Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, European governments must act urgently to tackle human rights abuses against migrants, asylum seekers, detainees and minorities, Amnesty International has declared.

Human rights groups have entered last minute pleas to the Iran to halt the imminent execution of a Kurdish man sentenced to death for "enmity against God" in connection with his alleged membership of an opposition group.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has today (Wednesday, 11 November) announced an independent inquiry into former armed service personnel in prison.

Global church representatives gather in New York City from 15 November to press three issues at the United Nations: peoples being displaced by climate change, indigenous rights and Colombia's protracted internal conflict.

The British government today faces more embarrassment over its treatment of scientific evidence on policy over the misuse of drugs, as three more top advisers resigned last night, bringing the total to five.

The churches contributed to the peaceful revolution in central and eastern Europe as well as to the ending of the apartheid regime in southern Africa, says Konrad Raider. Now the ecumenical movement has accepted the challenge to overcome violence as its special vocation.

Simplicity is perhaps best understood as appropriate living, says Jill Segger. It is about owning and using only what is necessary and not being seduced by that which is dangled before us by advertisers and arbiters of style.

Germany's political and church leaders have marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November with an ecumenical service at the Protestant church in eastern Berlin which played a key role in the events.