Hull City Council is to cease discretionary funding transport for pupils attending "faith schools" from September 2014. The change will save £339,000 in 2014-15 according to council figures.

A ground-breaking report examining the experiences of nearly 50 British women of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds and faiths (or no faith) – who have all converted to Islam - was launched in London yesterday by the University of Cambridge.

A man described as "white British" has won more than £2,000 compensation from a halal meat firm after he complained of racial and religious discrimination.

The Governor of Vermont this week signed into law a new bill legalising doctor-assisted suicide. This makes it the third US state to approve such legislation.

The National Secular Society has criticised a decision by Flintshire Council to discriminate against people without religious faith in its school transport arrangements.

Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for the Herat province, said parliament withdrew the legislation because of opposition from religious parties that considered the law un-Islamic.

The Polish parliament, which banned ritual slaughter of animals for the halal and kosher markets in January, is now considering revoking the law because of economic pressures.

The US Supreme Court is to consider whether prayers can be offered as part of government meetings.

Following the bad news for Christian leaders generally from the census figures, new research by the Latin Mass Society illustrates a catastrophic decline in Catholicism in Britain.

According to census data analysis published yesterday, the number of British-born Christians is falling significantly, whilst the number of young Muslims is on the rise.

Catholic parish churches will be able to claim from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an extra 20% for each donation of up to £20 without requiring the giver to complete a form.

Controversial plans to open a Sikh free school in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Poges have been recommended for refusal by South Bucks District Council planning officers.

The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is to meet bishops from every Church of England diocese to discuss the "special relationship" the Government has with the Church over its participation in education.

The Spanish Government is preparing a reform to the country's abortion law that, some have argued, will return Spain to a situation similar to the one that existed under General Franco's dictatorship.

The American organisation Human Rights First has issued a new report that details steps the United States and Tunisian governments should take to protect freedom of expression to support Tunisia's peaceful transition to democracy.

The BBC has rejected a complaint from the Islamic Sharia Council in Leyton East London after it was featured in the Panorama programme about the treatment of women in sharia arbitration bodies.

In a progressive move, the Icelandic government has just officially registered the Ethical and Humanist Association, Sidmennt, as the first "secular life stance organization" in Iceland.

The National Secular Society has written to Kenny MacAskill MSP, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice to draw his attention to a possible undermining of the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Scottish judiciary.

A major new study of attitudes towards religion around the world has been conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation – and finds that the majority of people in all the 13 nations surveyed favour a clear separation between religion and the state.

The US-Government sponsored Commission on International Religious Freedom has issued its latest report this week and has come to the conclusion that "aggressive secularism" is rife in Western Europe.