Malawi on Thursday launched a probe into the mysterious death of a top assistant to former President Bakili Muluzi, authorities have said. The inquiry into the death of Muluzi’s Chief Economics Advisor, Precious Kalonga Stambuli, comes six years after the mysterious death of the 40-year-old top economist. - Friday 23 January 2009

A Zanu-PF senator has been arrested in an agricultural inputs scam in which they are said to have defrauded the state of more than US$10,000. At least seven other Zanu PF parliamentarians are facing a police probe. - Friday 23 January 2009

A joint DR Congo-Rwanda military operation following a much lauded diplomatic accord has led to the capture Laurent Nkunda, CNDP rebel leader. A further destabilisation of the FDLR, a Hutu rebel group, will cripple the CNDP’s premise. Diplomatic co-operation instead of denunciative finger pointing has proved itself as a powerful tool against destructive rebel activities in the volatile region. - Friday 23 January 2009

The Zimbabwe dollar now seems to have lost all its appeal, and calls for the adoption of a foreign currency to replace the struggling monetary unit and put an end to the country’s crippling hyperinflation are becoming louder. - Thursday 22 January 2009

The financially bankrupt Robert Mugabe administration has set itself on yet another collision course with teachers as they were paid less than US$10 this month. Teachers have hit back by declaring that they would boycott class when the new school term begins next week. - Thursday 22 January 2009

When High Court judge Chris Nicholson ruled last year that Thabo Mbeki had used ‘presidential powers’ to influence South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority’s(NPA) legal action against Jacob Zuma, ANC extremists summarily dismissed Mbeki from State House to replace him with Kgalema Motlanthe. The world watched with horror as a democratically elected president was deposed in a ‘boardroom coup’. - Thursday 22 January 2009

Obama in his inaugural speech proposed a vigorous search for alternative energy to drive the world’s largest economy. Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of crude oil to the US. The country’s economy is highly dependent on revenue from oil amid demands for a diversification of the economy. - Thursday 22 January 2009

For about 14 years now, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - a Rwandan Hutu militia whose leaders are linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide have been operating from and in DR Congo, but a joint military operation that has sought to halt their activities and bring them to book has been been initiated. - Wednesday 21 January 2009

The World Health Organasation has released shock cholera figures of about 47,000 Zimbabweans having contracted the disease. - Wednesday 21 January 2009

Scores of high-profile personalities, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, will embark on a hunger strike until a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis is found. - Wednesday 21 January 2009