The Professional Women, Executives and Businesswomen’s Forum (PROWEB) organised a unique investment conference last week in Zimbabwe’s capital where businesswomen from South Africa and Zimbabwe got the opportunity to not only network but forge what may be a unique African association among businesswomen across national borders.

The room is dingy and cramped. The walls are unplastered and its rough cement edges can scrape the skin easily. Furniture is strewn all over the place, plastic chairs stacked one on top of the other, boxes on top of them, handbags hanging from the wall and clothes on a rack. A small kerosene cooker is kept on the side of the room while a bicycle is parked next to the only bed in the 10-by-10-feet room.

Condemning Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from a regional tribunal which ruled its state-orchestrated land seizures illegal, civil society groups have said the country should abide by decisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or pull out of the regional body entirely.

The unresolved issues plaguing Zimbabwe’s coalition government are set to drag on after Southern African leaders once again failed to call President Robert Mubage to book for reneging on his coalition promises.

Although the international community has warned that it will not recognise the results of the November elections in Honduras, the de facto government in power since the Jun. 28 coup d'etat says the vote is going ahead.

Every year 400 Mauritians undergo amputations, another 400 have heart surgery; 175 people's eyes are under the knife every week - all due to a disease that is easily prevented, Type 2 diabetes.

Despite fresh international criticism of Beijing’s backing for an unpopular regime as the Burmese junta, China sees its alliance with the country’s military as a matter of simple economic expediency and is determined to forge ahead with controversial joint dual oil and gas pipelines that will ensure greater energy security for its robust economy.

Muslim religious leaders may seem too conservative to promote the message of safe sex to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. But that image seems to be changing. Thanks to community-based organisations and young social entrepreneurs working quietly in villages.

The stepped-up crackdown against reformist leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, notably the arrest of key aides, signals that the crisis faced by the Islamic regime in Iran has reached new heights.

The top policeman accused of supporting Kenya's post-election violence, in which thousands were killed or raped because of their ethnicity, has been given a cushy job as head of the country’s postal service.