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A new website that gives Irish art lovers who can't afford to buy paintings the chance to rent them for a year is planning to use modern art as a way to promote the gospel.

Keith Drury, a Christian community worker in Belfast and a painter for 20 years, launched the website, www.sidewaysart.com, two weeks ago. He argued that modern and post-modern art and design imagery could be used to assist 'in communicating Jesus' message'.

His art and design website will offer users the chance to 'rent' a series of paintings ranging from £150 to £300 a year. The images include paintings of the famous Crown Bar and the Linenhall Library in central Belfast, as well several oil paintings and portraits.

Drury said he came up with the concept to allow people who would not normally buy art to take some ownership of it: 'It will allow people to align art with their current mood, taste and decor, then to change it a year later as mood and decor change. That is the culture we live in. The other aim is to bring relational aspects into art. Art can be more than a transaction, it can be a relationship between yourself and the artist which develops and allows bespoke pieces to be designed for your own space.'

Drury said the concept of extending ownership of art also chimes with his Christian beliefs: 'Money raised can be returned to good causes or to further develop the work.

'The church was the main commissioner of architecture, arts and music, particularly in Italy. The church today claims that the culture of today has turned away from the church, but the reality is that the church has walked away from culture and therefore allowed itself to become an irrelevance. It has ceased to act in the image of creativity and has denied itself its essential personality and identity.'

Although an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, Drury stressed that his website could be used to preach the gospel by every denomination. He said he was also inspired to do something different to convey the Christian message as a result of his outreach work with the young homeless and prostitutes in central Belfast. Drury said churches needed to use new forms of communication to reach out to such marginalised groups.

His leaflets, which carry a Christian message, include in one instance images of Barack Obama, which Drury said were tailored for those in the business community to get them to think about the Christian message of social justice.

A fellow Presbyterian minister based in Belfast said all churches needed to take on board what Drury was doing. The Rev Chris Hudson, a former peace campaigner and secret envoy between the Irish government and loyalist paramilitaries, said: 'I like that idea; it's brilliant because it allows people to temporarily own art as well as getting across such an important message out. Look at all the great paintings in art history. That is how religion was transmitted to ordinary people. So why shouldn't this minister use modern icons like Obama to get the Christian message of social justice over to the people?'

Hudson also defended a recent painting of George Best as a Christ-like image ascending into heaven, which born-again fundamentalists denounced as blasphemous. But Hudson said: 'Historically in art, for example, the Medici put themselves into religious paintings. The artist was only using George Best as an analogy to make people think about religion. It makes perfect sense to use modern icons.

'I remember being in El Salvador in the Eighties and seeing images of the Sacred Heart of Christ depicted as Elvis. Some might have objected to comparing Christ with Elvis or even seen it as sacrilegious. But to the poor Elvis was a saintly figure who added a spiritual dimension to their lives, it made them think about religious affairs.'

Gurkha soldiers refused to leave a dead comrade behind enemy lines even though they knew they would face 'extreme fire' from Taliban forces.

The first accounts of the courageous recovery of the body of the first Gurkha killed in Afghanistan can be revealed today as British troops continue to defend the strategic former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala in Helmand province.

Braving withering fire from fortified Taliban positions, men from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, located the body of Rifleman Yubraj Rai and then carried it more than 100m across open ground.

In previous years the fighting in Helmand has subsided in November, but the latest dispatches from the region reveal concerted resistance from the Taliban forces. Rai, who had been in Afghanistan for only two weeks, was shot during an operation to clear the southern districts of Musa Qala after intelligence revealed that the Taliban had consolidated their forces almost a year after British troops seized control of the town.

During the operation earlier this month, a Gurkha platoon was ambushed on a stretch of open ground. Amid the chaos, Rai was hit almost immediately.

Colleagues initially believed that the 28-year-old was just diving for cover. But after he realised Rai had been hit, Lieutenant Oli Cochrane began planning to rescue his body, but suddenly lost all radio contact as a bullet hit his radio. Further rounds then pierced his rucksack.

As Taliban fighters found their range, Captain Gajendera Angdembe, Rifleman Dhan Gurung and Rifleman Manju Gurung ran 100m across open ground to retrieve Rai's body.

Last week Manju Gurung described how bullets were 'kicking up dust around their feet'. So intense was the weight of fire being directed at the Gurkhas that Dhan Gurung was forced to use Rai's weapon as well as his own. 'At the time it seemed impossible to evacuate Yubraj. While on the open field I thought we would not come back alive, thank God we are here. I felt helpless not being able to save Yubraj,' he said.

Cochrane added: 'They showed courage, refusing to leave an injured man behind. The boys acted with immense bravery and with disregard for their own lives as they moved through open ground under fire to recover the casualty.'

The battle continued to rage for another six hours. The Gurkhas were later joined by Warrior armoured vehicles which pushed the Taliban 2km back in skirmishes that went on throughout the night and into the following morning. Still enduring fierce enemy resistance, British troops inside the Warriors cleared 10 Taliban-occupied compounds, discovering a cache of explosives and weapons.

Captain Kit Kyte said: 'Despite the heavy weight of fire from the enemy, we were able to dismount [from the Warriors] and clear a lot of compounds at very close quarters.' Officers said the mission had successfully cleared a route and up to 50 civilian homes that British forces hope will be reoccupied by local people. 'Frankly, we can carry on killing the enemy and they can carry on trying to kill us for as long as they like, but we're not achieving anything,' said Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Darby, commanding officer of 2nd Battalion.

Details also emerged last week of how Colour Sergeant Krishnabahadur Dura, 36, was killed near Musa Qala after a roadside bomb tore through his 25-ton Warrior.

Last week more than 2,000 people gathered in Parliament Square in London in support of 2,000 Gurkha veterans fighting for the right to live in the UK. In the wake of a High Court ruling, the government is expected this month to reveal whether it will grant residence to Gurkhas who retired before 1997.

Fine Gael would fight gang crime by bringing in a minimum jail term of 25 years for murder, the party promised yesterday.

Charlie Flanagan, the party's spokesman on Justice, Equality and Law Reform, said the recent upsurge of gangland killings, including the murder of innocent bystander Shane Geoghegan in Limerick, was the greatest threat to the state since the civil war. A government led by Fine Gael would also impose restrictions on the movement of suspected gangland criminals, Flanagan promised delegates at the Fine GaeIrl ard fheis in Wexford yesterday.

For the first time since 1982, Fine Gael has pulled ahead of Fianna Fáil in the polls, with a 7 per cent lead. The polling shows that Ireland's main opposition party is in the best position yet to end 11 years of unbroken Fianna Fail dominance in government.

Flanagan said: 'I would like to focus on the matter of gangland criminality. This is the most serious threat to public safety in the state today and the murder rate hasn't been as high since the civil war.

'Gangland criminals have been slaying rivals for over a decade now and I believe it is no exaggeration to say that a somewhat laissez-faire attitude was adopted by government regarding those murders. It seemed to be a case of "as long as they're killing each other, let them at it". There were warnings that sooner or later, people who had no involvement in criminality would get caught in the crossfire and that gangland murders must be stopped before this happened. Alas, those warnings went unheeded and a number of innocent people were gunned down - some were in the wrong place at the wrong time - some, such as the late Shane Geoghegan, were mistaken for gang members.'

As well as vowing to crack down on the gangs, Flanagan said Fine Gael would try, in the lifetime of this parliament, to introduce a tough new anti-crime bill into the Dail.

'Fianna Fáil is at sea when it comes to gangland crime. The current government lacks both the will and the ability to take on and dismantle criminal gangs. That is why Fine Gael is launching the Criminal Justice (Violent Crime Prevention) Bill to tackle gangland for once and for all,' added Flanagan.

'The average sentence served by murderers is just 13 years. I believe that 25 years is the minimum period that should be served for the crime of murder, and the Fine Gael bill will enshrine that in law.'

He said the Fine Gael bill would help the Garda restrict the movements of suspected gangsters and the numbers of people they could be seen associating with via a special order.

'Those served with an order may be electronically tagged. Failure to comply with the terms of the order may result in arrest and up to five years behind bars.'

Flanagan pointed to Department of Justice figures that show that in 2007 214 people who failed to pay debts and 135 who were drunk in public went to prison.

'Compare this with the 14 gang members in prison, having been convicted of murder - or with the 116 gangland murderers who remain at large. Since 2003 not a single person has been charged in relation to a gangland killing,' he said.

Flanagan's warning of a crackdown on the gangs was echoed by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. Referring to the murder of campaigning journalist Veronica Guerin 12 years ago, Kenny told the conference: 'Not so long ago, we were told gangland killings were the last sting of a dying wasp. That dying wasp is very much alive and part of a threatening swarm infesting our cities and communities. '

'They [the criminal gangs] need to know that there will be real consequences for their actions. No longer can they expect short sentences during which they can continue to organise crimes from their prison cells. Our response will see 25-year mandatory sentences for murder and new powers to control the movements and activities of gang members. We did it before and we will do it again,' Kenny said.

Fine Gael's focus on the gangland killings reflects growing public anger over the power of Ireland's crime gangs. Last Tuesday night the country came to a standstill during a minute's silence before the Munster-New Zealand game for slain Limerick rugby player Shane Geoghegan. The 28-year-old was shot dead by gunmen a fortnight ago.

At last it's official. One of the gravest and most consequential decisions Barack Obama will make in his presidency - as least as far as a small and highly privileged segment of Washington is concerned - has been taken. Obama and his wife, Michelle, have decided where their two girls will go to school.

In a city where social status is conferred by proximity to political power, the Obamas' decision on where to educate their two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, had assumed outsize importance - in no small part because of the potential social opportunities it offers to Washington's elite and wealthy parents.

Washingtonians are used to the quadrennial changing of the political guard, but there is a special excitement this time around about the incoming First Family. It has been decades since there were children this young in the White House, and there has never been an African-American family there at all. The decision on schools is the first in a trail of clues as to what sort of town Obama's Washington will be, to be followed in due course by solemn announcements of the family's choice of puppy, chef and sport of choice at the White House, as well as what church the family will attend.

On schools, the Obamas have made the predictable choice: Sidwell Friends School. The Quaker-founded school is liberal with a strong green orientation, and has an excellent academic reputation. The population is about 1,000, and 39 per cent of pupils describe themselves as being of colour.

'A number of great schools were considered,' said Michelle Obama's spokesman, Katie McCormick Lelyveld. 'In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need.'

So that's one key element of the transition decided. Obama's cabinet also took on greater shape yesterday. Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is to be Treasury Secretary. Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico who served as Energy Secretary under Bill Clinton, is to take commerce and Hillary Clinton is expected to be formally confirmed as Secretary of State following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Obama announced last night that close aide Robert Gibbs would be White House press secretary with Ellen Moran serving as director of communications.

The Obamas' deliberations on schooling had been closely followed in Washington, where there was keen appreciation for the potential benefits of a presidential connection. The morning after his election, Obama had been photographed dropping his children off at school in Chicago - fuelling anticipation about the possibility of befriending the President or First Lady on the school run when the family move to the capital. There are other potential points of connection: Sasha and Malia, when they start at school in Washington, might want to invite some of their new friends to the White House.

Sidwell has a long connection with money and the political elite. It is the alma mater of President Nixon's eldest daughter Tricia Nixon Cox, Chelsea Clinton and Al Gore III, the son of the former Vice-President. The three granddaughters of the Vice-President-elect, Joe Biden, are at the school. A number of former Hillary Clinton aides send their children there, including her pollster, Mark Penn. The journalist Bob Woodward sends his child there. And some are not shy of using these connections.

One leading Democratic fundraiser and hostess in Washington had her granddaughter, who is at Sidwell and is about the age of the Obamas' eldest daughter, write a letter to Malia praising the school - which Malia then passed to her mother.

In contrast to what might happen in Britain, there has been little debate about whether the Obamas would choose a private or a state school, and they are unlikely to face much criticism for choosing to pay fees. Tuition starts at more than $28,000 a year. The last presidential child to attend public (state) school was Amy Carter, in the 1970s, and she was the first for more than 70 years. Photos show her scurrying into the school yard with a newspaper over her face, trying to shield herself from photographers.

The city's mayor, Adrian Fenty, had urged the Obamas to consider sending their children to a public school because of the message it would send other parents in Washington. The mayor sends his own twin sons to a private school.

With that decision out of the way, the conversation in Washington yesterday turned to the Obamas' choice of church. Here they have to navigate not only class but race, because the choice could also reawaken the controversy over Obama's former pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, at his church in Chicago.

Sally Quinn, the self-appointed arbiter of the capital's social scene, has also weighed in on the subject, with a piece in yesterday's Washington Post recommending the National Cathedral, which is Episcopalian. The Obamas might want to listen to Quinn, wife of the former Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee: she famously felt snubbed by the Clintons when they arrived in Washington and Hillary did not jump at an invitation to be introduced to her social set. Quinn spent the next eight years cavilling about how the Clintons lacked class.

Now, where will the Obama girls do ballet?