African countries are mostly victims of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the developed countries, which are responsible for the current global financial crisis, should take necessary steps to make the crisis duration as short as possible, several African finance ministers have said.

The Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands is tasked with addressing the ‘unique challenges’ facing its area of responsibility. These challenges have their roots deep in Kenya’s past, and specifically in the creation of the Northern Frontier District by the colonial regime.

The five East African Community (EAC) partner presidents from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are scheduled to meet in Arusha to peep into what has so far been achieved in the negotiations for the establishment of the EA Common Market Protocol, envisaged to commence early next year. The EAC Deputy Secretary General (projects and programmes), Ambassador Julius Onen, who has been at the forefront of the negotiations, was optimistic that the talks so far have been encouraging since the first session in November 2008 in Uganda.

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After nearly a year of seemingly endless talks brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zimbabwe’s long-ruling ZANU-PF party and the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formed a coalition government in February. Opposition entry into government is a landmark development, and broad segments of the population are optimistic for the first time in years that a decade of repression and decline can be reversed.

The Angola government is considering over US8.6 billion investment to boost the transformation of the industry between 2009 and 2012, Angola's deputy-minister for industry Kiala Gabriel has announced. Mr Abriel said the amount will be channeled to various sub-programmes like those of reconstitution of the human capital and creation of infrastructures to support the development.

Michela Wrong’s latest book “It’s Our Turn to Eat: the Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower” has stirred controversy in Kenya. Through the struggles of anti-corruption whistleblower John Githongo, Wrong examines how corruption has plagued the country. Transparency Watch spoke with Wrong about the themes behind her book: identity, history, cynicism and integrity.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai tried to put on a brave face Wednesday by suggesting that talks aimed at resolving outstanding issues in the unity government had not reached a deadlock. But events so far show his optimism is misplaced. Crippling the coalition are issues around the fact that Mugabe stripped off the communications sector from a ministry controlled by the MDC, the delay in swearing in Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy Bennett, fresh farms invasions, the continued detention of political prisoners and the appointment of governors, ambassadors and permanent secretaries.

A recent deadly attack by Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has left five children dead and hundreds of homes burned to the ground, village leaders have told the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC).

Moving to combat the spiraling economic downturn in developing countries, the World Bank will unveil a major initiative today to almost double financing for road, bridge and other infrastructure projects from Latin America to Eastern Europe, allowing poorer nations to create jobs in a manner similar to the stimulus programs underway in the United States and other wealthy countries.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of civilians uprooted in continuing raids by the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Lubero area of North Kivu over the last seven weeks has risen to over 100,000. A series of concerted attacks carried out by the rebel group against civilians in the villages of Luofu, Kirumba, Kanyabonga and Kayna near Lubero, 170 kms north of Goma, have left a trail of death and destruction and caused recurrent displacement.

Two army officers in Guinea have been arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup, security sources told the BBC. The arrests were made as new military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was preparing to make his first trip out of Guinea since seizing power in December. He led a bloodless coup after the death of Lansana Conte, who had ruled the West African country since 1984.

The African National Congress (ANC) is heading for a decisive victory in South Africa's general election, taking more than two-thirds of the vote so far. With more than 12 million votes counted, the ANC has 67%. The major opposition parties are trailing well behind - the Democratic Alliance with 16% and the newly formed Congress of the People (Cope) has 7.6%.

A £15m package to help the people of Zimbabwe has been announced by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander. This critical humanitarian aid will mean increased support for the country’s health system, greater access to clean water and more support for struggling farmers in Zimbabwe.

In a rare move, Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress (AC) has commended President Umaru Yar’Adua over his decision not to deploy soldiers to South-west Ekiti state for Saturday’s governorship election re-run. In a statement issued in Lagos, the party described the President’s decision as perhaps ''the single most overt act he has taken in furtherance of his administration’s rule of law mantra and commitment to free and fair elections."

Six candidacies have met the deadline to submit their papers to the Mauritania's Constitutional Council, and are now set to contest the 6 June presidential elections in the country, official sources told PANA. Gen. Mohamed Ould Aziz, leader of the military junta that overthrew democratically-elected President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi last August, was the first to submit his papers.

Nigeria's most vocal opposition party, the Action Congress (AC), has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its failure to accredit "credible observer groups" for Saturday’s governorship re-run in South West Ekiti state. In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said INEC’s decision to accredit "only the groups that catch its fancy", rather than those widely acclaimed as credible, could be a signal to how the commission would conduct the elections.

Agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are expected in Burundi to take part in investigations into the unresolved assassination of the Vice-President of the Observatory to Fight Corruption and Economic Malfeasance (OLUCOME), Ernest Manirumva, government sources told PANA here. The gesture of the US government was described by Burundi's Public Prosecutor, Elysée Ndaye, as a "guarantee of transparency" in the search for truth about the masterminds, perpetrators and motive for the crime, which aroused global emotion.

The United Nations will convene a global summit in June to assess the impact of the world economic crisis on development, after the General Assembly agreed on the arrangements for the conference. “In the midst of the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression, we now have the opportunity and the responsibility to search for solutions that take into account the interests of all nations, the rich and the poor, the large and the small,” Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto stated after the 192-member body adopted a resolution on the 1 to 3 June summit.

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