Not The BBC News: 21 August 2013

In golf’s Solheim Cup, Europe defeated the USA by a record margin of 18-10. Europe’s team included a 17 year old Englishwoman who won her first national (adult) championship at the age of 9.

A photograph being circulated on the Internet shows that, during last week’s violence in Egypt, one Christian church was protected from attack by a human chain of peace-loving Muslims.

Britain’s first charity-run law firm has been set up in Leicester. It will offer free legal advice to people with housing, debt and welfare issues who cannot afford to pay for it, as well as family and employment law advice at competitive prices.

The train crash in Spain that killed 79 passengers has been blamed on driver error (the driver admitted being distracted by a mobile phone call at the vital moment). However, it also emerged that that section of track has no automatic safety systems installed.

The British Humanist Association, which campaigns against faith schools, has reported to the Government several schools (including 3 Christian academy schools) who have an official policy not to promote homosexuality.  Government guidance is that schools should not promote any sexual orientation, so the complaint is that singling out homosexuality is unacceptable. 

After the first week of the Premiership season, the top two teams in the league are Manchester City and Manchester United.

The law on jury membership is to be revised to make the upper age limit 75 rather than the current limit of 70. This is being done “to reflect the changing face of society”.

As reported a few weeks ago, a gay couple in Essex have launched a legal challenge to the ‘protections’  in the Gay Marriage Bill that prevent them from getting married in their local Church of England. “We feel we have the right as parishioners in our village to utilise the church we attend to get married”, they said.  Meanwhile, on the BBC TV series The Great British Bake-Off, one contestant was described as living with his “husband”, even though gay marriage is not yet legal in the UK.

The top three one-line jokes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have been announced. In third place was a comedian who joked: “I’m in a same sex marriage. The sex is always the same.” In second place was a joke about a guy “who worked in a shoe repair shop:  ït was soul-destroying”. The winner was about a rumour that Cadbury’s were “bringing out a new Oriental chocolate bar; could be a Chinese Wispa.”