The new cooperative body Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT), bringing together representatives of 43 participating churches and organizations across America, is giving priority to work on poverty and witness.

Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, has said that Christians should give priority to unity in the global Week of Prayer that runs from 18-25 January. He also commended a peace message from St Augustine.

The second meeting of an Evangelical Christian-Muslim Dialogue took place in Tripoli last week, and is seen by participants as an important step forward in understanding between two faith traditions that have often been at loggerheads.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has said multi-racial harmony in his country is under threat by State-sponsored Islamic puritanism that has damaged the constitutional rights of other faiths in the Muslim-majority nation