our own education system. This morning’s investigation into the ways fundamentalist Christian schools in the UK teach women to be subservient to men is just one case in point.
This increased attention on fundamentalist faith schooling has, to some degree, been met with action. Earlier this year, the Government announced that it will legislate to introduce tighter regulation of religious supplementary schools, such as Jewish yeshivas and Islamic madrassas, introducing registration and inspection for such institutions for the first time.
-
June 6th, 2016
Five people were killed when a suicide bomber struck at a checkpoint next to St Mary Church in Hah, Tur Abdin, in south east Turkey.
The church, also known as Idto d'Yoldath-Aloho, in the mountainous Tur Abdin region near the Syrian border, is considered the heartland of Syrian Orthodox Christianity.
The ferocity of the blast smashed all the church’s windows, and with the church lying between two Christian villages there are fears of more atrocities from jihadi forces.
-
June 6th, 2016
Living in constant fear of persecution for their faith, Christians in Southeast Asia will pretend to observe Ramadan this month.
One Christian who is forced to hide his faith told persecution charity Open Doors that he pretends to fast in front of his Muslim colleagues so they don't suspect his conversion.
"To do otherwise would result in suspicions and questionings. It is only when I'm alone or with other secret believers that I can be myself. It is not easy to live such a double life," he said.
-
June 6th, 2016
When a child dies or is catastrophically harmed because of abuse, there is often a knee-jerk political response. Perhaps the most chilling example for social workers was David Cameron’s announcement last year that they could find themselves jailed for five years for failing to act on evidence of child sexual abuse.
This raises concerns that professionals mandated to report reasonably-held suspicions of child abuse could be criminalised for failing to prevent it.