By GEOFFREY YORK, Toronto Globe and Mail

SOWETO, South Africa - A year ago, Tsepho Ronald was a part-time carpenter in Soweto, watching his jobless friends getting into trouble with the law. He saw jail looming for himself if he didn't find a better life.

Abortion is strictly outlawed in Tanzania in virtually all circumstances. The word itself is taboo, rarely spoken in polite society. Yet it takes only a few minutes to find a man in the backroom of a slum neighborhood pharmacy who is quite willing to perform an illegal abortion.

Her face still scarred by the machete attack that nearly killed her, Rukia Khalfani cannot hide her astonishment when she gazes into the eyes of the Canadian who has come to comfort her. His eyes are as pale as hers, and his skin is as white.

She had no idea that albinos existed outside Tanzania. She laughs in amazement.

The arrest of Taj al-Sair -- like most arrests of political dissidents in Sudan -- might have gone unnoticed and ignored. But this one was different: It was videotaped by a supporter and quickly posted on YouTube.

KIGALI, Rwanda - The symbolism was incendiary. In front of the mass graves where 250,000 genocide victims are buried, a Rwandan politician dared to speak of the Hutus who were killed in those same terrible months in 1994.

JOHANNESBURG - A controversial new Canadian study, suggesting that death rates usually decline when wars erupt, is sparking furious debate among scholars and activists around the world.

SOWETO, South Africa - In the gritty urban sprawl of Soweto, the most famous of South Africa's black townships, a new experiment is emerging: a European-style boulevard, complete with benches, trees, streetlights and cobbled sidewalks for leisurely strolls.

STELLENBOSCH, South Africa - The Afrikaner men who reigned over South Africa's wineries in the apartheid era were amused by the former ski instructor from Alberta who was trying to break into their ranks.

She was a foreigner, she didn't speak Afrikaans, she was trying to convert a fruit farm into a winery -- and she was a woman in a male-dominated industry.

JOHANNESBURG, S.A. - He was a devout young man, the quiet and studious son of a wealthy Nigerian banker. But long before his arrest for a dramatic attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger jet, the danger signs were already visible, a neighbor says.

JOHANNESBURG - Armed with 70 sworn affidavits from rape victims, an advocacy group says it has enough evidence to warrant the prosecution of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party for crimes against humanity.