The prisoners looked generally emaciated and exhausted, but one man was animated. He leaned over to discuss his case with a lawyer who sat on the bench behind him. The bone-thin detainee, who was wearing a grimy lime-green oxford shirt and gray slacks barely held up by a belt, was Duncan Mutungi. He was not a political prisoner being abused by an autocratic state; he was a night watchman who had once earned thirty dollars a month for guarding a gated community in Nairobi.

The timing was significant -- this year is the 60th anniversary of Communist power and the government is keen to ensure that there are no disturbances to mar its celebrations.

The Year of the Ox also begins today and Beijing is anxious to usher in a year of stability despite economic difficulties.

For three decades China has allowed officially sanctioned churches to operate within strict limits.

Illegal

By mentioning, for the first time in an inaugural address, the 16.1 percent of Americans who check "no"' when asked about religion, Obama turned it into the most controversial line in his speech -- praised by The New York Times editorial board and cited by some Christians as evidence that he is a heretic, and in his well-spoken way, a serious threat. With that one line, the president "seems to be trying to redefine American culture, which is distinctively Christian," said' Bishop E.W.

The latest high profile exhibition of this avoidance is the "Governing Agenda" recently published by two Democratic Party-aligned Washington, DC-based think tanks, Third Way and Faith in Public Life. This document, two years in the making, and endorsed by a variety of prominent evangelicals; and the process by which it came into being have been met with both accolades and tough criticism.