As pressure mounts on Zimbabwe to restore the rule of law on white farms, the government is seeking a Supreme Court ruling to endorse the controversial land reform programme.

Heavy rains in Guinea have left at least five people dead and 30,000 homeless in the worst floods for many years.

Violence on Zimbabwe's commercial farms has intensified two weeks after the government signed the landmark Abuja agreement in which it undertook to respect the rule of law in land redistribution, farmers and analysts said this week.

Advocates of genetic engineering say the technology could eliminate the parasitic weed Striga - commonly known as 'witch weed' and 'buda', in the Swahili language - which has devastated crops in East Africa.

A long term collaboration between the governments of South Africa and Lesotho to protect the biodiversity of the Drakensberg and Maloti Mountains received a boost last week when the World Bank approved grant funding worth $15.24 million for the five year Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project.