Opponents of a law change to allow same-sex marriage are stepping up their campaign, targeting MPs they feel may change their vote at the bill's next hurdle.

There is, if you'll pardon the expression, something rather queer about the gay marriage controversy.

Beneficiaries have overtaken Asians as the group New Zealanders consider to be the most discriminated against.

An Asian New Zealander who found it easier to discuss his sexuality with MPs than his parents.

Egypt used to be a place where you never gave a second thought to personal safety, writes Anne Penkith. Egyptians are hospitable, charming and honest - on the whole.

Justice Minister Judith Collins has backtracked on a law change that would have ensured compensation for ill-treatment of prisoners by the state was used to benefit victims rather than being given to the inmates.

Members of the Defence Force will march in uniform in the Auckland Pride Parade next month.

Pensioners are holding out in a dwindling minority opposing gay marriage - as 2013 looks possibly to be the year for it to become reality.

I was surprised to read in Deborah Coddington's recent Herald column that the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding document. Of course some New Zealanders mistakenly believe that is the case.

The first Sikh guardsman to be given permission to wear a turban instead of a bearskin while on duty outside Buckingham Palace is under pressure not to break tradition.

TV reporter Matty McLean has made a personal plea to Parliament to legalise gay marriage so he can fulfil his father's wish to attend his wedding.

Over 100 journalists have been killed so far this year - the highest number since the International Press Institute (IPI) began keeping count of journalists' deaths in 1997.

If that change really is needed, then so be it, writes Andrew Geddis. "But I think the Law Society is wrong and the bill as it stands would not require anything new of any religious group."

As John Key wraps up an important Burma visit, he talks to Herald Political Editor Audrey Young about what he's learned and seen.

A bill to legalise same-sex marriage is likely to be amended to explicitly state that churches would not be forced to marry same-sex couples.

The debate on same-sex marriage has stepped up with a former MP comparing the proposed law change to "apartheid".

What a strange code of moral values United States' spies live by, writes Brian Rudman, "The only people who will be able to make sense of this warped moral barometer is the USA's great enemy, al- Qaeda."

The United States was yesterday re-elected to another three-year term on the UN Human Rights Council.