Tycoon Kamlesh Pattni has denied videotaping prominent Kenyans as he bribed them. The denial, almost two weeks after the raids that police informants said yielded evidence of corruption, was issued by Pattni's lawyer Bernard Kalove. In the statement, Kalove accused "the press, both print and electronic, mainstream and gutter", of having gone on a "rumour generation and rumour mongering spree" intended to suggest that "our client was captured 'bribing', or 'greasing the palms of' or 'entertaining' certain prominent personalities".

The recent ANC Youth League conference was, in every respect, a gathering of the party's crown princes. And the aristocracy arrived in a style hitherto unimaginable. Unlike in past years when delegates came in buses and taxis, this year saw a flotilla of luxury sedans and hired cars for those who had flown in. An angry delegate from Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg, said the league was becoming an elite club of MPs and civil servants. "How will we be able to reverse the [township youth's] slide from political activism...when we live in town and drive flashy cars? The youth will not bother to vote when their leaders are seen to use them as stepping stones to their individual advancement."

As peace talks continue in Kenya between the Sudanese government and its principal opponent, the SPLM/A, the prospects of securing a sustainable peace are increasingly threatened by other issues not on the table in this process. These include intense fighting in Darfur in western Sudan and unresolved questions of democratic participation throughout the country. The humanitarian crisis of as many as one million people displaced in Darfur and across the border in Chad, is currently rated among the worst in the world. The latest edition of the Africa Focus Bulletin contains a variety of news articles and links on the crisis.