(ACNS) Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has sent messages of support to areas of KwaZulu Natal and Mozambique where storms and flooding have caused death and destruction. The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, whose area of responsibility includes several of South Africa’s neighbouring countries, assures the Bishops and people of the Church’s prayerful support, while calling for greater political commitment and practical action in overcoming global warming.

Writing to the Bishop of Natal, Rubin Philip, and the Bishop of Lebombo, Dinis Sengulane, Archbishop Makgoba says: ‘Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones, who have been injured, and who have lost homes and livelihoods through these storms and flooding. We hold them all in our prayers and in our love, and especially remember before God those who have died. May all in need hear the still small voice of God within the anguish and chaos they face, bringing comfort and strength in the days ahead.

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When an anticipated 9,000 to 10,000 deputies and alternate deputies, bishops, Episcopal Church Women, exhibitors, staff, volunteers and visitors converge in Anaheim, California, next July for the Episcopal Church’s 76th General Convention and ECW Triennial Meeting, they can expect sun, fun, rich diversity, green space, fresh worship, the launch of a mission conversation and a glimpse of the future’s “nochurch” churches.

From July 8-17, the glasswalled Anaheim Convention Center one block from Disneyland will be transformed into meeting, worship, child-care and other spaces and host at least 120 exhibitors, an educational discovery center and a diocesan hospitality venue featuring banners proclaiming “Faith and Our Future” and emergent worship, said Bishop Jon Bruno of the Diocese of Los Angeles.

“I was there the last time convention was in Anaheim, when Edmond Browning was elected the presiding bishop,” said Bruno, a veteran conventioneer. “I’ve gone from volunteer to host of convention, and we’re excited beyond belief and preparing for our thousands of visitors.”

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A host of amazingly entertaining videos–see which you like best. I like the puppy falling asleep whose head keeps falling off the step.

Genetic tests that can detect a raised risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer are being offered for the first time to people without family histories of the diseases, The Times has learnt.

The programme, run by University College London (UCL), paves the way for a new approach to preventive medicine involving widespread screening. It will also prompt greater demand for screening of embryos by parents who carry a defective gene and want to avoid passing it to their children.

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Exxonmobil corp., the world’s largest crude oil refiner, supports taxing carbon dioxide as the most efficient way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, its chief executive said.

“As a businessman, it’s hard to speak favourably about any new tax, but a carbon tax strikes me as a more direct, more transparent and more effective approach,” Rex Tillerson, CEO of the Irving, Texas based company, said Thursday at the Woodrow Wilson international center for scholars in Washington.

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In a move being coordinated with the Obama transition team, senior Bush administration officials are preparing to ask lawmakers for the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package, despite intense opposition in Congress, sources familiar with the matter said.

The initiative, if it goes ahead, could create an unusual political straddle between the Bush and Obama administrations. If Congress were to vote down the measure, either President Bush or Obama might have to exercise a veto in order to get the money. While Obama officials prefer that current administration issue a veto, the White House is declining to address that question.

Democratic Senate aides were notified in a meeting this afternoon that the request could come as soon as this weekend and that a vote could be held as soon as next week, congressional sources said.

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Both sides in the court battle call themselves “The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America,” but in October, a group representing about 60 percent of the local parishes voted to join the more theologically conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

In papers filed yesterday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, the Episcopal Diocese argued that the Anglican group stipulated in October 2005 that if it were to leave the church, all property and assets held by the “Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America … shall continue to be so held … regardless of whether some or even a majority of the parishes in the Diocese might decide not to remain in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.”

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(ENS) Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said January 7 that she will convene a special meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth convention on February 7.

Jefferts Schori will ask the convention to elect a provisional bishop for the diocese. The agenda will include the election of lay and clergy representatives for various diocesan leadership positions and adoption of a budget. It will also include approval of governance and organizational resolutions, including ones that would declare null and void certain amendments to the diocesan constitution and canons that were advocated by former diocesan leadership as a means to take the diocese out of the Episcopal Church.

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Israel and Hamas rebuffed a United Nations call for a cease-fire in the 14-day Gaza war on Friday, with Israel saying continued barrages of rocket fire from its adversaries made the United Nations resolution “unworkable.”

In a statement after a cabinet meeting as the two sides traded fire, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said the Israeli military would “continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given,” according to news reports.

Officials from Hamas also dismissed the United Nations resolution, according to news reports, although one official said it was being studied.

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