Witnesses for creative peacemaking from member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Burundi, Brazil, Greece and the United States will travel to Germany, 27 June - 4 July, to exchange experiences in overcoming violence.

Backed by Catholic aid agency CAFOD, two indigenous indians from Brazil have arrived in London this week to make an urgent plea to members of parliament for help to save their Amazon forest home.

Two church communions from opposite sides of the globe were welcomed into full fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Wednesday, increasing the membership of the global Christian body, the largest of its kind, to 349.

A member of a leading workers' rights organisation in Brazil, partnered by Christian Aid and other aid agencies, has been shot dead at point-blank range after fighting broke out during the occupation of a genetically modified crops testing site.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been urged to ratify an international convention to protect tribal ownership of land. He was presented with a letter by the president of a Brazil partner to the Catholic Aid Agency CAFOD, urging him to take action.

A wealthy Brazilian rancher has been convicted of ordering the killing high-profile supporter of landless people Sr Dorothy Stang in 2005. But the Pope's silence has disappointed her family and social justice activists.

The Pope has attacked Marxism as well as unfettered capitalism on his visit to Brazil. But the ghost of Marx has positive as well as negative connotations for Christians and social justice campaigners concerned with inequity.

Pope Benedict XVI has received a warm welcome in Brazil, the world's largest Catholic-majority nation. But President Lula says decriminalizing abortion is a healthcare necessity and that one moral stance cannot be imposed on all.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil's has said that his country will bypass the commercial patent on a crucial anti-AIDS drug manufactured by Merck, the US pharmaceutical giant, in order to ensure that those who desperately need treatment can get a cheaper, generic Indian-made version.

At the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, speakers involved in a workshop organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) said that wealth, poverty and ecology are strongly linked to each other and to society's commitment to the common good.