THE greatest barrier to development of chronically poor countries in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world is the quality of their political leadership.

Exiled tyrant Idi Amin, whose eight-year presidency of Uganda is remembered for the torture and killing of more than 200,000 people, was in a coma in a Saudi hospital today.

AFRICA'S new African Union (AU), tasked with ending wars and poverty, spent its first working day on Wednesday with its most powerful nations in disarray over when it would next meet.

AFRICA'S new political union was launched yesterday with the continent's economic powerhouse, South Africa, firmly in the driving seat.

The leaders of more than 40 African nations are aiming to show they are on the path to economic and political reform as they launch a new continent-wide union.

Leaders from around the continent hope today’s inauguration of the African Union will be the first step in bringing prosperity and good governance to the world’s poorest people.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who heads a panel that will decide whether to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth, said today that early reports on President Robert Mugabe’s election win were ‘‘very critical of the process.’’