Daily media briefing

Mar Bashar Warda, has denied allegations made in a US lawsuit that he was complicit in the kidnapping and torture of an Iraqi-US businesswoman, Sara Saleem.

Church Times*

Syria's interim president on Thursday signed a temporary constitution that leaves the country under Islamist rule while promising to protect the rights of all Syrians for five years during a transitional phase.

Associated Press

The Permanent Council of the Canadian bishops' conference has expressed its "grave concerns" to the Minister of Finance over proposed changes to eligibility criteria for charitable status.

Catholic Register

Romsey Town Council has implemented changes to prayers by removing them from the council agenda.

Hampshire Chronicle

A former bishop has been jailed for sexually abusing a boy over a five-year period while he was a priest.

BBC

An arrest warrant has been issued for a senior member of Lighthouse, the life-coaching group which was the subject of the BBC podcast series, A Very British Cult.

BBC

Generations of women are calling for an urgent inquiry into the historic use of a breast milk drug at church run mother and baby homes.

ITV

Jonathan Hall says such a move risked unacceptable restrictions on free speech and could overwhelm police resources.

The Times*

Nikolaos Papadopoulos, of the small right-wing, ultra-religious Niki party, attacked the paintings in The National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum. The exhibition includes works that caricature religious icons and themes.

Euro News

A former pastor of a Texas megachurch who resigned after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her in the 1980s has been indicted in Oklahoma on child sexual abuse charges, that state's attorney general's office said Wednesday.

Associated Press

Nearly 44 years after 24 Dalits were brutally killed in a targeted massacre in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, three men have been convicted for their role in the attack.

Independent

A religious TV channel has been fined £150,000 for giving UK airtime to an evangelist selling "miracle spring water" that was claimed to cure illnesses such as lung cancer and diabetes and produce huge financial windfalls.

The Guardian

A former Catholic priest has denied child sex offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Dennis Finbow, 76, served as a priest in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, and in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.

BBC

Former pupils of a late Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse have questioned why a church apology did not contain details of the "evil" cleric's time as a teacher in Co Antrim.

The Irish News*

Qari Sher Mohammad - who was Imam at the Muslim Community Centre in Chatham - is facing a lengthy spell behind bars after being found guilty of molesting four children he taught at a mosque.

Kent Online

Four serving or former Catholic PSNI officers are taking High Court action against the police in relation to alleged sectarian discrimination.

Belfast Telegraph*

An MP from the ruling BJP party called for bulldozers to be sent to the grave of Aurangzeb, a move seen as part of the erasure of Islam from Indian history

The Times*

Waiting to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, clerics in the Indonesian town of Majalengka gathered for an unusual briefing on the subject of inflation, led by the country's central bank.

Reuters

Lord Walney, the former government anti-extremism tsar, says that the Charity Commission is failing to investigate organisations with links to Iran

The Times*

Three workers sacked after secret cameras reveal horrors at no-stun abattoir.

Independent

A pride group has criticised a church for its "disturbingly homophobic" beliefs after it was given permission to move into a town's former cinema.

BBC

The Diocese of Carlisle has been awarded £6.8 million by the Church of England. The funds are intended to help Cumbrian churches grow more "missional, younger and more diverse faith communities."

News and Star

A rebellion has broken out among Winchester Cathedral's congregation, but a new review is unlikely to allay fears of a 'culture of secrecy'

The Telegraph*

Police in Kenya have fired tear gas to disperse protesters who tried to occupy a church that was recently given a substantial donation by President William Ruto.

BBC

An Indonesian TikToker has been sentenced to almost three years in prison after reportedly 'talking' to a picture of Jesus on her phone and telling him to get a haircut.

BBC

Women will overthrow the Islamic system established in Iran after the 1979 revolution even if the authorities survive a military conflict, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said in a message Saturday marking international women's day.

AFP via Yahoo!

The Sentencing Council has rejected demands by the justice secretary to reverse controversial guidance that would mean all religious minority criminals received pre-sentencing reports.

The Times*

Bedford Islamic Centre described Jews as "arrogant" and some women as "shackles" and "vessels" for children and is facing an investigation by the charities watchdog.

The Telegraph*

The government is cutting all funding for the Islamophobia reporting service Tell Mama, leaving it facing closure weeks after it revealed a record number of anti-Muslim hate incidents in Britain.

The Guardian

"We are an entirely skewed society when it comes to the clout of religion - this all accounts for the Scottish Government's absurd contortions around the issue of giving teenagers the right to opt out of religious observance in schools."

The National*

The DUP education minister rejected plans by Bangor Academy and Rathmore Primary School to become integrated.

The Irish News

JD Vance, the US vice-president, says buffer zones around UK abortion clinics criminalise silent prayer, but is freedom of speech and religion really at stake?

The Times*

Parts of Hackney's Orthodox Jewish community have hit out against "excessive state intervention" in the borough's faith schools, claiming new legislation could "erode religious freedom".

Evening Standard*

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the US has been rocked by a slew of sexual abuse allegations launched against it in California in the latest scandal to hit the organization that is better known as the Mormon church.

The Guardian

More than 80 Afghan women who fled the Taliban to pursue higher education in Oman now face imminent return back to Afghanistan, following the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to foreign aid programmes.

BBC

The Equality Act should be amended to take caste discrimination into account, and a change to law floated 12 years ago finally implemented, a Wolverhampton MP has said.

BBC

Plans to make changes to religious observance in Scottish schools have been branded "wholly inadequate" after MSPs from a variety of parties have questioned the proposals.

The National*

The Scottish Government is coming under pressure to change its stance on religious school assemblies.

The Scotsman*

Three "Nazis" who believed a race war was imminent planned terrorist attacks on mosques and synagogues, a court has heard.

The Telegraph*

Iranian Intelligence Services are responsible for"a long-standing pattern of targeting Jewish and Israeli people internationally", the UK's Security Minister has warned.

Jewish News

A divided U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected a suburban Seattle church's bid to void a Washington state law requiring insurers that offer maternity coverage in employee health plans to also cover abortions.

Reuters

A newborn baby's penis had to be fully amputated after a surgeon botched his circumcision.

Daily Mail

The decision to end Christian prayers before meetings of St Albans district council has won the support of the National Secular Society.

St Albans Times

MPs criticised the General Synod's decision last month not to outsource all safeguarding functions immediately to an independent body.

Church Times*

The Conservatives have called for the Government to overrule planned changes which would make the ethnicity or faith of an offender a bigger factor when deciding whether to jail them.

BBC

MPs have overturned a 336-year-old law, allowing Catholics to represent the King at the Church of Scotland's General Assembly.

Scottish Legal News

A US anti-abortion group has started a series of Lent protests outside a Glasgow hospital but says it will not break Scotland's new buffer zone law.

BBC

Mehdi Yarrahi, a well-known Iranian protest singer who spoke out against the country's strict dress code for women, has been given 74 lashes as part of an agreement to end a criminal case against him.

The Guardian