The cancellation of a popular phone-in show on Namibia's national broadcaster has raised fears that the ruling party is clamping down on media freedom ahead of national polls this year. Last week Namibia's government broadcaster NBC shut down the morning Chat Show, saying callers deluged it with hate speech and cultural insensitivity.

Zimbabwe's finance minister gave warning on Thursday that the country's power-sharing government will fail, with potentially disastrous consequences, unless international donors urgently inject cash into its treasury. Tendai Biti welcomed Australia's move to boost humanitarian spending by $6,5-million but said donations channelled through international aid agencies would not save the transitional government that was sworn in last month.

Dead Aid, a controversial new book by economist Dambisa Moyo, argues that cutting off all non-emergency assistance to Africa within five years "would help stimulate growth". But in countries like Zambia, the author's homeland, such a prescription could prove problematic, given the global financial turndown.

A repeat of the xenophobic violence that swept through South Africa - killing at least 62 people and displacing 100,000 others - will return if the government continues to ignore its origins, says a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is to launch the Pan African Alliance on E-Commerce to intensify cooperation and initiate common projects of interest in African countries, as part of a two-day workshop on Trade Facilitation and Aid for Trade which ends in Addis Ababa today.