Africa and other things....

It’s Friday and it now looks like another regime is about to fall. This time in Africa, and here’s a bit of background…

The Ivory Coast is a troubled stretch of Western Africa. President Gbagdo has been in power for over 12 years, but he was voted out last November in a UN-recognized election. He still hasn’t relinquished power and flatly refuses to do so.

At the moment, soldiers loyal to Outtara (the guy who won the election from him) are launching fresh attacks to try and force him out. The problem is that Gbagdo has around the same number of armed loyalists as his rival Outtara.

The Ivory Coast (or Cote D’Ivore) is one of the many African countries that, confusingly, has a French name and French speaking inhabitants. The reason for this is that back in the day, France controlled large parts of Africa in the same way that we controlled places like India. You may remember learning about this, ‘the colonial era’ in history lessons yonks ago but equally you may not.

The important thing is that at some point, the West started getting a bit grown up and moral about the whole thing and so ended up giving countries back to their people. The Ivory Coast was given back by France but many of the people there are still Christians and still speak French. And it still causes religious tension.

Things haven’t yet settled down in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. Members of the ‘Fukushima 50’ – the engineers who stayed behind to try and fix things – have again announced that they fully expect to die, either soon from radiation poisoning or later from cancer. 70,000 people who live within 12 miles of the plant are being evacuated for several months, and will live in enormous temporary shelters until then.

Syria is about to see another wave of protesters today after President Assad failed to meet the demands of the people. The same is on the cards for Yemen, where a similar stale mate has occurred for President Saleh.

In Libya, more of Gaddafi’s important friends and allies have apparently been jumping ship. One of his most trusted men, Mohammed Ismail, travelled to London today for secret talks with William Hague. Or not so secret after all. We don't know what was discussed or agreed however, and apparently he's heading back to Gaddafi to 'negotiate.'

Meanwhile, 7 Libyan civilians have been killed in one of our air attacks - which was bound to happen but hasn't so far, and is not good news when we are supposed to be helping them.

Women in the UK are getting boozier, so says the Office Of National Statistics. 1 in 5 women now drink more than they are supposed to - and this is more than it used to be.

And finally, David Cameron announced today that he plans to abolish many churches around the country and turn them into Mosques instead. Only joking. This is not the Daily Mail. Happy April's Fools Day.