Russian Church consecrates North Pole
A RUSSIAN Orthodox bishop has dropped a memorial capsule into
the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole. Inscribed with a blessing from
the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill I, it consecrates the North Pole,
and marks the 1150th anniversary of the Russian state. Bishop Iakov
of the Naryan-Mar and Mezen diocese said that the event "symbolises
the efforts of the state to recover the position of Russia, and
[is] confirmation of its achievements in the Arctic", a report from
the Orthodox Church states.
Foreign aid under attack
TO CUT off poor countries from aid without an exit strategy
would "condemn millions to hunger and entrenched poverty", the
director of Christian Aid, Loretta Minghella, has warned. In a
letter to The Daily Telegraph, after the newspaper's
investigation into foreign aid, Ms Minghella said that the
Government should "make more effort to help poor countries become
economically self-reliant", including tackling tax evasion by
multinationals. An investigation into overseas aid by the newspaper
suggested that £1.4 billion - one sixth of the Department for
International Development's budget - is diverted to the EU for its
own schemes, "many of them in relatively wealthy countries that the
UK no longer believes should receive aid".
Students killed in Nigeria
AT LEAST 32 people were killed in an attack on a college hostel
in Nubi, a town in the north-east of Nigeria, on Monday. The police
said that most of the victims were students. No group has yet
claimed responsibility, but the BBC reports that it may be linked
to a student-union election, "which was contested on sectarian
lines". Last week, the military carried out a raid against the
Islamist extremist group Boko Haram in the town.