African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping flew to Harare on Saturday, to hold separate meetings with the main political parties in Zimbabwe. The nature of the discussions was not disclosed to the media but sources said it will be a briefing on the pre-dialogue talks.

A Former governor of Plateau State, Mr. Michael Botmang, was yesterdays arraigned before an Abuja Federal High Court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly misappropriating over N1.3 billion while in office.

As the Togolese capital becomes a regional hub for drug trafficking, many drug addicts in Lomé are seeking assistance to kick the habit.

Senior officials with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have concluded a visit to North Kivu to assess ongoing efforts to restore peace and stability in the province.

An official of the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, has joined the debate on Zanzibar's political status, stressing that the archipelago is not a sovereign state.

There is a general consensus in Zimbabwe that the only way out of the current crisis is dialogue between the two main political parties, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF).

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the European Commission's humanitarian wing are working together in Madagascar to provide medicines and other vital health services to a series of villages, five months after they were devastated by Cyclone Ivan in February.

The indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide has greatly encouraged some Darfuri human rights activists. Other observers in Sudan fear it will provoke a backlash from the government, further worsening the situation in Darfur.

Senior United Nations political official Haile Menkerios is in Pretoria, South Africa, to further Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's efforts to help resolve the political crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, a spokesman for the world body announced today.

President Mwai Kibaki today said the Government was committed to restoring Mau forest to its original purpose so as to safeguard the catchments of the over twenty rivers that rely on the forest.

Following stiff opposition to the proposed Niger Delta Summit by the stakeholders from the region, the Federal Government has shelved the summit and agreed to set up a committee to articulate the needs of the region and submit its report to the government.

In Madagascar, where community resilience and livelihoods are continuously eroded by cyclones, floods and drought, the gap between emergency humanitarian action and development assistance can become too wide to cross.

Southern African church leaders are discussing a resolution demanding sanctions against Zimbabwe and a declaration on the illegitimacy of president Robert Mugabe's government. They plan to deliver the resolution to President Thabo Mbeki.

Businesses that are helping to prop up Robert Mugabe's regime will be included in a new sanctions list being drawn by the European Union, according to reports from Brussels.

As state violence in Zimbabwe worsens, economists in the capital Harare have warned that cutting international economic ties with the country will hit the average person the hardest.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, under fire for the handling of the Zimbabwean crisis, has won African Union and United Nations backing for his plans to facilitate a solution - but will liaise with a tri-partite "reference group" over his efforts.

The ever rising fuel prices have catapulted the June annual figures by a massive 2.4 percentage points to 14.5 percent from 12.1 percent, the highest to be recorded in Botswana in almost four years.

It has been announced in Monrovia that electricity would soon be restored to the surroundings of Monrovia, something which has not been seen since the 1990s. Currently, central Monrovia and Sinkor are benefiting from the Emergency Power Program of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC).

Five years after the peace agreement that ended its civil war, Liberia has made accelerated progress on several human rights issues, but there are still serious concerns about the rule of law, according to a United Nations expert who has just completed a two-week visit to the country.

Humanitarian agencies should work harder and more closely together to minimise various forms of corruption that can affect the delivery of emergency aid and harm the reputation of agencies involved, according to a new report.

Attacks on aid workers and threats to ships delivering food aid to Somalia, coupled with the effects of drought and poor harvest, have left millions in the strife-torn nation in need of urgent aid, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today.

A Political storm is gathering over the Ghana Government's recent announcement that it had sold 70 percent of Ghana Telecom for $900 million to Vodafone, the worlds leading mobile telecommunications operator.

THE Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreed on Monday between Zanu PF and MDC negotiating parties is now expected to be signed after today's critical meeting between South African President Thabo Mbeki and the African Union (AU) Commission chair Jean Ping in Pretoria.

Messages of congratulations, tributes and good wishes are pouring in from South Africans and influential leaders alike in all walks of life, for former President Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday.

LITTLE has been heard of the Southern African Development Community (SADC ) standby force since its launch last year.