The world system is in universal crisis but a salvage operation appears to be underway. The latest exercise in PR for human civilization, as we know it, will be launched in a few months at the Rio+20 world summit on sustainable development. It commemorates 20 years since the first world conference on this subject in 1992.

The publication this week of a independent report into the last summer's UK riots has sparked another bout of national soul-searching, hand-wringing and blame-dishing.

In a previous column, I commented on the rapid changes in direct satellite-to-home TV reception across Africa, thanks to the launch of a number of packages, most of them free of charge. A wind of change is also blowing through the very exclusive world of premium TV "bouquets".

To borrow a little from Samuel Johnson, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and bad interventions.

In what is being promoted as the first partnership of its kind, millions of mobile phone owners in Africa and the Middle East will soon have free access to Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia.

From the battle lines in Somalia where troops from five East African countries are pushing back the Al-Shabaab, but with little prospect of a political settlement.