Tanzania Ecumenical Dialogue Group (TEDG) has presented to the government a statement calling for Tanzania not to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with Europe until contentious issues in its framework are sorted out. Addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, the TEDG Coordinator, Ms Jesca Mkuchu, said the statement had called for Tanzania to strictly consider the interests of its citizens including making sure the contents in the agreement are clearly known to the majority Tanzanians first.

The Ethiopian government under its villagization' program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers.

Helen Zille’s suggestion that men who have unprotected sex with younger girls should be charged with culpable homicide was rightfully condemned as nonsensical, populist and just bad public health, says this article from Sonke Gender Justice. 'Her remarks at the responsibility awards were deeply problematic: they stigmatized girls and women who have had children during their school going years, ignored the social factors shaping the reproductive health choices and intentions of many young women, and they completely neglected to mention the roles and responsibilities of the girls’ male sexual partners.'

Population growth and rising consumption by a minority of people around the world are fuelling global land acquisitions and Africa is a 'prime target', says the International Land Coalition. 'The best land is often being targeted for acquisition. It is often irrigable, with proximity to infrastructure, making conflict with existing land users more likely,' says a 14 December 2011 report. Africa accounts for 134 million hectares of reported land deals. Worldwide, between 2000 and 2010, deals under consideration or negotiation amounted to 203 million hectares, the Coalition says.

South Sudan has said it ordered the halt of oil production that provides some 98 per cent of its revenue, amid a deepening dispute with the Sudanese government over pipeline fees. Sudan admits to taking some South Sudanese oil destined for export as compensation until an agreement, but the South has said this is theft. 'The government has instructed the minister of petroleum and mining to proceed with arrangements for a complete shutdown of oil production,' Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan's minister of information, told the AFP news agency on Friday.

Two Senegalese journalists with the private daily Le Quotidien have been handed suspended prison sentences in a criminal libel case over their coverage of an armed insurgency in a separatist province, according to the New York-based media watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists(CPJ). A statement from CPJ said a magistrate in a criminal court in the capital, Dakar, handed Le Quotidien editor Mamadou Biaye and reporter Mamadou Ticko Diatta suspended three-month prison terms.

This year, a well-known international meeting on global health research will adopt a provocative new theme. The subtitle of Forum 2012, the successor to the conferences organised by the former Global Forum for Health Research, will be ‘Beyond Aid’. No longer will the conference focus mainly on the use of funds from traditional donors and funders of health research in Europe and North America to improve the developing world’s morbidity and mortality statistics. Instead, the meeting will consider a funding model in which poor countries develop their own contracts and partnerships, and use their own resources.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has been sworn in for a fourth term and says he will crack the whip on laziness and corruption as he bids to turn Africa's smallest mainland country into an economic powerhouse. Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994 aged 29, also said his government would not tolerate any terrorist or racist acts. 'I will be more dangerous in the next five years than when I was, even in uniform, because people have to change their attitude to work,' he earlier said on state TV Wednesday, promising that people would see 'a different Yahya Jammeh'.

Although the medical, legal and judicial mechanisms are in place to receive rape victims in Cameroon, the heavy burden placed on victims to prove that the rape occurred and that they didn’t contribute to it makes justice rare. Underreporting also hampers the justice and healing processes.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

The African Studies Association is soliciting proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables. Presentations may focus on the theme of 'Research Frontiers in the Study of Africa' or on broader social science, humanities, and applied themes relating to Africa.

In this episode, Africa Today interviews Connie Fields and Gregory Scharpen of Clarity Films on their film 'Have You Heard From Johannesburg', the epic story of the global anti-apartheid movement and also speaks with Christine Nyanda ChaCha, the executive director and founder of African Immigrants Social and Cultural Services.

King Mswati III of Swaziland is to fly in the face of international opposition and continue his ban on political parties at the national elections next year (2013). Political parties have been banned since 1973 when Mswati’s father, King Sobhuza II, tore up the Swazi constitution and ruled by decree.

As thousands of Israelis have been protesting racism directed at Ethiopian Israelis recently, a new recording revealed Wednesday an Israeli school bus driver in Jerusalem spewing racist slurs at schoolgirls of Ethiopian origin. 'People tell you that you smell bad, deal with it. Put on deodorant every day. You’ll smell better,' the driver was heard saying in the recording. 'You need to respect us. We were living here before you, our lives are much more modern.'

The unequal development that characterises the world today is forcing vastly more and more people to look for a better future in another country. In the last few decades international migration has grown enormously. The neo-liberal policies that dominate the process of globalisation today have accelerated international migration, providing capital with an ever cheaper work force, says this report from the Human Rights Programme at CETIM.

This course is an intensive introduction to System Dynamics, a unique framework for understanding and managing complex development problems. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course will equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to effectively understand, map, and analyze complex national and global development challenges using a systemic perspective, and to determine the best approaches to mitigate them. The course is designed for professionals working in the field of development planning, especially policy advisors/analysts, and implementation and evaluation specialists from government institutions, research institutes, advocacy and civil society groups, private foundations, and international development agencies.

This project includes the virtual Center for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema, which features a Primer for African Women Cinema Studies, a guide to the film and book, Sisters of the Screen as well as a timeline, related links, and 'voices' of African women in cinema from diverse sources. Moreover, it includes the ever expanding features of the Internet, Facebook pages, Youtube Channel (including Vimeo and Dailymotion, and Blog).

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) has condemned the recent attacks between the Lou Nuer and Murle communities in Pibor, Jonglei state, South Sudan, and called on the government to take immediate steps to protect civilians from all ethnic groups. 'In the long term, the government must also address the root causes of violence among minority communities through political representation, disarmament and equitable distribution of natural resources.'

Formal women’s groups have historically been a part of the social and political organisation in the Niger Delta. Though these have tended to be based around cultural activities, they have also provided women-only spaces to organise voices of inclusion and assertion, writes Sokari Ekine in an article for Red Pepper. 'The success of women’s protests should not be seen solely in terms of the immediate impact on multinational oil companies. We should consider the wider impacts: the politicisation of women and the bringing together of communities such as the Itsekiri and Ijaw women in Delta State, who were driven into manipulated conflicts by the actions of the state and multinationals.'

Dear Editor,

I’m writing to notify you of two errors in a story on your site that we are kindly asking to have corrected as they are misleading to your readers.

The story is called: Foreign Aid to Mining Firms

The first correction must be made in the following sentence:

'Given Plan Canada’s stated commitment to “work in the best interests of children and the communities in which we work” will they be prepared to risk their multi-million dollar funding to speak out in protection of their “stakeholders” - namely the communities in which they work - should labour unrest become an issue there?'

In fact, the funds for the Burkina Faso project will be directed to Plan-led programs that will be carried out in a completely different part of the country more than 500 kilometres away from the mining operation. Plan’s work will not be carried out at mine sites, therefore there is no source to support the assertion of ‘communities in which they work’. Please ensure this sentence is corrected or deleted.

The second correction is in the following sentence:

'Plan Canada, another beneficiary under the new government initiative, did not return our calls.'

This is not correct and we have confirmation from the writer about this error. Calls were indeed returned to Mr. Nieto – the writer who contacted and spoke with us. Due to scheduling conflicts we were unable to respond to his requests for interviews before the story’s deadline.

The welfare of hundreds of thousands of Somalis who depend on financial assistance from the diaspora is at risk following a decision by a US bank to close down accounts of Somali money transfer companies in the state of Minnesota by 30 December, according to local and international sources. Somalis, both in Somalia and in the diaspora, have reacted with dismay at the move by Sunrise Community Bank, arguing that money transfer companies are a lifeline to millions of Somalis who depend on remittances for their livelihoods.

More than five years after the Front for the Liberation of Cabinda (FLEC) filed a complaint with the African Union (AU) against the Angolan government for alleged human rights abuses, the AU says it is willing to hear the 'merits' of appointing a special rapporteur to investigate the claims. Cabinda is separated from Angola's main territory by the River Congo and a narrow sliver of the Democratic Republic of Congo and accounts for more than half of Angola’s oil production. Cabinda's mineral wealth also includes gold, diamonds and uranium, as well as extensive reserves of tropical hardwoods. Since 1975, the status of Cabinda has been disputed, resulting in one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

A staggering $32 billion is missing from the state coffers of Angola, a nation that is steeped in poverty, blatant social inequality, and among the worst-ranked in the world for its life expectancy, infant mortality and corruption. New York-based Human Rights Watch said in December that the government of Angola should promptly provide a full public accounting for $32 billion in missing government funds, thought to be linked to the country's state oil company Sonangol.

Last month, on the other side of the Atlantic, the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell's operation caused from 1m to 2m gallons of oil to spill into the ocean off the coast of Nigeria, also as the result of an industrial accident. 'You may wonder where the outrage against Shell is?' asks Michael Keating in this article on the website. 'To say that it is nonexistent except for a few responses from the environmental community would be an understatement. The simple fact is that Shell and its "sisters" in the West African oil patches are rarely scrutinized except in the most egregious cases – which this one surely is – and the world seems to simply expect that the people of Nigeria should live with these sorts of occurrences because they unfortunately lack the political and media clout to do otherwise.'

Investigators in Ivory Coast have unearthed a body which they say may belong to Franco-Canadian journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer, who went missing in country's economic capital Abidjan in 2004, his brother told France 3 television. The team of French and Ivorian investigators have sent samples from the body, exhumed in the Issia region several hundred kilometres (miles) to the northeast of Abidjan, to France for genetic identification tests.

Vigilante gangs of ultra-conservative Salafi men have been harassing shop owners and female customers in rural towns around Egypt for 'indecent behavior', according to reports in the Egyptian news media. But when they burst into a beauty salon in the Nile delta town of Benha this week and ordered the women inside to stop what they were doing or face physical punishment, the women struck back, whipping them with their own canes before kicking them out to the street in front of an astonished crowd of onlookers.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has condemned the repeatedly adjournment of the case of the Moroccan rapper Moaz Belghawat, a member of the February 20 movement, the continuing of his imprisonment and the authorities’ arbitrary rejection to release him even temporarily. Al-Haqed was arrested on charges of assaulting a member of the 'The Royal Youth Movement' called Mohammed El-Dali, and has been languishing in Casablanca’s Akasha prison for more than 100 days.

'I believe that African movements are in a process of emerging from the control of the big NGOs that have historically managed their struggle. La Via Campesina in Africa shows that this process will be as powerful as it has been in Latin America, or even more powerful, because this is an awakening that allows them to say, maybe for the first time, "we can speak for ourselves, nobody can speak for us".' In this interview with Alberto Gomez, the national director of UNORCA (Unión Nacional de Organizaciones Regionales Campesinas Autónomas) in Mexico, he discusses the UN climate summit concluded in Durban in December and what it means for agriculture.

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande's 'wonderful problem' came back to haunt him when a woman was killed and 17 people injured in a stampede at the University of Johannesburg. Speaking at a hastily convened press conference following the accident, Nzimande announced that the department would move to a "central application process" to alleviate problems regarding university registrations. This was a far cry from the minister's comments last year when he brushed off criticism of the large queues outside the University of Johannesburg (UJ), calling it a 'wonderful problem'. In a repeat of last year's chaos, hundreds of matriculants queued outside the university once the matric results were released seeking to submit late applications for study.

Alexandre Manguele, the southeastern country's health minister, announced that the first ARVs produced in Mozambique, in partnership with Brazil, will be ready by July 2012. In doing so, it will be the first African country – rather than private sector supplier – to produce its own stocks of the drug, which can prolong the lives of HIV sufferers by decades.

While internationally renowned Senegalese singer Youssou N’dour's entry into the Senegalese political field has made headlines, here's blogger Africa is a Country's view: 'The truth is, most serious analysts don’t give N’dour a chance and in some quarters his candidacy is viewed as a publicity stunt - among other factors, N’dour, who has a large fan audience outside Senegal, has no electoral organisation in place; enters a a crowded opposition field; while the incumbent (Abdoulaye Wade) is an experienced campaigner and controls the electoral machinery.'

On the 9 January, Nigerians protested at the headquarters of the Wold Bank in the US. They acted in solidarity with Occupy Nigeria and labour activists in Nigeria who have called a general strikeagainst protesting fuel price hikes demanded by the IMF and World Bank. On New Year's Day, Nigerians awoke to find the price of gasoline and diesel had doubled overnight, as the Nigerian president acceded to the demands of the IMF and World Bank, removing public subsidies from fuel. This video reports on the US protest. 'IMF and World Bank policies have been very successful in transferring money from the rest of us to the one per cent,' says one speaker.

The International Criminal Court says Libya has not responded to a request for information about the health and status of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi before a deadline which expires on Tuesday 10 January. The former Libyan leader's son was captured in southern Libya in November. The ICC, based in in The Hague, has indicted him for crimes against humanity and wants to know officially whether Libya plans to hand him over.

This volume published at the end of 2011 is intended to be the first of an annual series, which will aim to provide the reader with regularly-updated qualitative assessments on the changing nature and dynamics of environmental migration throughout the world. Most of the papers constitute the first detailed analyses of the migration flows that were induced by some of the most dramatic events of 2010, paving the way for future scholarly works.

This era will only adjust to

accommodate to anything uncommon.

And if you feel like the least likely

amongst the rest - then you are the one.

Because we live in a historical era -

all you need to do is start and whatever

you is great enough to leave a

legacy and historical imprint

- just because of the era

we live in.

South Africa's coastal city of Durban - home to over three million - has said goodbye to long-standing City Manager Michael Sutcliffe, who reigned over a municipal version of neoliberal nationalism.

Emboldened by the revolution to claim a new voice in public life, many women are finding that they are still dependent on the protection of men, and that their greatest power is not as direct actors but as symbols of the military government's repression. It is not a place where Egyptian feminists had hoped women would be, back in the heady days of the revolution, when they played an active role, side by side with men, to bring down a dictator. 'Changing the patriarchal culture is not so easy,' said Mozn Hassan, 32, executive director of the seven-year-old group Nazra for Feminist Studies.

Anti-government protests have been quite successful, although with many reports of police brutality against protesters. But labour unions appear unable to provide a voice for the people in some parts of the country.