A leading religious freedom campaigning organisation has warned that a Council of Europe resolution promoting homosexual rights poses a serious risk to religious freedom.

An Irish Examiner survey looking at the sexual behaviour of Irish 18-35 year olds has found that a massive 71 per cent in this age group have had at least one ‘one-night-stand’. while 11 percent have had 11 or more one-night-stands.

The Oireachtas committee proposing a children’s rights referendum will recommend an amendment that will lower the threshold for State intervention in the family.

A single parent campaign group has called for the Department of Social and Family Affairs to make a “definite call” on the age at which certain family income supports will cease.

Up to 30,000 girls in first year in secondary school are to be offered a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which is passed on through sexual contact, from later this year, Minister for Health Mary Harney has announced.

David Cameron has hinted that any Tory tax break for married couples will be modest, saying that the policy is aimed at sending a message to voters, not at changing their financial circumstances, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

A leading UK author and broadcaster has accused Richard Dawkins of “parading his own failure of imagination” by failing to consider the possible existence of God.

Children would be taught how to say no to sex under a Conservative Government, David Cameron says.

One of President Obama's nominees to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has compared traditional moral teachings on homosexuality with racism and has said that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, that may negatively affect homosexual “equality.”

The number of elderly people worldwide will outnumber children for the first time in 2045, according to a new United Nations report.

A former head of the English and Welsh judiciary, has said that equality laws shouldn’t force people to provide goods or services in a way that conflicts with their conscience.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has said that children attending faith schools should be taught that homosexuality is "normal and harmless". The proposal has been attacked by one Church of England bishops as “frighteningly fascist”.

An international think-tank has suggested that the Government set up new state-run primary schools to cater for the new multi-ethnic pupil population.

The defence of traditional marriage is "one of the premier social justice issues of our time", according the head of the US Catholic Bishops committee to defend marriage.

New Jersey's Democrat-controlled Senate has rejected a proposal that would have made it the sixth state in the US to allow marriages involving same-sex couples.

The vote, which took place last Thursday, was the latest in a succession of setbacks for advocates of same-sex marriage in the US.

State Senators voted 20 to 14 against the bill, bringing rousing applause from opponents of the measure, who came out in force. The vote ends the effort to win legislative approval of the measure, and sets the stage for a new battle before the New Jersey Supreme Court.

“We applaud the senators for upholding a time-tested institution: marriage,” said Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, which has argued that gay marriage would weaken the social fabric by redefining one of society’s bedrock institutions.

Supporters of same-sex marriage had hoped to win approval for the measure before Jan. 19, when Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who promised to sign it, will be replaced by Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie, who opposes it.

Supporters of same-sex marriage in New Jersey have now vowed to focus their efforts on the state’s highest court, which in 2006 ordered lawmakers to give same-sex couples the same rights as others whether or not they called such unions marriages.

The defeat in New Jersey, which has widely been viewed as one of the most liberal states in the US is a significant setback for advocates of same-sex marriage. Last month, a similar measure was defeated in New York’s legislature, and in November voters in Maine repealed a gay-marriage law in a referendum.

Meanwhile, the Stand4Marriage DC Coalition is attempting to mobilise voters in Washington DC to support a referendum to repeal a bill passed last month legalising same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C. The measure has been signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty and transmitted to Congress, which oversees the district's laws, to begin the required 30-day review period.

Lawyers for the coalition said that under district law, once a bill is passed by the council, signed by the mayor and transmitted to Congress, a referendum may be filed with the elections board to allow the citizens to vote on the new law.

"The Home Rule Charter gives D.C. residents the right to the initiative and the referendum process and authorises a citywide vote on this issue if petitioned to do so by the people," said Cleta Mitchell, an lawyer for the Stand4Marriage DC Coalition who expected a hearing on the proposed referendum to be scheduled within two weeks.

In California, advocates for same-sex marriage are continuing with legal attempts to overturn a referendum repealing same-sex marriage in 2008.

Prominent national lawyers, David Boies, a renowned Democrat, and Ted Olson, a well-known Republican, are working together to attempt to repeal Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage.

Opening statements were made Monday in Federal District Court in San Francisco, in a case that is being anxiously watched by same-sex rights groups and supporters of traditional marriage nationwide.

“It’s not just a trial of gay marriage,” said Maggie Gallagher, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, a backer of Proposition 8 and other measures to forbid same-sex marriage nationwide. “It’s a trial of the majority of the American people.”

The California Supreme Court has already upheld Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote after a bruising and costly campaign.

The parents of an estimated 30,000 children eligible for the Government's ‘free’ pre-school year have not enrolled in the scheme, it has emerged, which may indicate that demand for paid childcare is lower than estimated.

The increasing secularisation of Europe, not Muslims, is to blame for the continent's increasing Islamisation, a leading European cardinal has warned.

Minister for Education, Batt O'Keefe, has said he believes that the controversial Stay Safe child programme should be mandatory in all schools.