Here is a smattering of stories that crossed my desk today:

The World Food Program has tabbed John Kufuor, President of Ghana from 2001 to earlier this year and head of the African Union in 2007-2008, to lead an effort to fight hunger among schoolchildren throughout the world. He will also help the WFP in other capacities.

One of the biggest worries many observers of Zimbabwe have is the contempt military figures in that country appear to have for Morgan Tsvangirai. Many, who remain loyal to Robert Mugabe, refuse to salute Tsvangirai. On Thursday Tsvangirai finally met with the national security council in a meeting that Mugabe chaired. Of course the possibility remains that the defense hierarchies are the tail that wags the dog, and that Mugabe’s hold on power is only as firm as the generals allow it to be. This is a situation that bears watching in the weeks to come.

Human Rights Watch believes that on her upcoming trip to Africa  United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should, natch, emphasize human rights. This is an unobjectionable assertion, but really the importance is in what she advocates and how she advocates it. Everyone claims to support human rights — even those who violate human rights. Better to develop specific policies and objectives that will have positive human rights ramifications than simply to support human rights as a rhetorical sop.

Nigerian officials have claimed victory in their conflict with radical Islamists in the country’s northeast. In the process, troops captured Mohamed Yusuf, leader of the Boko Haram sect that claims to be Nigeria’s Taliban, and transferred him to police custody, where he was shot and killed in what police are calling an escape attempt. Whether the escape attempt actually occurred ot now, we can rest assured that a martyr has been created.

In what will be seen as either a craven compromise or as a concession to reality, Kenyan officials have announced that most of those accused of fomenting violence during Kenya’s December 2007 elections will be tried locally rather than subject them all to international tribunals. Kenyan authorities will, however, hand over to the International Criminal Court those figures already under ICC indictment. In a related story, Pambazuka News interviews Maina Kiai, former chairperson of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, who laments what the interviewer, Firoze Manji aptly calls “politicisation of ethnic identity in Kenya today.”

Finally, Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, in remarks before the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, called for a reconsideration of American policy toward Sudan. He believes the United States should reconsider its sanctions against Sudan as well as that country’s inclusion on the list of state supporters of terrorism. Suffice it to say, Gration’s stance is controversial and in some circles profoundly unpopular. My own view is simply that giving Khartoum the benefit of the doubt almost always leads to disappointment.