Hardline lobbyists in the USA have launched a campaign to try to stop one of the country's leading Catholic universities from having President Barack Obama as a campus speaker.

Bishop William Kenney, part of a delegation of Catholic bishops from Europe and North America who visited Israel-Palestine this month, has expressed regret at the BBC's refusal to show a charity appeal for Gaza.

With Israel threatening to escalate its military action in Gaza, Patrick Kelly, Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool and vice president of the Bishops' Conference has called for an alternative to more violence.

Germany's two largest churches are shrinking, but the Evangelical Church in Germany, the country's biggest Protestant grouping, has dropped below 25 million members for the first time since the unification of Germany in 1990