UK - An EU Bill of Rights that overrides British laws is becoming a “reality”, the vice-president of the European Commission has said. Viviane Reding said that people in European member states will in future be able to “rely” on the EU charter of “fundamental rights”. The European Commission wants to enforce the charter, which enshrines 54 basic rights in EU law, in all member states.

USA - Buried deep on the website of the US Census Bureau is a number every American citizen, and especially those entrusted with public office, should know. It is 86,429,000. That is the number of Americans who in 2012 got up every morning and went to work — in the private sector — and did it week after week after week.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) slammed the latest rioting incident on the Temple Mount Wednesday, calling Israel's control over Judaism's holiest site a "failure." "Over the last five days, the Temple Mount has not been occupied by the Jordanian army, but by a division of Hamas," Feiglin said. "The failure of the police to control events on the Temple Mount is, in fact, the failure of political leadership in keeping the heart of Jerusalem intact. Continuing to drag our feet [on the issue] will result in history remembering the Israeli government and its leader as having abandoned the Temple Mount to the Hamas regime," he added.

UK - Between April 2009 and March 2014, level 10 pollution - the highest category - was reached on 25 days. The environment ministry's website advises people to avoid going outside or exercising when this level is reached. The pollution cloud that hit the UK two weeks ago - dubbed 'killer smog' because of the risk it posed to health - was widely publicised. But new figures show that London, Yorkshire and Humberside, Northern Ireland, Merseyside and Manchester have been hit many times by similar levels of pollution. Data reveals that there were also 94 days over the five-year period where smog reached levels 7-9, designated as high. People with breathing difficulties and heart problems are strongly advised not to exercise or travel in this level of pollution.

UK - Interest rates are expected to rise sharply next year, experts have predicted, as official figures heralded the end of the squeeze on wages. A Treasury survey of City economists found that all now expected rates to rise, with some predicting them to more than triple to 1.75 per cent. Higher rates could provide respite to millions of pensioners who have seen the value of their savings shrink due to the impact of inflation and rock-bottom returns. However, it will leave many families paying significantly more on mortgages and debt repayments. David Cameron said that hundreds of thousands of people have been given the “hope of a brighter future” after official figures showed wages are going up faster than prices.

UK - Britain has accused Russia of a "deliberate destabilisation" of Ukraine as pro-Moscow separatists continued to seize yet another police building in the east of the country, ignoring the deadline to leave. Arriving for talks in Luxembourg with EU foreign ministers, Foreign Secretary William Hague called for a "clear and united international response" to the latest violations. He said that EU officials needed to press ahead with preparations for a new wave of hard-hitting economic sanctions against Russia if it continued its efforts to undermine its neighbour. "There do have to be consequences to a further and further escalation by Russia of this crisis," he told reporters.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Eight Jews were arrested Monday for attempting to sacrifice a goat on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest site. The group were making their way to the Mount in order to carry out the Pesach (Passover) Sacrifice, known as the Korban Pesach, on the eve of the seven-day festival. Jews are commanded to offer the sacrifice in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt, during which God killed all firstborn Egyptians whilst passing over firstborn Jews.

UK - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has underscored the value of continuing ecumenical dialogue at a “passionate theological level” while at the same time having “a closer relationship of action” that addresses the needs of the world in such areas as poverty and social justice. Ecumenism must be “something that is our burning desire,” Welby told a gathering of ecumenical guests at a reception at Toronto’s St James’ Cathedral Centre, during his “personal, pastoral visit” to the Anglican Church of Canada April 8 to 9. “In the last seven verses of John 17, Jesus prays with extraordinary passion and extraordinary directness about the absolute necessity of the visible unity of the church… Love one another.” The Guardian newspaper has noted that the move breaks five centuries of Anglican tradition and ushers “a further rapprochement between the churches of England and Rome.”

VATICAN - Catholics and Lutherans are urging their congregations to jointly discuss a co-publication entitled From Conflict to Communion as this helps bury past differences and brings the two Christian traditions closer together. In a joint letter The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) along with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) recommends the publication "From Conflict to Communion." Events in Christianity that led to the Reformation nearly half a millennium ago split the Roman Catholic Church, ushering in the advent of Protestant churches. When the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is commemorated in 2017, Lutherans and Catholics hope to be drawn closer in the quest for church unity.

USA - Could a series of “blood moon” events be connected to Jesus’ return? Some Christians think so. In the wee hours of Tuesday (April 15) morning, the moon slid into Earth’s shadow, casting a reddish hue on the moon. There are about two lunar eclipses per year, according to NASA, but what’s unusual this time around is that there will be four blood moons within 18 months — astronomers call that a tetrad — and all of them occur during Jewish holidays.

POLAND - The Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster is now accepted as an official religion in Poland after a 2013 ruling was overturned on Tuesday. The ruling was celebrated by a group of Pastafarians who gathered outside the courthouse on Tuesday and chanted “pasta." The FSM was first mentioned in 2005, in a satirical letter written by Bobby Henderson to the Kansas School Board of Education. He used the FSM to protest the public teaching of intelligent design in place of evolution. The supreme being of Pastafarianism is the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). The main text is the Holy Book of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Pastafarianism opposes the idea of creationism and intelligent design and as a result its tenets are usually satires.

ITALY - Italy’s bishops have adopted a policy, with backing from the Vatican, that states they are not obliged to inform police officers if they suspect a child has been molested. The Italian Bishops’ Conference said the guidelines published on Friday reflected suggestions from the Vatican’s office that handles sex abuse investigations. Victims have denounced how bishops systematically covered up abuse by moving priests while keeping prosecutors in the dark. Only in 2010 did the Vatican instruct bishops to report abuse to police — but only where required by law.

HUNGARY - Hungary’s radical nationalist Jobbik party has dismissed proposals to transform the EU into a “united states of Europe” as absurd, and voiced commitment to a “Europe of nations”. Jobbik lawmaker Gabor Staudt told a press conference on Monday that the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition’s recently promoting such a transformation was “shocking”. He said it was the first time a party openly undertook the support of the “superstate concept”. Staudt said that if Europe were to be restructured as a “superstate”, it would be “the end” for nation states and argued that “Brussels, which is strongly influenced by multinational companies, would pass all decisions”. A restructured EU would “only retain its countries as provinces”, he insisted. Jobbik believes in a “Europe of nations” based on peaceful, economy-based cooperation, Staudt added.

HUNGARY - A new and strong Europe of united states should be the long-term aim in a more successful world, Democratic Coalition leader Ferenc Gyurcsany said at a campaign-opening event on Sunday. Gyurcsany, who tops the DK’s list for the European elections, said the united states should watch over each citizen, ensure they had access to freedom of thought, education and knowledge and banned state powers to interfere in their thinking, world views, religious and moral freedoms. “These things are the private affairs of European families, European people,” he said. Gyurcsany said he would like to see a Europe where men and women were equal and they could all choose where they wanted to live. A stronger Europe would give protection against authoritarian regimes, he added. He said his DK party called for a European prosecution office where corruption linked to politicians in any member state would be examined.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Muslim rioters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli Police forces on the Temple Mount Sunday morning, prompting the Mount to be closed to visitors until further notice. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that violence erupted when police opened one of the walled compound's gates to non-Muslim visitors, according to the regular visiting hours.