In news from South Africa, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu is warning that South Africa is in danger of losing its moral direction. He said a respect for the law, environment and even life, were missing in the country.

• Desmond Tutu: “We need to try and recover the spirits that we had. We need to recover that incredible sense where almost everybody was saying my commitment is to the cause and whether I die, whether I suffer, whatever the price, I am willing to pay and that was something that our people said.”

Desmond Tutu’s comments came as he spoke to reporters prior to giving the Steve Biko memorial lecture at University of Cape Town. He said South Africa was not alone in facing hardships.

• Desmond Tutu: “But we do have problems and very serious problems I mean poverty, the devastation of AIDS, corruption, crime. But which country doesn’t have problems and people forget we’re just 12 years old and when you think, say, America. It’s been free for 300 years. What has Katrina revealed. You go to New Orleans after Katrina and you see some horrendous things that you wouldn’t have expected in a country that is the only superpower.”