Lawyer forges tenancy contract of sold-out villa

(Illustrative purpose)

The businessman settled his obligations towards that transaction at the Courts' Treasury.

A lawyer has stood trial for forging tenancy contract of his previously-owned villa, the Court of First Instance was told.

The 55-year-old Emirati lawyer allegedly approached a Tasheel centre on March 20, 2014, with an old tenancy contract, which had been signed by him and another man, against whom the case was closed due to his demise.

Prosecutors accused the lawyer of having that certificate issued, using some documents including the old contract even though he was aware that he was no longer the owner of the property at the time he renewed the tenancy contract. He is being charged with forging an official electronic document.

The complainant, a 54-year-old Emirati businessman said: "I purchased a residential villa located in Al Badaa on November 11, 2013, in an auction announced by the Dubai Courts. The price for which I got it was Dh4.6 million."

The businessman settled his obligations towards that transaction at the Courts' Treasury.

"I was then aware that the villa had already been given for rent by the previous owner (the accused) and that the tenancy contract was to end on May 12, 2014," the complainant told the prosecutor referring to notifications he received from the courts.

He notified the tenant, an Emirati, that he should vacate the villa but he was surprised to learn that the latter's tenancy contract had been renewed by the accused and that the new contract would expire in 2019.

"I learnt that the new contract was signed on January 1, 2014, that is after I landed the auction bid. The accused is presumed to have been aware that I became the new proprietor. He should have known that given the fact that the villa was being seized by the court at that time".

He added that the registration certificate was issued on March 20, 2014, that is, after he made the purchase at the auction.

"It was issued after I sent a vacation notice to the tenant. So the latter was also aware that I was the new owner."

The businessman also said that the Land Department verified the matter and concluded that the certificate was not legal.

China defends stance on South China Sea

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying (Source: fmprc.gov.cn) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Wednesday defended the country's stance on theSouth China Sea, rejecting criticism from the United States, Japan and Western media. Hua Chunying said at a routine press briefing that China's construction activities on its islands and reefs starting at the end of 2013 are aimed entirely at safeguarding its sovereignty and rights. "China's construction in the South China Sea came later than other countries' illegal activities in the region," Hua said. The United States "rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific" strategy and Philippine initiation of the South China Sea arbitration also came before China's island reclaiming, she said. Hua's comments came after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said China's actions in the South and East China Seas threatened to create a "tinderbox." In Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Kerry said that he would caution China to not unilaterally move to reclaim and militarize islands, according to AP. Hua, however, said that it was the growing U.S. military deployment and activities in the region that were creating tensions. She also slammed Japan for hyping up the South China Sea issue ahead of the G7 summit. "As the world economy is facing such a complicated situation, the G7 summit should focus on global economic governance and cooperation," she said. The "little trick" of Japan as the host of the G7 summit will do no good to G7 and will not be helpful to peace and stability in the South China Sea, Hus said. More and more nations and international organizations are expressing understanding and support for China's stance on the South China Sea, she said. Hua applauded the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) "just and fair" position on the matter. Foreign ministers of SCO countries said they were against the internationalization of and external interference into the South China Sea issue, according to a press communique released on Tuesday.

Farm produce prices post slight declines

BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Farm produce prices fell for a seventh consecutive week last week, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday. The average price of 30 kinds of vegetables fell 4.1 percent, compared to a drop of 6.9 percent a week earlier, according to the ministry's website. White gourd, tomatoes and green onions sunk 18.3 percent, 11.9 percent and 9.1 percent week on week in a sample of 36 cities. The average price of six kinds of fruit dropped 1.3 percent. Grain remained steady, with the flour price unchanged from a week earlier while rice edged down 0.2 percent. Meat price movement varied, with pork rising 0.6 percent. Mutton and beef fell 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. Edible oil prices were slightly down. Rapeseed oil and peanut oil both edged down 0.1 percent. Food prices account for one-third of the weighting in the calculation of China's consumer price index (CPI). This year's target consumer price growth is set at around 3 percent, the same as in 2015. China's CPI rose 2.3 percent in April, flat from the previous two months.

Mali extends state of emergency

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The Malian government has extended a nationwide state of emergency for three months. The decision was taken at a special cabinet meeting on the day that Malian and French soldiers recaptured two strategic towns, Diabaly and Douentza. It is a major boost to the 11-day joint military campaign. Meanwhile, Malian troops have been reinforcing their positions on the streets of Konna on Monday, the city whose capture by Islamic militants first prompted French military intervention in the West African state. The military operation is aimed at stopping the Islamists from encroaching towards the capital in Mali’s south from their strongholds in the vast, desert north. On Sunday, France said that some 400 troops from Nigeria, Togo and Benin had arrived in Bamako to help train an African force for Mali. (Source: cntv.com)

Preliminary examination suggests blast aboard EgyptAir plane before crash

CAIRO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The human remains retrieved from the wreckage of anEgyptAir plane suggest that there was an explosion aboard before its crash in the Mediterranean Sea, local media quoted sources from Egyptian Forensic Authority as saying on Tuesday. The preliminary examination of the small size of body parts recovered from the sea found that they are in the same condition after falling from the plane, and haven't been preyed by sharks, according to the sources. The final report of the forensic authority will unveil whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or other reasons. Early on Thursday, EgyptAir's Airbus A320 disappeared from radar screens en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard, including 30 Egyptians and 15 French. The Egyptian armed forces on Friday found parts of debris from the crashed plane 290 kilometers north of the coastal city of Alexandria. On Sunday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered a robot submarine from the Oil Ministry to search for the plane's two black boxes, may be 3,000 meters deep.

Suspect admits to stabbing pop idol after his gift, advances rejected

TOKYO —

A man under arrest for stabbing a woman repeatedly has told police that the attack in western Tokyo was sparked when the victim rejected a gift from him, investigative sources said Sunday.

Tomohiro Iwazaki, a 27-year-old man, stabbed Mayu Tomita, a 20-year-old college student, more than 20 times including in the neck, chest, arms and back, shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday in Koganei. The assault came shortly before Tomita was due to take the stage to perform with other women in an idol event.

Iwazaki, who was arrested at the site, told police, “I sent a gift (to Tomita) but it was returned. I asked her why but she gave an evasive answer, so I became mad and stabbed her numerous times.”

Iwazaki also told the police that he intended to kill her and carried a knife for that purpose, indicating it was a premeditated assault.

Tomita has been appearing in pop idol shows and television programs for children, and the police suspect Iwazaki is a fan of hers.

According to the police, the suspect intercepted Tomita in hopes of talking to her at JR Musashi-Koganei Station before the assault occurred.

Security camera footage shows a man appearing to be Iwazaki following Tomita from the station to the site of the crime.

Tomita, who remains in hospital in a critical condition, had earlier visited a police station near her home in Musashino and asked them to stop Iwazaki from harassing her online via social networking sites such as twitter.

Although Tomita told the police Iwazaki’s name and address on May 9, the police did not contact him, saying it was necessary to confirm that the messages were actually written by him, the sources said.

Police also failed to take the case to a unit tasked with investigating stalking on the grounds that the messages did not imply an immediate threat of assault.

Learning from Tomita on Friday that she planned to appear at an idol event the following day, officers at the Musashino police station asked the police in Koganei to respond if they receive an emergency call from her.

However, the Koganei police station did not send an officer to the idol event as they did not receive that emergency call from Tomita.

The Metropolitan Police Department is now investigating whether the local police station handled the incident appropriately.

Police have seen public outcry over their lax response to stalking cases in the past, some of which resulted in deaths of the stalking targets despite them having notified authorities.

Nigerian man sues over evidence cover-up in 2001 robbery case

KOBE —

A Nigerian man who is seeking a retrial over his conviction in a 2001 robbery case has filed a damages suit with the Kobe District Court against the central and local governments, accusing authorities of suppressing evidence, his lawyer said Monday.

The 40-year-old man is demanding 100 million yen ($912,000) in damages and an apology from the state and Hyogo prefectural government for the actions of prosecutors and police. He argues evidence that could have exonerated him was suppressed.

The man has also lodged a special appeal to the Supreme Court to reopen his case. The man was released in 2009 after being convicted of robbing a post office in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, of 22.75 million yen with a male relative in June 2001, and given a six-year prison sentence.

According to the lawsuit filed on May 20, prosecutors hid the results of a DNA test performed on a sample taken from a ski mask believed to have been worn by the thief, and did not submit the results to the court. In seeking a retrial, his lawyer has presented new evidence showing that the DNA sample could not have come from the Nigerian man and thus the real culprit could be a different person.

The lawsuit further asserts that police deleted surveillance camera footage showing the post office at the time of the robbery, which also could have identified the culprit.

Both the Himeji branch of the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and the Hyogo prefectural police have declined to comment on the damages suit.

In March this year, the Osaka High Court sent the robbery case back to the Kobe District Court, saying deliberation by the court’s Himeji branch were insufficient. The branch had rejected the man’s appeal for a retrial.

Quake-hit town to remove evacuation tents for fear of heatstroke

KUMAMOTO The town of Mashiki in Kumamoto Prefecture, one of the communities hit hardest by the devastating earthquakes in April, began relocating people staying in a tent village to other evacuation centers on Tuesday to protect them from possible heatstroke due to scorching weather.

The local government, located on the southwestern main island of Kyushu, plans to close the open-air evacuation center in the town’s central park by the end of May, moving around 600 people currently taking a refuge there.

The town has been calling on evacuees to move to other facilities to protect them from possible heatstroke and flooding of nearby rivers as Japan’s rainy season nears. But some residents are wary about staying in buildings for fear of possible aftershocks.

Katsuko Tomita, 75, who is evacuating with a family of seven including three grandchildren aged between 2 and 11 said, “I do not want to make trouble to others around.”

The tent village was set up in late April by a group of volunteers including Japanese alpinist Ken Noguchi and the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia, Okayama-based non-governmental organization which provides emergency reliefs, so that evacuees sleeping in cars can have space to take shelter in tents.

Noguchi said he is now looking for an alternative site to open a new tent village, noting, “I believe we can take measures to prevent heatstroke in tents but I am taking the issue of river (flooding) seriously.”

Following a magnitude 6.5 quake on April 14 and a M7.3 quake two days later, many people are still unable to return home. In the tent village, 602 people are staying in 165 tents as of Monday.

Police bolster 'soft target' security for G-7 summit

Police patrol Tokyo Station Tuesday as part of increased security measures ahead of the Ise-Shima G-7 summit that starts in Mie Prefecture on Thursday.REUTERS/Thomas Peter

TOKYO —

The National Police Agency (NPA) on Tuesday bolstered security at so-called “soft targets” around the nation ahead of the two-day G-7 summit that starts in Ise-Shima, Mie Prefecture, on Thursday.

Police presence has been noticeably strengthened at major train stations, shopping complexes and other crowded places that are potentially vulnerable to terrorist attacks, Sankei Shimbun reported.

According to NPA chief Masahito Kanetaka, a total of 70,000 policemen will be dispatched to 3,500 locations across the country through Friday, including major stations, such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya.

The NPA has set up security observation stands at several areas in Tokyo, including Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi exit and Tokyo International Forum in Hibiya.

“Attacks on soft targets can impact a massive number of people. It is important to increase security at busy stations, for example, and it is also crucial to cooperate with private businesses (to strengthen security). Residents’ safety is our priority,” Kanetaka said.

As part of the same initiative, the NPA also announced that it will enhance cyber-monitoring for information that could potentially relate to terrorism.

For the summit venue itself in Mie, the NPA will dispatch up to 23,000 police officers and another 4,600 to Hiroshima when U.S. President Barack Obama makes a historic visit there on Friday.

Chinese military mulls new policies to seek educated recruits

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese military is appealing to qualified young recruits with a string of preferential policies, including financial aid and easy access to employment after service. The favorable policies target graduates and university students, according to a document on recruitment released by the department of defense mobilization under the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Education Monday. Each university student may obtain a certain amount in subsidies once they have been recruited, and the soldiers will be eligible to take exams for employment in state organs, public institutions or state-owned enterprises after their military service, it said. Meanwhile, university student recruits will continue to enjoy tuition waivers, loan reductions, and improved chances to seek master's degrees, among other benefits, the document added. Military recruiters, education departments and media organizations nationwide are also required to promote the recruitment drive to strengthen young people' patriotism and help them understand the army. This year's recruitment targeting university students has started and will last until the end of September.

First world summit urges to improve response to crisis

ISTANBUL, May 23, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Participants pose for a group photo during the world humanitarian summit in Istanbul, Turkey, May 23, 2016. The first world humanitarian summit opened here Monday with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging governments, aid groups, the private sector and other stakeholders to act to improve the global humanitarian system. (Xinhua/Anadolu Agency) Click here for more photos >> ISTANBUL, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The first world humanitarian summit opened here Monday with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging governments, aid groups, private sector and other stakeholders to act to improve the global humanitarian system. In his opening remarks to the two-day summit, Ban called on the participants to align themselves with the five core responsibilities, such as preventing and ending conflicts and respecting the rules of war. He put a particular emphasis on the issue of displaced populations, calling on the world to significantly reduce the number of the displaced in the years to come. "I urge you to commit to cutting half (the number of ) internally displaced people by 2030 and to find better long-term solutions for refugees and displaced people based on more equal sharing of responsibilities," he said. While addressing the opening ceremony, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan cited the heavy burden on Turkey in tackling the Syrian refugee crisis and stressed the need to revamp the global humanitarian system. "The current system fails to meet the demands in the face of emergency problems and fails to develop solutions. Only certain countries take the responsibility. From now on everyone should share the burden. We have to adopt a new system that would put the human beings at the center," he said. Attending the summit are some 5,200 participants, including 65 heads of state and government and representatives from crises-affected communities, NGOs, the private sector and UN agencies, according to figures released by the United Nations. Of the 192 UN member states, 177 are represented at the summit. The event, which was proposed by Ban Ki-moon in January 2012, is a culmination of a four-year-long preparatory process, including an extensive global consultation with 23,000 stakeholders in 153 countries to identify the key humanitarian challenges facing the world. The main topic for the summit is the Agenda for Humanity formulated by Ban, which focuses on five core commitments -- preventing and ending conflicts, respecting the rules of war, reaching out the vulnerable, complementing humanitarian actions with development efforts, and ensuring sufficient funding for humanitarian responses. Speaking to reporters Sunday in Istanbul, Stephen O'Brien, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, described the summit as "a once in a generation opportunity to set in motion an ambitious and far-reaching agenda to change the way that we alleviate, and most importantly prevent, the suffering of the world's most vulnerable people." The United Nations estimates that more than 130 million people are currently in need of assistance and protection across the world. Due to an increase of conflicts in the past two decades and various natural disasters taking place in the period, the need for humanitarian funding is unprecedented, with UN-led appeals having grown six-fold from 3.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2003 to nearly 21 billion dollars in 2015.

Obama confirms death of Taliban leader Mansoor

KABUL, May 23, 2016 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan man reads the news of Taliban leader's death on a local newspaper in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, May 23, 2016. U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah) WASHINGTON, May 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike. "We have removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like al-Qaida," said Obama in a statement. Obama said that as the Taliban leader, Mansoor rejected efforts made by the Afghan government "to seriously engage in peace talks and end the violence that has taken the lives of countless innocent Afghan men, women and children." The airstrike against Mansoor was launched on Saturday in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, according to a Pentagon statement. Mansoor had been an aide to Taliban's iconic longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and a Taliban transportation minister. He emerged as the Taliban leader in 2015 after the news broke that Omar had died in 2013. Related: Obama confirms death of Taliban leader Mansoor HANOI, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday the death of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in a statement issued in Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Monday. "Today marks an important milestone in our longstanding effort to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. With the death of Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, we have removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like al-Qaida," Obama said in the statement. Full story

China warns of geological disasters as heavy rain continues in south

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China Meteorological Administration (CMA) warned of "relatively high risks" of geological disasters in parts of rain-battered Yunnan and Sichuan provinces from Sunday night to Monday night. The CMA also forecasted possible mountain torrents in parts of rainy Hebei Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province in the same period. The administration asked local authorities to closely watch the bad weather and brace for any disasters.

Interview: Negotiation better than tribunal for settling South China Sea disputes: legal expert

by Liu Fang, Maria Vasileiou THE HAGUE, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A code of conduct (COC) reached through direct negotiations and consultations based on international law might be a solution to the South China Sea issue, a Chinese expert on law of the sea said on Friday. Professor Kuen-chen Fu, dean of the South China Sea Institute from China's Xiamen University, criticized the biased nomination of arbitrators in the initial stage for the South China Sea arbitral tribunal set up at the request of the Philippines. The then president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, who enjoyed the right to organize the ad hoc arbitral tribunal in 2013, was a retired Japanese diplomat who happened to be a supporter of Japanese Prime Minister Abe's move to amend Japan's war constitution. This Japanese president nominated a Sri Lankan judge, experienced international lawyer Chris Pinto, to head the arbitral tribunal. Unfortunately, it was found out later on that Pinto's wife happened to be a Filipino. Only after this was criticized openly, Judge Pinto was replaced by Thomas A. Mensah from Ghana. "In any legal system in the world, it is always provided in the procedural law that if you have any relevance with one of the parties in the case, you should voluntarily say 'Hey,I have to avoid this case'," noted Fu when meeting international journalists in The Hague The professor considered the initial nomination dented the credibility of the tribunal, not to mention the fact that China made a written statement in 2006, excluding and refusing to accept "any compulsory jurisdiction on the South China Sea issue according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As to the pending award on the arbitration case, the professor suggested that the arbitrators should "take into account all the considerations and change their intermediate award which stated they had jurisdiction over 7 of the 15 points brought up by Manila". There should have been more peaceful solutions to the disputes. "In 2002, China and the ASEAN countries reached a Declaration of Conduct (DOC) in the South China Sea region, in which all parties agreed to freeze their activities that might risk escalation of tension," said Fu. In the following years, China behaved itself, but some of its neighbors in the region constructed their runways, helicopter courts, new harbor docks and/or immigrated people to some islands and rocks. "The Filipinos even built a church and kindergartens on Zhong Ye Island, for obvious reasons," Fu added. Countries violating the DOC, backed by the United States, insisted that the DOC is not so binding as a treaty or an agreement. China has initiated the negotiation for a COC on the basis of the DOC."Everyone said if we have a COC, it will be binding. So a COC might be a solution," the expert said. "But let me emphasize this, if some of these parties do not cherish a peaceful community of the South China Sea, keep ignoring international conventions and relying on their ally and the bombers to strengthen their position, any COC, XOC, YOC or ZOC will not be helpful," Fu concluded.

Simple brain hack from Harvard can stop you forgetting important tasks

Imagining an object near to where your task has to be carried out increases the chances of remembering it CREDIT: ALAMY 

•  Sarah Knapton, science editor 

23 MAY 2016 • 6:09PM

Remembering to turn the gas off, or water the plants before a weekend away, can prove an impossible feat when the mind is churning with other tasks.

But Harvard University has uncovered a simple ‘brain hack’ to bring back those forgotten to-do lists - the mental equivalent of tying a piece of string around the finger.

The trick is to associate the task with an object near to where it has to be carried out, which when spotted later on can trigger the missing memory.

“People often fail to follow through on good intentions. While limited self-control is frequently the culprit, another cause is simply forgetting to enact intentions when opportunities arise."Assoc Prof Katherine Milkman, University of Pennsylvania

For example, thinking of calendar hanging near to the washing machine at the same time as remembering to unload the washed clothes will help in recollecting the chore when walking past the calendar later on.

“Our results suggest that people are more likely to follow through on their good intentions if they are reminded to follow through by noticeable cues that appear at the exact place and time in which follow-through can occur,” said study author and psychological scientist Dr Todd Rogers of Harvard Kennedy School.

The researchers had theorised that visual clues could help people remember and devised an experiment to see if it was true.

87 participants were asked to complete an hour-long computer task, for which they would be given compensation for their time. They were also told that an extra donation to charity would be made if they remembered to pick up a paper clip when collecting their cash.

The trick could help you to remember to turn of the gas or water the plants  CREDIT: ALAMY 

Half the students were told that an elephant statue would be sitting on the counter as a reminder to pick up the paper clip, while the other half were simply thanked for their participation.

The results showed that 74 per cent of people who had been given the elephant cue remembered to pick up the paper clip compared with just 42 per cent of those that were given no help, a 43 per cent increase.

Co-author associated professor Katherine Milkman, of the University of Pennsylvania, said: “People often fail to follow through on good intentions. While limited self-control is frequently the culprit, another cause is simply forgetting to enact intentions when opportunities arise.

“This approach involves associating intentions, e.g. to mail a letter on your desk tomorrow with distinctive cues that will capture attention when you have opportunities to act on those intentions.

“They can be more effective than written or electronic reminder messages, and they are undervalued and underused.

“The reminders-through-association approach, developed by integrating and expanding on past research on self-control, reminders, and prospective memory, can be a powerful tool for policymakers and individuals.”

Researchers say that the cues could be useful for businesses.

A separate experiment followed 500 coffee shop customers who were given a money-off voucher to be used at the shop two days later. Some customers were told that a stuffed alien would be sitting near the cash register to remind them to use the coupon.

Around 24 per cent of those who received the alien cue claimed the money off, compared to 17 per cent who did not know about the stuffed toy, a 40 per cent increase.

The researchers say the findings suggest that ‘reminders through association’ offer a no-cost, low-effort strategy for remembering to complete the tasks that tend to fall through the cracks in daily life.

The team is now planning further research to see if the cues can help people stick to medical and health-related regimes, such as fitness programmes or taking medication.

The research was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Desmond Tutu's reverend daughter marries a woman and loses church licence

Desmond Tutu with his daughter Mpho Tutu-Van Firth 

•  Aislinn Laing, johannesburg 

23 MAY 2016 • 5:18PM

The reverend daughter of former Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu has announced she will give up her Anglican church licence after marrying a woman. 

Rev Canon Mpho Tutu-Van Firth said that she had chosen to make a “dignified” exit rather than be stripped of her right to practice, since the church does not recognise gay marriage. 

“Because the South African Anglican Church does not recognise our marriage, I can no longer exercise my priestly ministry in South Africa,” she said. “The bishop of the (Cape Town) diocese was instructed to revoke my licence. I decided that I would give it to him rather than have him take it.”

The loss of a respected and well-known church figure could however strengthen the hand of modernisers in Africa’s most liberal country, who could push at a provincial meeting in September for a more nuanced approach to gay clergy in South Africa. 

While same-sex marriage was legalised in South Africa in 2006, the South African Anglican law on marriage states: “Holy matrimony is the lifelong and exclusive union between one man and one woman.”

Newly ordained Mpho kisses her father after blessing him at Christ Church in Alexandria back in 2004 CREDIT: MANNIE GARCIA/REUTERS

Bishop Raphael Hess, Rev Canon Tutu’s senior in whose diocese her Cape Town base falls, said he was “vexed” by the need for her to renounce her clerical duties but that he hoped it would be short-lived. 

“The time has come for us to exercise pastoral care, for us to demonstrate a shift that is reflected in the law,” he told The Telegraph on Monday. 

“We would be able to have Rev Canon Tutu be able to minister. At the moment she cannot and she has accepted that but we are hoping that there might be a window for us to change it.”

The Rev Canon Tutu is one of five children of Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town who won the Nobel Peace Prize for standing up to the apartheid government and seeking to reconcile South Africans. He has also spoken out in favour of gay marriage, saying he would refuse to go to a “homophobic heaven”. 

The Rev Canon Tutu is executive director of her parents’ eponymous charitable foundation and divorced with two children.  She married her long-time partner Marceline Van Furth, an atheist academic who is also divorced with children, in her native Netherlands in December. 

Ironically, coming from a past where difference was the instrument of division, it is our sameness that is now the cause of distress. My wife and I are both women.Rev Canon Mpho Tutu-Van Firth

The pair held a second ceremony that was attended by the Tutus and officiated byRevd Charlotte Bannister-Parker, a priest from Oxford, on Sir Richard Branson’s wine farm in Franschhoek earlier this month. 

Desmond Tutu was given permission by the Archbishop of Cape Town, the head of the Anglican church in Southern Africa, to give the union a “father’s blessing”. 

“We hoped (it) would not be misconstrued as pre-empting decisions of the Provincial Synod, the church’s highest legislative structure,” he said. 

Speaking to South Africa’s City Press from her honeymoon in Bali, the bride noted the “irony” of being censored for her similarities to her spouse rather than her differences, as South Africans once were under apartheid.

“My wife and I meet across almost every dimension of difference. Some of our differences are obvious; she is tall and white, I am black and vertically challenged,” she said. “Ironically, coming from a past where difference was the instrument of division, it is our sameness that is now the cause of distress. My wife and I are both women.”

The worldwide Anglican church is officially opposed to its priests entering into same-sex marriages and insists that practising gay clerics remain celibate and the African branch of the church has traditionally been among the most strident voices against such unions.

The issue has however threatened to split the church for the past 13 years since the US branch, The Episcopal Church, ordained its first openly gay bishop. 

In January, Archbishops and bishops from around the world, meeting behind closed doors in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, voted explicitly to condemn same-sex marriage as a “fundamental departure” from traditional Anglican teaching. They also agreed to sanction the American church for its more liberal approach.