In the UK and other places

The Herald (of the UK) has an article about the Church (Catholic that is) and State (the government of the United Kingdom and particularly the Scottish Executive). The political liaison officer at the Scottish parliament noted that while Tony Blair conpliments the churches for standing up for family values, Blair and his party have pushed an agenda that the most anti-family the country has seen. The whole article is worth a read.

Interfax: "The vice-president of the European Parliament Mario Mauro criticized certain officials of the European Union for inequitable policy on traditional Christian Churches."

‘For the last ten years the Europarliament accused the Orthodox and Catholic Churches of violating human rights more then thirty times, but not once brought similar accusations against such states as, for instance, China or Cuba,’ Mauro said at the ‘Europe at a turning point: confrontation of civilizations or a new dialogue?’

The most interesting comment came not in the article itself, but in the little intro paragraph on the main Interfax-Religion page:

Speaking at the international conference in Moscow, he urged to remember that the blue colour of the flag of the Council of Europe symbolizes the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, and twelve starts depicted in a circle remind of the apostles

According to Wikipedia, such an assertion as to the meaning of the flag is not strictly correct. Note of course that the Council of Europe is not the European Union.