Extreme weather conditions predicted because of climate change in Namibia are likely to have a tremendous effect on the 70 per cent of the country's people who live in rural areas and depend heavily on agriculture. According to experts in climate change, Namibia has no option but to adapt to the changing climate as radical changes in weather, such as extreme dry spells and exceptionally heavy rainfall, are forecast for the Southern African country.

Fears are mounting that a cholera epidemic could spread rapidly among the hundreds of thousands of people living in often unsanitary conditions in Mogadishu after fleeing drought, famine and insecurity. In Mogadishu's largest health facility, Banadir Hospital, 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a symptom of cholera, have been recorded so far this year, causing 181 deaths. (Random laboratory tests showed that 60 per cent of the cases also tested positive for malaria, according to WHO.)

Three journalists were killed and 21 others injured in Tripoli after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) warplanes bombed three transmission towers on 30 July in an effort to take Libyan state television off the air. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have condemned the attack.

Police from the Law and Order section on 11 August 2011 visited Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) offices in search of Zimbabwe Independent editor Constantine Chimakure and senior political reporter Wongai Zhangazha over a story the paper published in its edition of 8 July 2011. Detectives said that they wanted the two to assist in investigations of who ‘leaked’ the details of the story as it was based on cabinet deliberations, which is an offence under the Official Secrets Act.