Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

• On Tuesday, Italian senators began voting on a law that would grant legal rights to same-sex couples, including the state’s recognition of same-sex civil partnerships.
• Fewer British public schools are offering religious education courses, and among the schools that continue to offer such courses, only two-fifths are rated “good” or better.
• On Wednesday, President Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore, MD to discuss religious freedom in the U.S. and the role of Muslims in American society.
• Haaretz: A town in the Catskills will appoint an election monitor after settling a lawsuit that accused its board of elections of attempting to cancel the voter registrations of 160 Hasidic Jewish residents.
• The Israeli government has approved a long-awaited plan to create a new area by the Western Wall where the Conservative and Reform movements will be allowed to hold mixed prayer services for women and men.
• According to the World Christian Database, Nepal now has one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world.
• The Kenyan government has refused to register an atheist group, citing concerns “that registration could affect the ‘peace… [and] good order’” in Kenya.
• Associated Press: The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of high school cheerleaders who had argued that their free speech was trampled by their school district when it ordered them not to display banners emblazoned with Bible verses at football games.
• Human Rights Watch has released a report saying India should do more to defend religious freedom.
• NY Times: At a recent conference held by Muslim scholars to confront violence in the Islamic world, a representative of the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria said his people desperately needed protection from the Islamic State.
• CNN: A Saudi Arabian court has overturned the death penalty for Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, but upheld his guilty verdict on a charge of apostasy.