Progressio has welcomed a pledge by Gordon Brown to ensure the UK government spends 0.7% of national income on aid to the world’s poorest - but says says that adaption funds for climate change must also be a top priority.

The current and incoming General Secretaries of the World Council of Churches have said that honest conversation is the basis of meaningful interfaith encounter and the hopeful collaboration that can spring from it.

Seventeen years after the war ended in Mozambique, churches are still collecting and destroying weapons and cleaning up areas of unexploded ordnance so the land can be farmed, says Juan Michel. It shows how hope can be built out of destruction.

The news that BAE will be prosecuted shouldn't be such a surprise. In a fair world, it would be normal. But fairness is not a quality that has ever applied to BAE, a company that has spent years using its influence to avoid facing justice.

The arms company BAE Systems will be charged with corruption after years of allegations and controversy. The Serious Fraud Office has asked the attorney-general to initiate prosecution on charges of multimillion pound bribery.

LODI, CALIFORNIA Oct. 1 / Christian Newswire / The Lodi City Council voted 5-0 last night to allow pastors to speak the previously forbidden words in Jesus name at the end of public prayers.The victory vote came after months of lobbying, petitioning, protesting, and pro-Jesus rallies, both in Lodi and nationwide, organized by The Pray In Jesus Name Project.An atheist group from Wisconsin has threatened a lawsuit if the city allows Jesus prayers, but the Mayor and four other counci Source: www.prayinjesusname.org

The number of recorded victims of a powerful earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday is increasing rapidly and now exceeds 500. International aid and development organisations are gearing up for action

Leaders of churches actively engaged in cooperation and the search for common witness will meet in Greece early next month to address the question of “Christian unity from a new perspective”.

A Sikh delegation from the United States has met with Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan Minister of Minority Affairs, to discuss minority rights and humanitarian aid relief for minorities in Pakistan.

As the UN declares caste-based discrimination a human rights violation, Indian Christian leaders have called on the churches to confess that the caste system has not been fully removed from their own communities.

A new Church of Scotland publication is urging its congregations to make more creative multi-purpose use of their buildings, instead of only using them for services once or twice a week.

UK-based international development NGO Christian Aid yesterday staged a Mass Visual Trespass at Parliament to demand climate justice at the forthcoming United Nations summit in Copenhagen

Contact: Liberty Counsel Public Relations Department, 800-671-1776BANGOR, ME, Sept. 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today the Christian Action Network (CAN) filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Maine for censoring a fundraising letter state officials claimed contained"an inflammatory anti-Muslim message."Maine officials fined and banned CAN from mailing any future letters under the threat of criminal prosecution. Liberty Counsel represents CAN.CAN was in good stand Source: Liberty Counsel

Contact: Annee Kahler, Media Coordinator, 267-210-8278, Annee@ChinaAid.org; Jenny McCloy, Directory of Advocacy, in Washington, DC, 202-213-0506, Jenny@ChinaAid.org; www.ChinaAid.org, www.MonitorChina.org SHANXI, China, Sept. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Friday, September 25, nine Fushan Church leaders, including Pastor Yang Rongli, were kidnapped by Shanxi PSB officers while traveling to Beijing to petition the central government for justice concerning the local authorities'brut Source: China Aid Association, Inc.

Contact: Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director, Open Doors USA, 616-915-4117, JerryD@odusa.orgMEDIA ADVISORY, Sept. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- He was stabbed 26 times. His executioners were never found.Haik Hovsepian's story -- told through the eyes and camera lens of his sons Joseph and Andre -- is an award-winning documentary called A Cry From Iran.A Cry From Iran will be one of three compelling and inspiring documentaries about the Middle East which will be show Source: Open Doors USA