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In the News

  • Guardian: Nepal formally adopts new constitution amid protests from minorities
    September 21st, 2015
    Nepal has formally adopted a much anticipated and long-delayed constitution that took more than seven years to complete following a decade of political infighting.
     
    Security was stepped up across the nation, with smaller political parties and ethnic groups opposed to the new charter issuing fresh threats of violence.
  • Telegraph: Scientists claim to have grown sperm in test tubes
    September 20th, 2015
    Scientists have claimed to have grown mature human sperm in test tubes in a breakthrough that could help combat male infertility.
     
    The sperm cells, which have been developed for the first time in a “bioreactor” in a laboratory, are said to look identical to those produced naturally.
  • BBC: Jeremy Timm leaves Church of England over his same-sex marriage
    September 20th, 2015
    A Church of England lay reader has left the church as he is not allowed to officiate once his planned same-sex marriage goes ahead.
     
    Jeremy Timm, of the Howden Team Ministry, took part in his final service at Howden Minster, East Yorkshire.
     
    The Archbishop of York can withdraw the licence if Mr Timm's civil partnership is converted to marriage.
  • BBC: England striker Eniola Aluko on faith in football
    September 20th, 2015
    People can be very cynical when they see former Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez praying before kick-off, or Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge pointing to the sky when he has scored, but I'd like to try to explain how faith can help with playing top-level football.
     
    I've grown up believing in God and I believe that being an England international and a lawyer has not just happened by accident.
     
    Very recently I've come to realise that it can help take the pressure off me when I am feeling very anxious and nervous, and I have a lot to thank former Portsmouth defender Linvoy Primus for in recognising that.
  • Crewe Chronicle: MP opposes extension to Sunday Trading
    September 20th, 2015
    Local MP Fiona Bruce is urging residents to oppose plans which could see Sunday trading hours extended, claiming it could have an impact on the health and well-being of her constituents.
     
    The Congleton MP is hoping as many people as possible will have contributed to the Government consultation – which ended last Wednesday on whether Sunday trading rules should be devolved to local authorities.
  • Telegraph: Extremists to be purged from charity boards under new law
    September 19th, 2015
    The Government is to purge “extremist” trustees from every charity in England and Wales in a crackdown that could affect thousands of people.
     
    A leaked draft of the Home Office’s new counter-extremism strategy, seen by the Telegraph, says new legal powers for the Charity Commission to sack trustees will be used far more widely than expected.
     
    In a paper in May on how it would use the powers, now being created in a bill before Parliament, the commission made no mention of extremism being grounds for disqualification.
     
    However, the leaked counter-extremism strategy, due to be published this autumn, states that “once the legislation is enacted, the Charity Commission will take action against all trustees who meet the definition of extremism set out in this document.”
     
    The strategy document defines extremism as “the vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.”
  • Breitbart: Vicar of Baghdad warns: 'Europe is ignoring the real refugees'
    September 19th, 2015
    Europe is failing the most vulnerable refugees by focusing its sympathy on the migrants crossing its borders rather than those left behind, Canon Andrew White has said. In a passionate statement, he added: “The wrong people are at the front of the queue.”
     
    Until November last year Canon White, better known as the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’, was Chaplain of St. George’s Church in Baghdad, the only Anglican Church in Iraq. He was eventually forced to leave at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury following numerous death threats from ISIS militants, and now works as the founding and current President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME).
     
    In a scathing statement, Canon White has now slammed Europe for its response to the migrant crisis. He says it is wrong to focus resources on those already in Europe, when those in real need are the ones left behind.
  • Guardian: Kentucky deputy clerk casts doubt on validity of Kim Davis's marriage forms
    September 19th, 2015
    A deputy clerk in Kentucky is concerned that embattled Rowan County clerk Kim Davis has altered marriage license paperwork, according to a notice filed on Friday.
     
    Richard Hughes, who represents deputy clerk Brian Mason, filed a notice in a Kentucky district court saying that Davis may have altered forms used in the marriage licensing process, raising questions over the validity of licenses issued in the county.
     
    Davis was held in jail for five days after repeatedly refusing to issue marriage licenses because she opposes same-sex marriage, which became legal nationwide in June. She was released from jail last week under the condition that she would not interfere with how licenses are issued.
  • Telegraph: Quarter of teens who have abortions had previous termination or pregnancy
    September 19th, 2015
    Nearly a quarter of teenage girls who have abortions have already had a previous termination or pregnancy, leading to fears that the procedure is being used as a form of contraception.
     
    A review of 20 years of figures shows that the number of teenagers opting to have an abortion after previously being pregnant has jumped 33 per cent.
     
    Nearly 1,500 teenage girls a year have had an abortion after two or more terminations or pregnancies.
  • Telegraph: Pupils left at risk of extremist ideologies by school behaviour policies, report says
    September 18th, 2015
    Pupils are at risk of being exposed to Islamic extremism because most schools link good conduct to top grades rather than a moral purpose, a new study has suggested.
     
    The research revealed that most school policies explained pupils should behave well in class in order to support their own, or fellow pupils’, “learning and academic achievement”.
     
    The academics argued that a lack of moral purpose in school policies may leave pupils open to “movements which seek to offer an alternative, more explicitly moral or religious, vision, such as the alleged attempted ‘Trojan Horse’ takeover of schools in Birmingham”.