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Vice President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday assured Nigerians that President Umar Yar'Adua who is currently receiving treatment at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for a heart condition, is doing fine and responding well to treatment. (AllAfrica)

An independent United Nations human rights expert today condemned the series of stonings that have been taking place in Somalia, and called for an urgent end to such "cruel, inhuman and degrading" practices. (AllAfrica)

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the shooting attack on a United Nations helicopter on Thursday in Dongo in western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that left three peacekeepers, a civilian pilot and one member of the Congolese national police wounded. (AllAfrica)

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ended one of Africa's longest and complex civil wars, with nominal agreement reached on security, wealth sharing, and governance issues. But there are renewed fears that conflict could erupt again in the country as divisions between the north and the south deepen. (AllAfrica)

 Mauritania formally adopted the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2001, but in the eight years since, it has had limited effect on the status of women. (AllAfrica)

THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) public information assistant, Kelvin Shimo has said the number of Congolese refugees Zambia is repatriating back to their home country has continued to rise with a total of 33,424 since 2007. (AllAfrica)

"We have been here since four in the morning, my baby is tired," says Melisia Shinedhimha (24) outside the polling station in Okuruyangava, one of Windhoek's poorest townships. (AllAfrica)

A HIGH powered South African delegation is expected in Harare on Sunday to speed up talks among partners in the shaky inclusive government, as it emerged yesterday that the negotiators of the global political agreement (GPA) have agreed on a 20-item agenda to resolve outstanding issues of the pact. (AllAfrica)

When African representatives travel to Copenhagen in early December for crucial international talks on climate change, they will strive to speak in unison. "For the first time in history," says Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, "Africa will field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states of the African Union.... Africa's interest and position will not be muffled." (AllAfrica)

Liberia's Poverty Reduction programs and HICP (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) initiative would be jeopardized should it lose a US$20m debt case filed in a London High Court against the country, Finance Minister Augustine Ngafaun said Thursday. (AllAfrica)

Kenya's economic growth is still depressed but signs of recovery are starting to emerge, the country's top economic advisory organ has said. The Monetary Policy Committee, which advises the Central Bank of Kenya on how to manage the economy, noted that credit risk is easing increasing stability in the banking sector. (AllAfrica)

The country will take over two months to plug the wheat deficit created after two vessels with 75,000 tonnes were hijacked by pirates early this month, millers said on Friday. (AllAfrica)

Failure by African Union officials to account for millions of dollars for Somalia operations has dried up payments for the 4,500 peace-keeping troops after upset donors abruptly halted disbursements. (AllAfrica)

THE endorsement last weekend of the newly-nominated Zanu PF presidium by Midlands province and Masvingo, which dramatically changed its initial decision after a failed bid to topple vice-president Joice Mujuru, completed the trouncing of the Emmerson Mnangagwa faction within the party ahead of its congress next month. (AllAfrica)

Vice-President Joice Mujuru on Tuesday lambasted Finance minister Tendai Biti over the contentious handling of the over US$500 million facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in what officials this week said was the most dramatic high-profile clash within the inclusive government since its formation in February. (AllAfrica)

Two near misses by huge storms rolling in from the Indian Ocean have signalled an early start to Madagascar's cyclone season, prompting the humanitarian community to appeal for "urgent" preparedness funding. Meteorologists forecast that four to five intense cyclones could strike Madagascar during the 2009/10 season. (AllAfrica)

In yet another clear indication of why MPs should not be entrusted with too much power over economic policies, parliament on Wednesday passed a Bill seeking to reinstate price controls in certain segments of the economy. (AllAfrica)

The county of Montserrado, and perhaps the entire country, stood still in the last twenty-four hours awaiting results from a marathon senatorial by-election. Political activities in the last three months had been nerve-racking as various political interests intensify efforts to grab the senatorial seat rendered vacant by the death of Hannah Brent who won the seat in 2005 on the ticket of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). (AllAfrica)

The government of Mali declared in early June that it would mount a "merciless struggle" against terrorist forces operating in the country's far northern desert. President Amadou Toumani Touré vowed that the killers of a British hostage, murdered just a few days earlier, would not escape unpunished. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a predominantly Algerian dissident group that had claimed credit for the execution, reacted a few days later by assassinating a colonel in the Malian intelligence service. (AllAfrica)

Outside an imposing residence in Runda, an upscale residential area in Nairobi, Kenya, two men in black-and-orange uniforms stand guard. They work for Group 4 Security, a private security firm. A few feet away a patrol car idles. Its radio communication systems are patched into an alarm centre in the city and to an identical car parked near a police station two miles away. The patrol cars are there to ensure the police respond as soon as an alarm is raised. (AllAfrica)

In July 2008 Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced his intention to prosecute President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for human rights violations related to the conflict in that country's Darfur region. Less than a year later, on 3 March 2009, ICC judges confirmed that an arrest warrant had been issued for President Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. (AllAfrica)

THE DIRECTIVE issued by the President, His Excellency Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, to all Ministers of State to grant unrestricted access to sympathisers of the ruling party anytime they come to them, appears not to have gone down well with the Majority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli West, Mr. Alban Sumani Bagbin. (AllAfrica)

Polling stations around the country are ready for today and tomorrow's presidential and National Assembly elections. Yesterday, the polling station at (AllAfrica)

THE biggest challenge thousands of Namibians face today and tomorrow as they cast their votes in the fourth presidential and parliamentary elections is to what extent they will succeed in deepening the country's democracy, the group economics think tank of Standard Bank said yesterday. (AllAfrica)

A South African court has ordered the government to protect the land rights of its citizens in Zimbabwe, as well as to respect the rulings of the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). (AllAfrica)

Gender activists foresee a drop in female parliamentarians after Namibia's general and presidential elections on November 27 and 28. It's a trend that jeopardises the region's goal of 50 percent female representation in politics by 2015. (AllAfrica)

Born in a squatter camp in Orlando East and raised by a single mother; working in a factory while completing secondary school by correspondence; arrested and banned by the apartheid government: South Africa's ambassador to Italy is an example of the long road her country has travelled. (AllAfrica)

The Presidency came clear yesterday to announce that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is suffering from acute pericarditis, an inflammatory condition of the covering of the heart. (AllAfrica)

Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has taken a swipe at her successor in human settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, over the value of theatre productions as a way of communicating with stakeholders, accusing him of not having launched a single new housing project since his appointment earlier this year. (AllAfrica)

A RULING in the North Gauteng High Court yesterday paved the way for the signing today of a historic bilateral investment protection treaty between Zimbabwe and SA. (AllAfrica)

A boat accident on a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo leaves at least 73 people dead, Red Cross officials say. (BBC News)