You have to hand it to Microsoft. No, really, you do. When it leaps into the fray, it does so in a big, bold way. Last week the software giant stepped to the plate to announce some new initiatives designed to put it back in the running at a time when all the good things on the web can be summed up in just a few words — Google, Skype, eBay, Amazon, blog and Yahoo!.

The African Union is determined to take the issue of Security Council reform down to the wire at this session of the United Nations General Assembly. Observers differ on whether this is stubborn or shrewd. About a month from now, Africa will know exactly what support it has for its aspiration to occupy two permanent seats, with veto rights, and five rotating seats on a reformed Security Council.

Fears were growing this week that the crucial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong next month is heading for failure after Brazil and India warned that the gulf between negotiators was too big to bridge in the five weeks left for the talks. The leading developing countries said the mid-December deadline for an outline deal to liberalise trade was too soon and that there might have to be a delay or a scaling-back of ambition for the round launched four years ago.

Three weeks ago the Cape Town city council removed 30 families who had squatted on District Six land for several years. Their ID numbers have been forwarded to the provincial Land Claims Commission office to verify if any of them are claimants. If not, the council has promised, they will be ”accommodated in the housing programme that is being provided by the city”.