From an article of the same title by Kevin Sullivan and Karla Adam in The Washington Post:

...Jack Straw, a top official in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government and leader of the House of Commons...started the controversy this month by complaining that veils create distance between individuals and cultures...

The veil debate has become part of a larger discussion in Britain about Muslims and religious tolerance, free expression, human rights, prejudice and security. These issues have dominated public discourse since the July 2005 bombings on the London public transportation system and a plot uncovered in August this year that allegedly involved blowing up transatlantic jetliners. In both cases, Britons were alarmed to discover that the men who allegedly committed or contemplated mass murder were young Muslim men who had been raised in Britain.

While the veil issue has exacerbated tensions between non-Muslims and Muslims, it has also sparked passionate reactions within Muslim communities. Some Muslim leaders have accused Straw, Blair -- who called veils a "mark of separation" -- and others of demonizing Muslims, but others have said they have raised an important issue that has no clear consensus among Muslims...

The veil issue has also divided women's rights advocates, Muslim and non-Muslim. Some argue that wearing the veil is simply a woman's choice, whether a statement of quiet religious observance or a battle cry for political independence, and should not be questioned by white male government officials. But others call veils a sad symbol of oppression and subservience.

From an AP article of the same title on beliefnet:

New York's highest court ruled Thursday that social service agencies run by the Roman Catholic Church and other faiths must provide birth-control coverage to their employees, even if they consider contraception a sin.

The 6-0 decision by the Court of Appeals hinged on whether Catholic Charities and the nine other groups are essentially social service agencies, not churches.

At issue was a 2002 state law that requires employers to provide health insurance coverage for mammograms, bone density screening and other preventive services for women, including prescription contraceptives. The law exempts churches, seminaries and other institutions with a mainly religious mission.

Catholic Charities and the other groups sued the state for an exemption but lost in the lower courts.

Via Boing Boing:

Artist Michael Gross flooded a London church-turned-gallery with water. The "lake" hides a system of mechanically-moving steps that enable visitors to walk on water. The installation, titled Bridge, is up until October 29 at Dilston Grove.

From the gallery's description:

Each step emerges one step in front of you and disappears back underneath behind you as you go. This ‘bridge' is purely mechanical, the weight of the person on it depresses each step a little, this force activates a submerged mechanism which raises the next step.