Christian development agency World Vision says that it is prioritising children in the aftermath of the earthquake in China. More than 4.8 million people were made homeless after the earthquake destroyed homes and flattened schools.

The Independent Asylum Commission today publishes 'Saving Sanctuary', the first of three reports of recommendations aimed at restoring public confidence in sanctuary for those who have fled persecution.

A delegation representing British Baptists is travelling to Jamaica this Thursday to apologise to Jamaican Baptists for the transatlantic slave trade. During their stay the delegation will have opportunities to meet with Jamaican Baptists

The UK-based international developement agency Christian Aid is responding to the huge magnitude earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province on 12 May through the work of the Amity Foundation, a recognised NGO.

Christian communities in mainland China and Hong Kong, both Protestant and Catholic, have been offering practical support and prayers to victims in Sichuan, who have suffered a devastating earthquake, China's worst in 30 years,

Chinese churches and Christian agencies, as well as the government and army, have begun responding to the recent earthquake. The quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, has devastated a region west of the provincial capital Chengdu.

The National Council of Churches in India has joined the battle to turn green by calling for Christians to mobilise in the world's second most populous nation, and to join in the fight against global warming.

The most powerful earthquake to hit China in 30 years, registered at a magnitude of 7.9, has killed at least 10,000 people in the south-western Sichuan province, with thousands more trapped and injured, says the BBC and news agencies.

The lives of 1,000 young children a day are being lost to disease and poverty in poor countries because of illegal trade-related tax evasion, says a new report from Christian Aid. It has calculated that this evasion costs the developing world at least US$160bn annually.

While the food crisis in North Korea continues largely unnoticed in the wider world, due to the country's isolation, a North American Anabaptist peace church is taking quiet steps to provide agricultural assistance.

Burmese cyclone survivors face a massive crisis unless they are urgently delivered aid, leading aid agencies have warned - while Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Burma's generals to ease restrictions on outside assistance.

Burma's military regime is distributing international aid today. But it is covering the boxes with the names of top generals in an effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

Development agencies and United Nations officials are exasperated at the obstructiveness of the Burmese junta toward an international aid effort aimed at bringing desperately needed supplies to victims of the recent cyclone.