Madagascar's feuding leaders said yesterday they had agreed a power-sharing deal and would hold elections on the Indian Ocean island within 15 months.

It would be easy, when faced with the crisis in development that now threatens Africa, to demand that the rest of the world ride to our rescue. After all, it is not the people of Africa who are responsible for the financial crisis devastating our economies or the climate change that has unleashed floods, droughts and storms on our land.

*There was a time when a new IPO on the Aim market wouldn't raise a flicker of interest. The London Stock Exchange would hardly mark the occasion, save for counting the revenues and inviting the next tiny oil and gas explorer, or mirco-cap biotech group through the front door. A suitcase full of investors' cash was mandatory.

Air travel can get so wearing. Whoever said that half the joy of travelling is the getting there obviously never sat in the back of a 747 with their knees behind their ears and surrounded by screeching kids. It has taken me three airlines and three aircraft to get to Medjumbe Island but suddenly the last flight has become worth doing.

The nightmare occurred far back in 1963 but Albie Sachs readily concedes "I haven’t got over the mental scars. Solitary confinement and sleep deprivation remain as deeply embedded scars in my soul."

Forget Cornwall and California – try Canada. Chris Nelson heads to a wintry Nova Scotia to test his surfing skills against shoulder-high waves – and toe-freezing temperatures

From high-level trekking in Morocco's Atlas Mountains to rubbing shoulders with A-listers on Hollywood Boulevard, and from rural retreats off Tuscany's beaten track to jet-set hang outs for Moscow's super-rich, our writers have been to the ends of the earth to find a world of inspiration

Final stories are vintage Markham

He is revered as a crime writer in Sweden – and as a theatre director in Mozambique. Now his greatest creation is about to hit our TV screens

Are we there yet? South Africa is one of the few places Brits won't be crippled by poor exchange rates

There's time, there's African time and then there's Azura time. The lodge, on Benguerra Island, sets its clocks later than the mainland to allow guests an extra hour of sunshine. You even get your own host to cater to your every whim.

People are dying "on a grand scale" around the world because of social injustice brought about by a "toxic" combination of bad policies, politics and economics, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday.

War and peace in a house of the spirits

The total amount of fish being caught in the world is significantly under-reported because official statistics do not take into account the substantial catches made by some of the poorest nations that rely on fishing as a food staple, a study has found.