UK - Easter should fall on the same Sunday every year, the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested. Justin Welby said that Anglican leaders would join discussions with other church leaders about the move to fix the date for the first time and put an end to almost 2,000 years of controversy.
ICELAND - Iceland just sentenced their 26th banker to prison for his part in the 2008 economic collapse. The charges ranged from breach of fiduciary duties to market manipulation to embezzlement.
USA - Official science has a stranglehold on major media. It has the force of a State religion. When you stop and think about it, official science is, in a significant sense, a holy church. Therefore, it is no surprise that the church’s spokespeople would wield power over major information outlets.
USA - If you can imagine Satan roaming around the streets of Los Angeles like he’s Justin Bieber, circa 2013 — driving a fast car, catching the interested stares from both girls and boys at the bars, and getting into trouble with the law, the ladies, and the Lord all at the same time — you’ll have a pretty good idea of how Fox’s new TV show, Lucifer, begins.
EUROPE - The European Union faces being destroyed under the growing threat of terrorism, which has sparked the influx of migrants into Europe, the European Parliament's President has warned.
GERMANY - Police fear a gang-rape phenomenon known as 'taharrush gamea' in the Arab world and seen in attacks on women across German cities at the New Year has now spread to Europe.
USA - A poll out Thursday from the Pew Research Center shows more Americans distrust sharing their personal information with social media companies, smart cars and homes than office surveillance cameras, retail loyalty programs and health services websites.
USA - The stock market rout is starting to get really expensive — destroying $2.3 trillion from the market's top last year and $1.5 trillion in net wealth just this year.
USA - On Friday, Walmart announced it will close 269 stores globally as it struggles to compete with online retailers like Amazon. The news came as US retail figures showed lower than expected holiday sales figures across the market. Sales rose just 3% in November and December, falling short of the expected 3.7% growth according to the National Retail Federation. The Walmart closures will affect 10,000 US workers and 16,000 worldwide. Neil Saunders, chief executive of retail analysts Conlumino, said it was a significant move: "The growth of online, and especially of Amazon, has undermined that advantage and has given almost all consumers easy access to a comprehensive and relatively cheap assortment of products." He added that where Walmart was going, others would follow.
UK - Tony Blair today made a fiery intervention into the debate over Britain’s membership of the European Union as he branded eurosceptics ‘backward-looking’ and called for a Brussels-controlled army.
UK - 'Black clouds' are looming over Britain's economic recovery. Britain's shrinking manufacturing output, the slowdown in China, and the collapsing oil price is driving thousands of British companies to the wall, according to new research, which revealed a 17 percent spike in the number of UK firms suffering "significant" financial distress in the final quarter last year compared to the same period in 2014.
SAUDI ARABIA - Investors intending to take out insurance on Saudi Arabian bonds would have to pay as much as they do with troubled Portugal. The price of insuring Riyadh’s debt has more than doubled in the past 12 months as oil prices continue to collapse, Bloomberg reports. With crude prices at 12-year lows, the Kingdom continues to bankroll a war in Yemen. Last year, Saudi Arabia sold bonds for the first time since 2007 to cover the budget deficit.
INDONESIA - The Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Thursday that left seven dead including five attackers.
UK - The worldwide Anglican church has taken a step back from the brink of break-up - but voted to partially exclude its liberal American branch because of its stance on homosexuality. Archbishops and bishops from around the world, meeting behind closed doors in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, voted explicitly to condemn same-sex marriage as a “fundamental departure” from traditional Anglican teaching. The roots of the rift between liberal and conservative wings can be traced back decades but the current crisis erupted in 2003 when the US branch of Anglicanism – The Episcopal Church (Tec) - ordained its first openly-gay bishop, Gene Robinson. Conservative Anglicans believe this goes against the teaching of the Bible but liberals say Christianity should be inclusive.
ISRAEL - Here is one story you probably won't see on CNN! Every January, an international contingent of Catholic Bishops meet in the Holy Land. They issued a strongly-worded statement today which noted that the Israeli "occupation eats away at the soul of both occupier and occupied.'