William Bantom, a minister in the Church of the Nazarene since 1968 and the capital's first black mayor, resigned after being twice caught with Internet and videotape pornography. ( Bantom denies publicized rumors that some of the material was child pornography). "I have erred, both as a Christian and as a member of my community, and I pray that my fellow Christians and the community will find it in their hearts to forgive me," he said. South Africa's News24 looks at growing cyberporn use at work.

Swiss-based Christian Solidarity International says it bought and freed 4,435 slaves in southern Sudan this month, bringing the total number of Sudanese the group has redeemed since it started the work in 1995 to more than 38,000. Still, United Nations bodies, human-rights groups, and some other Christian organizations are critical of such slave redemptions, saying they only fuel the slave economy and infuse Sudan's civil war with Western cash.

When the Israeli army's suddenly pulled out of Lebanon May 24, Lebanese Christians streamed across the Israeli border seeking protection from the militant Islamic group Hezbollah. Now several families are starting to return home.

"Relying solely on rumors and lies to accuse other governments and interfere in internal affairs of other countries is a mistake repeatedly made by the U.S. State Department report," an unidentified spokesman for China's State Administration of Religious Affairs told the country's official Xinhua News Agency. "This bad habit should be addressed." The second ...