An international dialogue between Anglican and Sunni Muslim leaders is to be established after pioneering work by the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was announced yesterday.

Dr George Carey will sign an agreement with Dr Muhammad Sayed Tantawy, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar al-Sharif University in Cairo, Egypt’s senior Islamic figure, at a ceremony in Lambeth Palace on January 30. Under the agreement, a committee with representatives from both faiths will meet at least once a year in Egypt or the United Kingdom.

Child cancer toll

Four out of five children with cancer worldwide die untreated, according to the Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research fund. They said that more than 100,000 lives could be saved each year if existing treatments were available in the Third World.

Healthcare bias

New laws are needed to end age discrimination in healthcare, the King’s Fund has concluded. After talking to 75 senior NHS managers the charity, devoted to the study of healthcare and its delivery, concludes that most managers did not know how to tackle the problem.

Tiny Olympic rings

Scientists in Salt Lake City, which hosts the Winter Olympics next month, have marked the occasion by making tiny Olympic rings out of living nerve cells. The five interlinked rings, which measure about an eighth of an inch across, were grown at the University of Utah.

Double standards

Greenpeace accused the Government of double standards after research revealed it is supporting a series of major projects overseas which put out more greenhouse gases than the UK’s total emissions. The picture is set out today in a Greenpeace report to MPs.

Balfour Beatty

Balfour Beatty asks us to make clear that it was not the lead contractor on the proposed Ilisu Dam (article, Times 2, January 1) and its withdrawal does not mean the end of the project. A Friends of the Earth resolution at the company’s annual meeting was defeated by 102.2 million votes to 3.4 million.

Fetishist's calls

A man who telephoned 19 women who had advertised to sell horses in Horse and Hound, then turned the conversation to the women’s feet, was given 80 hours’ community service. Richard Cove, 25, of Worthing, who sometimes called himself Michael Foot, pleaded guilty to causing a public nuisance.

Mugger sentenced

A mugger who caused the death of a pensioner was given seven years’ youth detention for robbery and manslaughter. Michael Manning, 18, of West Dulwich, robbed Daisy Fenton, 88, also of West Dulwich. She died from heart failure after the attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Ledward 'is dead'

Irish police say they are sure that Rodney Ledward, the disgraced gynaecologist, died of cancer at a Cork hospital in October 2000, despite claims that he faked his death to escape dozens of sex assault accusations. He had earlier been struck off the medical register for a series of botched operations in Kent.

DNA tests for police in Kirsty case

Bangkok: The head of the Thai Tourist Police is to order officers who are new suspects in the Kirsty Jones murder to have DNA testing.

Police Major-General Sanit Meephan said: “I believe that within 15 days we’ll be able to find out who was involved.” The inquiry now centres on four policemen and an army officer said to roam bars in Chiang Mai, where Miss Jones, from Brecon, was found raped and murdered.

Suicide hope

Lou Macari, the former Celtic football player and manager whose son Jonathan, 19, took his own life, will head Facilitate Scotland, a charity seeking to prevent suicides which will be launched at Glasgow Cathedral on Sunday with a memorial service for suicide victims.