BBC News with Gaenor Howells

The commander of African Union forces in Somalia says his troops have driven Islamist al-Shabab militants out of their last major stronghold in Mogadishu. General Fred Mugisha told the BBC that the whole of the capital was now controlled by African Union and Somali government forces. He said an offensive in the north had pushed the militants back from a range where their

mortars

could hit civilian areas. Yusuf Garaad of the BBC Somali Service said it represented a serious blow to al-Shabab.

Mogadishu is the most important city. It's the seat of the government. And if the government has extended its control to all parts of the capital except that little pocket, that's very important (and) because that gives [a] big

morale

boost to the government and its supporters, and that's negative to Shabab and its ambition to control the country.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has made a personal appeal to the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for an end to what he called the

persecution

of Anglicans in Zimbabwe. As he left the meeting in Harare, Doctor Williams said he'd shown the president a

dossier

detailing the church's concerns and had

urged him to

take action

. Robert Pigott reports.

Doctor Williams said he'd come to Zimbabwe with the hope of negotiating with Mr Mugabe. He said he'd used the two-hour meeting to ask in the clearest possible terms that the president use his powers as head of state to put an end to all unacceptable and illegal behaviour. The encounter followed Doctor Williams' pointed attack on Mr Mugabe's