Ghana was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade – first in gold, later in slaves.

It was also the first black African nation in the region to achieve independence from a colonial power, in this instance Britain.

Despite being rich in mineral resources, and endowed with a good education system and efficient civil service, Ghana fell victim to corruption and mismanagement soon after independence in 1957.

In 1966 its first president and pan-African hero, Kwame Nkrumah, was deposed in a coup, heralding years of mostly-military rule. In 1981 Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings staged his second coup. The country began to move towards economic stability and democracy.

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In April 1992 a constitution allowing for a multi-party system was approved in a referendum, ushering in a period of democracy.

A well-administered country by regional standards, Ghana is often seen as a model for political and economic reform in Africa. Cocoa exports are an essential part of the economy; Ghana is the world's second-largest producer.

The discovery of major offshore oil reserves was announced in June 2007, encouraging expectations of a major economic boost. Production officially began at the end of 2010, but some analysts expressed concern over the country's ability to manage its new industry, as laws governing the oil sector had not yet been passed.

Early among African countries to decolonise, Ghana is now a stable democracy with lively elections

In July 2009, Ghana secured a 600 million dollar three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), amid concerns about the impact of the global recession on poorer countries. The IMF said the Ghanaian economy had proved to be relatively resilient because of the high prices of cocoa and gold.

Ghana has a high-profile peacekeeping role; troops have been deployed in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and DR Congo.

Although Ghana has largely escaped the civil strife that has plagued other West African countries, in 1994-95 land disputes in the north erupted into ethnic violence, resulting in the deaths of 1,000 people and the displacement of a further 150,000.

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Half of all child deaths occurred in Africa

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Surviving childhood

Most deaths of young children around the world are from mainly preventable infectious causes, experts have said.

A US team, writing in the Lancet, looked at mortality figures from 2010.

They found two-thirds of the 7.6m children who died before their fifth birthday did so due to infectious causes – and pneumonia was found to be the leading cause of death.

One expert said it was very important to “translate such findings into action”.

The team from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health looked at data from a range of sources, including household surveys and registration systems for 193 countries. Mathematical modelling was used where data was incomplete.

They found child deaths had fallen by two million (26%) since 2000, and there have been significant reductions in leading causes of death including diarrhoea and measles – as well as pneumonia.

But they say there are still significant challenges.

International targets

Half of child deaths occurred in Africa – two thirds (2.6m) were due to infectious causes, including malaria and Aids.

In South East Asia, neonatal causes were the leading cause of death.

Five countries (India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and China) accounted for almost half (3.75m) of deaths in children under five.

The researchers warn that very few countries will achieve international targets for improving child survival – the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 – by the 2015 deadline.

Only tetanus, measles, and HIV/Aids have fallen enough to meet the target.

Writing in the Lancet, the researchers say: “Across all the previous and current rounds of causes of childhood death estimation, pneumonia and pre-term birth complications consistently rank as the leading causes at the global level.

“Africa and South East Asia are repeatedly the regions with the most deaths in children younger than five years.

“Our trend analysis shows that accelerated reductions are needed in the two major causes and in the two high-burden regions to achieve MDG4 by 2015.”

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Libya Crisis

Divisive bid

Dangers lurk

Should Sirte be rebuilt?

War victims' care scandal

Libya, a mostly desert and oil-rich country on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea with an ancient history, has more recently been renowned for the 42-year rule of the mercurial Col Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2011, the colonel's autocratic government was brought to an end by a six-month uprising and ensuing civil war. The country is currently governed by the National Transitional Council that emerged from the rebellion and has pledged to turn Libya into a pluralist, democratic state.

A former Roman colony, Libya saw invasions by Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and more recently Italians before gaining independence in 1951.

Oil was discovered in 1959 and made the state – then a kingdom ruled by the head of the Senussi sufi order – wealthy.

Col Gaddafi came to power by overthrowing King Idris in a coup in 1969, ten years after independence, and Libya embarked on a radically new chapter in its history.

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At a glance

Politics: Interim government has pledged to work towards stability and democratic elections following violent overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi.

Economy: Libya has large reserves of oil and gas

International: The West backed the uprising against Col Gaddafi with an aerial bombing campaign, while Russia and China condemned the intervention.

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

After initially seeking to emulate the Arab nationalism and socialism of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Col Gaddafi's rule became increasingly eccentric.

Ideas put forward in his Green Book aimed to set forth an alternative to both communism and capitalism. Col Gaddafi called the new system a jamahiriya, loosely translated as a “state of the masses”.

In theory, power was held by people's committees in system of direct democracy, without political parties, but in practice, Col Gaddafi's power was absolute, exercised through “revolutionary committees” formed of regime loyalists.

After the 1988 bombing of a PanAm plane above the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which the US blamed on Libya, the Gaddafi regime was shunned by much of the international community.

But in 2003 it underwent a dramatic rehabilitation by taking formal responsibility for the bombing, paying compensation and handing over two Libyan suspects, on of whom, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted for the attack. The UN responded by lifting sanctions.

But in 2011, the world once again turned against the Libyan government over its use of violence against the popular uprising against the colonel, inspired by the anti-authoritarian protests sweeping through the Arab world.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising Nato air strikes to protect civilians. After months of near-stalemate, the rebels stormed into Tripoli August 2011, and several weeks later Col Gaddafi was killed when his last holdout was overrun.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) and its interim government now face the formidable challenge of imposing order, disbanding the former rebel forces, rebuilding the economy, creating functioning institutions and managing the pledged transition to democracy and the rule of law.

In October 2011 the NTC said it would hold elections to a Public National Conference in June 2012. The body will appoint an interim government and a constituent authority to draft a constitution.

Tension between the emerging government and local militias, ethnic clashes in the remote south and moves in the oil-rich east to re-establish a degree of regional autonomy all threatened to disrupt the timetable for elections in early 2012.

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Poor in natural resources, prone to drought and with little arable land, the Cape Verde islands have won a reputation for achieving political and economic stability.

The former Portuguese colony comprises 10 islands and five islets, all but three of which are mountainous.

During the 20th century severe droughts caused the deaths of 200,000 people and prompted heavy emigration. Today, more people with origins in Cape Verde live outside the country than inside it. The money that they send home brings in much-needed foreign currency.

From the mid-1990s, droughts cut the islands' grain crop by 80%, and in 2002 the government appealed for international food aid after the harvest failed.

Nonetheless, Cape Verde enjoys a per capita income that is higher than that of many continental African nations. It has sought closer economic ties with the US, EU and Portugal.

In 2008 Cape Verde became only the second country after Botswana to be promoted by the United Nations out of the ranks of the 50 least developed countries. In recent years it has seen economic growth averaging 6%, the construction of three international airports and hundreds of kilometres of roads.

Increasing numbers of Europe-bound migrants have been intercepted in Cape Verde's waters

Tourism is on the rise, but there are concerns that it poses a threat to the Cape Verde's rich marine life. It is an important nesting site for loggerhead turtles and humpback whales feed in the islands' waters.

Cape Verde became independent in 1975, a year after its sister colony, Guinea-Bissau, won freedom from Portugal. The two countries planned to unite, but the plan was ditched after a coup in Guinea-Bissau in 1980 strained relations.

In 1991 Cape Verde held its first free presidential elections, which were won by Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro, who replaced the islands' first president, Aristides Pereira.

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Desmond Tutu, Chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, his thoughts on forgiveness and its effect on the victim and the perpetrator. A moving, yet optimistic discussion. Visit thePBS archives to see the complete show and more of Bill Moyers. www.pbs.org American Doctors’ Charity Saves Lives Around the World www.youtube.com You choose! US Health Care reform vs Successful Health Care systems of Taiwan and Switzerland www.youtube.com Health care Fails American Workers, Now 3rd World Charity Offers Care www.youtube.com Failing to Protect, Serve and Lead, Our Federal Government www.youtube.com Presidential Election and the Supreme Court www.youtube.com Moyers, Susan Jacoby: American failure in education, reason www.youtube.com Saudi-American Reporter Layla Fidel and Bill Moyers discuss Iraq; Pres. Debates critique (Pt 1) www.youtube.com “Where Does the Money Go?” National Debt, Bill Moyers www.youtube.com Impeachment, the Constitution, and the President, Pt 1 www.youtube.com John C. Bogel and Moyers, Capitalism and Democracy Pt 1 www.youtube.com Fall of Rome vs Failure of American Politics and Economy www.youtube.com WELFARE for the Wealthy, as US Poverty, Hunger Increase www.youtube.com Also: Corp Welfare, Bill Moyers and David Cay Johnston www.youtube.com Health Care reform options from other developed countries. www.youtube.com

Joyce Banda is doing her best to get donor funding restored to Malawi

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Joyce Banda profile

President Joyce Banda has said Malawi will overturn its ban on homosexual acts – the first African country to do so since 1994.

Two Malawian men were sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2010 after saying they were getting married.

Several Western leaders have recently said they would cut aid to countries which did not recognise gay rights.

Mrs Banda took power last month after her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, died of a heart attack.

She has since reversed several of his policies, including devaluing the currency, in a bid to get donor funding restored.

Many donors cut aid under Mr Mutharika, accusing him of economic mismanagement and political repression.

After a storm of international condemnation, he did pardon the two Malawian men on “humanitarian grounds only” but said they had “committed a crime against our culture, against our religion, and against our laws”.

Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries.

In Uganda, an MP recently introduced a bill which stipulated the death penalty could be imposed for some homosexual offences, although he has since said he now wants this changed to life in prison.

In a speech to parliament, which was broadcast live on national radio, Mrs Banda said: “The Indecency and Unnatural Acts laws shall be repealed.”

Earlier this month, Mrs Banda said she did not want Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to attend an African Union summit Malawi is hosting in July.

She said she feared the “economic implications” if Mr Bashir visited the country in defiance of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges over the conflict in Darfur.

Relations with donors have already improved under Mrs Banda and the UK, which had been extremely critical of Mr Mutharika, is now urging other donors to restore funding as soon as possible.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and aid used to make up a large proportion of the national budget.

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MSF is concerned that the situation in Zamfara is deteriorating as the water supply becomes polluted

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The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called on the Nigerian government to do more to deal with a deadly outbreak of lead poisoning.

In 2009 it became clear that hundreds of children in the northern state of Zamfara had died from exposure to lead.

They were poisoned by dust released by gold miners breaking open rocks near their homes.

The charity says 4,000 other children remain contaminated with many of them unable to get treatment.

“One thousand five hundred children are currently lead-poisoned but are not receiving treatment because it is impossible to deliver effective treatment while they still live in contaminated homes,” MSF's head of mission in Nigeria, Ivan Gayton, said.

In November the Nigerian government said it would spend more than $5m (£3m) cleaning up Zamfara, and in some areas this work has already begun.

At a two-day conference in Abuja, Human Rights Watch noted that the government had not sent senior officials and suggested this underlined the fact that authorities were not taking the situation seriously enough.

Doubling of gold prices

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LEAD POISONING

Children suffer more because their size makes them more vulnerable to the effects

Symptoms include lethargy, abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation and headaches

Children in particular may develop encephalopathy – seizures, delirium and coma

For mild poisoning it may be sufficient to remove the patient from the source

More severe poisoning will need medical treatment, but may prove fatal

MSF says although the government has started a clean up it must do more to stop people mining.

The outbreak began after the price of gold shot up and villagers realised they could make more money from exploiting local gold deposits than from farming.

They carried rocks home to break them open – but as well as gold the rocks contained high levels of lead, so poisonous dust and flakes were released into the community.

Contaminated soil was also dumped in water sources and there were fears that rain would also spread pollutants.

Exposure to high levels of lead can damage the brain and nervous system, and in severe cases cause seizures, coma and death.

MSF says the situation in Zamfara is one of the worst ever cases ever, if not the worst case, of lead poisoning, killing 460 children and contaminating a further 4,000.

The BBC's Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says since the problem first came to light about three years ago the price of gold has almost doubled.

More and more people have turned to mining despite the health risks to their families.

Although the authorities have told people to stop mining, MSF wants to see better education in place to teach people of the health risks.

“It is possible to do the environmental remediation and it is possible to do safer mining… we need not die in search of livelihood. It can be done safely,” Mr Gayton said.

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Jacob Zuma has lodged 11 law suits against local media houses

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Country profile: South Africa

South Africa's governing ANC says it will go to court after a gallery exhibited a painting with President Jacob Zuma's genitals hanging out.

Brett Murray's painting by is an “abuse of freedom of artistic expression” said ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu.

He said he had asked lawyers to get the Johannesburg gallery to remove the $14,000 (£9,000) painting, The Spear.

President Zuma, who has four wives, has sued local media companies 11 times for defamation.

The BBC's Mohammed Ali in Cape Town says some have been settled, other dropped, while most are outstanding.

The best-known case is a 2008 suit against one of the country's most high-profile artists, Zapiro, after he depicted Mr Zuma about to rape a female figure representing justice – this is due to be heard in October.

Mr Zuma was cleared of raping a family friend in 2006.

‘Satire’

Murray, who our correspondent says is known for his political and provocative work, has not commented on the ANC statement.

Lara Koseff, spokeswoman of the Goodman Gallery, which is running Murray's Hail to the Thief II exhibition, defended the painting as “a very satirical look at contemporary South African politics… of the disillusion of democracy within the country”.

“Our lawyers have written back to them saying we will not remove the painting,” she told the AFP news agency

The 1.85m-high Soviet-style, red black and yellow acrylic painting has been sold.

Mr Mthembu said the ANC was committed to the freedom of the press and artistic expression but condemned the painting as “distasteful and vulgar”.

He demanded that the painting be removed from the gallery, its website and all promotional materials.

Among the other exhibits is an ANC poster with the phrases For Sale and Sold on it, which Mr Mthembu also condemned as “defamatory”.

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One of Africa's major oil producers, Angola is also one of the world's poorest countries.

It is striving to tackle the physical, social and political legacy of the 27-year civil war that ravaged the country after independence.

The ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the rebel group Unita were bitter rivals even before the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

The Soviet Union and Cuba supported the then-Marxist MPLA, while the US and white-ruled South Africa backed Unita as a bulwark against Soviet influence in Africa.

After 16 years of fighting, which killed up to 300,000 people, a peace deal led to elections. But Unita rejected the outcome and resumed the war, in which hundreds of thousands more were killed. Another peace accord was signed in 1994 and the UN sent in peacekeepers.

But the fighting steadily worsened again and in 1999 the peacekeepers withdrew, leaving behind a country rich in natural resources but littered with landmines and the ruins of war.

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At a glance

Politics: President has been in power for 30 years. Oil-rich enclave of Cabinda has been embroiled in a long-running independence struggle.

Economy: One of Africa's leading oil producers, but most people still live on less than US $1 a day. Experiencing a post-war reconstruction boom

International: China has promised substantial assistance to Angola, one of its main oil suppliers

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

The connection between the civil war and the unregulated diamond trade – or “blood diamonds” – was a source of international concern. The UN froze bank accounts used in the gem trade.

Peace

The death of Unita leader Jonas Savimbi in a gunfight with government forces in February 2002 raised the prospect of peace and the army and rebels signed a ceasefire in April to end the conflict.

Angola faces the daunting tasks of rebuilding its infrastructure, retrieving weapons from its heavily-armed civilian population and resettling tens of thousands of refugees who fled the fighting. Landmines and impassable roads have cut off large parts of the country. Many Angolans rely on food aid.

Much of Angola's oil wealth lies in Cabinda province, where a decades-long separatist conflict simmers. The government has sent thousands of troops to subdue the rebellion in the enclave, which has no border with the rest of Angola. Human rights groups have alleged abuses against civilians.

A supplier of crude oil to the US and China, Angola denies allegations that revenues have been squandered through corruption and mismanagement. Oil exports and foreign loans have spurred economic growth and have fuelled a reconstruction boom.

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“Yahweh” worship and praise song from Hillsong featuring David Ware, worship leader. This song is featured on “Faith Hope Love” DVD/CD 2009 release. Hillsong Church (formerly Hills Christian Life Centre) is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God denomination. The church is located in Sydney, Australia, headquartered at its “Hills” campus in Baulkham Hills’ Norwest Business Park in the Hills District. It also has a congregation designated the “City” campus which is located in Waterloo, near Sydney’s central business district. The church’s senior pastors are Brian and Bobbie Houston, who started the church in Baulkham Hills in 1983, later to merge with a church in the city to form Hillsong Church. Apart from the two main campuses, Hillsong Church currently has 14 extension services across Sydney. These extension services are based on either location or culture and rely on Hillsong Church for support and leadership. Hillsong Church’s international offshoots include Hillsong Church London, in the United Kingdom, Hillsong Church Kiev in Ukraine, Hillsong Church Cape Town in South Africa. These churches also have services in Paris, Berlin and Moscow. Hillsong Music has topped Australian charts, with albums achieving gold and platinum sales status. Hillsong has made its mark internationally with many travelling to Sydney for the annual Hillsong Conference, which attracts over 26000 people, as …
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