The world’s oldest mother, who conceived at 66 through anonymous sperm and egg donations has died, leaving her twin sons orphaned, according to a report in the London Times. The news has sparked fresh controversy over fertility treatment for older women.

Mounting equality laws have made Britain a “cold place for Christians”, according to a senior Bishop.

Minister Dermot Ahern has said that he doesn't “bring whatever religion I have to the table” when he is legislating.

Teenagers should be told “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”, according to a new booklet produced by the British health service, the NHS.

Knowledge of the Bible in England and Wales is declining, with many ignorant of its most significant characters and events, according to a new survey.

UK couples thinking about a divorce should be required by law to have a three month "cooling off" period to get more information as to what divorce involves financially and emotionally according to a new family law report.

The suggestion is one of a number of proposals put forward in a wide-ranging review of UK family law conducted by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), an influential think tank set up by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.

The report, Every Family Matters, is being studied by Tory leader David Cameron. It also proposes more rights for people to keep the assets they owned before they were married if they later got divorced.

The report said such a move would end one of the major deterrents to people getting married today.

It also rejects the current Labour Government proposal to give additional rights to cohabiting couples.

Divorce in England and Wales is currently granted on the basis of the irretrievable breakdown of marriage, on one of five so-called “grounds” – adultery; unreasonable behaviour; desertion; two years’ separation with consent; or five years’ separation without consent.

The new proposals are for a three-month delay before divorce proceedings could begin.

The CSJ is Mr Cameron's favourite think tank and he has adopted many of its ideas. A previous report calling for tax breaks for married couples two years ago became official Tory policy.

Mr Cameron has repeatedly said he wants an incoming Tory government to restore the status of marriage in the tax system, despite misgivings expressed by senior figures such as Kenneth Clarke.

The latest report includes a YouGov poll which found that 85 per cent of people support the call for married tax breaks while 57 per cent believe the law should promote marriage.

It calls for a major review of family law to be conducted by an independent commission as part of a "concerted effort to stabilise and support relationships within our society."

A system of state-sponsored relationship counselling is proposed which is based on a scheme in Australia where struggling couples attend Family Relationship Centres.

The proposed British version would be called "family relationship hubs" and couples would be required to attend them by law if they wanted to divorce.

In addition, all couples preparing to marry would be "strongly encouraged" to attend the hubs, although the report stops short of making this compulsory.

It also calls for an overhaul of the law on how assets are divided when couples divorce to better reflect "marital sacrifices".

Assets would be categorised into "marital assets", which would be divided equally, and "non-marital assets", which would stay with the spouse who owned them before.

The court would have the power to make different orders if there was "significant injustice" but otherwise there would be an end to the wide discretion currently allowing judges to carve up wealth.

Recent divorce settlements have heightened concern over the issue, with millions of pounds being awarded to spouses after only a short period of marriage.

Proposals by Labour for cohabiting couples to be given legal rights allowing partners to claim a share of property and income when the relationship breaks down would be reversed in favour of an approach favouring marriage in law.

Ms Harman says cohabiting rights are necessary to safeguard the welfare of children.

But Mr Duncan Smith said: "Instead of giving cohabitees similar legal rights as married couples, which would only undermine marriage, we have to do more to warn people that they can only secure the legal protection of marriage by getting married.

"The cooling off period and the requirement for estranged couples to receive information about the implications of divorce will help to save some worthwhile marriages."

The report, authored by David Hodson of The International Family Law Group, concludes that whilst there has been a dramatic increase in cohabitation, "this must not obscure the fact that in twenty-first century Britain marriage is still the most common form of partnership for men and women."

It points out that in 2001 there were more than 11.6 million married couple families in the UK, compared with around 2.2 million cohabiting couple families.

The Office for National Statistics states that the traditional family structure of a married mother and father with a child or children remains the most common family type. More than 8 million, or 64% of dependent children lived with married parents in the UK in 2008.

This compares to 13 per cent living with cohabiting couples and 22 per cent with lone mothers.

The number of adopted children in the UK who have been returned to care homes because their new parents cannot cope with them has doubled in the past five years, according to a report in the London Times.

The US state of Massachusetts, which has legalised same-sex marriage, is suing the federal government over the Defence of Marriage Act.

An attempt to repeal a law protecting the right of Britons to criticise homosexuality has been defeated in the House of Lords.

Promoting marriage is a “social and economic necessity,” Pope Benedict says in his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.

Scientists in Newcastle have created artificial sperm in a laboratory for the first time, sparking major ethical concerns.

A UK Government-backed project designed to curb teenage pregnancies has seen them rise instead, according to new figures.

A Canadian Catholic school has been refused permission to to continue teaching its own Catholic-centered religion course.

Education Minister Batt O’Keefe has said he “is not certain” whether Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Bishop Leo O’Reilly, the Chair of the Hierarchy’s Education Commission, are “in unison” on the issue of the future of Catholic schools.

The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) have again called for children to be allowed to access child support and child protection services without their parents consent.

Only 12 per cent of children in the UK are now baptised, and there has also been a collapse in the number of Church weddings, a leading Church of England bishop has warned.

Catholic schools in England and Wales have displayed “a commitment to standards but also a commitment to wellbeing, to supporting the wider cultural and spiritual and moral development of children,” the UK's Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has said.

The continuing rise in the number of children being born outside marriage has been described as “alarming” by The Iona Institute.