The United Nations announced a milestone this week. For the first time, a UN-led force helped beat back a rebel group to protect a civilian population. Instead of its usual defense-only peacekeeping, the UN engaged in aggressive peace enforcement – with helicopters, snipers, and artillery. The Security Council authorized the unprecedented offensive last March for Congo. But the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade only began fighting in August, alongside Congo’s military, against a rebel force known as M23.

Abhijit Sanyal is sitting on a beach-chair watching frothy waves roll in from the Indian Ocean. He arrived in Tanzania a year ago after a career in his native India with Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods giant. ChemiCotex, an industrial company in Dar es Salaam, hired him as chief executive to oversee the expansion of its “tooth-and-nail business”, which dominates the Tanzanian market for dental care and metal goods.

Since Somalia's 1991 civil war and the political instability it wrought, capital city Mogadishu has struggled to rebuild. But recently, signs of better times have begun to emerge. With Al-Shabab militants no longer in control, a new, technocratic government has helped plant signs of stability while attracting a substantial new wave of investment from longtime ally Turkey and other members of the Somali diaspora.

Stands selling jewelry, embroidery and beer imported from Ethiopia lined the entrance to Tel Aviv’s Habima Theater on Friday, as people waited in line for about half an hour to buy the flat, lemony Ethiopian bread injera at the entrance to the Sigdiada, a festival celebrating the culture and folklore of Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish community.

With cooler temperatures approaching, you might be in the market for a perfect wintertime vacation. Maybe someplace sunny and warm, unspoiled by tourists, with beautiful views and rich culture. To find all that, you might consider South Sudan. That's the suggestion from Sophie and Max Lovell-Hoare, authors of the Bradt Travel Guide to the young country.

An unusual football marriage looks on the rocks as the collaboration between Egypt and their American coach Bob Bradley appears close to an end after their World Cup playoff humiliation by Ghana on Tuesday. A 6-1 thrashing in Kumasi in the first leg of the African zone playoff was not only a record-breaking defeat but also leaves Egypt facing the stark reality of yet another painful failure in the preliminaries.

Ottawa has dismantled a key task force aimed at supporting the peace process in Sudan at a time of renewed fighting in Darfur, raising questions about Canada’s commitment to aid and diplomacy in the conflict-torn region.