Desmond Tutu hospitalized

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu has been admitted to a Cape Town hospital for a persistent infection, according to his South African foundation.

"Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was admitted to a Cape Town hospital on Tuesday for treatment to a persistent infection," a statement said.

The foundation, which is named after 83-year-old Tutu and his wife Leah, quoted their daughter Mpho as saying on Tuesday the family hopes the Nobel Peace Prize laureate will be able to return home in a "day or two."

The anti-apartheid icon last December cancelled plans to travel to a meeting of Nobel laureates in Rome, in order to battle prostate cancer which he has lived with for 15 years.

He announced his retirement from public life in 2011 but has still traveled widely and made public appearances.

Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for campaigning against apartheid, renewed his wedding vows with Leah earlier this month after 60 years of marriage. The family held ceremonies in Cape Town and Johannesburg to mark the occasion.

At the Johannesburg ceremony in the Holy Cross Anglican Church in the city's Soweto area, where Tutu used to live. Tutu danced stiffly as choristers sang and was frequently on his feet, thanking the congregants at the end of the three-hour event. At other times, he sat with his eyes closed.

Wire services