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 report, entitled 'A Good Childhood', finds that adult pursuit of ‘personal success’ has damaged childhood in the UK and states the country is one of the worst affected in the western world. A greater emphasis on personal responsibility and the common good needs to replace an ethos which focuses on selfishness, the report concludes.

And it says that the major rise in family breakdown is a leading part of the problem. It suggests that women's increased economic independence has resulted in the sharp increase in marital break-up in recent decades. "As a result of increased break-up, a third of 16-year-olds in Britain now live apart from their biological father," it adds.

These trends have reduced the amount of time a child spends with its parents, the report said. Some 60 per cent of respondents said parents did not spend enough time with their children. The inquiry was commissioned by the Church of England-affiliated Children's Society and is backed by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.

The study, based on responses from 35,000 contributors, highlighted other radical changes in UK family life over the last two decades, including the fact that a majority of women now worked outside the home, in addition to being mothers.

"Seventy per cent of mothers of nine-to-12-month-old babies now do some paid work, this compares with only 25 per cent 25 years ago - a massive change in the way of life,” the report says.

"Meantime, the children are cared for by someone other than their parents."

It also claims that the combined findings of more than 90 different studies suggest that children whose parents have separated suffer long term damage reflected in lower results at school, poor self esteem, behavioural difficulties and depression.

The report discovered Britain has some of the worst rates of child unhappiness, poverty, family breakdown and child violence in the developed world. Of the 35,000 people interviewed for the study, two thirds of respondents said the moral values of children had declined.

The report's lead authors are Lord Layard, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics and former adviser to Tony Blair on wellbeing; and Judy Dunn, professor of developmental psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

They suggest the country needs a "radical shift" towards an ethos of love and mutual respect in education, public policy and personal life. Carol Craig, head of the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing in Glasgow, cautioned: "It is taking us into mass psychological experimentation."

The study, backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, criticises the parents of young children for spending long hours at work and relying on childminders. It describes an increase in the number of mothers going back to work when their babies are less than a year old as a "massive" social change and cites the fact that women are now less dependent on their husbands as a cause of family break-up.

The report, compiled by the academics Lord Layard and Professor Judy Dunn for the Church of England-affiliated Children's Society, also claims that the quality of friendship among young people has declined as the so-called "Facebook generation" spend more time in front of a screen than outside playing.

Among eye-catching recommendations contained in the report, A Good Childhood calls for new civil birth ceremonies for non-religious families, held at register offices along the lines of weddings.

It is also recommends curbs on advertising targeting children under the age of 12, the option for parents to take up to three years off work to care for their children without losing their jobs and a reduction in income inequality. It points out that while Sweden has as high a level of family breakdown as Britain, children are less adversely affected because they are less likely to be poor.

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.

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.