All three private radio and television stations shut down by the Liberian Government have been reopened. Love FM/TV, Power FM/TV and Kings FM/TV were ordered closed by the Justice ministry on the eve of the presidential runoff election for broadcasting messages mainly by the opposition Congress for Democratic Change, which eventually boycotted the polls.

A week-long lecturers' strike has been suspended to allow pay negotiations between the government and university unions. Labour minister John Munyes announced that the tutors are expected to resume teaching immediately and talks will begin in two weeks. Under the agreement, the Ministry is supposed to initiate the consultation process with the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Service.

Swaziland's government has failed to pay more than $10m (£6.3m) in grants to Aids orphans because of its financial crisis, an IMF official has said. Swaziland has the world's highest HIV/Aids rate, leaving some 69,000 orphans. The IMF's Joannes Mongardini said the government should cut its wage bill to ease its financial crisis.

Clashes are continuing in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, between riot police and protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announces a date to hand over power to an elected government in some of the worst unrest since the country's revolution. Police fired tear gas canisters and protesters threw rocks on Sunday morning as thousands remained on the streets overnight in and around central Cairo's Tahrir square, the focal point of the 18-day uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in February. Essam Sharraf, Egypt's interim prime minister, was set to host an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the unrest.

Global Justice Ecology Project has just published the No REDD Papers, Volume 1. 'Your future, our climate and Indigenous Peoples are threatened by a devious false solution to climate change called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Unfortunately, industrialized countries, oil companies and other climate criminals that are trashing the planet have absolutely no intention of drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions necessary to truly address climate change.'

The World Bank and the African Union have taken steps to lower the cost of sending remittances to and within Africa by launching an online database that will help increase transparency about prices and stimulate greater competition among service providers. The database, Send Money Africa, is a years-in-the-making partnership between the Bank, the African Union Commission, and donors. Through its interface, migrants can compare the cost that remittance service providers charge to send a particular amount to a given country. 'Send Money Africa will stimulate competition among the service providers and ultimately induce a reduction of the costs. As a result, remittance senders and recipients will benefit from transparent, efficient, less costly remittance services,' said Richard Cambridge, Manager of the Africa Diaspora Program in the World Bank’s Africa Region.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study, the top 40 mining firms enjoyed a 1,900 per cent cumulative increase in net profits in the six years between 2002 and 2007, says Yao Graham, the co-ordinator of Third World Network-Africa. 'But very little of this additional income and profits went to the mineral exporting African countries, thanks both to the lopsided fiscal terms enjoyed by mining firms, and to their use of tax avoidance schemes such as doing business with shell companies in tax havens.'

The number of refugees and migrants arriving in Yemen by boat was 12,545 last month - the highest monthly total since UNHCR began compiling data about the mixed migration route between the Horn of Africa and Yemen in January 2006. As well as exceeding the previous record of 12,079 arrivals in September, the October total brings to 84,656 the number of people who arrived in Yemen by sea between the start of January and the start of November - more than the earlier annual record in 2009 of 77,000 people.

The Global Fund has denied Uganda $270m (about Sh700b) needed to put over 100,000 more people on lifesaving ARVs because the country’s policies are deemed harsh on sexual minorities. The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need. The Uganda government’s New Vision newspaper reported today that the Aids control manager in the Ministry of Health, Dr Zainab Akol, had said the rights of minorities were derailing the fight against HIV/Aids.

The world-turned-upside-down of the European debt crisis reached a new extreme last week when Europe came pleading for lucre where it once only seized it: Africa. The hands-out visit of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho of Portugal to its former colony Angola was a milestone of sorts. 'Angolan capital is very welcome,' Mr. Passos Coelho said in Luanda, the capital city. That may be an understatement: the former colony’s cash could be essential as Portugal is forced to sell off state-owned companies after a bailout this year, reports the New York Times.

This UN Report on the World Social Situation explores the ongoing adverse social consequences of the ongoing financial crisis. The global economic downturn has had wide-ranging negative social outcomes for individuals, families, communities and societies, and its impact on social progress in areas such as education and health will only become fully evident over time. During times of financial and economic crisis, households often adopt coping strategies, such as making changes in household expenditure patterns; however, these can negatively influence education, health and nutrition outcomes, which may lead to lifelong deficits for the children affected and thus perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

World powers have urged Libya to work with the International Criminal Court and ensure a fair trial for Seif al-Islam, son of slain leader Muamar Gaddafi who was arrested after months on the run. Seif, wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in crushing anti-regime protests, was captured in Libya's far-flung Saharan south early on Saturday in a trap set by fighters of the Zintan brigade.

Life in Bwaise – a slum on the outskirts of the capital of Uganda – has never been easy. But increasingly erratic rains over the last three years have brought constant floods to the former swampland. Residents who can afford to are moving out, leaving the poorest – often single mothers and grandmothers – behind.

The UN refugee agency has expressed concern about the security of thousands of refugees in South Sudan border areas as fighting in neighbouring Sudan continues to drive civilians across the frontier. 'UNHCR is working to move these refugees away from the border and to safer areas of South Sudan because of concerns about security,' the agency's chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, told journalists in Geneva.

Cape Town Community TV together with the support of AIDC and FES have produced 'Free Media, Free Minds!' - a 13 part TV series focusing on aspects of media freedom and the free flow of information in South Africa. The show is broadcast across Cape Town and live streamed on the internet every Monday at 19h00 and broadcast again every Sunday at 16h30 from the 7th November 2011 to 5th February 2012. Visit Cape Town Community TV for the schedule.

A group of African farmers, pastoralists and campaigners just left on a road trip to South Africa for the 17th Conference of Parties discussions in Durban. Organised by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, this group will pass through 10 African countries creating awareness on climate change. This will culminate in a petition being presented to President Jacob Zuma expressing Africa’s concerns about climate change. Kenya’s position in the talks is not clearly defined. In fact, Kenya is not known to have a position of its own as far as climate change discussions go.

On 9 November 2011, local authorities in Benguela suddenly withdrew their support and disrupted an arts and culture event organised by the NGO OMUNGA that was scheduled to start the following day. OMUNGA is a human rights group based in the province of Benguela that promotes street children rights, children and youth protagonism, community and civil education. Furthermore, on 11 and 12 November, the police intervened again and forcibly interrupted two OKUPAKALA events that were taking place in different parts of the city, namely Damba Maria and Catumbela. The organisers then transferred the event supposed to take place in Catumbela to another location, but the police contacted them and ordered not to continue with the event.

This KPFA Africa Today programme with Walter Turner features an interview with William Minter, editor and producer of the valuable web site Africa Focus. He discusses his life's work in media and information regarding Africa.

This briefing note offers a preliminary assessment of the compatibility between the WTO and efforts to protect the human right to adequate food as part of the post-crisis food security agenda. Existing WTO rules do include certain flexibilities for States to pursue food security-related measures. From a right to food perspective, certain elements of the draft modalities in agriculture are an improvement on the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), most notably proposed changes to the green box criteria on public stockholding for food security. However, many of these modifications to the AoA are relatively modest and even these are by no means assured with the outcome of the Doha Round highly uncertain.

Protesters calling for Egypt's military to hand over power have beaten back a new raid by security forces to evict them from Cairo's Tahrir Square after more than 48 hours of violence in the heart of the Egyptian capital. Security forces fired tear gas and attacked a makeshift field hospital on Monday morning, while protesters broke up pavements to hurl chunks of concrete at police. Egypt's health ministry says at least 22 people have been killed and 1,500 wounded in clashes between government forces and protesters in Cairo and other cities since Saturday, raising concerns over the conduct of parliamentary elections due to begin on 28 November.

'At UN Women we are working with five governments in the sub-region in a pilot programme to see exactly what women are doing to get out of poverty. Most of these women are in what is called the informal sector, and their work is not recognised. The women who kept the Zimbabwe economy going at the lowest point in its history are not recognised even today. Yet they ensured the survival of their families and the economy,' says the head of UN Women in Southern Africa, Nomcebo Manzini, in this interview with Business Report.

After sitting in Cape Town at the weekend, where it heard evidence from a range of witnesses, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine declared that Israel was guilty of practising apartheid and called for it to be isolated. The tribunal called on world governments to institute sanctions against it and break off diplomatic ties.

Some 21,000 Kenyan women are hospitalised every year because of complications from unsafe abortions. According to Kenya’s Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, 2,600 die from procedures carried out by untrained 'professionals' in back alleys and people’s homes, well away from proper health facilities where women can be reported to the police and jailed for up to 14 years if convicted of terminating a pregnancy.

Residents have begun to flee a northeast Nigerian city where a radical Muslim sect launched attacks that killed more than 100 people. Rev. Idi Garba said Tuesday 8 November that nearly all the Christians and non-natives of Yobe state had fled their homes in Damaturu, the state capital. Garba said streets remained deserted, without soldiers or police protection.

With more than five out of every seven people in the world lacking adequate social security, a high-level United Nations panel has called for guaranteeing basic income and services for all, not only as a means to ensure peace and stability but also to boost economic growth. Measures providing income security and scaling up essential health services are affordable even in the poorest countries, costing as little as one to two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), although international support is needed for some low-income countries, with donors providing predictable multi-year financial aid, according to the panel’s report, 'Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization'.

Niger, where Libya's fugitive Saif al-Islam Gaddafi may be headed, risks a backlash from nomad Tuaregs in its north if it follows through on its obligation to hand him over to the International Criminal Court. Libya's aid-reliant southern neighbour has vowed to respect commitments to the ICC, but knows that could spark unrest in Saharan areas where a string of past rebellions against the capital were nurtured by Muammar Gaddafi, feted by many in the desert as a hero. The Hague-based ICC said Gaddafi's 39-year-old son Saif al-Islam was in contact via intermediaries about surrendering for trial, but it also had information that mercenaries were trying to spirit him to a friendly African nation.

The US army provided counter-insurgency training to Nigerian troops battling a rise in attacks by Islamist militants, the Nigerian military has revealed. More than 100 people have been killed in recent days by the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram, dubbed the 'Nigerian Taliban', in Nigeria's north-east. Nigeria has sought to crush the group with military force but faces criticism from human rights activists for alleged extra-judicial killings. The military said some battalions had received training in the US.

Sahel states Mauritania, Mali and Niger are enhancing their military might through arms deals with France. The arms sales were detailed in a report presented by the French government in front of parliament on 26 October. The presentation did not specify the quantity or quality of weaponry, but did mention an annual contract. The French government is linked with ten African countries in a series of arms sale contracts.

Four opposition parties in the Gambia have coalesced and named Mr Hamat Bah as their presidential candidate for elections set for later this month. The coalition candidate is the standard bearer of the National Reconciliation Party, a long-time challenger to President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power through a military coup in 1994 and is hoping to remain in power for life.

Gabon's constitutional court has ruled that parliamentary elections will take place on 17 December as planned, despite opposition demands for a delay in the poll to introduce biometric voters cards, officials said. Gabon's opposition has been campaigning for months to delay the elections in order to introduce the biometric system, which has been implemented in many countries for digital chips in passports and electoral cards, using individual biological data such as fingerprints or eye retina scans to combat fraud.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has warned that his country was ready to return to war with the southern neighbour in light of recent rebel attacks in border states, the Sudan Tribune, an online news website based in France, has reported. According to the website, he was speaking at a rally in Kurmuk in Blue Nile State in celebration of the Sudanese army's regaining control over the town after battles with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)- North Sudan faction that lasted over two months.

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza has sacked six ministers from his cabinet for poor performance, his spokesman said. When he was sworn in for his five-year second term, President Nkurunziza said that each government official will report on tasks accomplished every six months, adding that those who failed to do so would be fired.

Defense representatives from more than 30 African nations joined together in Maseru, Lesotho, 7-11 November to participate in the initial planning conference for next year's Africa Endeavor. Africa Endeavor is an annual US Africa Command-sponsored communications exercise focused on building interoperability and information sharing among African nations.

'People feel this is like the return of colonialism,' says Athumani Mkambala, chairman of Mhaga village in rural Tanzania. 'Colonialism in the form of investment.' A quarter of the village's land in Kisarawe district was acquired by a British biofuels company in 2008, with the promise of financial compensation, 700 jobs, water wells, improved schools, health clinics and roads. But the company has gone bust, leaving villagers not just jobless but landless as well. The same story is playing out across Africa, as foreign investors buy up land but leave some of the poorest people on Earth worse off when their plans fail.

Poverty, abuse and cultural practices are preventing a third of Zimbabwean girls from attending primary school and 67 per cent from attending secondary school, denying them a basic education, according to a recent study which found alarming dropout rates for girls. 'Sexual harassment and abuse by even school teachers and parents, cultural issues, lack of school fees, early marriage, parental commitments and early pregnancies are some of the contributing factors to the dropout by the girl child,' said the authors of 'Because I am a Girl' by Plan International, a nonprofit organisation that works to alleviate child poverty.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has told journalists that the national executives of all three political parties in the inclusive government will meet to discuss the worsening political violence in the country. ZANU PF Central Committee members and their counterparts from the national executive councils of the MDC-T and MDC-N are expected to attend. The meeting follows the violent disturbances witnessed when members of the notorious ZANU PF Chipangano gang attacked MDC-T supporters preparing for a rally at Chibuku Stadium in Chitungwiza.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has warned that the global economy is at risk of being plunged into a 'lost decade'. Lagarde said the ongoing debt crisis in Europe has resulted in an uncertain outlook for the global economy. The IMF chief added that whilst efforts to solve the crisis were heading in the right direction, more needed to be done to restore confidence.

South African scientists are at the coalface of understanding whether HIV can be eradicated from an HIV-positive individual, essentially curing the person. A complex field of study, Professor Caroline Tiemessen is attempting to understand why some individuals – referred to as elite controllers – are able to be HIV infected, but successfully suppress virus replication to undetectable levels. This is achieved in the absence of antiretroviral treatment and the immune system response is maintained at an optimal level for many years.

The government of South Sudan has arrested the Chairman of the United Democratic Forum (UDF), Mr. Peter Abdurrahman Chule, whom it accused of attempting to recruit youths for a rebellion against the government in Juba. Radio Miraya, a UN-funded radio reporting from Juba, capital of South Sudan, reported that Mr Chule was arrested last week at his hideout in Western Equatoria State. Ironically, Mr Chule was one of the most ardent advocates for separation before independence in 2011, and was even against the moderate line of giving unity and separation equal chances as stipulated by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).