Not The BBC News: 30 January 2014

A true life spy thriller whose central character was a Muslim who converted to Christianity has won the prestigious Audience Award at the Sundance Film festival. The Green Prince tells the story of the eldest son of one of the founders of the terrorist/guerrilla group Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef, who not only became a Christian but worked as a double agent for the Israeli secret police for ten years. Yousef is one of the narrators of the documentary. An Israeli newspaper said, “Perhaps the most difficult thing about watching the new documentary is feeling that you should not be there, that everyone in the theater should be asked to leave before any more Israeli intelligence secrets are divulged."

While Britain suffers from flooding and most of the USA from a very cold winter (there was recently snow in Georgia and Florida), Christians in California are praying for rain. A group from Merced, south-east of San Francisco, have been encouraged to carry umbrellas around with them to remind them to pray. “We need a real weather miracle,””  said one intercessor. 2013 was California’s driest year on record; Los Angeles received less than 4 inches of rain in  the entire year.

Three men who were charged with stealing food from waste bins behind a supermarket in London had the case against them dropped, as the Crown Prosecution Service (supported by the supermarket) decided that prosecutions were “not in the public interest.” The actions of the men, who were living as squatters, have been interpreted in two very different ways; some see it as highlighting the increasing problems of poverty triggered by the Coalition government’s cuts in benefits, while others think the men were “skipping”” – removing usable items from bins in order to minimise the waste that goes to landfill.

The title track from the low-budget Christian film “Alone Yet Not Alone”, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, has been disqualified from the Oscar voting. A previous attempt to get the song disqualified, on the grounds that the film had not “been advertised in Los Angeles County” during 2013, failed; the film makers confirmed that they had spent no money on advertising, but Oscar rules state that advertising a showtime for the film met the standard. Now the song has been disqualified because one of the songwriters, who is on the executive committee for the Oscars, had emailed members of the Oscars’ music branch to make them aware of his submission during the nomination period.

In response to the affirming of same-sex relationships by leading evangelicals Steve Chalke and Rob Bell, a group of UK evangelical leaders have decided to reveal that they are “post-gay”; i.e. they still experience same-sex attraction, but they hold to the Bible’s traditional views, so two have remained celibate while one felt his feelings change sufficiently that he is now married with three children. One of them described his teenage years thus: “I just felt that I was very dirty and that therefore other Christians might want to keep a distance. But I heard a liberating sermon which said, ‘All of us are sexual sinners. There will be some who experience unwanted homosexual feelings. If that’s you, then you are not alone.’ ”

In sport, one of the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey (the Spanish FA Cup) was called off when one of the teams went on strike over unpaid wages. Racing Santander were already 3-1 down from the first leg; when the second leg began at their home stadium, they refused to challenge for the ball. The tie is likely to be awarded to their opponents, Real Sociedad, who will face Barcelona in the semi-finals.

In technology news, Facebook has released a news-reading app called Paper. Available only on mobiles, it will deliver personalised news, and make it easier to share stories from major publications amongst friends.

And finally, the issue of religious statues around the State Capitol building in Oklahoma has taken an even stranger turn. Republicans had set up a statue of the Ten Commandments and had claimed that it was sufficiently non-religious to be placed on State property. A local Satanist temple then asked for permission to place their own statue, and recently unveiled their proposed design – a seven-foot goat-headed demon. Now other groups including the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (whose Pastafarian members apparently wear colanders on their heads) have applied to set up monuments in the grounds of the Capitol too.

Not The BBC News: 29 January 2014

London mayor Boris Johnson is to be investigated over claims that he banned a bus advertisement from a Christian group for political gain. London buses had run a pro-gay ad which stated “Some People are Gay. Get Over It.” A Christian group then paid for adverts that said “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post Gay and Proud. Get Over It,” but were banned from displaying them. A recent High Court case found that the decision was solely that of Transport for London’s media chief and was lawful; but since that case, evidence has emerged of email exchanges, including one from the media chief which read:  “Boris has just instructed TfL to pull the adverts and I’ve briefed The Guardian. Who will break that news in next half hour”.

The lady in Texas who was being kept on life support for the sake of her unborn baby has been removed from life support following a judge’s decision. Texas law forbids the removal of “life-sustaining treatment” from pregnant women until the baby can be born; however, the judge ruled that the woman was dead and so the law did not apply. The court accepted that the lady had stated verbally that she did not wish to be kept on life support. Her husband, who was arguing for life support to be removed, also claimed the baby had been damaged by the treatment used in an attempt to resuscitate her, and produced evidence that the baby appeared to have deformed lower extremities.

The House of Lords debated a Labour-sponsored amendment to the Children and Families Bill that would make sex education, including lessons on same-sex relationships, compulsory in state-funded primary and secondary schools. Parents would be allowed to withdraw children aged 15 or younger from the lessons, but would have no such rights once the children reached 16. However, the amendment was defeated by a wide margin. The Coalition government’s response has been to instruct all schools to publish details of their sex education syllabus on their school’s website.

Also in Parliament, the Coalition government has accepted the Lords’ amendment to the newly proposed Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance, replacing the test of “causes nuisance or annoyance” with “causes harassment, alarm or distress.” However, the original test is being retained for anti-social behaviour “in a residential setting.” The Government acknowledged that the strength of support in the Lords for the amendment had influenced its decision.

Two Twitter users have been jailed for sending menacing messages to a journalist who campaigned to have prominent women displayed on English banknotes. The ‘dozens’ of abusive tweets included threats of rape and death. A man and a woman, both from Tyneside, were jailed for eight weeks and 12 weeks respectively, and ordered to pay ₤400 each to the journalist.

Another American state is suffering controversy over a democratically-defined definition of marriage. Virginians voted to define marriage as between one man and one woman in the state constitution in 2006. However, the controversy in Virginia is heightened because opposition to this provision comes from the state’s own Attorney General, who says he “cannot and will not defend laws that violate Virginians’ rights.” A spokesman for the National Organization for Marriage has described the A-G’s behaviour as “not only a disgrace, it’s an impeachable offence under the constitution.”

In technology news, a massively multiplayer online space game has just had a truly massive multiplayer online battle. It started when one (American-led) faction of players in EVE Online, who paid for defences using in-game currency, missed a payment and was attacked overnight by a faction with a large Russian contingent. More than 4,000 players became involved in the battle which lasted for many hours. The cost to the American faction (i.e. the cost of paying the game real world money to replace all their losses, rather than rebuilding their ships by investing time in the game) was around half a million dollars.

And finally, an explosion in a cowshed at a German dairy farm is being blamed on 90 flatulent cows. Police believe that the explosion was due to a build-up of methane in the structure, followed by a static electrical spark. One cow was injured and the roof of the cowshed was damaged. 

Not The BBC News: 26 January 2014

The city of Shreveport, Louisiana (which was recently described as one of the top ten Bible-minded cities in the USA) has passed an ‘equality’ law prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing or ‘public accommodations’ based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. A Christian councillor proposed a vote to repeal this law, but decided not to proceed after a transgender ‘woman’ attended the council meeting; quoted the Bible as saying that practicing homosexuals should be put to death; and offered the councillor a large rock as ‘the first stone’. The councillor says he will bring the argument back to the table later, but the repeal seems unlikely to succeed.

A 65 year old Briton of Pakistani origin has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy, He had been writing letters to various senior figures in Pakistan claiming to be a prophet, and he repeated that claim in court. His defence lawyer argued that he was mentally ill; Ashgar had been treated in the UK for paranoid schizophrenia (his UK doctor said he believed that the Pakistani and British governments were trying to control him).  However, Ashgar had already been declared sane by a Pakistani medical tribunal (where he produced no witnesses to support the claim of mental illness), and his lawyer was ejected from court before the blasphemy trial was over. He is unlikely to be executed any time soon, however, because Pakistan has a moratorium on hangings for civil offences.

The Church of England has issued nine “commandments” for Christians who use social media. The Diocese of Bath and Wells has urged Christians to spread the gospel using Twitter and other social media, but warned them of some pitfalls to avoid.  Advice includes “Don’t rush in”; “do not hide behind anonymity”; “respect confidentiality”; “stay within the legal framework”; “you are an ambassador for the church”; and “be mindful of your own security”.

In sport, American football’s upcoming Superbowl features two quarterbacks who are both devout Christians. The Denver Broncos’ veteran quarterback Peyton Manning says he doesn’t pray for victory in games, bur for safety for both teams. Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks posts Bible verses on his Twitter feed daily; one that he posted was, “I press on towards the goal for the prize of the call of God.”

Also in sport, Andy Murray lost his Australian Open quarter final to Roger Federer. Federer then lost to world number 1 Rafael Nadal, who proceeded to lose the final (partly due to injury) to world number 8 Stanislaw Wawrinka.

A third sports item: England’s painfully embarrassing cricket tour of Australia is finally over. Having lost the test series 5-0, England had lost three out of four one day internationals. They needed just eight runs of the last nine balls to win the final ODI as a consolation, but lost their last experienced batsman in bizarre circumstances when Ravi Bopara missed a ball completely and it ricocheted off the wicketkeeper’s gloves, and possibly his chest, onto the bails. Bopara was deemed to have lifted his rear foot and was given out. England lost by five runs.

And finally (no pun intended), a soon-to-be released “Christian horror film” has just released a trailer. “Final: The Rapture” is based on the book of Revelation. You can watch the trailer here.

Not The BBC News: 23 January 2014

40,000 people took to the streets of Paris to protest against attempts to liberalise France’s abortion laws. The current law allows abortions in the first 12 weeks if the mother is “in distress”; the proposed changes will remove the ‘distress’ condition, effectively leading to abortion on demand up to 12 weeks’ gestation. The proposed changes stand in contrast to Spain which recently toughened its abortion laws; Spanish law now allows abortions only in cases of rape or where the mother’s life is in danger, and explicitly excludes abortions due to the foetus being deformed.

The ardently pro-choice mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, is clashing with the courts in his (promised) campaign against pro-life crisis pregnancy centres. A new law required crisis pregnancy centres to post notices and verbally advise clients that they “are not full service pregnancy care facilities” (because they do not offer abortions) and to inform clients “that the city recommends women who think they are pregnant to visit a licensed provider.” A judge struck down both provisions, saying that “the law provides a blank check for city officials to harass or threaten legitimate activity”; however, he upheld another part of the law that required crisis pregnancy centres to disclose whether they have a licenced medical provider supervising the facility’s services.

A mother in Montreal has launched a campaign to remove erotic books from elementary school libraries. After her 11 year old brought home books with explicit descriptions of foreplay, she set up a website to warn other parents of what their kids were reading. The school’s response was to threaten to sue her for defamation and harassment; a spokesperson for the regional School Board defended the books on the grounds that “many children in the schools will have reached 12 years of age.” However, the mother still took her story to a news agency, and some books have now been removed.

The debate over the new ‘secular’ promise for Girl Guides has reached the General Synod of the Church of England. A motion has been put forward to say that it cannot be right for Guide units which meet on church premises to be banned from being able to say “I love my God” in the promise. The Girlguiding Association continues to be intransigent on the issue; a Guide group in Newcastle that decided to allow Guides to choose between the old and new promises has been told that it will be expelled from the Association.

In sport, Manchester United’s dreadful season under their new manager David Moyes became even worse when they lost the League Cup semi-final to Sunderland. The contest went to a penalty shoot-out; Sunderland scored only two of their five penalties, but United only managed one. United have paid a club record fee of £37 million for Chelsea’s star player of last season, attacking midfielder Juan Mata, in an attempt to change their fortunes.

And finally, a local councillor has been suspended by the UK Independence Party after he claimed that his own daily prayers had convinced him that the recent flooding was due to the passing of laws permitting gay marriage in the UK. The councillor also spoke of his belief that homosexuality can be healed. A UKIP spokesman said, “Everyone is entitled to his own religious ideology [but] we cannot have any individual using the UKIP banner to promote their controversial personal beliefs.” A number of spoof initiatives have been set up in response, including sending married gay couples to drought-hit areas, and trying to get the song “It’s Raining Men” to the top of the pop charts. 

Not The BBC News: 21 January 2014

The UK Government has launched a consultation on new guidelines for abortions. Current guidelines say that there is no requirement (although it is “good practice”) for doctors to meet the pregnant woman before authorising an abortion; the proposed new guidelines suggest that there should be no legal requirement (only an “expectation”) that doctors will give individual requests any active thought before approving them.  The document also suggests that nurses could perform abortions. Critics have called this a charter for abortion on demand, and a Conservative MP has said, “These guidelines remove the key safeguard from the Abortion Act 1967.” The consultation was launched before Christmas, without notifying any groups who were likely to be interested, and closes at the end of January.

The US Congress has allocated $1 million to set up a prison reform foundation, named after Charles Colson. Colson, who was a former US presidential advisor, jailbird (where he became a Christian) and prison reform campaigner, died last year.

Police in the Philippines have broken up a child sex abuse ring that streamed video of abuse live to 14 countries, including the UK, for payment. 15 children have been rescued; some had been prostituted by their own families for money. The investigation began last year after UK police paid a routine visit to the home of a registered sex offender and found indecent material including webcam recordings. Five other UK suspects have been arrested; two are dead; nine are still being investigated.

A US district judge has ruled that the state of Oklahoma’s ban on same sex marriages violates the U.S. Constitution’s equality clause. The ban was introduced in 2004 following a 76% vote in favour of it. The decision is to be appealed.

An Israeli newspaper has announced that archaeologists have located and excavated King David’s palace at Sha’arayim, which is mentioned in the Bible as belonging to the tribe of Simeon “until the reign of David.” The name of the town means “two gates”, and the excavated town does indeed have two gates. It also has a structure in the centre of town which is the largest structure from the 10th century BC found in the Kingdom of Judah.

In sport, Andy Murray has overcome the Australian heat to reach the quarter finals of the Australian Open, where he will play Roger Federer.

And finally, the Oscar nominations have been announced. There was a surprise nomination for a (very) low-budget Christian film called “Alone but not Alone”, which is based on a true story of two sisters captured by, and then escaping from, American Indians. The nomination is for Best Original Song for the title track. The song was sung in the film by Joni Eareckson Tada, who became a quadriplegic at the age of 17 and has since become a well-known Christian writer and broadcaster; her disability affects her lungs, so her husband actually had to push her diaphragm to help her reach the high notes in the song.

Not The BBC News: 15 January 2014

The issue of sex-selective abortions in the UK has been raised once again by an investigation  by the Independent newspaper. Looking at census records, they found that within certain “immigrant groups” (notably mothers born in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan), the ratio of girls born to boys was much lower than expected. They estimate that between 1500 and 4700 girls have ‘disappeared’, even after taking into account the possibility of families continuing to try for children until they have a boy.

An American cable TV channel has said it will produce a 10 part mini-series based on the Ten Commandments. Each episode will focus on a single commandment and will be shot by a different director. Directors committed to the project so far include Gus van Zant, Jim Sheridan and Wes Craven.

A study in northern Texas has found that teen pregnancy rates fall dramatically when Planned Parenthood leaves town. Planned Parenthood’s activities include sex education and family planning, but it refuses to teach sexual abstinence, preferring instead to teach “safe sex” and hand out condoms; in 2009 it benefited significantly from central government funding at the expense of programs that teach abstinence. The study, using data from 1994 (when the first protests against Planned Parenthood began in Texas) to 2010 (when the last Planned Parenthood clinics in the region closed) showed a 45% drop in teenage pregnancies in the region over that period.

An Afghan man has been granted political asylum in the UK on the grounds that he is an atheist, and there is a risk that he could face religious persecution for abandoning Islam if he was forced to return to Afghanistan.

In sport, England’s men’s hockey team beat Belgium 1-0 to qualify for the semi-finals of hockey’s World League. They will play either Argentina or New Zealand. England’s biggest rivals, however, are the Australians, who (like England) topped their qualifying group.

In technology news, the US rate-and-review site Yelp, which has recently purchased a similar UK website (Qype), has started taking proactive measures to identify fake positive reviews. Not only do they use a secret algorithm to identify suspicious reviews, they also check trading websites such as Craigslist to see if anyone is offering cash or other incentives in return for online reviews. If so, they pretend to be willing reviewers, identify the establishment offering the incentive, and then post a prominent warning about that establishment on their site which stays for 3 months.

And finally, a British Catholic woman sued her lawyers for failing to tell her that finalising divorce proceedings would end her marriage. She alleged that they failed to take her faith into account sufficiently or to recommend judicial separation, which brings an end to marital obligations but not to the marriage itself. The suit (and a subsequent appeal) were dismissed.

Not The BBC News: 14 January 2014

The family of a brain-dead pregnant woman in Texas is to sue to allow her life support to be switched off. Texas has a law that prevents withdrawal of “life-sustaining treatment” from a pregnant woman until her baby is viable to be delivered, but her husband argues that this shouldn’t apply to a woman who is technically dead. He also argued that the foetus would have been damaged by the treatments given to the mother in an attempt to revive her, although tests show the baby’s heartbeat is normal. The woman’s mother, who supports the husband’s actions, said, “No family should have to go through this. It’s been pure hell.”

Another UK Government Bill which is being campaigned against by Christian groups and others has recently been amended. The Bill restricts spending by political lobbying groups, and its spending limits have been raised by recent amendments (though for some reason, lobbying groups in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a limit that is half that of groups in England). However, opponents say further changes are needed; for example, lobbying groups must include staff costs in their total spending whilst political parties are exempt from this.

A gang in El Salvador is suspected of killing six Christians, including one child, as they were leaving church on Saturday night. No motive for the killings is currently known. El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world; eight other murders were reported at the weekend.

A pastor in the Appalachian hills of Tennessee whose church takes literally the verses in Mark’s Gospel about “handling snakes and scorpions and not being harmed”, and who appeared on a National Geographic series called “Snake Salvation”, was charged with 53 counts of owning reptiles that are illegal in Tennessee. His case was sent to a grand jury trial, where he was found not guilty, apparently on the grounds that the snakes were used within religious practice. However, the surviving snakes, including rattlesnakes and copperheads, will not be returned to him.

In sport, the organisers of the Melbourne Open tennis tournament have been criticised for allowing matches to go ahead in temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature was so high that Caroline Wozniacki’s water bottle melted; Jo-Wilfred Tsonga’s shoes softened; Jelena Jankovic suffered a burn from sitting on a chair; and Canada’s Frank Dancevic and a ballboy fainted. Afterwards, Dancevic said, “Until somebody dies, they just keep … putting matches on in this heat.”

And finally, the winner of a competition for first-time crime novelists was a man who turned out to be a convicted killer serving an indefinite sentence in South Carolina. Alaric Hunt was jailed in 1988 because he and his brother started a fire to distract police while they robbed a jewellery shop, and a 23 year old woman died of smoke inhalation. His novel involves a woman who is murdered and a boyfriend who is falsely accused. It is set in New York, where he has never been; he says he pieced together a knowledge of the city from watching the TV show Law and Order.

Not The BBC News: 10 January 2014

A Christian organisation has released its annual list of the countries where Christians are most persecuted. Their methodology involved measuring the level of Christian freedom found in five spheres of life: private, family, community, national, and church. The degree of violence towards Christians also factors in to the rankings. North Korea tops the list, but the rest of the top 10 are all Islamic countries. The total number of Christians (confirmed) killed for their faith last year was 2100, almost double the total for 2012; more than half of these deaths were in Syria. The report also notes that the United States has been unusually silent on issues of religious persecution, perhaps due to the government’s emphasis on human rights for other groups, although the report notes that the same lack of outcry is also seen in Protestant churches.

A vote initiated by the Labour party to give local councils power to ban fixed-odds betting terminals, described as the “crack cocaine” of gambling, was defeated by the Coalition government. The terminals, which were legalised by a Labour government in 2005,were used to gamble nearly ₤200 million last year in a single Liverpool constituency which is one of the poorest in the country. A Labour spokesman said, “We should never really have licensed these machines in the way we did, and we should put the matter right as quickly as possible.” David Cameron replied that he shared Labour’s concerns about them but the Government is waiting for a report on their impact which is due later this year.

The House of Lords have voted overwhelmingly in favour of an amendment to the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill that would protect free speech. The Bill seeks to replace Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) with Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs) which require a lower threshold of proof. But a lobbying group which includes the Christian Institute and the National Secular Society oppose the new law as they fear it will be used to restrict free speech. The amendment replaces the threshold of causing “nuisance or annoyance” with the test of causing “harassment, alarm or distress.”

Illustrating the need for the above change is an incident in Dundee where a street preacher was arrested for preaching about sexual sin including “adultery, promiscuity and homosexual practice.” He was arrested following a complaint from two women in the area. Both the women and the police were aggressive in their responses; one woman tried to smash a camera that was being used to film the event; both women shouted “we’ll get you arrested” when the police arrived, even though the street preaching group had finished preaching and packed up by then; the police “grabbed” the camera and threw it in the back of the police van; and the preacher was arrested and put in the van with no explanation of why he was being arrested. He is due to appear in court on 22 January.

A Florida man has pleaded guilty to tricking his girlfriend into taking a pill that induces miscarriages in order to abort their unborn baby. His lawyers are currently arguing that a single pill may not have been sufficient to cause the abortion, but if found guilty, he faces a jail sentence of 13 years and eight months,
In technology news, there is now official acknowledgement from one bank that contactless bank card scanners can deduct money from the wrong card. First Direct has instructed customers to remove their cards from wallet or purse before presenting them to such scanners to avoid this risk. Engineers have also suggested that illegal contactless card scanners are cheap and easy to make. Suggested preventative measures include carrying your cards in an aluminium box, or lining your wallet/purse with tinfoil.

And finally, Star Trek tricorders and stunners could be coming to your smartphone. At the CES 2014 conference in San Francisco, one company is showing a prototype of a handheld sensor plus smartphone app that can monitor a person’s vital health signs; another offers a  phone case with an attached battery that can either deliver a 650,000 volt electric shock (like a mild Taser) or act as a reserve battery for your phone. Other gadgets on display (all built into smartphone cases) include a thermal imaging camera; a camera with three interchangeable lenses; and prongs that allow the phone to be plugged directly into a power socket. There’s even a saucepan with USB ports which generates power from heat, intended for charging phones in the great outdoors.

Not The BBC News: 8 January 2014

A Christian woman in Israel was miraculously healed of a large and virulent cancer through prayer, causing so much surprise that TV stations and newspapers have been reporting it, and hospital staff have travelled to her home and tasted her food and water to see if there is another explanation.  The sarcoma tumour, which was the size of an orange, was biopsied and tested in both Israel and the USA, and doctors told the lady (who was in her 30s or 40s) that they’d have to amputate her leg. But her operation was postponed at the ‘last minute’ three times, and then the lady’s mother became ill, so she took this as a sign from God that she should not go ahead with the amputation and left hospital to care for her mother. Three months later she reappeared at the hospital with a  greatly shrunken tumour and  no sign of cancer in her blood tests. The hospital’s oncology professor said, “If someone had told me this story, I would have said they were crazy and sent them to a mental hospital. But I saw it with my own eyes.”

A mega-church in Colombia organised its annual rally for revival, healing and for people to commit their lives to God. The rally was held in a large park in the capital, Bogota. This year, over a million people turned up. There are reports of a religious revival throughout South America.

In an event that mirrors the controversy in the USA surrounding Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, the boxer Evander Holyfield was publicly reprimanded by producers of the TV show Celebrity Big Brother for expressing his view (in a one to one conversation) that homosexuality is not normal, and compared it with a “handicap that needed fixing.” The grounds for the reprimand were that his remarks were “offensive to the majority of viewers.” There has been considerable reaction on social media; the producers apparently failed to consider that reprimanding someone for exercising free speech might be offensive to a majority of viewers.

A Lebanese Christian priest was accused of having an anti-Islamic pamphlet within one of the books of his extensive library. Although he met with Islamic leaders in the city and denied any connection with the pamphlet, his library was burned, and two-thirds of the 80,000 books and manuscripts were destroyed.

The research ship that became stuck in Antarctic ice has escaped after a change in wind direction opened a crack in the ice. One of the icebreaker ships that came to help it, which itself became icebound, has also escaped.

In technology news, a 3-D printer has been unveiled at a convention in Las Vegas that is capable of ‘printing’ foodstuffs. It can currently produce chocolate and sugar-based confectionery.

And finally, a Christian dating website is launching an advertising campaign on the London Underground next week. Christian Connection’s advertising lines include “Another dating website? Thank God!”; “Christians make Better Lovers” (on the grounds that “Love One Another is written into their code”); and “God Knew You Would See This.” The campaign’s creator said, “We [want to] create a campaign that is contemporary and relevant – not something many church organisations are known for!”

Not The BBC News: 6 January 2014

A book by an Italian woman entitled “Get Married and Be Submissive” has proved a major hit in Italy and Spain, but has also drawn criticism from feminist groups. Spain’s health minister called it “inappropriate and disrespectful to women” and called for it to be withdrawn. However, the author says “I don’t know what colouring the word ‘submissive’ has in English, but I took it from the Letter to the Ephesians … I meant it in the sense of being a supporting column, because we as women are stronger.” Her advice includes: "Women forget that they can't have it all: working like a man and being at home like a woman,” and "If you're not an experienced cook or the perfect housewife, what's the problem if he says so? Tell him he's right, that it's true, that you will learn. Seeing your sweetness and your humility, your effort to become what he wants, he will also change himself." Asked why the book was so popular, a psychologist said it was because of the breakdown of society; “if people are hankering after old-fashioned marriage, it’s because it worked so well.”

Also in Italy, the Supreme Court has ordered a retrial for a 60 year old paedophile because his five year sentence “did not fully take into account the amorous relationship” between him and his 11 year old ‘girlfriend.’ There have been heated reactions on social media, both because of the girl’s age and also because the paedophile was rich and the child poor (her family have been compensated €40,000).

The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) is due to come into force in the USA this month. There have been widespread objections from Christian organisations to the section of the Act which requires employers to pay if employees require contraception or abortions. A group of nuns in Colorado have successfully appealed to the Supreme Court for an injunction against this part of the Act taking effect. The Government’s reply is that this is merely an administrative matter  -- the Act allows organisations to complete a form that exempts them from paying for contraception or abortions and delegates that responsibility to a third party administrator, and in the nuns’ case the designated administrator is also (probably) exempt from paying for these procedures. But since completing the form requires the nuns to accept the principle that they will delegate responsibility for abhorrent decisions to another organisation, the argument rumbles on.

Also in the USA, a couple in Washington state have been awarded $50 million for the “wrongful birth” of their son. Knowing they had a family history of an “unbalanced chromosomal condition”, they had tests during pregnancy, and were told that their child was free from the condition. But when Oliver was born, he had the condition. The couple sued the testing laboratory and clinic in the grounds that, if they had known, they would have aborted their child; liability was established because the tests were carried out without key information that neither clinic nor laboratory requested. The money will be used to provide the special facilities and care that Oliver needs.

In sport, England did indeed come second in cricket’s Ashes series against Australia – they were whitewashed 5-0. Some Premier League teams were also humiliated in the third round of the FA Cup, notably West Ham who were beaten 5-0 by a team in the division below them; Aston Villa, who lost at home to a team two divisions below them; and Manchester United, who lost at home to Swansea City for the first time ever.

And finally, a man from Suffolk who was told to pay a ₤25 fine for failing to notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency that his motorcycle was off the road tried instead to invoke an ancient law by challenging any clerk of the DVLA to single combat, using “samurai swords, Gurkha knives or heavy hammers.” He insisted that the option was still valid under European human rights legislation. However, magistrates refused his request and fined him ₤200.

Not The BBC News: 3 January 2014

The extensive line-up of Christian films due out in 2014 includes at least two more films worth noting. One is a remake of 2001’s “Left Behind” starring Nicholas Cage; the other, “Compelled by Love”, tells the (literally) miraculous story of Heidi Baker and her husband’s Christian work in Mozambique. The latter premieres on www.bethel.tv on 5 January at 6pm [TBC] UK time.

The research ship that was trapped by Antarctic ice on Christmas Eve is still trapped. The 52 passengers have now been taken off by helicopter but the 22-strong crew remain on board.

A French priest who was kidnapped by the Boko Haran Islamic militants in Cameroon, near the Nigerian border, has been released after seven weeks in captivity following interventions by several senior figures including Cameroon’s president. He described his captivity as “terribly boring”.

Israel has made a complaint to the European Union about double standards. EU organisations were recently banned from trading with any Israeli organisations based in the territories disputed between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the EU has just signed a fishing agreement with Morocco that includes the seas off the disputed territory of Western Sahara; and it often trades with companies in Turkish Cyprus, despite the fact that the Turkish occupation of the island is still not officially recognised.

In sport, Sunderland’s Tom Huddlestone scored a goal last weekend, and immediately headed for the touchline where the club’s physio chopped off some of his hair. Huddlestone had vowed not to cut his hair until he next scored a goal; that was 2 ½ years ago, when he was playing for Tottenham Hotspur. Huddlestone’s haircut raised ₤35,000 for charity.

In technology news, the long-running argument about the Italian woman who was subjected to a forcible Caesarean section under the authority of Essex social workers has had an unexpected side effect; a (male) Liberal Democrat MP has been banned from the Mumsnet social network/bulletin board after discussing the issue. The MP posted Italian court documents to justify his opposition to the social workers’ actions, not realising that the documents named the woman, and that he was therefore in breach of a court order. He also circulated some Twitter comments that could have been used to unmask the identities of some Mumsnet contributors.

And finally, a priest from a retreat centre in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire took a painting to TV’s Antiques Roadshow, and discovered that it is the most valuable antique that the program has ever seen. Not only is the painting a 17^th century Van Dyck, it is a study of a character from a lost Van Dyck masterpiece. The painting, which he purchased in Nantwich 12 years ago for ₤400, is estimated to be worth ₤400,000. The priest says he’s considering selling it to fund a new set of church bells for Whaley Hall’s chapel.