News in Brief
Dog collar watch
National Churchwatch, a security firm which provides personal safety advice to members of the clergy, advises ministers not to wear a dog collar when they are on their own, to reduce the risk of being attacked. Apparently, ministers of religion are attacked more often than other professions such as GPs and probation officers.
Covert medication
Members of the Scottish Parliament have agreed to consider claims that residents in care homes routinely have drugs hidden in their food and drink – a practice known as ‘covert medication’. Questions were raised after a man complained that his mother was sedated without her consent at a nursing home.
The price of ‘sainthood’
Roman Catholics have been warned by the Vatican that buying relics is sacrilege – after pieces of the late Pope John Paul II’s clothes were advertised online. A Catholic website had been offering small segments of his white cassock as part of the campaign to beatify him and was inundated with requests. John Paul II died in April 2005.
China wants morality
Chinese television and radio are to be cleaned up, China’s broadcasting watchdog has announced. There will be a ban on ‘sexually suggestive’ advertising and ‘vulgar’ adverts considered ‘socially corrupting’ and ‘detrimental to society’. The government is preparing for the Chinese Communist Party’s five-yearly congress and the 2008 Olympic Games.
Who is my neighbour?
An Auschwitz concentration camp survivor lived next door to a former Nazi SS camp guard, in Arizona. The guard’s past was uncovered by a special investigations team established in 1979 to pursue war criminals. The 88-year-old Romanian-born guard has now been expelled from America, forced to move back to Germany and stripped of his US citizenship.
Torch Trust
Premier Radio in association with Torch Trust for the Blind is launching a programme aimed at Christians with disabilities. The new programme, called Insight, will be hosted by blind presenter Marilyn Baker on Saturday nights at 9.00pm. ‘I’m very excited to be presenting this new programme on behalf of Torch Trust for the blind’, said Marilyn Baker. ‘Insight is aimed at people who have disabilities or people who are just interested and want to make a difference’.
