UK - A British exit from the European Union took a step closer to becoming reality today after a group of Tory MPs vowed to defy David Cameron and vote to sever ties with Brussels. The outspoken rebels delivered a stunning attack on the Prime Minister's supposed renegotiation of powers with European leaders, stating it will do virtually nothing to curb immigration. Half a dozen of the Tory's newest recruits issued statements last night decrying the creation of a "United States of Europe" and vowing to campaign to get Britain out of the EU. In a withering attack on Mr Cameron they voiced fears that Britain will be "swallowed up into a superstate" losing its own laws, culture and traditions unless links with an increasingly overbearing and dictatorial Brussels are cut.
UK - Christianity is being subtly “silenced” within the public sector in the UK because of a civil service culture which treats speaking about faith as “not the done thing”, according to a former top Whitehall mandarin appointed as Church of England’s most senior lay official. William Nye said a “secularising spirit” now permeates the machinery of government, leading to an unspoken “squeezing out of Christianity” from national life, despite public expressions of support from David Cameron and other ministers. He said ministers or the general public would be surprised to realise the full extent to which faith is now seen as “odd and unusual” within the public sector in Britain.
EUROPE - Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, countries that long set the standard for welcoming refugees from war and persecution, are rapidly rethinking their generosity as the tide of migrants to Europe strains their budgets and roils their politics.
UK - The areas of London where more than half of the population was born abroad have been revealed in a new analysis of official data. Vast swathes of the capital are dominated by foreign-born residents, including 10 boroughs where Indian nationals are the largest foreign-born group.
Londoners born in Nigeria, Poland, Turkey and Bangladesh also make up the largest foreign-born groups in at least three areas each. Analysis of latest ONS data, published last summer, showed nine boroughs now have more than half their population born overseas, with Brent, in north-west London, the highest at 65.1 per cent.
USA - El Nino storms lined up in the Pacific, promising to drench parts of the West for more than two weeks and increasing fears of mudslides and flash floods in regions stripped bare by wildfires.
ISRAEL - Jewish leaders celebrated a new Vatican document discussing Catholic-Jewish relations, in light of the 50th anniversary of the Holy See’s adoption of the Nostra Aetate. Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue in New York called the document a “significant milestone in Catholic-Jewish relations.”
GERMANY - New Year’s celebrations in the western German city of Cologne escalated into chaos with a series of sexual assaults, including a rape, being blamed on an uncontrolled crowd of intoxicated men of “Arab or North African” origin.
USA - Two types of non-native mosquitoes that can transmit potentially fatal diseases have spread throughout California, and their populations could explode come spring. The mosquitoes' expansion of territory was largely attributed to abnormally warm weather in the summer and fall.
GERMANY - Those living outside Germany may not immediately grasp the significance of the moment. Mein Kampf has always been available in translation and is now just a click away online. But that is not the point. For Germans, the expiry of the copyright has caused hand-wringing and controversy.
UK - An investigation has revealed the establishment figures whose intervention helped a disgraced Bishop evade prosecution for sex abuse for decades. The former Bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, groomed and abused 18 aspiring young priests over a period spanning 15 years.
UK - Following this month's intense rainfall in the north of England an Environment Agency alert has highlighted the flood risk to the crumbling nuclear waste dump adjoining Sellafield in Cumbria, writes Marianne Birkby - a dump which remains in use despite its condemnation by the EA in 2005 due to its likely destruction by rising seas. Now it really is time to close the gate on Drigg!
ISRAEL - Two prominent rabbis in Israel – Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar – have hinted in public that the Messiah is “just around the corner” based upon certain world events taking place today.
ISRAEL - In a surprisingly under-reported story, one of Jerusalem’s chief rabbis, Rabbi Shlomo Amar issued a ruling on Monday that God must bring the messiah and expedite the ultimate redemption.
The ruling was delivered during an all-night spiritual gathering of rabbis from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and a recording of the moment was posted to YouTube (in Hebrew).
IRAN - Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has released an incendiary cartoon comparing Saudi Arabia to Islamic State, after Riyadh carried out a death sentence against opposition Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
UK - US markets tumble after a 7 percent Chinese share price plunge batters confidence on first trading day of the year. Trading floors began the new year in a state of chaos as weak economic data from China and heightened tension in the Middle East wreaked havoc on financial markets worldwide.