This seems authentic ecumenism, acknowledging difference, yet also respecting the highest form of Christian discipleship. The murder of the 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by ISIS has raised the issue for Catholics as to whether we can acknowledge them as martyrs as the Copts have done.

The 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya are role models for all Christians, and a Catholic heart wants to honour them as such. Could we not join the Copts in calling on their martyrs’ intercession before God in whose presence, surely, they now dwell, eternally? Nothing builds the Church like the blood of martyrs. The 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya may offer a path to the renewal that the struggling Western Church so sorely needs.

Mr Tredinnick is a member of the influential health select committee, as well as the committee for science and technology. He has also been vice chairman of the government's herbal medicines working group. In an interview with this month's Astrological Journal, he raised the prospect of using it to tackle problems in the NHS. He said: 'There would be a huge row over resources.'

'However, I do believe that astrology and complementary medicine would help take the huge pressure off doctors. Ninety per cent of pregnant French women use homeopathy. Astrology is a useful diagnostic tool enabling us to see strengths and weaknesses via the birth chart. And, yes, I have helped fellow MPs. I do foresee that one day astrology will have a role to play in healthcare.'

Last year Mr Tredinnick suggested members of the public with health problems should turn to astrology for answers. He claimed astrology had a 'proven track record' at helping people recover from sickness and should be incorporated in to standard medical treatments.

Nevertheless, the book that once served as a kind of Nazi bible, banned from domestic reprints since the end of World War II, will soon be returning to German bookstores from the Alps to the Baltic Sea. The prohibition on reissue for years was upheld by the state of Bavaria, which owns the German copyright and legally blocked attempts to duplicate it.

But those rights expire in December, and the first new print run here since Hitler’s death is due out early next year. The new edition is a heavily annotated volume in its original German that is stirring an impassioned debate over history, anti-Semitism and the latent power of the written word.

Still, opponents are aghast, in part because the book is coming out at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and as the English and other foreign-language versions of “Mein Kampf” — unhindered by the German copyrights — are in the midst of a global renaissance. Regardless of the academic context provided by the new volume, critics say the new German edition will ultimately allow Hitler’s voice to rise from beyond the grave.

The benchmarks, which influence the prices of financial products as well as valuable jewellery, were set by a telephone conference call by a group of banks until last year, when they were overhauled amid mounting scrutiny of market rigging. The Financial Conduct Authority, which fined Barclays £26 million in May for failings that saw a trader attempt to manipulate the gold fix, has decided against an investigation, as has its German counterpart.

However, the DoJ and CFTC have opened investigations. Benchmark prices are now set electronically after a reform of the system, so the probes are expected to focus on past procedures. The "fixes" for the precious metals had been arranged in the same way for years, with a small group of banks submitting prices to agree a benchmark price, in a similar way to how the Libor interest rate benchmark and foreign exchange benchmarks are arranged.

The process for the precious metals benchmarks is being reformed in the wake of recent scandals, to make the process more transparent. UK regulators are currently devising new rules for such benchmarks, in order to restore trust in London's wholesale markets. Banks have been fined billions of pounds for their roles in the Libor and foreign exchange scandals. The banks did not comment.

Britain’s benchmark index of leading shares climbed as much as 46.73 points to 6,958.89, a 0.7 percent advance that meant the FTSE 100 finally surpassed its previous intraday peak of 6,950.6 that was set on December 30, 1999, just before the dotcom bubble burst.

On the first trading day of 2000, however, the FTSE 100 tumbled 3.8 percent and by the end of 2001 the index had slumped to 5,217.4 as the dotcom boom unravelled. Peter Sullivan, head of European equity strategy at HSBC, said it would be unwise to follow suit and cut exposure to the index. The new record “inevitably raises questions about how sustainable it is and whether it has got ahead of itself."

The far-left party has vowed to spend nearly 60 million euros (£44 million) on free electricity for the poor and more than 750 million euros on a program of meal subsidies. Such policies are aimed at fulfilling pre-election pledges to help those hit by years of economic crisis.

The main points of the summary of the proposals include:

- Creating a fairer tax system;

- Combating tax evasion;

- Tackling corruption;

- Targeting fuel and tobacco smugglers;

- Implementing labour reforms on collective contracts and bargaining agreements;

- Tackling Greece's "humanitarian crisis" with housing guarantees and free medical care for the uninsured unemployed.

Greece's creditors - the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund - are expected to deliver their verdict on the proposals later on Tuesday, before the reforms are discussed in a conference call with eurozone finance ministers.

Veteran Greek activist and Syriza MEP Manolis Glezos criticises his party in a weekend blog: "Renaming the troika as 'institutions', the bailout as an 'agreement' and creditors as 'partners' [in Friday's deal] ... does not change the previous situation. I apologise to the Greek people because I took part in this illusion. Let's react before it is too late."

The sole concession to Athens was to allow it to propose changes to the requirements agreed to with creditors by the previous Greek governments, in effect allowing Athens to change the shape of its obligations, not reduce them. Victory or not, the deal agreed to Friday has immediately put Mr Tsipras in a tight corner at home, where pressure has mounted on him to pare back his government’s austerity program, despite pressure from Brussels.

As the Tsipras government worked Sunday to devise changes to propose, a chorus of lawmakers took to the airwaves and social media to condemn the deal, opening the way to a potentially embarrassing backlash in Parliament in Athens. At least one Syriza lawmaker threatened to resign. The criticism was accompanied by furious speculation about how any proposed overhauls might affect citizens who voted in large numbers for Syriza, the anti-austerity party, with the express goal of easing hardships linked to the conditions of European loans.

The deal reached Friday allows Mr Tsipras to ask to drop austerity measures to which the previous government committed but never enforced, such as further cuts to pensions, an increase in a special value-added tax on the Greek islands and the relaxing of restrictions on mass dismissals in the private sector. In return, Mr Tsipras and his government are expected to propose other, chiefly structural changes, including some actions that the previous government failed to deliver on, such as a crackdown on tax evasion and corruption.

Both countries are troubled by the situation in Libya and have an interest in influencing it. However, neither has given any evidence to support its warnings. The migrants are mostly from Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. The idea that they pose a threat evokes a vicious logic at odds with humanitarian imperatives: refugees bring conflict, as conflict breeds refugees. What threat do the migrant boats pose? And what - if anything - can be done about it?

Last week, Libyan militants allied to IS released a video that appeared to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian prisoners. The choreography echoed videos shot in Iraq and Syria. However, instead of desert, the prisoners were positioned on a beach, against the grey Mediterranean Sea. Addressing the camera, a masked man promised attacks in Europe. "And now we are south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya," he said, "sending you another message."

America today contributes about $400 million a year in direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, and another $400 million in other assistance and investments. The European Union provides a similar amount. In 2011, Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch spoke before the US Congress to explain how this money was being cynically used to encourage the slaughter of Israeli Jews by paying healthy monthly salaries to those sitting in Israeli jails, or to the families of terrorists killed during successful attacks.

A year later, two Hamas operatives from the Gaza Strip admitted to an Israeli court that they had gotten into the terrorism game in order to earn a decent living. Killing Jews, they said, was the best way to secure a good and steady income. Last summer, Israel’s Knesset was shocked to learn that in 2012 the Palestinian Authority had paid no less than $150 million to jailed terrorists and their families. It was further revealed that these salaries were determined on a sliding scale according to the length of the terrorists’ sentence. In other words, the more Jews killed, the worse the sentence and the bigger the reward.

He was speaking after The Sun newspaper published a list of jobs advertised by some Church institutions with a salary below the rate currently set at £7.85 an hour, or £9.15 in London. It included the Archbishop’s own cathedral in Canterbury which this week advertised for two kiosk assistants to be paid £6.70 — plus "company bonus". One Church job is being advertised at £6.50 an hour, prompting remarks from MPs that the church should practise what it preaches.

During the 76-minute video, which was published on YouTube by Al-Shabaab's media wing, the terrorist, who has a strong English accent, recites a list of potential targets which included London's Oxford Street as well as the Westfield malls in Stratford and White City. Donning a camouflage jacket with a headscarf covering his face, the fighter threatens action and refers to the group's 2013 siege on Kenya's Westgate Mall, in which 62 people died.

The terrorist even supplied the GPS co-ordinates for the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford, East London and White City in West London. He said: 'We call upon our Muslim brothers, particularly those in the West, to answer the call of Allah and target disbelievers wherever they are. If just a handful of mujahedeen fighters can bring Kenya to a complete standstill for nearly a week, imagine what a dedicated mujahed in the West could do to American or Jewish owned shopping centres across the world?'

Sometimes people just help themselves to water from natural resources. The East Bay Municipal Utility District - like many Bay Area water districts - has never fined people who steal or attempt to steal water. Instead, repeat offenders have had their water turned off and been charged reconnection fees, the Contra Costa Times reported. But now, water district board member John Coleman says the district should have a penalty greater than the cost of water. On March 10, the board will consider options for criminal penalties for tampering with district equipment or neighbors' pipes.

Other places in the state also are grappling with water bandits:

- In the Silicon Valley, an open space district removed irrigation pipes that rangers say allowed a nudist colony to make unauthorized water diversions from a waterfall.

- In the Central Valley city of Modesto, a handful of homeowners were fined $1,500 for allegedly taking water from a canal.

- In the Bay Area suburb of San Ramon, officials say a construction crew hooked up hoses to a fire hydrant and siphoned about 700 gallons of water last fall amid requests to stop.

- In the Sierra town of North San Juan, thieves hooked up their truck up to a valve on a fire department tank and stole hundreds of gallons of water.

So far, she said, the nursery where she works has managed to stay open but schools, universities and hospitals are having to adapt to cope with reduced water supplies. With the lowest rainfall since 1930, reservoirs that supply almost half of the 20 million people in the metropolitan area - including the financial district - are close to running dry.

Doctors have reportedly had to cut short dialysis for patients with kidney failure because of the shortage while schools have introduced water-saving measures to avoid suspending lessons. Despite Brazil having the largest water supply in the world, one of the main reservoir networks in São Paulo, the Cantareira system, is at just 10 per cent including deep reserves known as the "dead volume".

And Professor Semensatto said water stress was likely to continue in São Paulo for four to five years, threatening not only the city's economy but the rest of the country as well. "When we start to see businesses based in São Paulo slowing down, then we will see the effect on other cities across Brazil," he added.