Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Thor, Odin and Frigg with construction already started in February on the island's first major temple to the Norse gods since the Viking age. Worship of the gods in Scandinavia gave way to Christianity around 1,000 years ago but a modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity in Iceland. ‘I don't think anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet,’ said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, the high priest of 'Asatruarfelagid', an association that promotes faith in the Norse gods. ‘We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology’. There are approximately 2,400 members, out of a total population of 330,000. The temple will be circular and 13 feet down into a hill overlooking the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.
Hungary's prime minister Victor Orban, who has expressed fears that migration will undermine Europe's Christian identity, told Egypt's visiting president on Friday that he nonetheless respects Islam ‘as one of the great intellectual and spiritual creations of humanity. In many places in Europe today there is fear of Islam, moreover there are places where it is considered an enemy. Hungary is not such a country.’ Orban also told the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that Egypt was necessary for stability in the Arab world and ‘since distances in the modern world have shrunk there is no stability in Europe without a stable Egypt.’ During their meeting, the two countries signed several cooperation agreements and Orban said Hungary would provide scholarships to 100 Egyptian students.
Pope Francis has warned of the dangers of allowing children to have computers in their bedrooms, saying it can lead to them watching pornography. He approved of parents putting them in a communal room in the house, saying there are things that parents can do to prevent their children accessing websites containing sexually explicit or violent material. The Argentinian pontiff said children were becoming far too attached to digital media: ‘It harms the soul and curtails freedom - it makes you a slave of the computer’. He said that while it was important for younger generations to master digital technology, computers and other devices should be used with moderation.
As talks between Greece and its creditors drag on and pressure mounts on both sides to find a deal, relations between Athens and its European partners are getting worse. Tensions over reforms-for-aid negotiations came to a head on Sunday when European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker accused the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of distorting what the creditors had proposed to make some headway in securing a deal for the country. Tsipras said he was ‘unpleasantly surprised’ by the offer made by Juncker, who - as head of one of the three institutions overseeing Greece's bailout programme, along with the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank - had helped to craft the proposals. It was reported by Reuters that Juncker refused a request from Tsipras to meet him on Saturday, feeling that there was little left to discuss. Expectations are rising that Greece could default on its debt and leave the eurozone altogether.
Britain's failure to tackle Spanish aggression over Gibraltar has sparked the shock resignation of the governor of the Rock. Lieutenant General Sir James Dutton took the unprecedented step of quitting the overseas territory after less than two years amid frustration he had been ‘sold a duff’. The resignation has sparked fears that his replacement will be a civil servant, responsible to Whitehall, and less likely to stand up to Spanish sabre-rattling. This would end 300 years of rule by a military governor directly accountable to the Queen. The Foreign Office is searching for his replacement to take up the role in September.
The US and German leaders say sanctions on Russia must stay until it implements a deal to end fighting in Ukraine. President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks as the G7 summit of economic powers began in southern Germany on Monday. Moscow is the target of European Union and US sanctions over its role in support of Ukrainian rebels. Russia has been excluded from what was previously known as the G8, since the annexation of Crimea last year. The West accuses Russia of sending military forces into eastern Ukraine to help the rebels. Moscow denies this, saying any Russian soldiers there are volunteers.
Fourteen members of a banned Islamic group stood trial in Paris on Monday on terror charges after police found a ‘hit list’ of Jewish stores marked ‘targets’ in files belonging to its leader. Several of the stores belonged to the Hyper Cacher chain, like the one in which four people were killed in a hostage drama two days after the Islamist killings at Charlie Hebdo. The fourteen are charged with criminal conspiracy related to a terrorist enterprise. Some also face charges of illegal possession of weapons. All face prison terms of ten years if found guilty. One of the group's reported sympathisers, Omar Diaby, is a top recruitment sergeant of French Islamists for al-Nusra Front, the Syrian jihadist group.
Finnish palliative care is well behind other European countries, with doctors and nurses receiving inadequate training for treating terminally ill patients. Finnish patients who are living out the final months, weeks or even days of their lives do not receive adequate care or attention, according to experts in the still embryonic field. Many terminally ill people suffer from fears and pains that healthcare workers aren't able to help them face. Although interest in developing palliative care is slowly rising the biggest obstacle seems to be the healthcare professional's ability to come face to face with the patient and their families and painkillers are also often administered too carefully. The reason for the distress has to do with the low level of training doctors and nurses receive for situations involving dying patients and many doctors may dismiss the final needs of the terminally ill.