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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused the Anglican church of allowing its "obsession" with homosexuality to come before real action on world poverty.



"God is weeping" to see such a focus on sexuality and the Church is "quite rightly" seen by many as irrelevant on the issue of poverty, he said.

It may be good to "accept that we agree to differ" on the gay issue, he said.

Archbishop Tutu was addressing a conference of church leaders organised by the Christian charity Tearfund.

The Church says its work on poverty tends to be overlooked.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, John Packer, said that apart from the government, the Church of England was the biggest provider of social services at home.

The Anglican Communion was also a major contributor to international projects such as Make Poverty History and the Millennium Development Goals, he said.

More than 600 Anglicans marched through London in July to draw attention to the increasing danger that the goals - which include eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 - will not be met.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told them that millions of people owed the Anglican Communion a debt of gratitude for upholding the cause of the poor.

'Totally irrelevant'

Archbishop Tutu told the conference in London that the Anglican Church was ideally placed to tackle poverty because of its presence at the heart of communities in the UK and overseas.

However, he said he sometimes felt ashamed of his fellow Anglicans as they focussed obsessively on trying to resolve their disagreement about homosexuality while 30,000 people died each day because of poverty.

"We really will not be able to win wars against so-called terror as long as there are conditions that make people desperate, and poverty, disease and ignorance are amongst the chief culprits," he said.

"We seem to be engaging in this kind of, almost, past-time [while] there's poverty, hunger, disease, corruption.

"I must imagine that God is weeping, and the world quite rightly should dismiss the Church in those cases as being totally irrelevant."

Archbishop Tutu accused some of his fellow Anglicans of going against the teaching of Jesus in their treatment of homosexual people by "persecuting the already persecuted".

The South African Nobel peace laureate said traditionalists were wrong to suggest that gay people had chosen homosexuality and the dispute had to be kept in proportion.

"It will be good for us obviously, to resolve our differences on this, and maybe accept that we agree to differ," he said.

For the Anglican Communion, that is more easily said than done.

Traditionalists suspect that the call for an end to discussions about homosexuality is designed to allow liberal developments to go unchallenged.

Others, including Bishop John Packer, insist that the Church must have a sexual ethic - a sense of what is right and wrong in sexual behaviour.

Most agree that only by staying united will it continue to exercise real influence on the world stage.

BBC News

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Rescuers in Cairo are continuing their search for survivors after a rockslide crushed dozens of houses in Egypt's capital, killing at least 31 people.



Dozens of houses in a shanty town in the eastern Duwayqa area were hit by huge boulders and rocks on Saturday.

At least 40 people were injured and dozens are said to be still trapped in the rubble.

A six-storey building below the Muqattam hills had been completely reduced to rubble, residents said.

It was not clear what had triggered the rockfall but local residents were blaming construction work on the hill for causing the disaster.

'Horror'

At least eight boulders - each estimated to weigh about 70 tonnes - fell from the towering cliffs overlooking the district at about 0900 local time (0700 GMT), reports said.

"The power went out, we heard a loud bang like an earthquake and I thought this house had collapsed. I went out, I saw the whole mountain had collapsed," said Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, 80, whose house escaped the destruction.

"It was horror," he said.

Witnesses described seeing hundreds of distraught people gathered around the site of the destruction, saying they had relatives and friends trapped under the rubble.

Some were scrabbling at the rocks with their bare hands.

Rescue teams were forced to wait for the arrival of cranes and heavy lifting equipment to allow them to move the huge rocks, but as night fell the help had not arrived.

A BBC correspondent says there have been previous landslides in the area.

BBC News

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Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has challenged President Robert Mugabe to hold a new election if he is not prepared to share his powers.



Mr Tsvangirai said he would withdraw from power-sharing talks if a satisfactory deal could not be reached.

Mr Mugabe has said he will form a government without the MDC if they do not agree to a power-sharing deal being mediated by South Africa's president.

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai both say they won elections earlier this year.

"The issue that we are facing here is that Mugabe must accept to surrender some of his powers for the power-sharing arrangement to work," Mr Tsvangirai told a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Gweru, in central Zimbabwe.

Talks deadlocked

At talks mediated by South Africa, the two rivals have agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they cannot agree on how to share powers.

The MDC wants Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while the ruling Zanu-PF party insists he retain control of the security forces and the powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," Mr Tsvangirai said.

He also said he would not bow to pressure from South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator in the crisis.

Mr Mbeki is due to return to Zimbabwe's capital Harare on Monday to continue the search for a solution to the political impasse.

The MDC leader gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off, saying 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has denied the claims and accused the MDC of both exaggerating the scale of the violence and being responsible for it.

Mr Mugabe said on Thursday that the opposition MDC had one week to agree a power-sharing deal, or he will form his own government.

BBC News

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Angola's ruling MPLA party is heading for a landslide victory in the country's first parliamentary elections in 16 years, preliminary results show.



With around half of the votes counted, the MPLA had received 81% of the vote, the electoral commission said.

It said the main opposition party, Unita, had polled 10%.

Unita is demanding a re-run in Luanda, saying the voting in the capital was chaotic. An African observer mission said the elections had been credible.

This poll is seen as a vital step in the oil-rich country's recovery from decades of civil war.

Fourteen parties took part in the elections. Full results are not expected for up to 10 days.

'Bad losers'

Polling was extended after chaos on Friday prevented many people in Luanda province from casting their vote.

Some polling stations opened late and others quickly ran out of ballot papers.

Unita (the Union for the Total Independence of Angola) is now challenging the legality of the poll in the constitutional court.

The party's leader, Isaias Samakuva, said the system in Luanda had collapsed.

Ngola Kabangu, who heads the opposition FNLA party, said the election was extremely flawed.

The MPLA (the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) has branded Unita "bad losers" and is already claiming victory, the BBC's Louise Redvers in Luanda says.

Population shifts in some provinces due to the long-running civil war have added to Unita's woes, with the MPLA winning majorities in traditionally strong opposition areas, our correspondent says.

Observers from the regional grouping, Southern African Development Community (Sadc), said the vote had been "transparent and credible".

"The Sadc mission congratulates the people of Angola on peaceful, free, transparent and credible elections which reflect the will of the people," John Kunene of the observer mission told the AFP news agency.

Luisa Morgantini, head of the EU observer mission in Angola, blamed "woeful organisation" for the problems and said that a failure to provide voter registration lists at polling stations was a violation of the country's electoral laws.

She added that some election officials had failed to show up at some polling stations, and that there was a shortage of the ink used to mark voters' fingers and prevent multiple voting.

In the lead up to the election, Unita accused the MPLA of intimidating its supporters and dominating state media.

Some eight million voters are registered in the country - more than a quarter of whom live in the capital's overcrowded conditions.

The MPLA has ruled Angola since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

BBC News

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Two explosions have rocked a police station in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, killing at least two policemen, officials say.



They say about 30 people - including civilians - were injured when two suicide bombers detonated their bombs in quick succession inside the station.

US-led and Afghan forces have been battling Taleban insurgents in the region in recent weeks.

In June, at least 350 rebels were freed during a jailbreak from Kandahar jail.

'General targeted'

"There were two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the police headquarters one after another," Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The bombers targeted a senior border police commander, General Abdul Razaaq, who was injured in the attacks, reports say.

Earlier reports said at least six people had been killed in the blasts.

Police sealed off the area shortly after the explosions.

Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds of the current rebel insurgency against the Afghan government and troops from Nato and a US-led coalition.

In a separate development, a suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in the western city of Herat but caused no casualties, officials say.

The US-led coalition said its forces had killed more than 10 insurgents in an operation in the eastern province of Khost on Saturday.

Afghanistan has seen rising levels of violence in recent months.

There are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most of them serving under Nato's command.

BBC News

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The US presidential rivals have begun campaigning in earnest, as a new opinion poll put Republican John McCain ahead of Democrat Barack Obama.



Fresh from being nominated at their party conventions, the two men are now gearing up for the 4 November poll.

A USA Today-Gallup poll put Mr McCain ahead for the first time in months.

Candidates often see a bounce in the polls after the conventions but Mr McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is being seen as key.

Mr McCain has tried to strike a balance between distancing himself from an unpopular presidency and rallying the party's conservative base.

Mrs Palin wowed the Republican convention crowd with her speech, helping to re-energise his campaign.

Major test

Mr McCain said that "the electricity has been incredible" at rallies ever since he invited the Alaskan governor to join his ticket.

"She has excited people all over the country. I would love to say it was all because of the charisma of John McCain, but it is not," he told CBS on Sunday.

Mrs Palin will face a major test this week when she gives her first nationally televised interview, following intense media scrutiny over her personal life and credentials for the ticket.

The USA Today-Gallup poll, which was released on Sunday, showed Mr McCain leading Mr Obama by four percentage points, 50 to 46.

A USA Today poll taken before the Republican convention showed Mr McCain trailing Mr Obama by seven points.

The latest poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

The results of a Reuters/Zogby poll, also released over the weekend, gave Mr McCain the edge, with 50 percentage points to 46.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll showed John McCain with a one-point lead.

Mr McCain and Mrs Palin are scheduled to be in Missouri on Monday.

Mr Obama is campaigning in the crucial swing state of Michigan. His vice-president, Joe Biden, was appearing in Wisconsin and Iowa, while Hillary Clinton is on the campaign trail in Florida.

Despite the frenetic pace of the presidential race, the candidates will stop campaigning on Thursday to appear together in New York on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

They said they would put aside politics to honour the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died.

BBC News

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Jury selection has begun at a court in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the trial of the former US football star OJ Simpson.



Mr Simpson was arrested last September for allegedly robbing at gunpoint two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel.

He faces 12 charges including assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and burglary. If found guilty he could face life in prison.

Mr Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, 54, have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mr Simpson's legal team said he was trying to retrieve stolen memorabilia that belonged to him and have denied that any guns were involved.

Selection process

Arriving at the Clark County Regional Justice Center, Mr Simpson declined to answer reporters' questions, but smiled and waved when someone called out "Good luck!"

Prosecutors, defence lawyers and District Judge Jackie Glass have used questionnaires to identify jurors with biases and cut the pool from 500 to fewer than 250 candidates.

Selecting the 12-member panel and four alternatives could take a week or longer, court officials said.

BBC News

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South African President Thabo Mbeki has flown to Harare to revive Zimbabwe's deadlocked power-sharing talks.



BBC Southern Africa correspondent Jonah Fisher says this may be the last chance for Mr Mbeki's mediation.

Both Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claim to have won this year's elections, marred by widespread violence.

Since South Africa-brokered crisis talks broke down last month, both sides have hardened their positions.

Mr Mugabe has said he is ready to form a government alone, while Mr Tsvangirai over the weekend said there should be new elections if a deal is not reached.

South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said Mr Mbeki would meet both men, as well as Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller opposition faction.

'Surrender powers'

Before talks broke down, the two rivals had agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they could not agree on how to share powers.

The MDC wanted Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while the ruling Zanu-PF party insisted he retain control of the security forces and the powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"The issue that we are facing here is that Mugabe must accept to surrender some of his powers for the power-sharing arrangement to work," Mr Tsvangirai told a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Gweru, in central Zimbabwe on Sunday.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," Mr Tsvangirai said.

He also said he would not bow to pressure from Mr Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator in the crisis.

Mr Mugabe said on Thursday that the opposition MDC had one week to agree a power-sharing deal, or he would form his own government.

He says he is tired of waiting for the opposition to sign a draft deal and he will push ahead alone if necessary.

Our correspondent says a new government dominated by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF would continue to face all the same problems - shortages of food, fuel and hyperinflation.

Western countries have made it clear they will only lift sanctions and assist in reconstruction if the opposition is given real power.

The MDC leader gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off, saying some 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has denied the claims and accused the MDC of both exaggerating the scale of the violence and being responsible for it.

BBC News

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Ukraine's territorial integrity is "non-negotiable", France's Nicolas Sarkozy has affirmed at the end of an EU summit with the country in Paris.



Mr Sarkozy's reassurance comes after rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine over its Crimea region.

Ukraine has also been offered an association agreement with the EU, to be signed next year.

The accord represents cautious support for possible eventual EU membership for Ukraine.

"In the eyes of Europe, [territorial integrity] is absolutely non-negotiable," Mr Sarkozy said in a response to a question from reporters in Paris.

He underlined that the accord left the path for future membership of the 27-member state bloc open, saying: "This association accord does not close any avenues."

Patience

Ahead of the summit, Ukraine's president had sought a strong signal that the country belongs within Europe, diplomats said, to deter Moscow from intervening as it did in Georgia.

But the BBC's Emma-Jane Kirby, in Paris, said EU diplomats have been acutely aware of the risk of angering Russia by further strengthening ties between the former Soviet republic Ukraine and Europe.

"It is the maximum that we could do, and I believe that it is already an essential step," Mr Sarkozy said.

Mr Sarkozy emphasised that the accord was a recognised first step for countries with aspirations of EU membership.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko recognised the difficult timing of the summit and welcomed the association agreement as a successful outcome.

"We understand very well the conditions of this dialogue at present. This isn't the best time, given the situation in the region but we're patient," he said.

Fears have been raised that Ukraine, which has rocky relations with Russia, could find itself in a similar position to Georgia over South Ossetia.

Ukraine's Crimea region, like South Ossetia, is home to a significant Russian population. It also hosts a Russian naval base, which President Yushchenko has made clear he would rather not be there.

For the EU, Ukraine remains a key energy transit route and is seen as vital to the union's long-term security and energy strategy.

However some EU member states, including the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, have been reluctant to allow any explicit statement confirming Ukraine's future membership of the bloc.

The country is in the midst of political turmoil, following the collapse of its coalition government last week.

Mr Yushchenko threatened to dissolve parliament and call elections after his supporters walked out in protest at new laws to trim presidential powers.

The laws were introduced by the opposition and backed by his former ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, now his rival in the upcoming presidential elections.

BBC News

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French carmaker Renault has announced 6,000 job cuts, as it responds to an industry-wide slowdown in sales.



Renault said that 4,900 positions would go in France, and 1,100 in other European countries, through voluntary redundancy measures.

French unions have reacted angrily to the news, with the CGT union calling for a one-day strike on Thursday.

The CGT also asked President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene. The French government owns 15% of Renault.

Missed sales targets

Renault's move follows its announcement in July that while its half-year profits had risen 37%, it had fallen behind on its sales targets.

Some 1,000 jobs will go at Renault's Sandouville plant in western France, which makes the firm's large-sized, but weak-selling Laguna model.

Renault is also to freeze the hiring of new staff.

It said it now intended to sell more than three million vehicles this year compared with its original goal of 3.3 million.

BBC News