I heard variations of the unauthorized trip stories on your site while I was in the Southwest British Mission 1967-1969. In one story, the Elders are in the Channel Islands. (British territory only 10 miles off the French Coast. The most famous ones are Guernsey and Jersey. They were the best places to be in my mission because nobody, even the District Leader, bothered you very much due to the travel problems.) The Elders get the idea of taking a six week vacation to Paris and prepare dummy reports which they give to their landlady to mail in sequence. Of course, she mails them all at once and the Elders are busted when they get back.

[The producer] stated that the unique features of Big Brother Africa, which distinguishes it from the first two editions, are quiet interesting. For starters, this is the first time that all the housemates will not be coming from the same country. Aside this, all the 12 housemates in BBA are representing 12 different countries. "This will explain why countries like our own Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe will each be represented when the show finally kicks off in Randburg, South Africa, on Sunday."

Fayose explained that DStv subscribers and audience in the continent will most certainly have a healthy and delightful mix of different perspectives and cultures. "And talking about culture, this is where Professor Bankole Omotoso, a Nigerian and an author of novellas, short stories, plays and historical novels was drafted into the Big Brother Africa team."

According to him, "Prof. Omotoso used his scholarly experience and interpretation of drama in helping to identify dramatic potentials, which could otherwise be misinterpreted due to cultural and ethnic differences in the housemates. He was also involved in the selection process of the BBA housemates.

The State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof:

1̊ fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations;

2̊ eradication of ethnic, regional and other divisions and promotion of national unity;

3̊ equitable sharing of power;

4̊ building a state governed by the rule of law, a pluralistic democratic government, equality of all Rwandans and between women and men reflected by ensuring that women are granted at least thirty per cent of posts in decision making organs;

5̊ building a State committed to promoting social welfare and establishing appropriate mechanisms for ensuring social justice;

6̊ the constant quest for solutions through dialogue and consensus.

Freedom of speech and freedom of information shall not prejudice public order and good morals, the right of every citizen to honour, good reputation and the privacy of personal and family life. It is also guaranteed so long as it does not prejudice the protection of the youth and minors.

The new draft law -- which eliminates lifetime hard labour sentences for prisoners, and annuls the 1980s Law 105 on Supreme State Security Courts -- is set to be debated by the Shura Council and the People's Assembly next week.

According to Cairo University law professor Fawzia Abdel-Sattar, "The old penal code was always criticised by international legal experts, and as a result lots of countries were refusing to implement their extradition treaties with Egypt, based on the fact that the Egyptian system enforces certain penalties which more advanced countries do not approve of."

"The Bible says curse be unto a woman who wears pants, and those who wear their husband's clothes. That is why the world is in such a state today," Mswati, ruler of the impoverished feudal nation of about one million, said late on Thursday.

"The king says I am the cause of the world's problems because of my outfit. Never mind terrorism, government corruption, poverty and disease, it's me and my pants. I reject that," said Thob'sile Dlamini.

The bill presented in Parliament amends the Constitution to exclude laws passed by the Legislative Assembly and ordinances passed by the King from judicial review.

It says freedom of the press in the kingdom shall not be used to "infringe upon the rights of others and the cultural traditions of the Kingdom, or to violate public law and order and national security."

"A person can be free to speak and to print anything as long as it complies with cultural traditions, as long as it doesn't violate the rights of people. They do not specify what cultural traditions are. But it leaves open for the government, to come up with the whole list of things, including that you cannot criticise the royal family. Because that would be against cultural traditions, you could not criticise the government or the leadership of Tonga. So we're looking into a situation where there is a major movement to make the government of Tonga far more dictatorial than it's ever been."

Erroneously, he said, the Europeans equate Israel's presence in the territories to France's colonialization of Algeria, forgetting that Israel's ties to Judea and Samaria go a bit deeper than France's 100-year connection to Algeria; that the Algerians never claimed Paris as their capital, and certainly were never committed to wiping France off the map.

As for the national identity: this very moment considerable parts of the Algerian population are fighting against forced "Arabization." Not to mention the Islamist bloodbaths. Confessed cynic that I am, I can only wish the future Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement will be paid for with less blood than the current French-Algerian one is. The nearest analogy would be for Hamas to cut a couple of thousands Palestinian throats, preferably these of women and children, to make Palestinians love Israelis. France, the prevailing notion appears to be, is simply the safer option, the window to the wide prosperous world. The friendship is founded in tragic Algerian failure much more than in any successes, of either side.