When standing on the shore line at Rufisque L’est, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Dakar, Senegal, it’s hard not to buy into apocalyptic climate change scenarios. The beach is gone. Wharves built by the French colonists, once linked to the shore, have been completely swept away, with just a few wooden pillars rising from the water as evidence of their existence. In one stretch, three city blocks, which included homes, warehouses, and a mosque, were pulled into the ocean.

"While much of Africa has avoided the worst effects of the recession, we face significant risks and uncertainty”, writes Dr Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB). “The impact of the global turbulence, though varying from region to region, has been a major setback and a threat to our common achievement to date.” However, “at the same time, much of Africa has demonstrated remarkable resilience,” he says.

Madagascar's President Andy Rajoelina has called a meeting next week with leading opposition groups to try to resolve a year-long political crisis before the African Union imposes sanctions. While one opposition party cautiously welcomed the move, it was unclear whether Rajoelina would be able to rally enough cross-party support to strike a deal and head off the punitive measures.

The World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corp., won’t make new commitments in Democratic Republic of Congo until a dispute over a canceled mining contract is resolved, an IFC spokesman said. The IFC owns 7.5% of a $553 million copper and cobalt project led by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. that Congo canceled in August after a review of mining contracts. The case is now before an international arbitration court in Paris.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts. But the fund said the country was still ineligible for loans until it had paid off more of the $1.3bn (£841m) it owes to creditors. In the meantime, Zimbabwe can take part in IMF decision-making.

Members of Niger's military junta and the interim administration it is setting up will not be allowed to run future democratic elections. Junta spokesman Abdoul Karim Goukoye reiterated that the coup leaders' priorities were to hold transparent polls and restore democracy.

Ivory Coast authorities have announced a new election commission, key to ending disputes that have threatened the country's peace process. The crisis began two weeks ago, when President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the previous body, accusing it of fraud and being controlled by the opposition.

The process of drafting a new Zimbabwean constitution has been further delayed, meaning the country’s new charter is now running seven months behind schedule. A co-leader of parliament’s constitutional committee Munyaradzi- Paul Mangwana told journalists in Harare this week that Zimbabwe would not have a new constitution before February 2011 at the earliest.

SADC tribunal rulings against the seizure of farmers land in Zimbabwe should be registered, recognised and enforceable by the South African government, the High Court in Pretoria has ordered. Judge Garth Rabie ruled in favour of white farmers - represented by AfriForum - who have argued that the seizure of their land without compensation was a human rights abuse.

Some donors would be willing to cancel Zimbabwe's 5.4 billion dollar foreign debt, if the strained unity government presents a united proposal to settle it, the finance minister said Thursday.

Nigeria's ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua has returned home after spending 92 days in Saudi Arabia, where he has been undergoing medical treatment, but no one has yet confirmed seeing him. A text message sent to the telephone handsets of several State House correspondents in Abuja in the early hours of Wednesday alerted them to the President's arrival.

'Shell was held accountable, but can this really be considered justice?' asks UCT GSB.

Lisa Vives, Joan Nimarkoh and Vikas Nath respond to Samir Amin's critique of Dambisa Moyo's 'Dead Aid'.

Foreign investors looking for a way into Angolan markets need to follow two fundamental rules, writes Rafael Marques de Morais – partner with powerful figures from the regime, and ignore the relevant legislation. Marques de Morais looks at the route taken by leading Portuguese beverage manufacturer, Unicer.

The encouragement of homophobia by religious groups in Kenya and Uganda, Jacob Zuma’s 'polygamy drama' and the misuse of mobile phones to fuel violence in Nigeria’s Jos conflicts are among the stories covered in Sokari Ekine’s round-up of the African blogosphere.

The ‘tide of history is moving against the illegitimate detention of the cultural objects of others’, writes Kwame Opuku, putting the future of the ‘universal museums’ in jeopardy. Although it appears to serve a global audience, ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’, a new programme produced by The British Museum and the BBC, is part of ‘frantic efforts’ to impress ‘the masses about the alleged indispensable role of the major museums’ and to gather support for their continued possession of looted artefacts, argues Opuku.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/471/israel_palestine_apartheid… iniquitous treatment of Palestinian people has clear parallels with the discrimination suffered by 'non-white' people under apartheid South Africa, argues the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights. The Israeli state has continued to flout international law in its efforts to annex further territory and marginalise Palestinian people, the coalition argues, calling for the maintenance of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) until Israel ends its occupation.

Nigeria's new presidential motorcade, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's birthday cake, Sarkozy's Rwanda visit and the East African Community's proposals for the creation of a regional electoral commission all feature in Gado's

Ethiopia is the site of a scandalous trade in child trafficking, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam, in which agencies and the Ethiopian authorities conspire to permit the 'harvesting' of local children for adoption abroad. The Ethiopian government must honour its commitments under international law, Mariam stresses, and put the protection of its children first.

Tragedy struck the opening of the Africa Cup of Nations and Vancouver Winter Olympics alike writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, but the contrast in the responses of the respective organisers towards the victims could not have been more pronounced.