However, the first story is on a very special birthday party in Addis Ababa.

"The Emperor is 107!" screamed the headline in the Addis Ababa weekly The Reporter, reminding readers that Rastafarianism and worship of the late Emperor Haile Selassie is alive and well in Ethiopia.

Clubbers swayed to reggae and rap rhythms at the Addis Ababa Hilton, marking the 107th anniversary of the emperor's birth.

It was "get up, stand up" time as the band Roots and Culture got jamming with Bob Marley's reggae hits and other Rasta favourites, thrilling the audience of Rastas and ordinary partygoers.

Happy birthday, Mr Emperor

They sang "Holy Herb" in praise of marijuana, or ganja as the Rastas usually call it. Lead guitarist Kwintasab appeared in traditional Ethiopian costume, decked out with the country's red-yellow-and-green flag.

At midnight two cakes bearing the name of Haile Selassie were ceremonially cut. "A not so melodious but enthusiastic voice sang a birthday tune, reggae type," The Reporter said.

Kwintasab says the event will be different next year. "The venue will be a kebele hall, and the entertainment a street type, bringing the celebration to everyone."

The Ethiopian authorities do not glorify Haile Selassie in any way, and the former Marxist regime of Col Mengistu Haile Mariam made life difficult for Rastas. But Rastafarianism is officially tolerated now.

Tapping into profit

Some enterprising miscreants in Nigeria have been making tidy profits by tapping phone lines and diverting them to payphones.

They then allow people to make calls for payment: one user made a five-minute call to Japan for 1,000 naira ($10), as opposed to the 5,600 naira cost of the normal call. The scam is costing Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd 20 million naira ($200,000) a month, the Nigeria News Network web site said.

Surfing the microwaves

Super-fast Net access on the way

But now for the good news: more and more Nigerians will be wired up with the launch of three new telecoms projects.

Nigeria's rural areas are getting a new phone network. The system uses Dart, a telephone technology previously used in Sierra Leone's rural phone system and supplied by the African Telecommunication Network (ATN).

It features a tropical climate backup device which makes it weather resistant. The new technology provides for digital data transmission, allowing Internet access.

The Guardian newspaper reports that even people with no telephone line will soon be able to surf the net on microwaves, with the launch of a new service called Supernet 300.

Using special antennae and modems, subscribers can log on and send e-mails with a system boasting speeds 300 times faster than the often unreliable analogue phone connection.

The first to benefit will be those within a 50km radius of an office run by Communications Trends of Nigeria Ltd (CTL), in Ikeja, south-western Nigeria.

Meanwhile, towns in the Niger Delta will benefit from a new $5m network using wireless local loop technology (WLL), The Guardian reports.

The mystery of the missing wheel

Could seriously damage your health

The days of Dar-es-Salaam's "daladala" minibus operators could be numbered, according to The East African.

The authorities say the daladala just don't meet the required safety standards - either they lack emergency exits, or their panelling is too thin, or they only have one rear wheel.

There are some 6,300 daladala operating in the Tanzanian capital, and thousands more in rural areas.

The paper says the dodgy minibuses are due to be phased out gradually, so passengers won't suffer disruption. But the new regulations are likely to face "stiff resistance," because many of the daladala owners are "government and ruling party officials who rely on them to boost their meagre official incomes" .

Commotion over clergy

Enough to cause a storm in Lusaka

Police had to step in when members of a breakaway Anglican Church group angry over church policy on gay and female priests tried to storm a church and disrupt a prayer meeting in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

The faction claimed ownership of the church, which is still being built. The vicar general of Lusaka diocese, Father Jones Mutemwakwenda, told the Times of Zambia that the major difference between the church and the breakaway group was the group's backing for the ordination of female priests and homosexuals.

In Tanzania the Roman Catholic Church is embroiled in a dispute with a splinter group known as the Wanamaombi, and is trying to bar them from Mass, according to the Daily News.

Ecclesiastical undergarments

Meanwhile, the "outrageous and obnoxious" practices of a sect known as the Word of Mercy Church led to a ban by the local chief in Kiambu, near Nairobi.

"He claimed some married women were being asked to bring their husbands' undergarments or photos for special prayers to help cement marriages," The East African reported.

Crocs in stock

Booming business in Ethiopia

Permits are required for the export of crocodile products under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which is just as well, because their skins and meat are as popular as ever.

In Australia you can find recipes for "oven-baked crocodile" or "crocodile schnitzels".

The Arba Minch Crocodile Farm in southern Ethiopia is now back in business, Ethiopian TV reports.

The farm, established in 1984, has not been trading for the past three years because of "marketing problems," but it is poised to slaughter 5,000 of its 7,000 crocodiles for their meat and skins, for foreigners who may be keen to snap them up.