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.

Terrorism, oppression and violence has been declared un-Islamic by around 20,000 Muslim leaders following a scholars' meeting at an Indian madrassa, according to a senior cleric quoted in The Times newspaper in the UK.

The new Anglican Bishop of Harare, the Rt Rev Sebastian Bakare, said this week that lawlessness and violence is threatening elections due on 29 March, and has called on Zimbabweans to pray for an end to the conflict and chaos.

When is a terrorist a terrorist, and how is the violence of occupier and occupied to be understood and responded to by those committed to nonviolence? Dianne Roe asks the questions from an assignment in Palestine with CPT.

Some Christian leaders in Kenya have commented are worried at the inability of the country's churches to speak with one voice about the violence that has followed disputed presidential election results, leading to 1,000 deaths.

Pope Benedict XVI has made an appeal for an end to the current violence in the African nation of Chad, as apart of a series of conversations to promote reconciliation with justice in a number of war-torn countries and regions.

As mediation to solve the disputed Kenyan presidential election enters a critical phase, top-level figures from the two parties have met an international Christian delegation, which asked them to seek a compromise solution.

The Methodist Church and its development affiliate in Britain have confirmed the initial financial aid they are sending to Kenya to support victims of the post-election conflict. They are also appealing for further contributions.

CAFOD and other UK-based development groups are critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement, finalised this month. It will impoverish Mexican workers, they say. Radical economic, trade and financial reform is needed.