A judge yesterday ruled that a couple will never see three of their children again even though he accepted that evidence suggesting they had physically abused one of the children was almost certainly false.

A five-year-old girl from Devon was left in tears after her teacher reprimanded her for talking about Jesus in class – and her mother could be facing the sack. The girl’s mother, who works part-time at the school, is being investigated by governors because she emailed friends at church asking them to pray about her daughter’s situation.

A man being charged with polygamy in Canada will argue that since the law there permits same-sex marriage, his multiple marriages should also be allowed.

Three Christian groups will run ads on London buses proclaiming the existence of God in response to the recent atheist campaign.

Faith-based organisations which receive funds from President Obama's new Office of Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships may be forced to hire workers who do not reflect their ethos under new ‘anti-discrimination’ measures, it emerged yesterday.

People working in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) face losing their job if they discuss their religious faith with colleagues or patients, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has declared that the breakdown of traditional families, far from being a crisis, is actually a triumph for human rights.

A couple in Scotland who have seen their grandchildren taken from them and placed with a homosexual couple are set to receive financial help to challenge the move in the courts. And the council responsible for the decision to place the children with the homosexual couple could be facing an inquiry.

Children in the UK need lessons in love and moral responsibility to combat the growing culture of greed and individualism, according to a new report.

The religious freedom of Christians in the UK is under threat, according to the majority of churchgoers. According to new poll shows, 84 per cent of churchgoing Christians feel that religious freedoms, of speech and action, are at risk in the UK. They also think that Christians should engage more with politics.

Legislation which will give registered same-sex partnerships “marriage like” rights has been included in the list of Bills the Government intends to publish before Easter.

Married couples in the UK will be in the minority by next year according to new official figures. Increasing numbers are choosing to cohabit or not remarry. The new figures show that there were only 236,980 weddings in England and Wales in 2006, the lowest number since 1895.

Only half of adults are now married, down almost 10 per cent in less than a decade. It is thought that this is set to fall still further, with the recession putting weddings out of reach for financially stretched couples. The cost of a wedding in the UK is believed to have doubled over the past decade to reach an average of more than £21,000.

Already fewer than half of women aged between 18 and 49 are married, compared with three-quarters in 1979, while the proportion who have never wed has doubled. One in three women in this age group cohabit.

Almost half of those living out of wedlock have children.

Critics say the figures show how Labour has presided over a breakdown of the traditional family, by failing to support the institution of marriage.

Recent changes to the tax and benefits system have left married couples up to £5,000 a year worse off than those who remain single, while ministers have repeatedly refused to agree with research that shows children benefit from growing up with two parents.

Gordon Brown, when Chancellor, abolished Married Couples' Allowance and introduced tax credits that reward single mothers ahead of couples. Research from the Millennium Cohort Study has shown that married parents are more than twice as likely to stay together than those who are unwed.

Last year Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, declared that marriage is irrelevant to Government policy and that ministers should not tell people how to bring up their children.

Anastasia de Waal, director of family and education at Civitas, a think tank that recently claimed the current system "penalises" committed couples, told The Daily Telegraph: "Some of this increase in cohabiting will be people postponing marriage, as we know that the age at which people are marrying has got later and later. That can be a good thing because it means that they're getting to know their partners better to see if they're compatible, or getting financial stability so they can buy a house.

"On the other hand, the increase in the number of households where people are unmarried but have children is quite significant, because that's going to apply to poorer couples.

"We know that households where there are children but the parents aren't married are much more likely to break up. That's worrying because we know the impact it has on poverty.

"Marriage and parenting are Labour taboos but they should be very much in line with Labour goals."

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics in its General Household Survey 2007, a poll of almost 13,000 homes across Britain, show that in total, 51 per cent of adults are now married and 10 per cent cohabit. The proportion who are married has fallen steadily over the past decade, from 59 per cent in 1998. A further 23 per cent are now single, 7 per cent widowed, 6 per cent divorced and 2 per cent separated.

Among women aged 18 to 49, however, comparisons with previous years' results show that only 49 per cent are now married, down from 74 per cent in 1979. The percentage of those in the same age range who are cohabiting has tripled over the same period, from 11 to 33 per cent. In addition, 44 per cent of cohabiting women have children at home.

The figures also show that 15 per cent of couples who are now living together out of wedlock had previously shared a home with at least one previous partner. Most of these earlier cohabitations had lasted between one and two years.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is facing a series of serious questions after a serious case of child abuse was revealed in the Roscommon circuit court yesterday.

Two-thirds of single mothers want more male role models for their children according to the new survey in the UK. It also found that 53 per cent of children in lone parent famiies have less than six hours contact with a man each week.

President Barack Obama's has unveiled his family policy agenda which includes removal of government marriage penalties, support for civil unions that give same-sex couples all the legal rights and privileges of married couples, adoption rights for same-sex couples and the repeal of the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Irish teenagers have the second-highest level of drunkenness among nine countries surveyed, according to new figures. The data, contained in the State of the Nation’s Children report, shows that 29 per cent of Irish 15-year-olds say they have been drunk at least once in the last month, according to a report in the Irish Times.

A radio presenter in the UK is suing a local radio station after being sacked for defending Christianity on air. The Rev Mahboob Masih, a Church minister, claims he was unfairly dismissed and that the action taken against him was a case of religious discrimination.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michéal Martin, has reiterated the government's promise that legal guarantees ensuring Ireland's right to maintain its own family and education policy will be part of the Lisbon Treaty to be put before the Irish people again later this year.

The UK Government is attempting to overturn a crucial free speech protection added last year to a law prohibiting ‘hate crimes’ against homosexuals.

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution of its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs welcoming a report published last year by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) that called for binding EU regulations to force member states to abolish the differences between marriage and same-sex civil unions.