Teen-friendly English troubadour Ed Sheeran won two trophies, including British male solo artist, at an energetic ceremony in London.

It has been a dramatic year for down-to-earth north London diva Adele, who based her chart-topping songs of heartbreak on a rocky relationship.

Her sophomore album "21" won six Grammys last week and has sold more than 6 million copies in the United States alone. But Adele also had to undergo vocal cord surgery in November to fix a potentially career-threatening throat condition.

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Washington, USA – Welcome to the culture wars 2.0, where the front lines now are religious freedom and contraceptives. Abortion? Gay marriage? Those are so last year.

The White House seems to have assuaged the concerns of liberal and moderate religious voices, particularly Catholics, who complained that the U.S. Health and Human Services mandate on contraceptive coverage violated religious freedom of conscience. The policy now includes a wide exemption for religious groups; requires insurance companies, instead of religious employers, to foot the bill; and still includes a year to hammer out the details.

But now, the issue is firmly entrenched in a political battle on Capitol Hill. Republicans are seizing on the issue as an opportunity to push back on the Affordable Care Act, which they gleefully call “Obamacare.” Democrats, meanwhile, are punching back, saying that rolling back the mandate is a slap in the face to women and that this is exclusively a women’s health issue.

Political shots were fired from both sides at a Thursday hearing convened by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The hearing, titled “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” featured conservative religious voices from across the spectrum, most of whom were male.

“Today’s hearing is a solemn one. It involves freedom of conscience,” Issa said at the beginning of the hearing.

The Most Rev. William Lori, the Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, testified on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which denounced the compromise last week, saying it still raised “serious moral concerns.”

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, testified: “The administration impedes religious liberty by unilaterally redefining what it means to be religious.”

Craig Mitchell, an associate professor from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the HHS policy, “… is not just wrong for religious conservatives, it’s wrong for all Americans.”

The Democratic women on the committee slammed Republicans for not allowing a female witness on the first panel — a Georgetown University law school student chosen by Democrats to appear in support of the policy.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, took offense to the overwhelming majority of men on the witness list. “I want to know — where are the women?” she asked.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., raised her voice against Issa’s lineup. “We’ve been denied the right to have a witness!”

Two women invited by the Republicans — Dr. Laura Champion and Allison Dabbs Garrett — later testified during a second panel in the afternoon.

The Obama administration has largely satisfied moderate and liberal Catholics whose objections to the policy prompted the change. They point to religious groups like Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association, which initially opposed the HHS mandate but now support the compromise.

“The president’s accommodation both recognizes the institution’s religious identity while also maintaining affordable health care for all Americans,” James Salt, the executive director of Catholics United, told CNN. Salt was part of the driving force of liberal Catholic groups that pushed the White House hard to make the change to the policy.

If the fight with moderate and liberal religious voices has ended, the battle on Capitol Hill continues. Both sides are appealing to their bases, with Republicans seeing an opportunity to chip away at the president’s signature health care reform law. They have proposed legislation in the in the Senate and the House to repeal the contraception policy and allow any employer — not just religiously affiliated ones — to reject the requirement.

On Wednesday, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska, said at a news conference on the new bills, “No American should be forced to choose between their faith and their job.”

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who led the charge in Congress to pass Obama’s health care bill when she was speaker, said the issue was about women’s access to health care. “Imagine, they’re having a panel on women’s health and they don’t have any women on the panel. Duh. What is it that men don’t understand about women’s health and how central the issue of family planning is to that?”

“The Catholic vote, in particular those moderate Catholics in the middle who can swing one way or the other, they are always highly sought-after political prizes,” said John Allen, a CNN Vatican analyst and reporter for the National Catholic Reporter.

“Forty-five percent of those Catholics are going to vote for the Democrat no matter what, and 45% of the Catholics are going to vote for the Republican no matter what. So the game is always for those 10% of Catholics in the middle. But of course, you’re talking about a pool of people over the age of 18 who are eligible to vote, of about 4 million people, and they tend to be heavily concentrated in states that are battleground states, places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Southwest, Texas and so on,” Allen said.

“There’s a thick political subtext here, which is both Republicans and Democrats would like to define the other side as hostile to the interest of those centrist Catholics who could swing either way,” he said.

Senior Obama administration officials say they are confident they have assuaged the concerns of those middle-of-the-road Catholics and were not aiming to win over Catholics and other religious leaders because they say nothing would have appeased them short of a complete reversal of the policy.

But one thing is for sure: This issue is not going away.

At a ceremony at North Hagley Park in Christchurch, tens of thousands gathered for a solemn and tearful memorial.

Family members of the victims were seen joining arms and bowing their heads during the ceremony that included songs and speeches.

Governor General Jerry Mateparae read a message of condolence from Prince Charles, while a video from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was played.

"Even those if us who were far away on that terrible day share your grief and we know it's been a struggle," she said. "But through that struggle we've seen the strength and perseverance of the people of Christchurch."

Earlier, a memorial was held in Christchurch's Latimer Square for families of the victims. Children released 185 monarch butterflies at the park in memory of those who died.

Speaking in the city, the prime minister said it had been one of New Zealand's darkest days.

"People were huddled under blankets, sirens were blaring, and dust and smoke was thick in the air," he told mourners in the square, which was used as a makeshift medical centre on the day of the quake.

"There were fires, helicopters with monsoon buckets hovering overhead."

Rebuilding efforts

Ahead of the anniversary, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker told the BBC that "the big task of rebuilding is just getting under way now".

"It has been a massive job and continues to be so," he said of recovery efforts.

Immediately after the quake, it was believed that up to 10,000 homes would have to be demolished and 100,000 would need repairs.

"In terms of where we have got to so far, there are many thousands of residential homes that needed to be examined," Mr Parker said.

"New areas for residential growth opened up because we realised that some pieces of land were no longer suitable for people to live in. They were just unable to be strengthened in the appropriate way and we want to be the safest city in the world.

"So any decisions that we make have to be well-judged decisions around the safety of land and the safety of buildings."

Almost two-thirds of the deaths during the quake happened when the six-story Canterbury Television (CTV) building collapsed.

Those killed included people of many different nationalities because there was a language school in the building.

An official report from the Department of Building and Housing released on 9 February stated that it did not meet requirements when it was built in 1986. The load-bearing columns were not sufficiently reinforced with steel, it said.

After the quake struck, it was thought that people would start leaving New Zealand's second-largest city.

According to Mr Parker, only 10,000 of the base population of 500,000 have actually left. He sees this as "the greatest vote of confidence".

The city is now recruiting thousands of skilled workers to fuel its NZ$30bn ($24.4bn) rebuilding effort.

The area is frequently hit by tremors, with major quakes striking the city in June and December last year.

Six months before the devastating quake, the region was shaken by a 7.1-magnitude quake, but that did not cause major destruction.

Dow Jones Global Indexes | Global Stock Markets

The rally in European equities isn’t ready to run out of steam yet. Why so optimistic? Because there are many individual stocks with road left to burn. And general expectations are so low for markets, the worst-case scenarios are baked in.

Athens was in flames last week. Fourth-quarter 2011 euro-zone gross domestic product came in at negative 0.3%, quarter-over-quarter. And Moody’s downgraded the ratings of six European nations, citing weakening prospects for overhauls. Yet the Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.8% on the week, to end Friday at 265.93 points—a closing high …

"It took me one full year after my wrist got injured last season. I have slipped in my rankings, so the goal would be to get back into the top-50 within the next couple of months," Wozniak told Gulf News as she prepared for her final round of qualifying on Sunday against either Virginie Razzano of France or Polona Hercog of Slovenia at the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open here.

 A former world no.21 till the wrist injury felled her, Wozniak sent India’s Sania Mirza packing in three sets on the opening day of the qualifiers on Saturday.

In her second round qualifying, the 24-year-old resident of Quebec waged a three-setter lasting two hours and 20 minutes before winning 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 against Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine. 

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Prosecutors accused the three Emirati men, A.J., A.G. and N.M., of tricking the Pakistani brothers and kidnapping them to an unpopulated sandy area.

Then the suspects attacked the brothers with swords, knives and wooden bars to force the elder brother, 27-year-old A.M., to confess that he stole A.J.’s birds.

N.M. failed to appear before the Dubai Court of First Instance.

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Derek Thompson, 47, who prosecutors said had earlier admitted that he could not remember the accident, appeared before a magistrate on Monday evening.

Peter Rippington, 59, who taught at Alvechurch School, Worcestershire, died and more than 20 people were hurt in Sunday's crash near Rheims.

The school party had been returning from a skiing trip in Italy.

According to the Foreign Office, seven people remain in hospital, including a 13-year-old girl who underwent surgery in Paris.

Mr Thompson was behind the wheel of the coach when it went down an embankment on the A26 motorway near Rheims at about 02:30 GMT.

Prosecutor Christian de Rocquigny said: "Witnesses who were driving in the area near the coach saw the vehicle repeatedly swerve towards the verge.

"The tachograph indicates some unexplained variations in speed in the nine minutes before the accident.

"While being questioned the driver, having denied falling asleep, has acknowledged that it was possible that he did so."

Mr Thompson, who tested negative for alcohol or drugs, has been released to return to the UK on the condition he will attend a French court at a later date.

French police said there was also no evidence of him having worked excess hours or speeding at the time of the incident.

As part of his bail conditions, Mr Thompson must inform the authorities in France of any travel outside Britain and is banned from contact with victims and families of those involved in the crash.

The school party had been on a skiing trip to Val d'Aosta and was returning to England when the crash happened.

There had been 20 adults – including two drivers and six ski instructors – and 29 schoolchildren on board, Mansfield-based travel company Interski added.

Most of the children have now arrived back in Worcestershire.

Tributes have been paid to Mr Rippington – whose wife Sharon and daughter Amy were also injured in the crash – at the Church of England middle school, which opened as usual following the half-term break.

Speaking outside the school, Bryan Maybee, chair of governors, offered his condolences to those "affected by this tragic accident".

He said: "[Peter Rippington was] a dedicated and inspirational teacher. We continue to wish for the swift recovery and safe return of those currently being treated for injuries abroad. "

West Mercia Police said family liaison officers had been put in place at the school.