The National Secular Society has submitted a response to the Police Powers Consultation, calling on the Government to remove 'insulting' from Section 5 of the Public Order Act.

The pope has again railed against what he sees as the dangers posed by "radical secularism".

Provisional statistics released this week by the Church of England show the Church continuing to shrink. Average Sunday attendance in 2010 continued in a downward trend, falling by two per cent to 923,700 or around 1.5% of the UK population.

Last year, Nottingham City Council decided to introduce charges for on-street parking on Sundays and evenings in the city. As soon as the councillors announced their intention, the city centre churches began demanding exemptions.

A priest in the Diocese of Westminster has begun a campaign for London to host the Vatican's World Youth Day in 2016.

A talk on sharia and human rights by NSS Council Member Anne Marie Waters' at Queen Mary College, London was cancelled at the last moment because of an Islamist who made serious threats against everyone there.

A Norwegian government-appointed committee is set to make recommendations that will allow police and judges to wear clothing and personal effects with religious overtones, including the Muslim hijab.

A group of solicitors representing victims of child abuse by clergy have written a letter to The Times saying that the Church is still covering up crimes by priests and is incapable of policing itself.

Pro-choice groups in Ireland have expressed hopes that a new expert committee set up by the Government will recommend that the laws on abortion will be relaxed.

A US District Court Judge has ruled that a prayer mural located in the auditorium of a Rhode Island High school is unconstitutional and has given the school 10 days to remove it.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dismissed a complaint from the National Secular Society which had accused the ASA of unreasonably restricting freedom of expression by banning advertisements too readily if they risk offending even a few believers.

The Government has taken steps to ensure that creationism and "intelligent design" is not taught in free schools.

The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, has launched a vicious attack on secularism during a European prayer breakfast.

A new secondary free school with a "Christian character" is being proposed in Hove, Sussex. It is apparently being promoted by a group of parents who think there aren't enough "faith schools" in the area.

The Catholic bishop of Lancaster has said that the purpose of Catholic schools is to evangelise, and that if some schools have mainly non-Catholic pupils, then they have no purpose in the Church's "mission of salvation."

Teachers in Swedish schools have been given permission to ban students from wearing Islamic veils that cover their faces, in certain situations. But there can be no general ban on headcoverings such as the hijab or scarves.

The recent report on assisted dying by the Falconer Commission has caused a strong division between supporters and opponents. Research has found that the majority of the British public support assisted dying for the terminally ill.

The Atheist Secular Humanist group at University College London (UCLASH) has been asked by the Students' Union to remove a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (part of the Jesus and Mo series) from one of their events posted on Facebook.

About 200 schools around Australia are planning to stop employing religious chaplains, hiring secular welfare workers instead to deliver support services to students.

Young Muslim men are turning away from religion in their droves because of the old-fashioned attitudes in Britain's mosques, according to the Prison Service's Muslim advisor.