Chinese authorities intimidated and unlawfully detained parents and relatives of children who died in the devastating Sichuan earthquake and harassed activists and lawyers trying to assist them, says a new Amnesty International report

Following on from China's recently-released Human Rights Action Plan, the new head of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong has called for further initiatives on civil rights across the 1.3 billion nation.

China's recently-released National Human Rights Action Plan has been generally welcomed by human rights groups, while they have highlighted some weaknesses and urged further change.

Africa could find a dependable partner in China, if Europe does not change the way it relates to the continent, a Kenyan Anglican and World Council of Churches leader has said.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has said he will pull out of a Johannesburg conference to fight racism after a "disgraceful" decision by Pretoria to ban the Dalai Lama from attending.

Protests took place in Britain's capital over the weekend, calling for an end to the government-backed slaughter in Sri Lanka and for the freedom of Tibet from Chinese domination.

Recently elected leaders of China's officially-sanctioned Protestant churches have said they care about house churches that sometimes operate underground and that they are willing to provide them with Bibles.

The rapidly changing relationship between religion and state was the focus of a dialogue between ten Chinese and nine European scholars and religious leaders representing Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and traditional Chinese religions

Mao Zedong died in 1976, and since then, two big things have hap­pened to China, says Giles Fraser. The first is the explosion of the economy. The other is the explosion of religion - and, sometimes, its suppression.

Some Chinese Christians have seen their invitation to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics as a new recognition of religion and global values in officially atheist China.