UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from FaithWorld:
Pope apologizes for “unspeakable crimes” of sexual abuse
(Photo: Girl waves papal flag before a Mass with Pope Benedict in London September 18, 2010/Kevin Coombs)
Pope Benedict apologized to victims of sexual abuse on Saturday, saying pedophile priests had brought "shame and humiliation" on him and the entire Roman Catholic Church. It was the 83-year-old pontiff's latest attempt to come to grips with the scandal that has rocked the 1.1 billion-member Church, particularly in Europe and the United States.
"I think of the immense suffering caused by the abuse of children, especially within the Church and by her ministers. Above all, I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes ...," he said in his sermon in Westminster Cathedral, the mother church for Roman Catholics in England and Wales and a symbol of the struggle of Catholics here in the late 19th century to assert their rights after the Reformation.
"I also acknowledge with you the shame and humiliation that all of us have suffered because of these sins," he said, adding that he hoped "this chastisement" would contribute to the healing of the victims and the purification of the Church.
He has apologized before for sexual abuse by priests -- such as in the letter to the Catholics of Ireland last March -- and has acknowledged that the Church was slow to deal with the problem. But his comments on Saturday were among his most succinct to date.
How bad is the violence in UK cities?
Violence resembling the U.S. television crime series “The Wire” has become the norm in British cities, Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling says.
“It’s the world of the drama series ‘The Wire’ — a series that tracks the nightmare of drugs, gangs and organised crime in inner city west Baltimore. It’s a horrendous portrayal of the collapse of civilised life and of human despair.”
Raising the price of alcohol
Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson has recommended that the government should sharply raise the price of alcohol  to try to combat Britain’s chronic drinking problem.
His annual report calls for a minimum price of 50 pence per unit of alcohol sold, which would nearly double the price of some discount beer and wine. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also shown interest in minimum pricing.
Are children really becoming “animals?”
The charity Barnardo’s has released a poll showing over half the country thinks children are beginning to behave like animals.
Forty-nine percent of 2,021 people surveyed thought children now pose more of a danger to their peers and to adults with 43 percent saying something has to be done to protect them from youngsters.
Stripping off for money
A colleague tells me of a quick way to make cash for anyone who wants to. His neighbours discovered a pile of old taps and central heating pipes they had lying around had more value than they thought. A scrap 
metal merchant gave them £75 for them. ”It’s a bubble,” the merchant said.
It may be a bubble, but it’s proving a lasting one and one that’s causing problems in unexpected quarters too. In my salubrious part of Surrey, local churches are struggling to keep their roofs on and it’s not because of the volume of their congregations’ singing either. Thieves are stripping lead roofing and flashing to melt down and sell on.
How safe is your street?
Ever wanted to know how many crimes were committed in your local area?
Well, by the end of the year you’ll be able to get some idea with every police force required to produce online interactive “crime maps”.
West Midlands and West Yorkshire are two of the forces who have put information about the number of offences in different neighbourhoods on their Web sites and on Wednesday the country’s biggest force, London’s Metropolitan Police, activated its crime mapping site.
Are bigger jails the answer?
Should Justice Secretary Jack Straw press ahead with plans to build three massive “Titan” jails housing up to 2,500 inmates each?
An alliance of 34 criminal justice charities and associations have written an open letter to Straw urging him to scrap the plans, arguing they will do nothing to reduce crime or tackle “sky-high” reoffending rates.
Is the DNA database too big?
Whose DNA is it anyway?
A “citizens’ inquiry” instigated by the Human Genetics Commission, a government advisory body, wants the records of people who have not been convicted, or whose convictions are long spent, to be deleted from the forensic National DNA Database and says the whole archive should be overseen by an independent body.
The database was established in 1995 in Britain – the country where scientists first pioneered the technique of DNA fingerprinting.
Knife crime – what can be done to stop it?
(This blog was updated on July 17 to include the latest crime figures. First posted May 14)
**For full coverage of crime in Britain click here **
It’s easy to speak of an epidemic amid the many headlines of stabbings in London. But the Metropolitan police, which has made tackling knife crime its top priority said on Friday despite more than 50 fatal stabbings so far this year London has an “issue with knives” rather than suffering from an epidemic.
Banning swearing in pubs
Christian pub landlords John and Krista Fleming have been sacked after their attempts to ban swearing and gambling on horse races drove customers away in such large numbers that takings plummeted.
Regulars at the King’s Head in Islington, north London, complained that they were excessive in their Christian zeal. “They should have had pews in there, not chairs,” said one.
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The Wall
