While some African national leaders continued to court Robert Mugabe at an African Union meeting in Egypt, despite their own observers saying that the presidential election was unacceptable, South African churches have spoken candidly.

Gordon Brown's recent poll humiliations have left him seeking to rebuild support, says Simon Barrow. The 'faith constituency' is one that he has a particular interest in - and it won't go away.

A student Christian leader Zimbabwe has urged the international community to intervene, following the decision of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from the presidential runoff, citing escalating violence against supporters.

After weeks of violence, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has announced that he is pulling out of Friday's presidential election run-off, fearing massacres of his supporters and a rigged poll outcome.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) can now no longer be relied upon as a "neutral and nonpartisan electoral umpire", according a statement from the Justice and Peace Commission of the Zimbabwean Catholic Bishops' Conference.

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.

Church leaders in Kenya have welcomed the announcement of a power-sharing agreement between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga as an important step to ending a two-month political crisis in the east African country.

Rival political leaders in Kenya have reached an agreement on a coalition government after weeks of bitter negotiations, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan announced today, before a major press conference.

Election issues fresh Kenya and Pakistan, and the larger picture of democratic electoral processes, formed the focus for three public statements adopted by the World Council of Churches' central committee meeting in Geneva.