stewardship

of

Zimbabwe in a sermon to some 15,000 Anglicans yesterday, in which he condemned the lawlessness that characterised the way it was governed.

The US President Barack Obama says he's deeply concerned about the deaths in Egypt of at least 24 people during violence between Coptic Christians and the security forces. He called for minority Copts to be protected and stressed the need for elections to go ahead as planned in November. Egypt's ruling military council has ordered government ministers to carry out a speedy investigation. Coptic church leaders have blamed what they call "

infiltrators

" for

stirring up

Sunday's violence.

Stock markets have risen in the US and Europe after France and Germany's leaders committed themselves to a plan to tackle the eurozone crisis by the end of the month. Here's our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

Financial markets really want a concrete plan from eurozone leaders to fix the sovereign debt and banking crisis. That still hasn't materialised, but leaders of the two biggest powers involved - France and Germany - have promised one and set themselves a deadline: the end of the month. Investors have taken comfort from that commitment, but the improved sentiment is fragile. The political obstacles to a deal are formidable, and if the leaders fail or agree something seen as inadequate, then the recent gains in the markets could be reversed very quickly.