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Mosey on over to the New Humanist site for their latest news update, including the nominees for the 2008 Bad Faith Award. They are: Tony Blair, Stephen Green, Sarah Palin, Rowan Williams, St Monica's Governors, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Bishop of Durham, Ann Coulter, and Adnan Oktar aka Harun Yahya. Vote for your favourite. Hard to choose, isn’t it?

There’s more about the Atheist Bus Campaign, with a podcast from Ariane Sherine, and highlights from the latest issue of the magazine.

Staff pay and conditions could be under threat at an Ipswich school if a decision is finalised to turn it into a church-run academy.

As revealed in The Evening Star, students at Holywells High spoke out against the possibility of the running of their school being handed over to the Church of England in September.

The students' concerns are now shared by trade unions, who today revealed their opposition to academies' abilities to operate outside the parliamentary approved School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document.

6th-formers at Holywells High School, which is threated by a Church take-over, have vowed to campaign against the plans. Good for them! Read more in the Evening Star.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to the atheist bus campaign. As I write this, the total has just broken £83,000 (without Gift Aid) – a truly amazing amount to raise in just two days (even the donation website, JustGiving, told us they've never experienced this much support for a campaign before!).

The Ipswich Advertiser reports:

A BITTER tug-of- war has broken out today [17 October 2008] over the future of one of Ipswich's most high-profile schools.

Despite improving GCSE rates and opposition from staff, Holywells High School could become a church-sponsored academy.

Although no final decision has been made and a full consultation is yet to take place, sources at multicultural Holywells High have hit out at a proposal to convert the school into an academy, saying they have been put under pressure by Suffolk County Council to become a faith school.

We will do whatever we can to support those who oppose the take-over of Holywells School by the Church. If you have any information, please get in touch.

Although the headlines majored on the BBC's fearful relationship with Islam, there was another point hidden in the BBC director general's speech to the Theos Christian thinktank this week, and it is just as disturbing.

Those of us who have wondered why there is such a ridiculous excess of religion on the BBC now have the answer. It is because Mark Thompson, an enthusiastic Catholic, wants it. Thompson is a great proselytiser for his faith in the mould of Lord Reith, who thought the BBC was "the nation's church". And, of course, the BBC gives him a very big pulpit to preach from – one that reaches into just about every home in the country, and which we all have to pay for.

Terry Sanderson: The BBC's director-general holds non-believers in contempt | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Rashin Soodmand is an Iranian Christian. Her father was hanged for apostasy – he converted to Christianity when he was thirteen. Now her brother, also a Christian, risks the same fate. Rashin says, “They assume that if you are Iranian, you must be Muslim.”

It’s not surprising that it appears there are no atheists in Iran. Declaring your non-belief would risk death or life imprisonment.

Read more in The Telegraph.