Lutheran leaders in the United States have joined other church chiefs in condemning the killing of abortion doctor George Tiller in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, where he served and worshipped.

The United Reformed Church in Britain has condemned as “an offence against God” the assassination of Gayle Williams, a Christian aid worker in Kabul, and the chilling comments of those who killed her.

The manager of Gaza's only Christian bookshop, who was last week abducted by suspected extremists, has been found dead. Medical officials said Rami Ayyad, aged 31, had been shot and stabbed. He was the father of two small children and his wife is pregnant with their third child.

Two Japanese popular associations have condemned what they say is a military-inspired "deliberate murder attempt" against a Christian minister who serves as the co-leader of the Citizens Coalition for Peace in Japan.

A major charitable trust has disposed of a £2 million shareholding in the company Reed Elsevier, because of its concerns over the company's involvement in promoting arms sales, reports Quaker Peace and Social Witness - part of the Society of Friends in the UK.

The murder on 19 January 2007 of prominent editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul, Turkey "is a devastating development," said Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, diocesan legate and ecumenical officer, Diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church of America.

While media attention has focussed on the charging yesterday of a 48-year-old man with the murder of five women in eastern England, community organisations ‚Ä' including projects and individuals identified with the National Christian Alliance on Prostitution (NCAP) ‚Ä' say that the reality of sex work in Britain and its impact needs to be faced more honestly.

General Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, has died in hospital of heart failure, aged 91 ‚Ä' having escaped numerous attempts to charge him for murder, human rights abuses, fraud involving 28 million US dollars, and corruption.