Can or will Barack Obama deliver a more peaceful, humane world, asks Ama Biney, a year after his inauguration as 44th President of the United States. Offering a tentative evaluation of the path followed by the Obama administration so far, Biney suggests that genuine change lies not with the president, but in the remobilisation of a grassroots movement among the ordinary Americans who had the optimism and motivation to campaign for him.

Last year marked 15 years of official relations between Cuba and South Africa, and 50 years of the Cuban Revolution, writes Nicole Sarmiento. But before official relations between the two states began, there was already a long history of assistance to the liberation struggle, which forms the background to relations between the two countries today, and provides a significant example of the possibilities of strengthening South-South relations.

Kenya’s government, Paul Mwangi Maina argues, has failed to involve the youth in political processes, despite pre-election promises to do so. Maina portrays a system in Kenya where youth participation is dependent on wealth and connections. These youths are then merely used as political pawns, corrupted by politicians even before they enter politics at a national level, he stresses: ‘These people do not represent the young people of Kenya accurately.'

Writer Georges Anglade and his wife Mireille Neptune died in the collapse of their Port-au-Prince home. John Ralston Saul writes a tribute to a man whose life enriched both Canada and Haiti and which in many ways was a classic Canadian story of exile and commitment. ‘It is hard to accept that such a force of nature could be stopped by nature’, he concludes.

Following the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian captured with an explosive device on a Northwest flight, Joseph Kaifala stresses that each and every individual accused of criminal activity must be treated according to the rule of law.

A year into his presidency, Barack Obama is essentially following the same course of militarised action in Africa pursued by his predecessors over the past decade, writes Daniel Volman. A consequence of the US president's faith in the necessity of the global war on terror and pragmatic political concerns around retaining oil supplies, Obama's approach to Africa has been entirely rooted in asserting his country's military might, Volman concludes.

Claude Ribbe

Angolan legislators are expected to endorse the new constitution that will strengthen the three decades-long rule of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The vote comes earlier than expected as the nation reels from a deadly rebel attack last week. The vote was expected in March.

A study on African Large-Scale Wind Turbine Market, has found that the market earned revenues of over $148.4 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach $424.3 million in 2015, according to a new analysis from Frost & Sullivan.

Reporters Without Borders has written, on the third anniversary of Eritrean journalist Fessehaye “Joshua” Yohannes’ death in detention, to Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, asking him to do everything possible to obtain an improvement in the conditions of journalists imprisoned in Eritrea.

A Nigerian court has ruled that Goodluck Jonathan, the vice-president, can take over the duties of the president, who has been sick, without a formal transfer of power.

Let the rains fail, even for several successive seasons, and Malawi should still be able to produce enough to feed itself.? This is the motivation for the country's green belt concept. It is strengthened by painful memories of the severe drought beginning early 2002 which triggered three years of hunger.

Preparations for presidential elections scheduled for the end of February or the beginning of March - elections which have already been postponed numerous times since 2005 - have again reached an impasse in Côte d'Ivoire.

Seychelles has said it had agreed with creditors to swap old debt worth $283 million, representing 89 percent of the debt it sought to restructure in an exchange offer.

The SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security held a summit in Maputo on Thursday to consider, among other issues, reports on developments in Zimbabwe’s inclusive government.

Leaders from the southern African region have urged the international community to reject plans by Madagascar's military-backed Andry Rajoelina to ignore power-sharing talks and hold an election.

Cote d'Ivoire's government has ordered an investigation into allegations of fraud by the electoral commission. Last weekend, President Laurent Gbagbo accused the commission of trying to register hundreds of thousands of ineligible people.

South Sudan leader Salva Kiir is to seek re-election in that post rather than tackling Omar al-Bashir for the national presidency, his party says. The SPLM will instead field a northern Muslim, Yassir Arman, in the national elections due in April.

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, Guinea’s wounded junta leader, feels he was tricked into taking a flight to Burkina Faso instead of going back to Guinea and is determined to get home, officials have said.

Two months after being re-elected for a fifth five-year term, president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has reshuffled his cabinet with the departure of several known figures.