Author archives: Faith Matters

Turkey gives IS militant 40 life sentences for 2017 nightclub attack
September 8, 2020 By Faith Matters

Turkey gives IS militant 40 life sentences for 2017 nightclub attack

A Turkish court on Monday sentenced a suspected member of so-called Islamic State to life in prison for the New Year’s Eve attack on a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017 that left 39 people dead. Abdulkadir Masharipov, of Uzbekistan, was convicted of 39 counts of murder and one count of attempting to overthrow the constitutional […]

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Officer and three assailants killed in Tunisia resort attack
September 7, 2020 By Faith Matters

Officer and three assailants killed in Tunisia resort attack

Tunisian forces have shot dead three suspected Islamic militants who rammed their vehicle into security officers and attacked them with knives, killing one and injuring another in the coastal resort town of Sousse. Sousse was the site of Tunisia’s deadliest extremist attack in 2015, when a massacre killed 38 people, most of them British tourists. […]

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Clergyman’s ex-wife fails in appeal bid after judge’s ‘vendetta’ ruling
September 4, 2020 By Faith Matters

Clergyman’s ex-wife fails in appeal bid after judge’s ‘vendetta’ ruling

A woman who could lose her home as a result of a judge concluding that she conducted an “obsessive campaign” against her clergyman ex-husband has lost a Court of Appeal fight. Mrs Justice Lieven last month decided that Jean Gibbs, who is in her 60s and lives in Attleborough, Norfolk, had breached orders barring her […]

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Russian opposition leader Navalny poisoned with Novichok, says Germany
September 2, 2020 By Faith Matters

Russian opposition leader Navalny poisoned with Novichok, says Germany

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent that British authorities identified in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy, the German government has said. The findings – which experts say point strongly to Russian state involvement – are likely to increase tensions between Russia and the […]

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Saudi Arabia to allow ‘all countries’ to fly over its skies
September 2, 2020 By Faith Matters

Saudi Arabia to allow ‘all countries’ to fly over its skies

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will now allow flights “from all countries” to cross its skies to reach the United Arab Emirates. The historic first comes just days after the kingdom let the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight use its airspace to reach the UAE. The statement makes no mention of the kingdom’s […]

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Nadiya Hussain: Why I’m scared of calling out racism
August 31, 2020 By Faith Matters

Nadiya Hussain: Why I’m scared of calling out racism

Nadiya Hussain says she has experienced more racism in the last five years than in her entire life and is “scared” to call it out. The Great British Bake Off winner worries that her TV work will dry up if she is seen to be “complaining” about anything. Hussain, 35, who is back on screen […]

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Man shot dead in Portland ‘was Patriot Prayer supporter’
August 30, 2020 By Faith Matters

Man shot dead in Portland ‘was Patriot Prayer supporter’

The man shot and killed in Portland on Saturday was a supporter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer whose supporters have frequently clashed with left-wing protesters in Oregon’s largest city, according to the organisation’s founder. Joey Gibson, head of the group based in Washington state, said he was also in Portland on Saturday night when […]

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600 attacks on places of worship in Northern Ireland in five years
August 27, 2020 By Faith Matters

600 attacks on places of worship in Northern Ireland in five years

Concern has been expressed after figures showed there have been more than 600 attacks on places of worship in Northern Ireland in the last five years. According to police statistics, there have been 601 incidents of criminal damage to religious buildings, churchyards or cemeteries since 2014/15. The number of attacks has remained relatively consistent each […]

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New probe into church which sold ‘plague protection kits’
August 26, 2020 By Faith Matters

New probe into church which sold ‘plague protection kits’

The Charity Commission has launched a new inquiry into a south London church which was found to be selling a coronavirus “plague protection kit”. Bishop Climate Wiseman, head of the Kingdom Church in Camberwell, claimed earlier this year that the £91 small bottle of oil and piece of red yarn would protect people against Covid-19. […]

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Twin sisters who sparked counter-terror probe ‘held in detention centre’
August 25, 2020 By Faith Matters

Twin sisters who sparked counter-terror probe ‘held in detention centre’

Two sisters who sparked a counter-terror probe after they fled from the UK to Syria at the age of 16 are reportedly being detained in a high-security detention centre after trying to escape a refugee camp. Twins Zahra and Salma Halane, 22, disappeared from the family home in Chorlton, Manchester, in 2014 and flew out […]

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