Desmond Tutu

Two retired icons and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, are being kept waiting as the South African government weighs a decision on granting a visa for the Tibetan spiritual leader. Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop for Cape Town, invited the Dalai Lama to attend his 80th birthday celebration next week and to deliver the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture on Oct. 8. But the African National Congress government, wary of irritating the country's largest trading partner, China, has refused to indicate whether it will grant the visa.

By all reports, when President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in California this week for their first summit, their most important task will be to establish a strong rapport so they can manage the increasingly critical and complex U.S.-China relationship. Although the focus of their conversations will surely cover such topics as North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs, cyber attacks and trade, it is critically important that Xi also hear from Obama directly about the importance of China curtailing its persecution of dissidents and their families.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu would like to have a word with Jacksonville, Fla., about gays and lesbians. The Jacksonville City Council is considering an ordinance that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, and some of the debate has been tough. The Florida Baptist Witness reported  that a May 22 City Council meeting went past midnight so that roughly 100 attendees could speak for and against the bill, known as Bill 2012-296. Southern Baptist pastors and evangelical leaders argued against the measure on “moral grounds” -- “alleging the new ordinance could violate religious liberty, create new protected classes of individuals, and expose the city to unnecessary litigation.” The Rev. R.L. Gundy, vice president of Jacksonville's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told the City Council that he was strongly opposed as well.

Anglican church officials today named a white churchman to succeed Desmond Tutu as the bishop of Johannesburg. Anglican clergy and officials deliberated all day before unexpectedly choosing Duncan Buchanan instead of the assistant black bishop in Johannesburg, Simeon Nkoane. The selection was announced by Philip Russell, retiring archbishop of Cape Town, who will yield his position as head of the 2 million-strong South African Church on Sept. 7 to Tutu.

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu tore into the ruling African National Congress, saying he will quit as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission unless the party's leaders admit to past atrocities. The former Anglican archbishop lambasted the ANC's chief legal advisor, Mathews Phosa, for saying that former ANC guerrillas do not need to ask for amnesty because their fight against apartheid was a "just struggle."

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that President Reagan should take the same approach to South Africa as he does to Nicaragua: support anti-government rebels. After a commencement address at Oberlin College in Ohio, the South African archbishop was asked what he would say to Reagan if he had the chance. "Do what you are doing in Nicaragua," he replied, referring to support of the contras against the leftist Sandinista government.

American Jewish leaders criticized South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu Thursday for suggesting that Jews should forgive and pray for the Nazi perpetrators of the Holocaust. Tutu, on a Christmas pilgrimage to the Holy Land Tuesday, urged Israelis to forgive the Nazis for killing 6 million Jews during World War II and condemned the Jewish state for oppressing Palestinians.

Desmond Tutu, who was enthroned last month as Archbishop of Cape Town, installed a white clergyman, the Very Rev. George D. Buchanan, as Anglican bishop of Johannesburg, the position Tutu previously held. Echoing Tutu's anti-apartheid views, Buchanan told the congregation at St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg after his installation that few people know one another across race lines in South Africa and that the church must work to overcome such divisions.

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on the United States to end capital punishment. At a news conference preceding his receipt of an honorary doctorate from the University of Nevada at Reno, Tutu said not all of those who have been executed were guilty of the crimes for which they died. "I don't want a moratorium on the death penalty," said Tutu, whose work to end apartheid in South Africa earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. "I want the abolition of it.

Tutu: Authorized Allister Sparks & Mpho Tutu HarperOne: 354 pps., $29.99 -- The history of the long fight to end apartheid in South Africa had many heroes but none quite like a 5-foot-4 Anglican archbishop with an impish sense of humor who became a giant irritant to the white authorities. Desmond Tutu's gift for the art of protest politics was on sweet display one pivotal weekend in 1989, when Frederick W. de Klerk was about to be installed as president and the nation pulsed with clashes between protesters and police.

Two retired icons and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, are being kept waiting as the South African government weighs a decision on granting a visa for the Tibetan spiritual leader. Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop for Cape Town, invited the Dalai Lama to attend his 80th birthday celebration next week and to deliver the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture on Oct. 8. But the African National Congress government, wary of irritating the country's largest trading partner, China, has refused to indicate whether it will grant the visa.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu had his star turn Thursday with First Lady Michelle Obama in this scenic coastal city's new soccer stadium, built for last year's World Cup tournament. The 55,000-seat playground was to be their stage for a program spreading the word about HIV/AIDS and encouraging young South Africans to turn to sports to stay healthy. Several youth groups were to be on hand. Photos: Michelle Obama in Africa The retired cleric asked the first lady: "What do you feel?

First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in South Africa on Monday night as she launched an official visit that will see her embrace this nation's elders as she tries to inspire its young. Obama, who is spending the week in South Africa and neighboring Botswana, will give a keynote speech to young African female leaders Wednesday in Johannesburg. She is scheduled to meet with Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 79, but no meeting is currently scheduled with Nelson Mandela, 92, the country's first black president.

The struggles of black citizens in South Africa to overcome a brutal government-imposed system of race separation are right out of a history book to a student like Robert Virgen. At 15, the Santee Education Complex sophomore hadn't been born when anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was released from decades in prison or when the country held its first multiracial elections. But when one of the heroes of that time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, came to this downtown high school for a Black History Month celebration Thursday, Virgen said he felt a kinship that transcended time, geography and race.

Increasing the pressure on China, a star-studded group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates have signed an open letter calling for the world's leading economies to lobby Chinese President Hu Jintao for the release of dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, recipient of this year's award. The letter released Monday by Liu's U.S. lawyers was written at the initiative of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and signed by, among others, former Polish President Lech Walesa, former U.S. President Carter and the Dalai Lama ?

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu revealed that doctors found cancer in his prostate gland and are unsure if the disease has spread. The 65-year-old Tutu, who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-apartheid efforts, went into the hospital Wednesday to have doctors check his enlarged prostate gland. A biopsy six months earlier had been negative for cancer, but this time doctors removed a large section of the gland and studied it further, discovering the disease, Tutu said.

Cancer detected in South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has not spread beyond his prostate, doctors told the Nobel Prize winner on Saturday. A tissue sample from Tutu's lymph nodes was taken Thursday to determine if the cancer had spread. The procedure also helped doctors to determine that cryosurgery, which uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the cancer, should be effective in treating Tutu's prostate gland.

Sipping tea, and serving his beloved wife her first cup every morning in bed. Watching soccer. Spending more time with his family. Reading. Writing. Praying. And just thinking Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu sketched out a quiet, blissful future Thursday at a news conference as he announced his decision to withdraw from public life. All he wants in his old age, he said, is a peaceful family life in his hometown, Cape Town. No more interviews, no more speeches, no more plane-hopping.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu said Tuesday he supported international protests surrounding the Olympic torch and urged world leaders to boycott the games' opening ceremony in Beijing over China's human rights record. The retired Anglican archbishop from South Africa also called on China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is seeking autonomy for Tibet.