In some areas of the country, including East Anglia, the North and North-west of England, not a single surveyor reported house price increases, with 100 per cent reporting declines during April. Even in Scotland, where the housing market has been more robust in recent months, Rics says more surveyors are now reporting house price falls than rises.

About half the girls were swaying and gyrating, without the slightest self-consciousness, among the overstuffed sofas, the heavy draperies, the tables larded with figurines and ornately covered tissue boxes. Their abayas, balled up and tossed onto chairs, looked like black cloth puddles.

Suddenly, the music stopped, and an 18-year-old named Alia tottered forward.

“Girls? I have something to tell you.” Alia faltered, appearing to sway slightly on her high heels. She paused anxiously, and the next words came out in a rush. “I’ve gotten engaged!”

There was a chorus of shrieks at the announcement and Alia burst into tears, as did several of the other girls. Othman’s mother smiled and left the room, leaving the girls to their moment of emotion. They had been friends since they were middle school age, and Alia would be the first to marry.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo laughs as he watches a documentary film in Abuja (File)

In the early 1990s, Nigerian cities faced growing crime and insecurity. Theaters were forced to close down because people were afraid to venture out after dark. Videos for home viewing imported from the West and India were quite popular, but the depreciation of the local currency made foreign film imports extremely expensive. That was when enterprising Nigerians stepped in to fill the gap with their own products.

The study of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for the UK, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, should concern anyone who buys organic. It shows that milk and dairy production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). A litre of organic milk requires 80 per cent more land than conventional milk to produce, has 20 per cent greater global warming potential, releases 60 per cent more nutrients to water sources, and contributes 70 per cent more to acid rain.

Also, organically reared cows burp twice as much methane as conventionally reared cattle – and methane is 20 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. Meat and poultry are the largest agricultural contributors to GHG emissions. LCA assessment counts the energy used to manufacture pesticide for growing cattle feed, but still shows that a kilo of organic beef releases 12 per cent more GHGs, causes twice as much nutrient pollution and more acid rain.

The new government is a result of bitterly contested elections in December, which ignited latent tribal tensions, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

But its rising costs are causing growing anger among Kenyans who have lost their homes and businesses in the violence. A third of the money for the government will come from development budgets, including cutting £85 million from the education ministry.

Soaring inflation, unemployment and widespread dis-satisfaction with their daily lives have plunged the nation to historic low of gloominess, researchers found.

The study into happiness levels in French households showed that on a scale of plus 100 points for “total contentment” to minus 100 for “utter misery”, the average French man and woman scored “minus 37″.

In theory, hydroelectric power will be the first stage of a drive towards a more industrialized state, and, according to the President, Omar al-Bashir, an important step towards eliminating poverty.

It looks like a worthy aim for a country where the average income is under £1 per day, but it may be coming at a high cost. On 13 June last year, Sudanese security forces opened fire on a demonstration against the plans. The facts about the incident are hard to obtain because journalists have been prevented from reporting it. But according to eyewitnesses, several thousand largely Nubian protesters set out to march towards the dam company’s administrative HQ, and found themselves blocked by soldiers at a narrow ravine.

The raids, which took place in several areas, including Bonn and Berlin, were linked to nine suspected Islamists.

The nine men, aged between 25 and 47, are believed to have tried to recruit militants to fight abroad.

A total of 130 police took part in the swoop, confiscating material from 16 premises, including a publishing house.