Christian Today staff writer

• Salvation Army launches group singing initiative for dementia sufferers

  The Salvation Army has launched an innovative, spiritually-minded new programme to help those suffering from dementia, using singing to connect dementia victims and their carers, and to prompt memory recollection.

• Kazakhstan targets home groups, private prayer in new religious freedom crackdown

  Christians, Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses have been subject to increasingly punitive restrictions on religious freedom in Kazakhstan. New amendments to law would expand limitations - including an effective ban on private home groups.

• 'We are followers of Jesus Christ, not foreign agents': Australian bishops hit out at proposed new law

  Proposed new legislation in Australia could force priests, and potentially any Catholic involved in advocacy, to register as a 'foreign agent' of the Vatican, bishops have warned.

• Parents want control over sex and relationships education, polling from Evangelical Alliance shows

  The public wants parents at the heart of new 'relationships education' proposals, with a large majority wanting parents informed of the curriculum content ahead of time and to know who is delivering classes, new polling has found.

• Chinese cardinal who says Vatican has 'sold out' warns Francis against reconciling with Communist regime

  Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has revealed that he traveled recently to Rome for a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican to relay his concerns over proposals aimed at reconciling the Catholic Church in China and the government-backed Patriotic Catholic Association.

• When is Ash Wednesday 2018? And what is Lent?

  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a period of fasting and penance observed for thousands of years by many Christians including, especially, Catholics as well as Anglicans, Methodists and Lutherans.

• Ash Wednesday or Valentine's Day? This year it's a choice between them

  It's a problem for Christians who believe in true romance. For this year, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day.

• Anti-gay Arizona pastor who called for death of Obama banned from Jamaica

  A Holocaust-denying and anti-gay pastor from Arizona has been denied entry into Jamaica after outcry from activists on the island.

• Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas in 'astonishing' blog on grief and faith

  Sky Sports anchor and committed Christian Simon Thomas says he is weak from grief after his wife Gemma died suddenly, aged 40, late last year.

• Hillsong's worship band wins Grammy Award in New York

  Hillsong's worship band won it's first Grammy award in New York on Sunday night for the song What A Beautiful Name.

• Trump's Afghanistan strategy under spotlight after 11 dead in fourth attack on Kabul

  Donald Trump's strategy in Afghanistan is under the spotlight after 11 soldiers were killed in the fourth major attack on the capital Kabul in the last nine days.

• The Scot who gave her life at Auschwitz: Christian martyr honoured at new heritage centre

  The legacy of a Scottish Christian who gave her life to protect Jewish schoolgirls in World War Two will be kept 'alive' in a heritage centre honouring her life and martyrdom, opening in Scotland today.