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Anglicans vs. Catholics: The head of the Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, issued a public apology this week after saying that the Catholic Church in Ireland had “lost all credibility” because of the revelations of widespread sexual abuse of children by priests. Responding to Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin’s statement that he was “stunned” at Williams’ remark, Williams said he’d meant no offense. It’s not the first public spat between Williams and Catholics. Last year, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Anglicans who disagreed with the ordination of gays and women to convert to Catholicism. In response, Williams, referring to any departing parishioners, said: “God bless them. I don’t.”

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‘Climategate’ disputed: A parliamentary investigation into the e-mails leaked from one of the world’s leading climate-research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved. In November, thousands of documents were leaked or hacked from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit. Critics said the documents showed that data had been tampered with or buried to silence alternative views on global warming. But a special panel investigating the case said that while the research unit fostered “a culture of nondisclosure,” the panel had found nothing to challenge the “scientific consensus” that global warming is occurring and influenced by human activity. The panel said that some of the language that seems damning—such as an e-mail in which a scientist said he used a “trick” to “hide the decline” in temperatures—was scientific jargon that had been misinterpreted.