Pope Benedict XVI is facing criticism after he put a controversial wartime predecessor one step closer to sainthood. Jewish groups say Pope Pius XII did not do enough to save Jewish lives during the Second World War. 

The Vatican is at the center of criticism over a move that places former pope Pius XII closer to becoming a saint.

Pope Benedict has approved a decree that recognizes the pontiff, who is accused of doing too little to help Europe's Jews during World War II, as having "heroic virtues." The posthumous honor gives the former pope the title "venerable" and places him two steps from full canonization.

Pius XI has been accused of turning a blind eye to the Nazi genocide of the Jews, in a controversy that has strained relations between the Vatican and Israel.

When a department within the Vatican submitted the decree to the Pope in 2007, it was decided that any decision should be postponed for a "period of reflection."

The newly formed university is a mobilisation of students, teachers and researchers who aim to liberate education from the over-arching confines of the `institution'. Participants Emile Gayoso and Quentin Lade on neo-liberalism, the Bologna process and giving classes on public transport

It's 2pm on Wednesday afternoon, and Paris's metro line 14 is filling up with commuters. Most of them are going to and from the landmark Bibliothèque Francois Mitterand - a bastion of France's educational system. Here on the train however, an education of a different kind is unfolding. Several men and women in sandwich boards bearing the logo `Université de Paris 14' are distributing leaflets to the passengers. Class, it would seem, is in session. `We meet at the BNF,' explains Emile Gayoso, 24, `and make the return journey to Gare Saint Lazare, encouraging discussion and distributing information. The listeners are usually more or less interested, rarely annoyed, and often totally on our side.' `Breaking through the inner circle of French education'

Fighting against successive reforms that have transformed the average European university from a social nucleus of learning into a money-hungry `excellence' machine, Paris 14 is a nomadic entity that celebrates the joy of learning and the exchange of knowledge. It was the brainchild of students and teachers at Université de Paris 7, but welcomes participation from all corners of society. Impromptu `Flash courses` (each specially adapted to the average metro commute at 15-20 minutes long) bring intellectual discussion back into the real world. `At Paris 14 anyone can follow to course,' says Gayoso, `from professionals in the area, to students or anyone else outside the university system who wants to use this public platform to share their ideas.' Subjects are diverse; ancient mythology, contemporary politics or the writings of Roland Barthes are equally likely to be put to the (albeit moving) floor. Despite the challenges of getting people to publicly engage with something decidedly unfamiliar, Gayoso looks with pride on the fact that he has helped open a new avenue of discussion amongst ordinary people. `We have demonstrated that the problems in the university system don't only concern those in the `inner circle' of French education,' he says, `but everyone in society.'

The world's oldest still living married couple have revealed the secret of 85 years of married bliss - the wife is always right.

Liu Fuben, 95, and his wife Shi Jihui, 100, spoke after registering their claim with the Guinness Book of Records.

Liu said: "We are still very much in love and always will be. As to the secret of a long marriage - avoid arguments like the plague and remember the golden rule - she's always right."

      Midwives in the Helsinki area have voiced their concerns over the situation of those women in labour who are unversed in languages.
      In recent years the number of expectant mothers speaking languages other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother-tongue has increased within the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS).
      Simultaneously there has been a rise in the number of those women in labour with whom no common language can be found despite the use of interpreters and the relatively large arsenal of languages possessed by the area's midwives themselves.
     
At maternity wards in the Greater Helsinki hospitals the women in labour already speak nearly 70 different languages as their mother-tongue.
      "Giving birth is a very sensitive matter, as is the taking care of a small baby, especially if the infant happens to suffer from an ailment of any kind", says head nurse Soile Kivijärvi from the Hyvinkää Hospital maternity ward.
      On Friday morning there was an invoice from an Arabic interpreter on Kivijärvi's desk waiting for an approval.

Commissioner Margot Wallström has announced that she is stopping writing her weblog that she started in 2004. She was the first Commissioner to use the online diary as a way of communicating with the public. Since then many others, including MEP's, Commissioners and others in the European Union political and policy scene have followed her. In her post announcing the end of her blog she said "I really enjoyed it but it was more time consuming than I had expected.  It sounds easy to sit down and write a piece per week but finding the time to do this when you have to do a lot of travelling and many many meetings to prepare for and attend is not as easy as it sounds." It is also not easy to write an interesting weblog either, but the Commissioner has managed to do that, by mixing the professional with the personal and lifting the curtain a little on what goes on behind the scenes. She says that "I have managed to write 265 blog posts since the beginning, covering everything from the EU to dancing, music, books, Chinese mining, jam and wars." As Nosemonkey, a journalist and fellow blogger said "Not sure if the experiment entirely worked, but the blog did make you seem like one of the more human Commissioners - and anything that can be done to break down the perception of the Commission existing as some remote, isolated elite can only be a good thing.I hope the new lot carry on the blogs - they're not always the most exciting reads, but their mere existence is a major step towards allowing the people to see inside the Brussels machine."
 
On the future of blogging on Europe, Wallström notes that "Undoubtedly overcoming the language barrier.  What I can see of the EU blogosphere is largely in English and French.  Finding out what is going on in German, Spanish, Italian, Polish and the other 17 official languages is for many people an insurmountable hurdle.  We all depend on others to translate for us and bring good stories, ideas and arguments to everyone's attention... I think that, like it or not, English is becoming the common language through which Europeans understand each other. This has nothing to do with British or American linguistic imperialism and everything to do with practicality."
 
Her approach has also been appreciated by people who don't agree with her. On her final post, Max Kaye writes, "While we (still) hold opposite opinions on virtually every subject under the sun, in the 4 or five years that I have been following your blog, I've noted that you have always engaged your adversaries with courtesy and a sense of fair play - even under conditions of harsh criticism and sometimes unfair provocation. I may disagree with you on political and social issues, but I do respect you - and especially thank you for engaging with individuals as well as with groups and the `masses'."
 

Even though the asteroid doesn't look like it's going to hit Earth, on April 13, 2029, it will come closer to Earth than any other near-Earth object that we know of. It will pass just 18,300 miles above the planet's surface.