There's a whole world out there, some good news

It seems that whenever I do one of my occasional rundowns of news from other places to remind ourselves we're not the only ones who matter, it's all bad news. So I thought I'd have a few hopeful pieces for a change.

Kenya - Following elections last December, the political split in Kenya turned into an ethnic one. The violence that resulted from suspicions of ballot-rigging killed more than 1,500 and produced 300,000 refugees. Kenya appeared headed for a civil war.

But the formation in February of a coalition government via a power-sharing deal between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga headed off that possibility.

Since then, there has been an inquiry into electoral fraud which has proposed overhauling Kenya's electoral commission, making recommendations which the cabinet said this week it would implement.

And now, a new inquiry says

[a]n international tribunal should be set up in Kenya to try those implicated in clashes after December's disputed poll....

What started as spontaneous violent reaction to the perceived rigging of elections, later evolved into well-organised and co-ordinated attacks on members of President Kibaki's community and Party of National Unity (PNU), [Justice Phillip Waki, who headed the commission] said.

"These were systematic attacks on Kenyans based on their ethnicity and their political leanings... Guilty by association was the guiding force behind the deadly revenge attacks," he said.

The commission would give [former UN Secretary General Kofi] Annan a sealed list of names of prominent politicians, businessmen and a section of the police force who were behind the violence and supporting evidence, Justice Waki said.

If an international tribunal was not created, the list would be handed over to the ICC in The Hague.

President Kibaki called the report "an opportunity to learn from the past" and promised to take it up at the next cabinet meeting. How seriously the report will be taken remains to be seen, but human rights groups say the government can't afford to ignore the findings, as it has done in the past with similar reports.

And there is always that sealed list of names that can go to the ICC. The International Criminal Court may not be able to bring the "big fish" to justice, but it can at least insure that their names will not remain hidden.

Nigeria - It sometimes is hard to imagine, it seems so far from the things we here need to think about or worry about, but polio still affects people in places around the world. Nigeria is one such place, in fact, it's the worst.

But there is some renewed hope, the Beeb reports, as

[a]n Imperial College London team found a recently introduced polio vaccine is four times more effective at protecting children than previous vaccines.

They say it could eradicate type 1 polio - the most common form - in Nigeria if it reaches enough children. ...

Nigeria is one of only four countries in the world where polio has yet to be eliminated, and 82% of global cases reported so far this year have been in the country.

But progress has been made: Since the introduction of the new vaccine in early 2006, the number of new reported cases of polio in Nigeria has fallen by 75%.

Still, the fat lady has not yet sung and there is a need for a lot more children to be vaccinated. I've written about polio a few times, including references to programs in Nigeria, and I'm struck by the fact that over four years ago I noted that the World Health Organization hoped to see polio eradicated worldwide by the end of 2004. So I won't hold my breath - but I will hope.

Uganda - Female genital mutilation, the slicing off of a girl's clitoris, has now been banned by the only community in Uganda which still practiced it.

Kapchorwa district chairman Nelson Chelimo said it was "outmoded" and "not useful" for the community's women. ...

Mr Chelimo said the council had submitted legislation to parliament for the ban to become law nationwide.

Of course, that doesn't put an end to the practice as it still exists in other countries. In fact, the UN estimates that three million girls in Africa are at risk of such mutilation yearly. So yes, it's a small step, but it is in the right direction.

Zimbabwe - I've written about the strife in Zimbabwe a few times and it was always to present bad news. But not this time. Or at least maybe not - the proof is in the pudding and other such clichés.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and a top opposition official have said a deal could be reached shortly to name a power-sharing government.

One of Mr Mugabe's officials says changes could be made to the cabinet posts named last week, the state-owned Herald newspaper reports.

However, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was less optimistic, saying the talks had been "quite circuitous".

The sticking point has been which cabinet posts are to be filled by members of which party. A power-sharing deal reached last month divided them up among Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, with a few going to a smaller MDC faction. But in the absence of an agreement, last weekend Mugabe allocated all the main ministries to his own party, which nearly lead to a breakdown of the talks.

But the mood seemed to have changed during Wednesday's talks.

"We have made some progress and we will finish tomorrow," Mr Mugabe said after talks ended.

"History is being made and mountains are being moved," said Tendai Biti, general secretary of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Making history can't come soon enough for the people of Zimbabwe, who are suffering an inflation rate of 231,000,000% - that's not a typo - and of who over 2 million need food aid, a figure aid agencies fear could double over the next few months.

Footnote: I don't want any grief from anyone about the links to the CIA World Factbook. That is a widely-respected source of accurate information about countries of the world.