Africa

Osama bin Laden's brother has announced plans to build the world's longest suspension bridge, connecting Africa and Arabia, and building two state-of-the-art cities at each end -- a project that is expected to cost upwards of $200 billion.

As the country prepares for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, officials in Cape Town, South Africa, are considering plans for a citywide bus rapid transit system. BRT pioneer Enrique Penalosa was recently in town to stump for transit.

Downtown Cairo has undergone a steady decline in recent years, with more slums developing and more beggars filling the streets. This article from Bloomberg says there are many reasons for the decline.

Officials in Africa have approved a plan to plant a "wall of trees" across the continent to prevent the southward spread of the Sahara desert due to winds and drought.

With crippling traffic congestion, the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam has pooled $158 million to improve its public transportation system -- adding new service, stations, and walkways.

With the first game of the 2010 World Cup exactly two years away, many in host country South Africa are concerned about rising inflation, increased violence, and skyrocketing costs of stadium construction.

In preparation for two major soccer tournaments -- the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2009 Confederations Cup -- South Africa is moving ahead on schedule in constructing major public transit systems in the events' host cities.

Cairo's first new green space in more than 100 years has opened -- on top of a 500-year old garbage dump.

The dam project is being proposed on the Congo river, and could produce more than twice the amount of energy generated by China's Three Gorges Dam, currently the world's largest. If approved the dam could be operating by 2022.

Cairo, Egypt is becoming increasingly noisy.

Impressive growth of visitors from nontraditional places, including China, have now put tourism ahead of gold mining in Namibia.

After delays, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority in Nigeria announces the inauguration next month of its first Bus Rapid Transit corridor.

In Cairo, the problem of street children was once ignored, but is now a growing concern in the public consciousness. Numerous services and aid agencies have developed in recent years to help the city's impoverished children.

A coalition of 21 countries has signed an agreement that will prohibit any development within 100 yards of the Mediterranean coast -- a broad agreement that will affect more than 29,000 miles of coastline.

Libraries for toys are popping up in developing countries all over the world, and especially in Africa, giving poor children a glimpse of a less troubled childhood. Many say the simple libraries are making big changes in the children's development.

This video from Current profiles Lagos, Nigeria, the world's fastest growing megacity.

The European Union and the desert countries of Northern Africa may form a collaborative effort to harvest solar energy in the desert areas. The solar power effort could power about one-sixth of Europe if it goes through.

Western planners and architects have drafted a broad master plan for Kigali, the capital of Rwanda -- one of the least developed nations in the world.

A broad bus rapid transit system in the works in Johannesburg, South Africa, is sparking a wildfire of dense, mixed use development plans for the city.

Cairo has one of the most severe air pollution problems in the world. Now efforts are underway to clean up the source of much of this pollution, the brick manufacturing industry.