In 2009, Brandon Huntley enraged most South Africans with his claim for refugee status in Canada, based on his persecution by black criminals, who targeted him because he was white. Undaunted, he’s back in Canadian courts, hoping to have his revocation revoked. Eish! By RICHARD POPLAK.

Earlier this year Kenya became Africa’s first country to digitise its information as part of a wide-scale open data initiative. Not only is the initiative enabling government accountability and transparency, but it’s yielding a secondary economy with a range of apps that are being created to help people access, manage and comment on government information. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Forget the hype about freedom and democracy. Revolutions aren’t about fluffy political concepts, they’re about food and money, as recent protests in Khartoum demonstrate again. This is what makes people really angry, and, as the world prepares for another recession, there’s a lot more anger to come. By SIMON ALLISON.

Libya’s rebel commanders claim they now control 80% of Sirte and they are confident that a victory in Muammar Gaddafi’s home town is just a few days away. In the meanwhile, civilians have borne the brunt of this protracted battle. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Are Anglican archbishops the conscience of our generation? The Archbishop of Canterbury followed on from Desmond Tutu’s savaging of the ANC over the Dalai Lama debacle with a no-holds-barred sermon in Harare on Sunday, telling Zimbabweans exactly what was wrong with their country. He followed this up by meeting the target of his ire on Monday afternoon. Brave man. By SIMON ALLISON.

You might not have heard of Pedro Pires, the former president of Cape Verde. But he’s worth hearing about, at least according the Ibrahim Prize committee who’ve named him as the recipient of this year’s award, relieved to have finally found someone worthy of commendation. By SIMON ALLISON.

The Ibrahim Index measures African governance across 86 different indicators. The results might not be earth-shattering – what, Somalia’s badly governed? – but their depth reveals exactly what’s going right and what’s going wrong in our country and our continent. By SIMON ALLISON.

Feted internationally, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is finding her shiny new Nobel Peace Prize isn’t universally welcomed at home. And with elections just around the corner, no one’s quite sure if the award will help or hinder her campaign. By SIMON ALLISON.

This is why most African presidents don’t like change. Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika thought it was a great move to expel Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata from his country five years ago, thinking it a great way to get on the good side of Zambia’s ruling party as well as assert his own authority. But after last month’s democratic elections in Zambia, Sata is now in charge, and he’s not at all happy with Mutharika. By SIMON ALLISON.

Clashes erupted on Sunday between Christians protesting a recent attack on a church in Cairo and the Egyptian military junta, leaving at least 19 people dead and more than 180 injured. By KHADIJA PATEL.

The Ibrahim Prize hasn’t been awarded the last two years, with the prize committee not finding any of Africa’s former presidents up to scratch. Africa – and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation – badly needs a winner. This year, they might just find one . By SIMON ALLISON.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ trip to Zimbabwe, part of a nine-day tour of Southern Africa that began on Thursday, is no ordinary clerical visit. Mugabe’s violent, factional politics have infiltrated the very heart of Zimbabwe’s Anglican Church, and Williams must try to find a way to heal a divided flock, and somehow redefine those very blurred lines between politics and religion in Zimbabwe. By SIMON ALLISON.

Every war has its collateral damage. Some end up on the front pages of newspapers or on glaring television screens. A misguided missile, a civilian massacre, a building lying in ruin. But there are also the hidden tragedies: the stories buried in the rubble or trapped inside the cages of a quiet zoo, metres from where the bombs rained down. This is the story of the Tripoli Zoo, and the South African-based veterinarian who travelled to a war zone to help hundreds of animals caught in the crossfire. EWN reporter ALEX ELISEEV went with him.

Home Affairs has begun deporting undocumented Zimbabweans who did not apply for legal status under a special dispensation, despite previous statements that it would not do so until it had completed its Zimbabwe Documentation Project. The move, which was not communicated, has caused confusion and angered immigrant rights groups. By OSIAME MOLEFE.

We knew that President Goodluck Jonathan’s first budget proposal was going to be different. After all, his crack economic team is headed up by former World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and is advised by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote – neither of whom are known for taking any nonsense. But scrapping fuel subsidies? That’s not different, just crazy; unless they’ve got something else up their sleeves. By SIMON ALLISON.

A day at the Pan-African Parliament was supposed to tell me everything I needed to know about the African Union’s perspective on all the continent’s political hotspots. Instead, I saw plenty of pomp and ceremony and some very fine traditional outfits, but no sign of any substance. By SIMON ALLISON.

It’s only a week until Cameroonians head to the polls to give Paul Biya another term in office. To make sure that’s what happens, Cameroon’s opposition is being subjected to arbitrary arrests and kidnaps, while Biya pulls all the strings to his advantage. By SIMON ALLISON.

Al-Shabaab claimed credit for a suicide bombing in Mogadishu on Tuesday which killed 70, the group’s largest attack in the Somali capital for years. They still have the power to devastate, clearly; but is this latest attack a confirmation of their strength or a sign that they’re under pressure? By SIMON ALLISON.

David Gerbi is a Libyan Jew. There aren’t many of them. He returned from exile to fight the battle against Gaddafi, and now he’s on a personal mission to restore the long-deserted Tripoli synagogue. He wants to make sure his community is allowed to play a part in the new Libya. By SIMON ALLISON.

The South African government is taking a multidimensional approach to the rhino poaching crisis. After announcing a year ago it would conduct a study into the viability of legal trade in rhino horn, it is now holding bilateral talks with the government of Vietnam to share information. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

It’s not easy to give any credit to the bad guys. That’s probably why Hosni Mubarak, for all his many sins, isn’t getting any recognition for departing office with (relatively speaking) a whimper rather than a bang. By SIMON ALLISON.

At the opening session of the Pan African Parliament in Midrand on Monday, Niger’s minister of foreign affairs, Mohamed Bazoum was adamant that his country would not accede to an extradition request for Muammar Gaddafi’s third son, Saadi.  Libya’s National Transitional Council is eager to try Saadi on charges of corruption but Niger refuses to send him home to face the full wrath of Libya’s new rulers. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Another tourist snatched off a Kenyan resort and spirited into Somalia; what started as a bizarre, isolated incident is becoming a potentially crippling trend for Kenya’s tourist industry. By SIMON ALLISON.

With the South African counter-piracy task force under “Operation Copper” cycling through our shiny frigates at an alarming rate, the Southern African community is beginning to understand that piracy off the Horn of Africa is not a localised phenomenon. The thought of Somali piracy encroaching upon Southern African waters is a new one, but with a successful attack occurring last year, maritime security is back on the agenda in a big way.  By JOHN STUPART.

Zambia’s new president is already shaking things up. He’s changed the names of the airports, he’s investigating possible campaign fraud and now he’s appointed a vice-president. Nothing too special about that, except for the remarkable fact that the new VP is white. By SIMON ALLISON.

On Thursday, Brand South Africa and the Brand Leadership Academy hosted this year’s edition of the Brand Africa Forum, which was established to “proactively drive Africa’s reputation, image and competitiveness”. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Not only has Muammar Gaddafi’s fall left the African Union stranded in diplomatic no-man’s land, it’s given the lumbering continental organisation a potential $40 million hole in its already strained budget. But Gaddafi’s role as generous benefactor is up for grabs and there shouldn’t be a shortage of takers. By SIMON ALLISON.

On Monday night at least two people were injured after a section of the pipeline that supplies Israel and Jordan with gas from Egypt was blown up. The attack is the latest of a series of acts of sabotage on the pipeline in recent months; it has been attacked by unknown assailants a total of six times since former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Score one for the optimists: a UN report has defied doom and gloom predictions that the world is running out of food and water, saying that there’s enough water in river basins to more than double food production, even accounting for a surge in population. That doesn’t mean that all people will get fed and watered, but a solution is at least possible. By SIMON ALLISON