'' reports on the Somalia media, which has been under attack:

“Somalia Transitional Government (TG), which many regard as Ethiopia's puppet, has closed three popular Mogadishu radio stations, HornAfrik radio and television, Shabelle Media Network, Radio Voice of Holy Koran and the offices of international news station, Al Jazeera.”

The TG has since rescinded the closures following discussions with the media, including Al Jazeera. They claimed the media were biased towards the Islamic Courts and were inciting violence. It is ironic that after “liberating” Somalia from the Islamists, it is the TG, with the backing of Ethiopia and the US, that makes a decision to ban media albeit only for 24 hours.

'Soldier of Africa' is a new blog by a South African soldier serving under the AU in North Darfur, Sudan.

It is mainly a photo blog and fairly conservative but it does provide an insight to the life of an AU/UN serving soldier, including what they get up to during their R&R which in his case is in Egypt. They roam around the desert on their quad bikes, ride camels and go to the beach!

'Squatter City' is a blog that reports on squatter camps across the world. It reports on the eviction of thousands of people in the Angolan capital, Luanda. What makes this story particularly disturbing is that the church is behind the evictions.

“Among the powerful institutions implicated is the Catholic Church. In 1998 the government gave the Church the title to land it had owned prior to the country's independence. The Church, Amnesty alleges, has worked with the government to forcibly remove 2,000 squatters from a parcel where it wants to build a sanctuary. According to the report, ‘Forced evictions have been carried out apparently at the request of the Catholic Church by members of the National Police from the Fifth Division who regularly arrested, beat and used firearms against the residents, seriously injuring some.’"

'Jewels in the Jungle' comments on the December edition of the South African TV programme ‘Inside Africa’ which included Nigerian blogger, Emeka Okafor and focused on how to give Africa a positive image.

“Emeka was interviewed about building a positive image for Africa in the media and online and he pointed out the contributions that Africa’s bloggers have made over the past year.”

Emeka is also responsible for organising the Africa Ted Global Conference to be held in Tanzania later this year.

'The African Uptimist' reports on the installation of the 50th solar power for rural business at Sakora Wonoo, a small community in the Kwabre District of Ashanti in Ghana. The project is an innovative and exciting one that includes telephony and internet access for the rural community.

“Though starting up as providers of renewably-powered voice telephony and Internet access in rural communities, many of the entrepreneurs now want to grow their businesses into multi-purpose energy enterprises, capable of supplying renewable electric power for a variety of other income-generating activities. KITE is helping them prepare bankable business plans and to secure financing to make this happen.”

Zimbawean activist blogger, 'Enough is Enough' has been on a short break. In this piece, his first since returning to blogging, he reflects on his writing and makes a commitment to improve his reports on what is happening in Zimbabwe

“My writing here will from now on be motivated by an uncompromising need to enable you to access a rarely seen perspective on the Zimbabwean dilemma; that of the lay Zimbabwean, the simpleton or average man whom you would most likely run into on the concrete sidewalks of one of my country’s cities or out in the rural areas somewhere. The written word, any written word, is only a representation of some much larger truth; a ‘slice of the truth.’ The language, grammatical standards, and point of view that govern the composition of any writing are what determine who’s slice of truth that writing purports to expose. I chose in this space to deliver to you a slice of truth that represents the common man and woman in Zimbabwe.”

'http://www.blacklooks.org

• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org