US CHURCH WHICH CALLS FOR HOMOSEXUALS TO BE KILLED, BANNED FROM UNITED KINGDOM

Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper had planned to fly into Britain to protest against a play being put on by a gay youth group.
The pair are members of the church, based in Kansas, which has been described as "the most evil religious sect in the world".
Mr Phelps, 79, and his daughter Ms Phelps-Roper, 51, had targeted a performance of The Laramie Project, about the death of an American man killed for being homosexual.
They had announced that they would picket the play, which is due to be held at a school arts centre in Basingstoke, Hampshire, on Friday.
But the pair will now be stopped by immigration officials if they arrive and placed straight on a flight back to the US.
The ban comes after Dutch MP Geert Wilders was barred from the UK last week for his extremist views on Islam.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has excluded both Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the UK.
"Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities. The Government has made it clear it opposes extremism in all its forms.
"We will continue to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country. That was the driving force behind the tighter rules on exclusion for unacceptable behaviour that the Home Secretary announced on 28th October last year.
"The exclusions policy is targeted at all those who seek to stir up tension and provoke others to violence regardless of their origins and beliefs."
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, mostly Phelps family relatives, regularly picket funerals of US war heroes, claiming their deaths are punishment for America's tolerance of gays.
Fred Phelps has also described the Prophet Mohammed as a "demon-possessed whoremonger" and once said Catholics were part of the "church of the holy paedophiles".

EVANGELICAL CHURCH LEADERS ARRESTED IN CHINA: PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

BEIJING — Police raided a private evangelical seminar in central China and detained more than 60 worshippers, with four of them still in custody a week after the roundup, a U.S.-based Christian group said Wednesday.
More than 30 police office broke into the gathering Feb. 11 in Nanyang city in central Henan province, the China Aid Association said in a statement.
China's communist government allows worship only in state-supervised churches, which claim about 11 million members. Christians and clergy in unofficial churches are regularly harassed and detained.
The participants came from four provinces for the event at which two South Korean pastors had been invited to speak, China Aid said.
The Christians were escorted to a hotel in Nanyang by police, where their personal belongings were taken. They were registered, fined and released, the group said. It was not clear how much they had to pay.
Li Dewei, director of the propaganda office of the public security bureau of Nanyang city, said he did not know about the matter.
The two South Korean pastors were expelled from China on Feb. 14 for "engaging in illegal religious activities," the group said. They were also banned from re-entering China for five years.
Two Chinese church leaders were released two days later, but at least four remain in custody, China Aid said.

WILLOW CREEK'S CHICAGO PASTOR QUITS ' SEXUAL IMPURITY '

The pastor who headed the Chicago congregation of the evangelical Willow Creek Community Church has resigned after "he admitted to sexual impurity," church officials said Tuesday night in a statement.
Members of the congregation were told Jan. 25 that the Rev. Steve Wu had resigned as campus pastor of the church.

"He admitted to sexual impurity and has taken full responsibility for his sin," the statement said.
Details about what happened and what's next for Wu were unclear, but the statement said Wu "has expressed a desire to participate in a restoration process."
Reached at home Tuesday night, Ted Allen Miller, church spokesman, did not elaborate.
Todd Katter has agreed to serve as interim campus pastor while church officials search for the next campus pastor.
"We would ask you to pray diligently for Steve in these difficult days," the statement said.
The Daily Herald notes that Wu was tapped for the Chicago job back in 2006.