International development agency Church World Service is calling for concerted and urgent action by world bodies, governments and aid agencies to attack hunger, malnutrition and the continued toll of high food prices.

As part of a UN debate about the future of development in Africa, a senior Vatican representative has called for "authentic partnership" with the continent in tackling the many challenges of poverty and development.

Christian communities in mainland China and Hong Kong, both Protestant and Catholic, have been offering practical support and prayers to victims in Sichuan, who have suffered a devastating earthquake, China's worst in 30 years,

Chinese churches and Christian agencies, as well as the government and army, have begun responding to the recent earthquake. The quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, has devastated a region west of the provincial capital Chengdu.

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.

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.

Development agencies and United Nations officials are exasperated at the obstructiveness of the Burmese junta toward an international aid effort aimed at bringing desperately needed supplies to victims of the recent cyclone.

In the face of growing political instability and desperate food shortages in Zimbabwe, The Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) is supporting an appeal through ACT International (Action by Churches Together) that will distribute emergency food supplies to vulnerable households.

The Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) has held its first equipping conference for African partner organisations in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, from 22-26 November 2007. It was entitled 'Strength to Strength'.