A multi-faith praying booth has been installed at a university in the UK.
The specially converted photo booth of the Pray-o-mat offers more than 300 pre-recorded prayers and incantations in 65 different languages, via a touch screen. The free-to-use machine at the University of Manchester is designed for people on the go.
Choices include Our Father in German and English, Buddhist and Islamic benedictions; Aborigine devotional songs and even the solemn chanting of an orthodox Jewish congregation.
Primary pupils suspended
Primary schoolchildren are being suspended from school increasingly often for assaulting their teachers and classmates, according to British official figures.
Around 89 youngsters aged between five and 11 were ordered out of the classroom each day for these reasons in 2010/11, Department for Education statistics show.
In total, 850 children of all ages are given fixed term expulsions every day for assaulting or verbally abusing their classmates and teachers, and almost 11 pupils are permanently excluded for verbal or physical attacks.
The statistics reveal the state of behaviour in England’s schools, and suggest that the situation in primaries is worsening.
Scientists seeking starlings
Scientists are seeking the help of farmers to investigate the mystery of Britain’s disappearing starlings. The chirpy chatter of the starling was once one of the most recognisable sounds of its countryside.
But numbers have declined across the UK by 80 per cent since 1979, and by nearly a third in the last 10 years. Experts from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have launched a new research programme to find what is happening to the species.
They will be working with farmers in Somerset and Gloucestershire to see if the birds have sufficient food and nesting sites.
Rare Sex Pistols track
A notorious, long-lost track by punk pioneers the Sex Pistols is to finally be released after a tape was discovered after three-and-a-half decades.
The recording of Belsen Was A Gas was thought to have been lost in the mists of time with only a live version and a later recording featuring Ronnie Biggs thought to exist. But now a studio version in demo form has been unearthed, turning up in the vaults when the band’s archive moved to a new label.
The subject matter made it probably their most controversial song. Its lyric was about the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, which contrary to the song’s title, did not house any gas chambers.
Frontman John Lydon (pictured), known as Johnny Rotten, later admitted the song was in poor taste.