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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/15/234690444/house-gop-to-present-a-plan-to-reopen-government?ft=1&f=3WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders are planning to push their own bill to reopen the government and avoid a financial default.
Officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders have outlined a bill that would keep the government running through Jan. 15 and raise the debt limit to Feb. 7. The measure is separate from a deal emerging in the Senate.
The bill also would suspend a tax on medical devices for two years, require income verification for subsidies to receive health insurance and eliminate health care subsidies for the president, vice president, his Cabinet and members of Congress.
The House plans to vote on Tuesday.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the plans.
A new report published by the National Secular Society has revealed that publicly funded schools are being targeted and exploited by evangelical Christian groups as part of their missionary work.
The report, Evangelism in state schools – the role of external visitors in publicly funded education (pdf), reveals a determined push by evangelical churches and organisations to gain access to state schools with the intention of proselytizing among young children.
The report finds that the activities of external visitors are often undertaken in schools without parents' knowledge and with little, if any, opportunity for withdrawal.
According to the report, the motivations and aims of religious groups, either out of complicity or naivety, are going unquestioned by head teachers, governors, Local Education Authorities and the Department for Education.
The National Secular Society has written to Education Secretary, Michael Gove, calling for national guidance setting out best practice for working with external visitors and contributors and particularly religion and belief groups.
The report also calls for all schools to publish and adhere to an external visitor's policy which forbids proselytizing and evangelism and makes clear that parents should be given prior and relevant information about school visitors.
One parent, Saul Freeman from Sheffield, said:
"Having sent our child to a non-religious state primary school, we never expected to find ultra-conservative evangelical activity. Our son's school has never been open with parents about its close links with a local evangelical church despite our best efforts to get clarity.
"Adults who come in and lead school assemblies are seen by the children as authority figures in the local community – and this means that the school has conferred a status of trust and respect on a group of individuals who preach hate and a fundamentalist, literalist and creationist approach to religion and life."
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said that the educational purpose of religious education is so vague that it is open to exploitation by aggressive religious groups that are determined to reach children in schools.
He said: "The legal obligation on all schools to provide religious education, and a daily act of worship provides a foot in the door to organisations with evangelistic intentions. The ambiguity about the specific aims and purpose of religious education, and its low status in schools, provides an ideal environment for evangelical groups to exploit.
"Given the diminishing interest in religious observance amongst young people and their parents, it's easy to see why evangelical groups are so keen to access schools. But we have to question the appropriateness of state schools being used in this way. The presence of such groups undermines the rights of parents who rightly expect a state education for their child that doesn't run counter to their own religious and philosophical convictions."
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:
"The targeting of our schools in this way by such dubious organisations must be tackled by the Department for Education. Most parents have absolutely no idea that such groups are present in their children's school until the child comes home and starts repeating the messages they've been given – sometimes about creationism, sometimes manipulative evangelical messages or literature that reinforces a very conservative religious outlook on life."
Mr Sanderson said the whole issue of religion in schools needs to be urgently reassessed.
"Our schools are becoming playgrounds for religious interests who are exploiting their opportunities to the full. The increasing number of faith schools is not going to make this any better. With fewer and fewer people regarding themselves as religious, it is clear that faith groups see schools as their best hope of reviving their fortunes. Children have to be there by law, they are a captive audience."
Read the report: Evangelism in state schools – the role of external visitors in publicly funded education (pdf)
See a list of evangelical groups active in schools
Research into the activities of evangelical groups in schools in ongoing. If you have information or concerns about external visitors in a particular school, please use the form on this page to provide details.
The NSS is calling for religious education to be replaced with a new National Curriculum subject that allows pupils to take a more objective and religiously neutral approach to the consideration of moral and ethical issues. Read our briefing paper setting out the need for comprehensive reform of RE.
Source: http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/10/new-report-highlights-growing-incursion-of-evangelical-christians-into-state-schoolsLondon (AFP) - British detectives investigating the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal published two electronic images Monday of a man they said was seen carrying a child on the night she vanished.
Police said the man was of "vital importance" in their quest to discover what happened to the British youngster, who disappeared from her family's holiday apartment just a few days before her fourth birthday.
The two e-fits, plus others of different people, will be shown in a major primetime British television appeal which will also be broadcast in Germany and The Netherlands.
The BBC programme will set out a reworked timeline of events surrounding blonde-haired Madeleine's disappearance on May 3, 2007, in the south coast resort of Praia da Luz.
"The sighting was during the evening of the 3rd of May around 10:00 pm, and it was of a man walking down the street with a child in his arms," said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior investigating officer in the case.
"The child was described as about three to four years old, with blonde hair, possibly wearing pyjamas. That's why we're so interested in this particular incident," he told BBC television.
The images were drawn up based on descriptions from a group of witnesses. They said the child did not seem in distress.
The witnesses described the man in the e-fit as being white, aged between 20 and 40 years old, with short brown hair, of medium build, medium height and clean-shaven. One image shows him with a fuller jaw than the other.
Portuguese authorities closed their investigation in 2008, but Britain's Scotland Yard police headquarters spent two years reviewing the evidence at the British government's request and opened their own probe in July this year.
Redwood stressed that the man in the e-fits may be completely innocent.
"Whilst this man may or may not be the key to unlocking this investigation, tracing and speaking to him is of vital importance to us," he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron gave the new appeal his support.
"This was a crime that touched the heart of everyone in the country and everyone would like to see it resolved, so I hope Scotland Yard continue with their work and I wish them success," he said.
The BBC's hour-long "Crimewatch" show, broadcast Monday at 2000 GMT, will include a new 25-minute reconstruction as well as live interviews with Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann, who launched a global media campaign to find their daughter and still hold out hope she is alive.
Police said they would present a new timeline around the incident.
Detectives have focused on the time between 8:30 pm, when the McCanns left the apartment to dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant, to when Kate McCann found Madeleine was missing at 10:00 pm.
Last week, British police also said analysis of mobile phone data from thousands of people who were in Praia da Luz when Madeleine disappeared could provide a new lead.
'It really hits home on special occasions'
Ahead of the broadcast, the McCanns told the BBC of the pain they still feel.
"When it's a special occasion, when you should be at your happiest, and Madeleine's not there, that's when it really hits home," Gerry McCann said.
"Obviously, Madeleine's birthday goes without saying."
Kate McCann added: "We're not the ones that have done something wrong here. It's the person who's gone into that apartment and taken a little girl away from her family."
The Scotland Yard operation has interviewed 442 people and identified 41 potential suspects.
Praia da Luz is an Algarve holiday destination popular with sun-seeking tourists from northern Europe.
Redwood said he would be travelling to The Netherlands, Germany and Ireland to "seek the support of the public there".
The German television programme "Aktenzeichen XY" on the public broadcaster ZDF will show the e-fits on Wednesday.
Two of the suspects are German-speaking, according to the German tabloid Bild and the British newspaper The Times.
Last week the McCanns said they were "greatly encouraged by new information coming to light" and said they hoped the appeal would take them closer to finding Madeleine.
Bachelor Nation has spawned another love connection! Bachelor alum AshLee Frazier, who made it to the final three during Sean Lowe's season of the ABC series, is dating Bachelorette alum Michael Garofola from Desiree Hartsock's quest for love, the couple confirmed exclusively to Us Weekly.
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The duo, who have been seeing each other for a few weeks now, have been happily parading their new romance on Twitter and Instagram. On Friday, Oct. 4, Garofola posted a picture of the two at a Blue Label Vodka event.
"Amazing night with an amazing girl in an above average city," he captioned the sweet shot.
PHOTOS: Bachelorette bikini bods
Frazier, 33, was sent packing by Lowe (now engaged to Catherine Giudici) during week nine of The Bachelor's 17th season earlier this year. Her wordless, angry exit was one of the most memorable and dramatic in recent memory -- and her reunion with Lowe at the Women Tell All special wasn't any less awkward.
PHOTOS: A look back at Sean Lowe's Bachelor hopefuls
"He'd been telling me, 'You're going to meet my family. You and my sister are going to be best friends,'" the personal organizer (who also dated Bachelor Brad Womack) told host Chris Harrison in March. "So this whole time, I'm thinking, 'Huh, I got this.' And then all of a sudden I didn't."
Garofola, meanwhile, made headlines during season nine of The Bachelorette when he ruined a two-on-one date with Hartsock and fellow competitor Ben Scott. The two men almost came to blows after Garofola started questioning Scott's real reasons for coming on the show. (Rightly so: The single father later revealed himself to be less than honorable.)
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That's all in the past, though. Garofola, who hails from New York, is currently living it up in Miami, Fla. And Frazier recently came out with a personal calendar to help raise money for Parks Youth Ranch, a charity that provides shelter for at-risk, abused, or abandoned teens.
Ashlee Evans-Smith defeated Fallon Fox at CFA 12, knocking out the transgender fighter in the third round Saturday night in Coral Gables, Fla.
Evans-Smith earned $20,000 for the featherweight tournament win. She was almost finished by Fox in the first round, but Evans-Smith was able to overcome the barrage. Evans-Smith easily won the second round, and almost defeated Fox in the final seconds, but Fox was saved by the bell.
In the third round, Evans-Smith fought off a heel hook submission attempt before eventually mounting her and defeating Fox via ground and pound at the 3:15 mark in the third round. It was Fox's first career loss as a MMA fighter.
"She put up a fight, but I could feel her really getting tired," Evans-Smith said after the fight.
In other action in the card, Efrain Escudero defeated Luis Palomino via unanimous decision (29-28 x3).
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — South Korea's Ilhee Lee shot a 7-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Brittany Lang after the opening round of the LPGA Malaysia on Thursday.
Lee had four birdies on the back nine and another three on the front to take the lead from Lang.
"Everything felt good today, the driver, the 6-iron, the putter ... they were all good," the 24-year-old Lee said. "My goal was 3-under par every day this week, so I feel like I'm OK for the next couple of days."
Paula Creamer was among four players tied for third after shooting 66, while top-ranked Inbee Park, the defending champion, was tied for 28th after a 70.
Lang started off on the back nine with four straight birdies and was set to share the lead with Lee before a bogey on her final hole.
"I played great, didn't make too many mistakes, hitting the ball fantastically and had a lot of tap-in birdies," Lang said. "But I didn't finish off as strong as I'd like to. It gets pretty hot towards the end, so I need to get some rest and just make sure I'm eating and drinking enough out there."
Park also said the 90-degree weather made it difficult.
"I think I was affected a lot by the hot weather, that really made it hard to concentrate on the course," Park said. "I'm not a good player to play in such condition. But I've had success in recent years, like this year in Thailand and last year here in Malaysia. So I'm trying to relax a bit more and keep it going tomorrow."
