Terry Crawford-Browne has done something incredible. He has spent R5-million on a battle from which he stands to make nothing: his campaign to expose corruption in South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms deal. Not many people can understand this in an era of greed and opportunism.

The fierce morning heat was a memory. The afternoon haze had come and gone. It was the cool of dusk, with shadows stretching as the sun dipped below the Andes. And Hugo Chávez was still talking. The Venezuelan president had started at 11am, more than eight hours earlier — a new record.

General Pervez Musharraf’s strategy for survival has finally become clear, after months of political turmoil in Pakistan. He plans to quit as chief of the army staff, before taking the presidential oath — but only after he has been re-elected by the outgoing parliament.

The middle-class Avenues area on the northern peripheries of Harare’s city centre is a residential and commercial office zone with stark contradictions. One minute the sound of gunshots fills the morning air as police exchange fire with robbers; the next, church bells are tolling and harmonic voices are heard as women sing hymns in church and well-dressed middle-aged men and women walk to their offices.