As part of a UN debate about the future of development in Africa, a senior Vatican representative has called for "authentic partnership" with the continent in tackling the many challenges of poverty and development.

The Vatican has announced an upcoming international conference on "Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories. A Critical Appraisal 150 years after 'The Origin of Species'", to mark the Darwin celebrations and build the science-theology dialogue.

The Vatican and Mennonite World Conference representatives who met in Rome in October 2007 to prepare theological reflections on peacemaking have made available the full statement and background material.

As the summer holiday season draws near for many, the Vatican has issued a set of guidelines offering advice on how to make vacations more environmentally responsible and friendly.

A former Catholic bishop who has campaigned vigorously for the poor has won Paraguay's presidential election to end more than 60 years of monopoly rule by the party that once backed vicious dictator General Alfredo Stroessner.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, from the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, has said religions should be prepared to ask tough questions. He says it is unrealistic to pretend there is only one global faith.

A small number of fficials from the Vatican and senior Muslims are holding a two-day meeting in Rome this week, with the intention of laying the foundations for a major global Catholic-Islamic exchange later in 2008.

As Cubans absorbed the news that communist leader Fidel Castro had stepped down, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, prepared to welcome Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, as he visits the country.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, has spoken up for employment and workers' rights at a gathering on social and economic development from 6-15 February 2008.

The Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, seen as required reading for those wanting to know the standpoint of the Holy See, but also known for an austere black and white layout, is appearing in colour for the first time.