Christian leaders from the Philippines are this week urging the US to act on major human rights abuses

Poor people in mineral-rich developing countries are missing out on the benefits of higher commodity prices while large transnational oil and mining corporations make record profits, a new report says.

Raising deep concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines, US Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has responded to a letter from Avelino T. Razon Jr., deputy director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), in which she challenges the Philippine government for not showing "any real success in ending extra-judicial killings."

Church and development agencies are battling against more typhoons and heavy rains in their efforts to bring relief to poor communities across the central Philippines regions hit by last week's super typhoon.

A range of church and development agencies, including the UK-based Christian Aid, are making emergency funds available to on-the-ground organisations dealing with the aftermath of last weeks typhoon in the Philippines.

Following a monitoring visit last week, Christian charity Jubilee Action has claimed that thousands of children are still illegally imprisoned in the Philippines.