Multinational companies are about to go on trial in Lesotho, accused of paying huge bribes to a local official, a case virtually unprecedented in Africa. European and Canadian engineering companies, four of them British, are alleged to have paid an official about oe3m for contracts for one of the continent's biggest engineering projects, the oe1bn construction of huge dams to supply water and electricity to South Africa, which entirely surrounds the mountainous kingdom.

The UN General Assembly's historic Special
Session on HIV/AIDS ended on Wednesday with what Secretary-General Kofi Annan described as a "clear strategy" for tackling the epidemic.

In a letter to Minister of Justice Siene Oulai, RSF expressed its concern following the deadly attack that took place at the home of Laurent Tape Koulou, publication director of the private daily "Le National". RSF asked the minister to do everything possible so that those responsible for the attack are identified and punished.

In a landmark judgement for the online age, the highest court in America has ruled 7-2 that freelance writers did not give consent for media companies to publish their work on Web sites when they signed contracts for print publication.

As Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade prepares to meet with President Bush Thursday, Human Rights Watch urged him to comply with a United Nations request to hold the exiled Chadian dictator Hissène Habré so that Habré could be extradited to face torture charges.

Pages