Christianity “has been an overwhelming force for good in the world”, according to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Speaking at the launch of World Youth Day in Sydney, Mr Rudd said that while many criticised the Church it was important to speak about the great good it does as well. The launch and opening Mass was attended by 150,000 people.

The UK father of a teenage boy who was shot dead as he went for a haircut has urged parents to "get closer" to their children to better understand their lives. Rashid Chaiboub said parents should be aware when their children stop sharing their thoughts and feelings with them, as his 17-year-old son Tarek had.

Fathers are being increasingly marginalised in children's lives, according to the UK's equality watchdog. According to the chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Nicola Brewer, said that maternity leave laws had led to an increased disparity between the time mothers and fathers spend with children.

The mental health and emotional wellbeing of young teenage girls is being placed under pressure from numerous directions, according to new research. A report by Girlguiding UK and the Mental Health Foundation discovered that girls feel pressure as a result of sexual advances from boys and also to wear clothes that make them look older.

Children and adults who are the result of IVF, the technique developed by Professor Bob Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe in the 1970s, gathered in Cambridgeshire yesterday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of In Vitro Fertilisation.

A State-employed Christian registrar who refused to carry out same sex civil unions because they went against her faith has won a landmark discrimination battle and hailed her triumph as a victory for religious liberty.

A culture of “moral neutrality” is preventing politicians and other leaders from saying what needs to be said about the problems facing British society, according to the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron.

Catholic education authorities have proposed a radical plan to stop the ‘flight’ of parents from urban schools all over the country. The plan involves requiring parents to send their children to the school closest to them.

A Swedish school has accused an eight-year-old boy of violating the rights of fellow school children for not inviting two of his classmates to his birthday party.

Addressing the need for legislation to protect vulnerable people in dependant relationships does not require the redefinition of marriage, Senator Jim Walsh said in the Seanad yesterday. Responding to reports about his Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party motion last week, he said that the current understanding of marriage as intrinsically heterosexual was “for the propagation of society and the welfare of children”.

A proposed EU anti-discrimination directive, aimed at outlawing any discrimination based on sex, religion or sexual orientation outside the workplace could have implications for Church property.

Gang life is replacing the family for a generation of young people, according to a leading UK police chief. Barbara Wilding, the Chief Constable of South Wales, says that a culture of gangs, drugs and crime has become a way of life in poorer areas in large English cities, and family breakdown is a major part of the problem

A clear majority of parents would prefer State-run schools to religious run schools, a poll published on Monday suggests. According to a RedC poll carried out on behalf of the Irish Primary Principals Network, over 70 per cent of parents indicated they would prefer a State run school system.

The UK Labour Government is engaged in a “witch hunt” against faith schools, according to a new document published by think tank the Centre for Policy Studies. And this policy could end up alienating the UK's growing Islamic population, as Islamic faith schools help to integrate young Muslims into British society, the document says.

A group of Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators are supporting a motion in the parliamentary party to secure the special status of marriage under the Constitution. The motion comes just days after the Government published the heads of a Bill which proposes giving same sex couples many of the rights currently enjoyed by married couples.

Same sex couples are to be granted marriage like rights under new Government proposals published on Tuesday. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern launched the proposals, saying that the Civil Partnership Bill did not equate to “gay marriage”.

A Canadian court has stated that a father of a 12-year-old girl cannot ground her for disobeying him, his lawyer said last Wednesday.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

"She's a child," Beaudoin told AFP. "At her age, children test their limits and it's up to their parents to set boundaries."

"I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn't set a precedent," she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, "parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on."

"I think most children respect their parents and would never go so far as to take them to court, but it's clear that some would and we have to ask ourselves how far this will go."

According to court documents, the girl's Internet transgression was just the latest in a string of broken house rules. Even so, Justice Suzanne Tessier found her punishment too severe.

Beaudoin noted the girl used a court-appointed lawyer in her parents' 10-year custody dispute to launch her landmark case against dear old dad.

Initially, the father forbade his daughter from going online after the Grade 6 student posted photos on a dating site, according to a Canadian newspaper.

The girl's parents are divorced, and after she had an alleged row with her stepmother, her father barred her from going on a school trip to mark the class's graduation from elementary school, the newspaper reported.

"When he said, 'OK, it's final. You're not going,' she smacked the door, left and went to live with her mother," the father's lawyer, Kim Beaudoin, told CBC News.

Last Wednesday, the father received a motion petitioning the court to overturn the punishment. Two days later, the judge ruled the punishment was too severe because the girl had already been sufficiently disciplined, Beaudoin said.

Beaudoin said the judge also said there was no reason for the punishment to stand, since the girl was now living with her mother, even though the father has custody. She said the father, who has four children, was "devastated," especially since the ruling came days before Father's Day.

According to Miriam Grassby, a Quebec family lawyer who has spoken with the various attorneys involved, it is not uncommon for a child in a high-conflict situation between two parents to have an attorney appointed to protect his or her best interests under Quebec family law.

"In Quebec, no matter who has custody, we have joint parental authority," Grassby told CBC News on Thursday. "There are issues of discipline where both parents have to agree, and if they don't, we will have a place" to resolve the issue in court.

The attorney representing the child had been chosen and agreed to by both parents, she noted. "The court is there to be an objective third party, and these children who are in these high-conflict situations need the protection of the court," Grassby said.

"I think we could presume the judge had good judgment in the fact that she read the statements and found out what both parents were saying, and that the child was punished at least once for that, and this was excessive punishment."

Limerick has the highest percentage of births outside marriage, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The data shows that 56.4 per cent of children born in Limerick city in 2005 were outside wedlock.

A new report has shown that women do the bulk of caring in the home for children and elderly or ill family members. The report by the ESRI, Gender Inequalities in Time Use is published by the Equality Authority. According to the study, women spend twice as much time as men each day doing unpaid work, including caring and housework.

Ireland could be given opt-outs from the Lisbon Treaty if it would help the Government win a new referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, according to reports, including an opt-out from family policy.