South Africans should be quivering at evidence that desert trees are “marching” south to escape the heat, a scientist told a landmark national conference on climate change recently. Quiver trees, used for generations by the San to make quivers for their arrows, are shifting towards the South Pole in response to rising temperatures.

Saddam Hussein’s trial before a special tribunal in Baghdad is being portrayed as a watershed moment for the Iraqi people and the global legal system. But critical questions about the conduct of the trial, political interference and the decision to hold it in Iraq rather than under United Nations or international auspices are likely to dog the proceedings and may cast doubt on their legitimacy.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is fighting a civil war over whether to participate in elections for an upper house of Parliament next month. The battle is being fought in full public view as newspapers carry daily reports of party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s increasingly desperate attempts to block candidates from filing nomination papers.