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In the News

  • Guardian: 'No Muslims allowed' - How nationalism is rising in Aung San Suu Kyi's Myanmar
    May 23rd, 2016

    At the entrance to Thaungtan village there’s a brand new sign, bright yellow, and bearing a message: “No Muslims allowed to stay overnight. No Muslims allowed to rent houses. No marriage with Muslims.”

    The post was erected in late March by Buddhist residents of the village in Myanmar’s lush Irrawaddy Delta region who signed, or were strong-armed into signing, a document asserting that they wanted to live separately.

    Since then a couple of other villages across the country have followed suit. Small but viciously insular, these “Buddhist-only” outposts serve as microcosms of the festering religious tensions that threaten Myanmar’s nascent experiment with democracy.

    Read more.

  • Mail: Call for smacking children to be made illegal as experts demand change in the law as they address UN inquiry
    May 23rd, 2016

    A team of four British children’s commissioners are resurrecting the bid to make smacking illegal when they address a United Nations committee today, it has been reported.

    In England and Wales, the law allows parents to carry out ‘reasonable chastisement’ but they face prosecution if a child is left with bruising, cuts or scratches.

    Teachers and nursery workers are not allowed to smack another person’s child and parents cannot use a cane or belt to discipline their children.

    Read more.  

  • Mail: Most students support bans on 'offensive' free speech
    May 23rd, 2016

    Speakers with offensive views should be banned from giving talks at universities, most students believe.

    Almost three quarters of students support the National Union of Students’ (NUS) ‘No Platform’ policy which prohibits those on a list put together by the union from speaking at universities, a survey has revealed.

    Of those polled, 27 per cent said they believe UKIP should be banned from university stages.

    Half think that universities should sometimes or always tear down memorials dedicated to controversial historical figures.

    Read more.

  • BBC: How one man saved a generation of premature babies
    May 23rd, 2016

    For years doctors in the US made little attempt to save the lives of premature babies, but there was one place distressed parents could turn for help - a sideshow on Coney Island. Here one man saved thousands of lives, writes Claire Prentice, and eventually changed the course of American medical science.

    Read more.

  • Christian Today: New counter-extremism law will fuel terrorism, civic leaders warn
    May 22nd, 2016

    A coalition of influential civil society groups and individuals has condemned the new counter-extremism legislation that was announced in the Queen's Speech.

    Sir Peter Fahy, former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and former National Policing Lead for Prevent, the Government's anti-extremism programmed, heads the individual signatories, who warn the new bill will even feed the very commodity that the terrorists thrive on: fear.

    The coalition of 26 organisations and prominent individuals includes Rights Watch (UK), Runnymede Trust, Liberal Judaism, Index on Censorship, The Jewish Council for Racial Equality and the National Secular Society.

    Read more.

  • Herald Scotland (£): Midwives at war over abortion in Scotland
    May 22nd, 2016

    A CALL made by a Glasgow midwife for colleagues to "forcefully refuse" the Royal College of Midwives decision to back a campaign to take abortion out of criminal law is helping feed a growing culture of stigma that could stop some women from seeking medical help, according to pro-choice campaigners.

    Abortion Rights, which defends women’s access to abortion, said that comments from Mary Doogan – the Glasgow midwife who took a case to the Supreme court over whether she could make a ''conscientious objection'' to supporting women who have gone abortion – sent a message to women that they did have rights over their own bodies.

    Read more.

  • Herald Scotland: Kirk vote to allow gay clergy marriages
    May 22nd, 2016

    The Church of Scotland is to allow ministers and deacons who are in same sex marriages to continue to serve after a decisive vote for reform at its General Assembly.

    Kirk representatives voted by a margin of 339 to 215 to back the shake-up on the first morning of the annual gathering held in Edinburgh yesterday - despite some members saying the outcome was "against Jesus Christ".

    Read more.

  • Huffington Post: Midwife Slams Royal College Of Midwives Support For Dropping Legal Time Limit For Abortions
    May 22nd, 2016

     

    A midwife who was at the centre of a high-profile court case has called on colleagues to “forcefully refuse” to back the “horror” position adopted by their professional body to scrap the time limit for abortions.

    Mary Doogan, from Glasgow, took a case to the UK’s highest court over whether the right of ‘’conscientious objection’’ to the procedure extended beyond participation in actual medical or surgical termination, The Press Association reported.

    Read more.

  • Reuters: Islamic State calls for attacks on the West during Ramadan in audio message
    May 22nd, 2016

    A new message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State calls on followers to launch attacks on the United States and Europe during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in early June.

    "Ramadan, the month of conquest and jihad. Get prepared, be ready ... to make it a month of calamity everywhere for the non-believers ... especially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America," said the message, suggesting attacks on military and civilian targets.

    The authenticity of the audio clip, purporting to be from Abu Muhammad al-Adnani and distributed on Saturday by Twitter accounts that usually publish Islamic State statements, could not be verified.

    Read more.

  • Telegraph: Six months and 2,661 square miles: what the Archbishop of York learned from his pilgrimage of Yorkshire
    May 22nd, 2016

    A few years ago, during his annual nine days of silent reflection on Holy Island off the Northumberland Coast, the Archbishop of York heard a voice. It came to him about midday and spoke three simple words: ‘on the road’."It took me a while to study it,” the Most Rev Dr John Sentamu says. “But then I realised. That is what I am going to do."

    Read more.