Anthony Alexander, the Seventh-day Adventist pastor imprisoned in a Sri Lankan jail for more than two years, has been granted refugee status in Canada, along with his wife, Saratha. The January 24 decision ends more than 18 months of uncertainty.
A meeting of religious and political leaders last month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, will help put religious freedom concerns on the public agenda, say organizers of the event.
Plans by a group of Protestant churches in Novomoskovsk, Tula, to screen a film about the life of Jesus has drawn sharp opposition from some of the city's religious leaders.
Raising taxes on cigarettes will significantly cut rates of child smokers, say members of a coalition who this week launched an initiative aimed at getting religious groups more involved in the fight against tobacco.
A group of Czech churches is protesting a new law they say reflects an attitude to religion reminiscent of the country's communist past.
The opening of a School of Pharmacy at Loma Linda University this September will mark a new era in the institution's 100-year history of health education.