The bank estimates the damage to be between $123billion and $235billion. This is the equivalent of between 2.5% and 4% of the country’s economic output in 2010. Japan may need up to five years to rebuild from the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that has caused up to $235bn (£145bn) of damage, the World Bank said... Continue Reading

A High Court judge has overturned a decision by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that an advertisement by a Belfast church was homophobic. Sandown Free Presbyterian Church launched judicial review proceedings against the ASA after being found to be in breach of its code of practice. The judge ruled the ASA’s decision interfered with the... Continue Reading

Fewer young people are experiencing the joy of playing outdoors and exploring nature, says a noted author, who shows how such neglect can be harmful and how programs like Scouting can help to reverse the trend. Can anyone remember those lazy childhood summer days spent roaming the woods and fields? When Mom said, “Go outside... Continue Reading

In a state where politics, religion and culture are so intertwined, that fight itself could have huge repercussions. The traditional links — that a good Mormon is a good conservative — has been broken, many Mormon Tea Party members say. “My mother says, ‘If he’s a bishop, he must be a good Republican,’ ” said... Continue Reading

“Democracy can lead to more Islam but Islam may lead to Christianity,” he said. As evidence he noted that, even with Islam seemingly on the rise in many of the regions undergoing unrest, interest about Christianity is also peaking among young people in the Middle East. Dr. Walid Phares signs a book Saturday after giving... Continue Reading

A military force from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations moved into Bahrain Monday to shore up the nation’s Sunni rulers in the face of escalating Shiite-led protests seeking to break the monarchy’s hold on power. Bahrain’s main opposition groups immediately denounced the outside intervention as an “occupation” that pushed the tiny Gulf kingdom dangerously... Continue Reading

House Republicans quietly moved Friday to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages, saying they would step in to argue for the measure’s constitutionality after the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending it. Republican leaders had the option of inserting themselves in the case by introducing... Continue Reading

In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday (March 2) that the “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” protesters from Westboro Baptist Church have First Amendment rights to protest military funerals. But does that mean more protests from religious groups are ahead? Or more efforts to limit them? The majority determined that the Rev.... Continue Reading

Europe is already badly infected with Islamism. It is the coal-miners’ canary. It is telling us that the next stop is America. We must act and act now. We must not sacrifice our cherished way of life and the lives of our children at the altar of political correctness: the incubator of Islamofascism. Time and... Continue Reading

The current rise in the value of life is based on the work of Professor Viscusi, who wrote his first paper on cost-benefit analysis as a Harvard undergraduate in the early 1970s. He won a prize and found a career. The idea he and others have since developed in a long string of studies is... Continue Reading