Church-backed self-help groups in Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia are working to cope with migrant labour displacement and other social problems in an area that is both static and rapidly changing for citizens who struggle to cope with daily life.

A coalition of church-based aid and development agencies is backing a creative range of self-help initiatives in the former Soviet Central Asian republics, such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which are often overlooked in the worldwide media.

Despite having a different faith tradition to the Christian majority in the United States, Muslim Americans share much in common with other US religious groups, including white evangelical Protestants, a new study has found.

Churches and labour groups have been lobbying the McDonald's food corporation for months over their labour practices. They are pleased with a new agreement to pay migrant workers more, but want to see further action.

Religious leaders, academics and public officials in Russia have expressed concern about the gap between rich and poor in Russia

Defying perceptions of widening division between the two faiths, Muslims have joined an Indian sit-in organized by Christians.

Christians in Japan say the government has debased the country's peace-seeking constitution after the upper chamber of parliament approved the promotion of patriotism in the classroom by changing the country's education law - writes Hisashi Yukimoto for Ecumenical News International.

Roman Catholic nuns in Poland who mounted an occupation of their convent in a protest against the appointment of a new mother superior are refusing to leave the building, despite being expelled from their order by the Vatican - writes Jonathan Luxmoore for Ecumenical News International.