The world's economic storm has hit and it has shown us that while sub- Saharan Africa's nascent globalisation has brought huge benefits, these benefits are fragile and global integration can all too easily take back what it gives. Indeed, critics of globalisation might argue that it's no longer the case that Africa is doing well because of globalisation: Africa, they might claim, is surviving despite globalisation.

The killing of Edwin Dyer marks a big – and disturbing – change in the Sahara. This is the first time a hostage has been executed in the region. The two women kidnapped with Mr Dyer were released, as were the two Canadian diplomats abducted a couple of months previously. Money likely changed hands in those cases but this latest death isn't about the British policy of not paying ransoms to terrorists. It is far more complicated than that.

India's Sahara Group is in advanced talks with Manchester United to become the new shirt sponsors of the Premiership champions, domestic media reported today.

Perhaps the purest exponents of desert blues are Tinariwen. The band’s backstory is the stuff of legend – members of the loose collective fought in the Mali Civil War during the Nineties, and tales of the Tuareg musicians going into battle with both Kalashnikovs and guitars slung over their backs are legion. Their sound is unique – layered guitars interweaving with call and response vocals, handclaps and female throat singers.

Giant Indian corporation Sahara have been approached about the possibility of becoming Manchester United's next shirt sponsor.

Robert Whitaker's attempt to repeat last year's achievement in becoming leading rider of the London International Horse Show at Olympia got off to a fine start yesterday when he won the KBIS Christmas Pudding Speed Stakes on Rusedski II.

Like one or two other of our small but much loved institutions, the rock cake seems to have crumbled away a little lately, almost unnoticed. It does seems a long time since they were a common sight, now supplanted perhaps by those US-style muffins that landed in the mid-Eighties.

Stretching, reaching, stirring, springing, vaulting, girdling... The chapter headings of this epic history of exploration suggest that voyaging into the unknown is a fundamental human activity.