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.

Methodists in Britain have been told by their president that the future holds a mixed prospects for both renewal and demise for. The Rev Dr Martyn Atkins was speaking at a large Pentecost rally in the heart of the capital.

President Vladimir Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has been inaugurated in the Kremlin with pomp, circumstance, and prayers from Patriarch Alexei II of the Russian Orthodox Church - which has paid tribute to the new national leader.

A closer look at the Sri Lankan experience may throw some light on other situations where struggles supposedly based on ethnicity or religion turn out to be more complex – and where human rights are of critical importance, says Savi Hensman.

Is it possible for a broken church to act as an agent for healing in a divided society? A gathering of people from peace church denominations in the United States has met to explore the practical and ecclesial issues.

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.

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is set to express its outright opposition to the death penalty for the first time. It has never previously resolved to oppose capital punishment ‘unequivocally’.

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.

Following the worldwide success of online social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, the Roman Catholic Church is getting in on the act with a website which hopes to attract more than just the usual faithful.

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.

New technology has always played a part in religious polemics and in the sense of identity generated through the heated exchange of opinion, says Adam Darlage. Consider Luther and the Catholics, and also what we see happening in cyberspace today.