Just a few hundred kilometres north of the glittering skyscrapers of Nairobi and game parks that attract tourists from across the world, a common greeting when strangers meet is, “Habari ya Kenya?” – What news from Kenya? For although districts such as Moyale, Marsabit, Samburu and Wajir are in the same republic as Nairobi, their residents are resigned to living in what amounts to another country.

Madagascar's president, Andry Rajoelina, has called for parliamentary elections early next, saying it is the only way out of the political crisis that has gripped the Indian Ocean Island since January this year.

Prisca Musonda is an ardent supporter of Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata and his party. She has travelled with him to most parliamentary constituencies campaigning in elections. But now she fears Zambia’s general elections set for 2011 could turn violent and go wrong for most voters, unless the latest spate of violence can be curbed.

The European Commission has reiterated its commitment to fund development projects in the African and Caribbean countries following consultations by member states this week.

Three experts from The Hague are in Kenya to hear the views of victims of post-election violence on how they would like those responsible for the chaos punished. Their arrival signals that the court is firmly focused on Kenya although the judges took a break for the annual Judicial Winter recess last Friday. The recess ends on January 4. Right, post-election violence in Naivasha.

Egypt has obtained $5 billion from international and regional financers to fund and complete its 2007-2012 five year plan to boost energy output, the state news agency MENA quoted the electricity minister as saying on Friday.

A Constitutional Select Committee, meant to drive the process towards a new constitution, announced on Wednesday that it will resume its work on the 4th January next year. Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, the three political party principals in the coalition government, are expected to officially launch the process on the 7th January.

A leading human rights lawyer has launched legal action to try to force Nigeria's President, Umaru Yar'Adua, to hand executive powers to his deputy while he receives medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

The Security Council has extended for another year the United Nations political mission in Burundi, calling for full support for next year’s elections in the war-scarred African country while voicing concern at continuing human rights violations, sexual and gender-based violence, restrictions on civil liberties and political violence.

The top United Nations envoy to Sudan has welcomed the peaceful ending of the registration process for next year’s elections, the first multi-party polls in the country in decades, with more than 75 per cent of people of voting age registering to cast their ballots.

United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have suspended logistical or other support for units of the National Armed Forces (FARDC) when there are sufficient grounds to believe their operations would violate human rights, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

Former Argentinian Environment Secretary Romina Picolotti and Center for Human Rights and the Environment co-founder Jorge Daniel Taillant have authored a new piece laying out the case for the World Bank to determine its energy agenda on a human rights based approach.

The World Bank and China are discussing setting up low-cost factories in industrial zones in Africa, that the Chinese will build. A nice little idea that’s maybe meant to help could end in a new regime of industrial slavery.

United Nations humanitarian agencies are providing emergency supplies and other forms of assistance to Kenyan Government officials as they respond to an outbreak of cholera in the northwest of the country that has left at least 26 people dead.

The more people in a meeting, the more difficult it is to achieve consensus. Accordingly the UN negotiating system, built on consensus processes and inordinately influenced by the wealthy G8 nations, makes agreement difficult, writes Glenn Ashton.

Opposition parties in Namibia have launched a court challenge to the results of last month's election. President Hifikepunye Pohamba and his Swapo party won a landslide victory with more than 70% of the vote.

The former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta State has been cleared of 170 charges of corruption - involving the laundering of millions of dollars. The federal court in Asaba said there was no clear evidence against James Ibori, governor from 1999 to 2007.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has ordered a probe into the disappearance of millions of shillings meant to finance the free primary school initiative, which attracted over seven million children previously locked out of school.

Kenya's main political groupings, the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) continued to wrangle over the constitutional powers to be given to future President and Prime Ministers of the republic.

Ethiopian authorities have released former opposition politicians, jailed for causing mayhem after the 2005 general elections, but the fate of an influential former party leader, Birtukan Mideksa, remains unclear.