An Italian Catholic diocese has denounced homosexual priests for their double life and said they should not be in the priesthood.

The Diocese of Rome was responding to a magazine article on three homosexual priests that gave details of alleged sexual encounters and trips to clubs.

The diocese said the honour of all the others was sullied by their behaviour.

The Church holds that all sexual activity outside marriage is sinful and regards homosexual acts as unnatural. '

The article in the conservative magazine Panorama, entitled Gay Priests' Nights on the Town, carried pictures and interviews with the men. The research was carried out over a month using hidden cameras. It recorded sexual encounters, including one in a church building.

Tha Australian film censor has banned a film from screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival, a work described as gay zombie porn.

Festival director Richard Moore received a letter yesterday from the Film Classification Board director Donald McDonald, stating that L.A. Zombie, the latest offering from Canadian provocateur Bruce LaBruce, could not be screened as it would in his opinion be refused classification.

The festival is not generally required to submit films for classification, but after reading a synopsis of the plot of L.A. Zombie, which features wound penetration and implied sex with corpses, the Classification Board requested a DVD to watch, and then refused to issue an exemption.

Government efforts to prevent same sex couples from marrying are unlawful and have already failed – but so far, officials and Ministers are staying as quiet as they can on the matter, in the hope that nobody will notice.

That is the conclusion of sexual rights activist and author, Jane Fae, giving her opinion today on the case of Christine Timbrell, a transsexual woman who has been allowed to draw a pension as a woman and to remain married to her female partner.

According to Jane:

Ever since the Government instituted the idea of civil partnerships, they have attempted to hold an absolute line against same sex couples getting married.

To enforce this separation – marriage for man and woman, civil partnership for man and man or woman and woman – they even included provision in the Gender Re-assignment Act 2004 that force a transgendered individual to divorce before their assigned gender can be recognised.

The significance of the Timbrell case is that the courts had already recognised that prior to 2004, the UK's position in respect of transgender was discriminatory. As a consequence, the courts have now allowed Ms Timbrell to draw a pension on the basis that she is – and has been since 2000 – a woman, and to remain married to her female partner, Joy.

This position was made absolutely clear by Lord Justice Aikens. Delivering judgment in this case, he stated that the DWP were wrong to deny her her right to a pension as a woman as from her 60th birthday.

Whilst the Ministry of Justice have claimed that this judgment only applies to pensions, the law does not work that way. The principle of same-sex marriage has been breached. Government policy on this issue is now in tatters.

Five supreme court justices said gay and lesbian asylum seekers should not be expected to exercise discretion in their home countries to avoid persecution. Their ruling met with cheers and applause from campaigners.

Lord Hope, one of the judges, said that for many years some countries had simply insisted homosexuality did not exist, which avoided the evil of persecution.

However, anti-gay sentiment had dramatically worsened in some places, fanned by the rampant homophobic teaching that right-wing evangelical Christian churches indulge in throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa and the ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law that prevails in Iran.

The gulf was set grow, he said. More and more gays and lesbians are likely to have to seek protection here as protection is being denied to them by the state in their home countries.

The home secretary, Theresa May, said the ruling was a vindication of the coalition government's decision to halt the deportation of asylum seekers whose sexual orientation had put them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution: I do not believe it is acceptable to send people home and expect them to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution. Asylum decisions will be considered under the new rules.

The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Simon Hughes, said he hoped the ruling would go some way to restoring Britain's reputation as a human rights haven. He appealed to other countries to follow.

But Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the campaign group Migrationwatch, said the ruling could apply to millions of people around the world. He added: An applicant has now only to show that he or she is homosexual and intends to return and live openly in one of the many countries where it is illegal, to be granted asylum in the UK. The Home Office said this was unlikely, as each individual had to prove they faced a personal threat of persecution or imprisonment.

An Iranian youth in Tabriz has been sentenced to death by hanging for the charge of having homosexual relations.

Mohammad Mostafai, attorney for the accused announced that three other people accused in the case were acquitted of the same crime.

According to Iranian law, homosexual relations are against the law and given the death penalty.

Four were accused of having homosexual relations and were sentenced to death in the preliminary court. Mosatafai adds after appealing to the Supreme Court, three of them were acquitted while Ebrahim Hamidi's death sentence was upheld.