The Government has launched its three-month long consultation on the legalisation of same sex civil marriages in England and Wales.

The Home Office confirmed the consultation will look at how to remove the barrier to same-sex marriage to bring about equal non-religious marriage. Under the proposals, civil partnerships could be converted to

York City Council has made exemptions for churches from controversial new parking restrictions.

New rules will ban parking in several city centre streets on evenings and weekends. But after protests from local churches, the council said it had taken steps to protect parking for people attending church. Other objections about the effects on the

Bideford Town Council has decided not to appeal the High Court's decision that putting prayers on agendas is unlawful. It was at the centre of the NSS's challenge to prayers as part of council business.

The council agreed by eight votes to five at a meeting last Thursday that it would not accept the indemnity from the Christian Institute to take on

The Executive Director of the National Secular Society, Keith Porteous Wood, has spoken out at the United Nations Human Rights Council about the need to hold religious minorities to the same standards of human rights observance as everyone else. He has also criticised the increasing acceptance of religious law as a legitimate alternative to

Feminists and supporters took to the streets of several Polish cities last Sunday, demanding ties between Church and State should be cut. 3000 participants in the "XIII Great Warsaw Manifa" marched under the slogan of "We are cutting the umbilical cord."

The slogan was a reference to the funding of the Church by the state, and when the march

Hibernia College, the online teacher-training institution, has removed slides from its religion module for primary teachers at the request of Atheist Ireland who said that they contained "untrue statements about atheism and at least two defamatory allegations".

Last Friday Atheist Ireland's Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly met vice-president for

The practice of council prayers held by some local authorities in Scotland has now been challenged by the National Secular Society.

Although the High Court case successfully brought by the National Secular Society against Bideford council recently ruled that prayers as a part of official council proceedings were illegal under local government

Islamic students at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) are pressuring the faculty to provide a prayer room after the school's "meditation room" was closed. But the school board is insisting that the University is a secular institution and has no obligation to provide space for religious activities.

According to HvA Rector Jet

The Asia Foundation has conducted a major opinion poll to discover the true attitudes of the people of Afghanistan – and it contains a lot of surprises.

"Foreign interference" is ranked at the very bottom of problems that worry Afghans: 1. Insecurity (38%) 2. Unemployment (23%) 3. Corruption (21%) 4. Poverty (12%), 5. Poor economy (10%), 6. Lack of

Rumours that Pulford Church of England School is likely to be the successful bidder to run the new school on Sandhills Estate in Bedfordshire have caused concern to the local Labour Party.

"We would like assurances that the selection criteria for this new school will give priority to residents from the Sandhills Estate," said local Town Councillor,