An English vicar has become an unlikely African rebel after his church blocked his appointment as a bishop in Malawi. Supporters of the Reverend Nicholas Henderson this week carried him shoulder-high and blockaded the offices of the head of the diocese of Central Africa because he wanted to stop the vicar’s move from London.

A Nigerian court on Friday ordered Royal Dutch Shell to pay ,5-billion in damages for polluting the Niger Delta, a fresh blow to the company that was already reeling from a kidnap crisis and a wave of sabotage against its installations. Communities have repeatedly accused Shell of letting its oil spill into the rivers of the delta.

At least eight prominent Chinese human rights activists have vanished after they joined one of the first overt attempts to coordinate a nationwide protest against the authorities since the 1989 democracy demonstrations. Political security police are thought to have detained the campaigners.

It resembles the kind of frugal bargain found in a charity shop, but China’s prime minister is being lauded for sporting his unrepentantly unfashionable coat for more than a decade. Wen Jiabao has been getting football-manager-style wear out of his plain green jacket.

By next May, more than 3 300 British paratroopers, backed by Apache helicopters, Harrier warplanes and hi-tech artillery, will start pouring into Afghanistan’s lawless Helmand province. Their mission is to impose order and facilitate development where violence, crime and bitter tribal rivalries are part of everyday life.

A daytime curfew in Baghdad and surrounding provinces appeared to check the pace of sectarian unrest on Friday as Iraq’s religious leaders used the Muslim day of prayer to stage symbolic joint services for Shi’ite and Sunni worshippers and call for national unity. However, there were sporadic outbreaks of violence in the capital and in central and southern Iraq.

Suspected Islamist militants tried to attack a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia for the first time on Friday, ramming cars packed with explosives into the gates of a vast processing plant in the country’s east. The attack was foiled when guards opened fire on three cars. Two guards were killed, and two others wounded.