The client, who was raised as a Muslim, requested to remain anonymous
An Afghan citizen has been granted asylum in the UK for religious reasons - because he is an atheist.
The man fled to the UK from a conflict involving his family in Afghanistan in 2007, aged 16, and was allowed to stay in the UK until 2013.
He was brought up a Muslim, but during his time in the UK became an atheist, his legal team said.
They said he would face persecution and possibly a death sentence if he was returned to Afghanistan.
The team was from the University of Kent's Law School which offers legal services through its Kent Law Clinic.
'Entitled to protection'
They believe it is the first time a person has been granted asylum in the UK on the basis of their atheism.
Lawyers lodged a submission to the Home Office under the 1951 Refugee Convention which aims to protect people from persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
They said the man's return to Afghanistan could result in a death sentence under Sharia law as an apostate - someone who has abandoned their religious faith - unless he remained discreet about his atheist beliefs.
But because every aspect of daily life and culture in Afghanistan is permeated by Islam living discreetly would be virtually impossible, they said.
The case was prepared by second-year law student Claire Splawn under the supervision of clinic solicitor Sheona York.
Ms Splawn said: "We argued that an atheist should be entitled to protection from persecution on the grounds of their belief in the same way as a religious person is protected."
'Proud history'
Ms York added: "The decision represents an important recognition that a lack of religious belief is in itself a thoughtful and seriously-held philosophical position."
The British Humanist Association said the case may well have a claim to be a first in being based on non-religious beliefs.
Chief executive Andrew Copson said: "Freedom of belief for humanists, atheists and other non-religious people is as important as freedom of belief for the religious but it is too often neglected by Western governments who focus too narrowly on the rights of Christians abroad, as we have seen recently.
"It is great to see Britain showing a lead in defending the human rights of the non-religious in the same way.
"Increasingly in the last two years our Foreign Office is speaking up for the rights of non-religious people abroad - to now see the Home Office extending the UK's protection to non-religious refugees within our borders is something we can all be proud of."
The Home Office said: "The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need it and we consider every application on a case-by-case basis."
The leaders of Stormont's five main parties are due to meet to discuss the way ahead following the lack of agreement over the Haass proposals.
A Sinn Féin motion calling for the implementation of the plan was rejected by the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday night.
Amendments by the UUP, the DUP and Alliance were also voted down.
The Haass talks focussed on the issues of flags, parades and the past and ended on New Year's Eve without a deal.
They were chaired by US diplomat Richard Haass and Harvard academic Prof Meghan O'Sullivan.
During Monday's assembly debate, Sinn Féin's Caitriona Ruane accused the DUP and the Ulster Unionists of a "failure of leadership".
The DUP's Arlene Foster said there was "still much work to do" on the proposals.
Elements
The DUP had proposed an amendment that would delete any reference to the Haass proposals being implemented.
The UUP also proposed an amendment to the Sinn Féin motion, which called on the first and deputy first ministers to agree to proposals for a practical and a positive way forward.
In a separate amendment, the Alliance Party wanted another process to examine difficulties over parades and flags and have called for an independently chaired mechanism to be set up urgently.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's first minister said any work on the Haass proposals should examine in detail all 340 elements in the document.
Peter Robinson told the assembly the parties must itemise areas of agreement.
Belfast and Holywood schools to hear about changes
By Maggie TaggartBBC News NI Education Correspondent
Dundonald High School is one of two schools facing possible closure
Seven secondary schools in Belfast and Holywood will find out later if they will face major changes, including possible closure.
Some of them could be expanded to cater for pupils left without places.
The schools facing closure are Dundonald High and Orangefield High in east Belfast.
Dundonald has 247 pupils and is in formal intervention because of its performance, however there is strong local opposition to the closure.
Orangefield was due to close last year but that was postponed when it was realised that other schools needed to expand to take in the pupils left without a school.
The east Belfast school did not accept any new pupils last year and has only 80 children currently on its rolls.
There is also a proposal to merge Knockbreda and Newtownbreda schools and replace them with a campus for 1,000 pupils.
That too was opposed by those who responded to consultation.
The department of education has been considering the fates of seven schools in all and three could be enlarged: Ashfield Girls and Boys and Priory Integrated college in Holywood.
By 2018, Ashfield Boys, which currently has 666 pupils, would be allowed to enrol 850 Ashfield girls now has 708 pupils and would be permitted to take in 900.
Priory college teaches 500 pupils and the proposal is to raise that number to 600.
The decisions are in the hands of Education Minister John O'Dowd and the results will be announced later on Tuesday.
DNA found in Northamptonshire 'blazing car' murder case
By Laura DevlinBBC News, East
Alfred Rouse was desperate to start a new life and faked his own death
Scientists investigating a murder mystery dating back more than 80 years have made a breakthrough that could finally identify the victim.
A man was hit over the head with a mallet and burned to death in a Morris Minor car near Northampton in 1930.
Alfred Rouse was later hanged for the crime and took the identity of his victim to the gallows.
Now, a team of scientists have uncovered DNA they hope will help reveal his identity.
In 1930, the man's badly burned body was examined and samples taken during a post-mortem examination at a pub near the crime scene in the village of Hardingstone.
Decades later, a woman was investigating her family ancestry when her grandmother revealed her long-held belief that her uncle was the man burned to death in a car.
The uncle, William Thomas Briggs, left his home in London for a doctor's appointment in November 1930, but disappeared and was never seen again.
In the 1950s, almost 30 years after Rouse was hanged at Bedford Jail, the family asked Northamptonshire Police to reopen the case.
"My family were convinced that William was Rouse's victim," said Samantha Hall, whose grandmother had confided in her.
Mr Briggs might have crossed paths with the 36-year-old commercial traveller Rouse who it is said wanted to fake his own death.
Illegitimate children
Rouse had suffered a head wound in World War One, which left him with a personality disorder to the point that he was described as "a promiscuous rake with an enormous sexual appetite".
It is understood he fathered at least two illegitimate children and had child support orders imposed on him, leaving him with severe financial problems.
At the time, police believed he had probably picked up a homeless tramp, who would not be missed if he disappeared, and wanted the car fire on 6 November 1930 to look as if he had died in a crash.
He rendered his victim unconscious, placed the body in the driver's seat and left some of his own possessions inside before setting it on fire.
Rouse hoped the fire would go unnoticed in the early hours of the morning after Bonfire Night but two young men saw the flames and went to investigate.
The car's registration plate was still intact, identifying its owner Rouse, who had fled to Cardiff but was arrested and eventually tried for murder.
Tissue samples
Intrigued and determined to find answers for her family, Ms Hall contacted Northamptonshire Police in 2012 - hopeful that DNA profiling could result in a positive identification.
But the blazing car murder, although a mystery, was not classed as a "cold case" because it had ended with a criminal conviction.
The family were put in touch with the University of Leicester, which successfully identified King Richard III when bones were found under a Leicester car park in 2012.
A different team of forensic scientists took on the blazing car murder case and obtained a tissue sample taken from the victim during his post-mortem examination.
Along with his jawbone, the sample had been archived in the 1930s at the department of forensic medicine at the London Medical College, now Queen Mary College.
The key to solving the riddle would be finding enough mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the sample to get a profile to compare with the family's mtDNA.
For months, the forensic team, along with the university's departments of chemistry and criminology, worked with Northumbria University, Northamptonshire Police and The Royal London Hospital Museum.
The University of Leicester examined a sample taken from the man's prostate
"Fortunately, the scientists obtained a full single male mtDNA profile from the slide to compare to the family," a spokeswoman for the team said.
"It's been very interesting and rewarding working on such a famous local murder case.
"It was a unique investigation to be involved in, as the perpetrator had been identified long ago and brought to justice while the victim's identity remained unknown.
"The scientific and criminological expertise at the University of Leicester and Northumbria University, working together with the police, could provide answers to this family after 83 years."
The result is due to be revealed to Ms Hall and the family on the BBC's The One Show on a date to be fixed.
The Daily Mirror reports fears expressed by the Samaritans charity that people could copy the Coronation Street storyline in which terminally ill Hayley Cropper kills herself with a drugs overdose.
Meanwhile, the Sun reports the result of a poll it commissioned which suggests that 73% of Britons believe terminally ill patients "like Hayley" should have the right to end their lives.
It's TV current affairs leading the Guardian, which says police want Channel 4 to hand over documents about a "whistleblower" who claimed officers spied on relatives of Stephen Lawrence, the teenager killed by a racist gang.
The Daily Mail focuses on films, saying age ratings are to be relaxed because swear words are "so commonplace" among teenagers. It quotes campaigners as saying parents are being let down by regulator, the BBFC.
And the Daily Star focuses on Channel 5 which, it says, could "axe" its reality show Celebrity Big Brother after complaints "flooded in to telly watchdogs" from viewers "outraged by the sexiest scenes in the show's history".
Millions of pounds - equivalent to 1,000 soldiers' salaries - has been wasted on an IT "fiasco" that had been intended to enable the Army to recruit online. The £1.3bn scheme is already two years behind schedule, the paper says.
The Independent suggests that an EU-US trade deal currently under negotiation could result in Britain being sued if it tried to impose laws - such as introducing plain tobacco packaging - deemed to "discriminate" against free trade.
Immigration leads the Daily Express, which quotes the prime minister as saying it ran "out of control" in the last decade. The paper sees this as a rebuke to cabinet colleague Ken Clarke, who described mass immigration as "exciting".
The Financial Times reports how Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has bought a £50m stake in struggling High Street giant Debenhams. It describes him as loving a "big, contrarian bet".
Labour leader Ed Miliband is quoted by the Daily Telegraph, which reports him saying that the foundations of middle-class life - good pay, strong pensions, the housing ladder and university - have been "undermined".
The i describes prime minister David Cameron's pledge to allow councils to keep all the business rates derived from shale gas "fracking" schemes as a "bribe". It says oil and gas licences for "40% of Britain" will go on sale this summer.
A fictional TV plot finds its way onto the front of two national newspapers.
Both the Sun and the Daily Mirror use Coronation Street's latest storyline - which sees long-standing character Hayley Cropper use a drugs overdose to end her life - to highlight serious issues.
The Sun has commissioned research suggesting that 73% of Britons support changing the law to give terminally ill people, like cancer-stricken Cropper, "the right to end their suffering". Some 38% of respondents said they'd help a relative take their life, according to the paper.
Labour peer Lord Falconer writes in the Sun in favour of his private member's bill, advocating a change in the law to allow help to be given, while Bishop of Carlisle James Newcome says such a move would "place vulnerable individuals at risk".
In the Daily Mirror, Dignity in Dying campaign group boss Sarah Wootton praises ITV's "sensible and sensitive" handling of the subject, while Alistair Thompson from pressure group Care Not Killing says the soap should have shown "how people can access good palliative care".
For the Samaritans, a bigger concern is the risk of "copycat suicides".
The charity, which advised the show's producers, tells the Mirror that "portraying an overdose... as a gentle and peaceful way to die, can be be very dangerous and bears no resemblance to the reality of slow liver failure afterwards".
Foreign affairs
Claims that French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair - and was seen being transported to his secret rendez-vous by moped - provide inspirations for cartoonists.
The Daily Telegraph's Matt pictures a wife eyeing her pipe-smoking husband wearing a motorbike helmet and asking: "Are you seeing someone else?" Pugh, in the Daily Mail, varies the theme by picturing a couple peering through a window at a motorcyclist arriving at the house opposite. The husband remarks: "I'm not sure if 34's having a pizza delivered or a tryst with President Hollande."
The Times, which declares the president "a laughing stock", has a cartoon with two women examining a newspaper with a headline including the words: "First lady". One turns to the other and says: "And she won't be his last."
The Independent is not impressed by the fuss. "The amount of media coverage devoted to the affair, if such it is, is quite disproportionate to the vastly more important issues he and his nation face," it says. On the same topic, the paper's columnist, Grace Dent, reckons: "It's of some comfort to us Brits that the French really aren't so blase and evolved about infidelity after all."
Gas panic
"Frack the environment, feel the votes," is Independent cartoonist Dave Brown's take on the prime minister's attitude to the environmental arguments against shale gas extraction. He sketches David Cameron in a hard hat, looking on proudly as a tremor rattles Labour leader Ed Miliband's teeth.
Sister paper the i uses a photograph of Mr Cameron - again in protective headgear - under a front-page headline reading: "Fracking bribes for all." And a number of papers take this view of the PM's decision to allow councils to keep all the business rates derived from shale gas, instead of the usual 50%. The Daily Mail's editorial asks: "By bribing councils to accept fracking before properly making the case for it, doesn't the government risk inflaming the suspicions of communities worried about its impact?"
The Guardian agrees the financial incentives "look suspiciously like bribes" and says: "This feels more like an ambush than an attempt to woo a public that is still uncertain what it's being sold."
For the Daily Telegraph, "the only problem is that they are not bribing them enough", adding: "As it stands, the amounts on offer are so small that they threaten to stifle the shale boom at birth. Ministers must learn - as Mr Cameron once put it - to share the proceeds of growth."
Reviewing the papers for the BBC News Channel, Guardian diary editor Hugh Muir said: "Every so often the censors have a process where they ask the public 'what do you think we should do'. I'm not sure much of that consultation happened in the offices of the Daily Mail."
Times defence editor Deborah Haynes added: "Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times. There seems to be a tolerance of swear words [in society] that there wasn't 30 years ago."
The Telegraph reports that the consultation led to the censors being told to "get tough on sex scenes" amid fears that young girls are "being sexualised by what they see on screen and in pop videos". The BBFC has promised to pay "close attention" to the matter, the paper says.
The Guardian reports that the body will pilot an age-rating system for music videos in the near future and runs down shocking examples of the past, from the sex-charged Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Erotica by Madonna, to MIA's Born Free which depicted a genocide of red-haired people.
Paint job
Artist Stuart Pearson Wright's portrait of Labour MP Diane Abbott makes an impact on the Guardian's front page. It was commissioned by MPs to record those who had made a "significant contribution to public life", the paper says, but - noting the £11,750 cost - uses the headline: "The art of annoying the taxpayer."
The tabloids are even less impressed at the total of £250,000 spent on "vanity" portraits. "If there's one thing we've seen more than enough of, it's politicians' ugly mugs," says the Daily Star.
The Daily Mirror describes the subjects as "Easel weasels", noting that the £10,000 spent on a picture of Work and Pensions Secretary - or "welfare slasher" - Iain Duncan Smith is "equivalent of three years' dole for an unemployed worker".
To the Sun, it's a "Framin' liberty". It adds: "Perhaps the public should get some use out of them. As dartboards."
Making people click
The Times: Microsoft on the threshold of deleting 'appalling' Windows 8
Guardian: The off-putting things we (almost) overlooked at the 2014 Golden Globes
Daily Mail: Prince Edward's daughter Lady Louise, 10, has surgery to correct her sight
Daily Mirror: Mum who drank 24 cans and seven pints a day begs to die at home - aged just 35
Financial Times: Credit Suisse tells junior bankers to stay home on Saturdays
An ex-BBC presenter jailed for 22 years for sex attacks on boys is to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Michael Souter, 60, of Loddon, Norfolk, was convicted in October of 19 sexual assaults on seven boys aged between 11 and 16 from 1979 to 1999.
Souter had worked for BBC Radio Norfolk in the 1980s.
A Judiciary spokesman confirmed Souter had applied for permission to appeal with the Criminal Appeal Office. No date has yet been set for a hearing.
At his trial at Norwich Crown Court, Souter was also found guilty of seven counts of making and possessing indecent images of children under the age of 18.
'Ongoing sexual obsession'
The court heard Souter, who also worked for Radio Clyde in Glasgow, had used his local celebrity status to abuse his victims.
Jailing him, Judge Mark Lucraft QC said Souter's claims that allegations against him were fabricated and the result of a conspiracy were "pathetic".
He told the court Souter displayed an "ongoing sexual obsession with boys" and posed a risk of further offending on his release from prison.
The court heard Souter had also been investigated in 1993 and 2002, but no charges were brought.
Documents will now be sent to a single judge for consideration.
If that judge grants Souter permission to appeal, his case will be heard by three judges.
If the judge refuses permission, Souter would be free to renew his application, which would then be heard by three judges at a date to be fixed.
Thailand crisis: Protesters march as 'shutdown' continues
Protesters say they will continue their action until the government resigns
Thai protesters have marched on several government buildings on the second day of what they are calling a shutdown of the capital, Bangkok.
Demonstrators surrounded the Customs Department and key road junctions remained blocked.
The protesters want the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to be replaced by an unelected "people's council".
They say they will remain on the streets until their demands are met.
The protesters allege that Ms Yingluck's government is controlled by her brother, ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, and say money politics have created a flawed democracy in Thailand.
Ms Yingluck - who leads an elected government which enjoys strong support in rural areas - has called a snap election on 2 February in response to the protests. The opposition is boycotting the polls.
A number of major road junctions have been blocked in a bid to paralyse parts of the capital
On Monday Ms Yingluck said she was prepared to hold talks with opponents on postponing the election, but protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban appeared on Monday to rule out negotiations.
"You cannot mediate with this undertaking, you cannot compromise with this undertaking,'' he said. "In this undertaking, there's only win or lose... today, we must cleanse Thailand.''
'Democratic transition'
On Monday thousands of demonstrators gathered in Bangkok to build barricades at seven major intersections.
Many slept outside overnight and on Tuesday groups headed to government buildings to try and disrupt officials' work.
The Customs Department was targeted early in the day by several thousand protesters.
"We have closed the entire department, but not customs checkpoints. We will see how the situation develops," customs director Rakop Srisupaat told AFP news agency.
The Commerce Ministry was also targeted, the Bangkok Post reported.
The shutdown has been peaceful so far and shops and businesses have remained open in unaffected areas.
The government, which says it wants to avoid confrontation, has deployed some 18,000 security personnel to maintain order.
Late on Monday, the US called on all sides to exercise restraint.
US diplomats were working with a "full range" of players "to encourage dialogue and a peaceful democratic transition", State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
The client, who was raised as a Muslim, requested to remain anonymous 
