A Zimbabwean magistrate's court has freed 38 activists charged with treason for discussing the mass protests in Egypt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, a lawyer said. 'Of the 46 who were in custody, 38 have been released completely after the state agreed with us that they had no case to answer,' their attorney Alec Muchadehama told Agence France-Presse. But eight others, including Munyaradzi Gwisai, a university lecturer and former lawmaker from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, remained in custody after the court denied them bail.

South Africa's genetically modified crop area for the 2010/11 season rose 6 per cent but perceptions make it hard for other African countries to adopt the practice, the deputy agriculture minister said on Thursday (03 March). South Africa, the world's seventh-largest producer of GM crops but Africa's biggest, has seen a rapid increase in gene-altered crop output since it started growing GM farm produce in 1998.

ECOWAS member states should announce that members of the unrecognised Gbagbo government and his entourage are 'persona non grata' in their territory and break all economic and financial ties with public or semi-public companies, particularly in the oil and energy sectors, controlled by that regime. This is according to a report from the International Crisis Group. Côte d’Ivoire is in crisis after Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after he lost the November 2010 presidential election.

Women and girls returning to northern Uganda from forced conscription into the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) struggle to resettle in their home communities because of stigma and a severe shortage of reintegration facilities tailored to their needs, say analysts and returnees. After leaving the LRA, former female combatants return to their villages with children forcibly fathered by LRA commanders and delivered in the bush. They are often shunned by their families and stigmatised as 'bush women' by their communities.

A shortage of money means Uganda is unlikely to shift its prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programmes to a more efficient UN World Health Organisation (WHO) regimen soon, say government officials. In 2010, WHO recommended two equally effective options for PMTCT. The first, Option A, is fairly similar to the system Uganda currently uses. It involves single-dose antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for the mother - if her CD4 count is over 350 - from the 14th week, as well as ARVs during labour, delivery and one week post-partum. Pregnant women with CD4 counts below 350 are advised to start taking ARVs for their own health. Option B involves triple therapy ARVs from the 14th week of pregnancy until one week after breastfeeding has ended, which can be up to one year. The Ugandan government has expressed its intention to shift to Option B, which is simpler for health providers and mothers to implement than Option A. However, an already stressed HIV budget may make this impossible.

Oil and gas companies have improved the transparency of how they report revenues and information about anti-corruption programmes but should take bolder actions to stop corruption, according to a new report by Transparency International (TI) and Revenue Watch Institute (RWI). The 2011 'Report on Oil and Gas Companies', which is based on research conducted in 2010 and is an expanded version of a report published in 2008, rates 44 companies on the public availability of information on their anti-corruption programmes and how they report their financial results in all the countries where they operate. By disclosing anti-corruption measures and key organisational and financial data, especially on a country-by-country level, companies demonstrate their commitment to stop the misappropriation of revenues. In particular, detailed publication of fiscal payments allows citizens to hold governments to account.

To mark the centenary year of International Women's Day on 8 March, Panos London has produced a case study media pack profiling extraordinary women from around the world who have taken on roles previously deemed just for men. 'Breaking Barriers: Women in a Man's World' is a showcase of exceptional women who are breaking stereotypes to change their own lives and inspire other women and girls around them.

Migrant workers around the world started out 2011 by sending home significantly more money than they did in 2010, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Each year, migrant workers send a total of more than US$ 330 billion to their home communities.

Tunisia's interim authorities have disbanded the country's feared state security apparatus, notorious for human rights abuses under the ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Seeking to assert their authority and gain legitimacy in the eyes of protesters who forced Ben Ali to flee in January, the authorities appear to be attacking the remaining vestiges of his 23-year rule, one-by-one.

As the world celebrates hundred years of the commemoration of International Women’s Day on 8 March Ugandan human rights defender Kasha Jacqueline has been nominated as one of the top hundred most inspiring people who have delivered for girls and women worldwide by a global advocacy organisation Women Deliver. According to Women Deliver the list of a hundred most inspiring people recognises individuals who have committed themselves to improving the lives of girls and women around the world and comprises of women and men, both prominent and lesser known.

The independent news magazine Kontext TV, supported by Noam Chomsky and others, was at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal in February and has produced a series of broadcasts on the occasion of the Forum's 10th anniversary. The first programme is now online in English and German versions under The programme reports about some of the key issues at the Forum such as the impacts of the revolutions in North Africa and the formation of a worldwide movement for climate justice and land grabbing. Another broadcast focussing on Africa is going to follow.

Building on momentum from a mass voter registration drive, a coalition of several youth empowerment groups and blogs, including Vote or Quench, Enough is Enough Nigeria, Sleeves Up, and Nigerian Leadership Initiative, are calling for the first-ever presidential youth centered debate in Nigeria. Looking ahead to the April elections, the debate would focus on the key issues affecting a critical voting demographic, with the age group of 30 and under representing 70 per cent of the population.

On the centenary of International Women’s Day 2011, FIAN calls for equal land rights for women worldwide. Access to and control over land is one of the most important means for men and women in rural areas to realise their right to food. Discriminatory practices, however, have driven women into increased marginalisation, especially when it comes to access to resources such as land, water or seeds. As a consequence, women are disproportionately affected by hunger and malnutrition.

cc Who defines true liberation? Watch out for the role of the global elite in manipulating the outcome of the Middle East and North Africa revolutions, writes Nicholas H. Tucker.

Since 1992, 34 journalists have been killed in Somalia, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. This doesn't take into account journalists who die in car accidents, but only instances where deaths are work-related. In 2010 two Somali journalists were killed as a direct result of their work, Sheikh Nur Mohamed Abkey, who worked for state-run Radio Mogadishu, was gunned down near his home, and Barkhat Awale, director of Hurma community radio, was killed by a stray bullet from nearby fighting. No Somali journalists have been killed this year - so far. Death is the most extreme example of the many dangers facing journalists in Somalia. Already this year, two journalists have been captured by militia groups, although both have been released.

Almost five months after the anti homosexuality bill was tabled before the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) organisations and activists say they have not had the opportunity to mobilise or even undertake any action to oppose the bill due the lack of funding to support the activities. Jean Bedel Kaniki of Hirondelles Bukavu, an LGBTI organisation in the DRC, said organisations had solely depended on financial support promised by an international funder, which they did not get.

Just one woman has been included into the newly sworn-in cabinet. Essam Sharaf, Egypt’s new prime minister, has instead announced the creation of a committee that deals with the advancement of women, formed under the supervision of the cabinet. Throughout the uprising, women were at the forefront of the street protests. However, they have largely kept quiet about their gender rights in a country where they have faced rampant discrimination and received little legal protection against widespread violence and sexual abuse.

There is a ray of hope for millions of poor Zambians - thanks to the unwavering anti-corruption efforts of many organisations like Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) and the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA). Supported by the UK’s development agency DFiD, since 2008, the international initiatives have been spearheading a project aimed at helping to increase access to essential medicines by low income and disadvantaged people in Zambia. MeTA and TIZ want to improve transparency and accountability in the selection, procurement, sale and distribution of essential medicines in Zambia. And it involves the key sectors in government, the pharmaceutical industry, civil society and the donor community.

‘Without doubt’, the crude oil business ‘is the stuff that oils the machinery of despotism’ and that ‘blinds the world to the bloods that flow on the streets as people fight for liberty’, writes Nnimmo Bassey.

The Advanced Diploma in Child Protection in Emergencies aims to address the gaps in child protection in emergencies staff capacity, as identified in the recent scoping study carried out on behalf of the CPWG in October 2010.

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki did not take strong action against Uganda for ‘grabbing’ Migingo Island to politically undermine Prime Minister Raila Odinga. That was the thinking by US embassy officials in Nairobi, as revealed by secret diplomatic cables made public by whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The cable analyses the background to the tiny disputed island on Lake Victoria, the way it has impacted on Kenya-Uganda relations and also become a political dispute in Kenya.

This blog post points to the exciting potential created by volunteers from thousands of miles away using social networking platforms and free, open source software to create live crisis maps. '...thanks to today’s easy mapping platforms, volunteers can help respond to a crisis from thousands of miles away by collaborating online to create a live map that can be used to support humanitarian operations. They can use social networking platforms to connect, organize, recruit and train.'

Equatorial Guinea must amend laws that hinder effective civil society mobilisation and activism inside the country, says by advocacy group EG Justice. The report highlights ‘the gaps that exist between the government’s commitments to regional and international covenants that promote basic civil liberties'.

Mama, don’t put me under the knife
Give not to culture
A slice of my precious life...

‘The memory of Dennis Brutus will remain everywhere there is struggle against injustice,’ writes Patrick Bond, in a tribute to the late South African poet and freedom fighter, which was presented at the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy in February.

Gado wonders if a bit of mutual support between Gaddafi and Kenya's leaders might arise.

Redy Wilson Lima, Aquilino Varela, Quintino Tavares

Bia Barbosa

Emir Sader

As part of a statement on International Women's Day, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) underlines the importance of women's access to education and employment.

John Kamau travels the Thika-Garissa highway in Kenya and finds a collapsed settlement scheme from nearly 50 years ago that showcases of 'the misuse of power, might and money'.

cc Taking inspiration from the late South African anti-apartheid poet–activist Dennis Brutus’s verb-play, Patrick Bond discusses the ‘mubaraking’ currently faced by a number of dictatorships across Africa.

‘Putting Paul Collier, the former chief economist of the World Bank and one of the architects of this folly, in charge of explaining what went wrong with globalisation is akin to putting Attila the Hun in charge of the Ministry of Roman Reconstruction,’ writes Erik S. Reinert in this review of 'The Bottom Billion'.

Darfur rebels attacked a Sudanese army supply convoy in the insurgents' mountainous Jabel Marra stronghold, leaving at least 17 people dead, the military said. No one was immediately available for comment from the rebels group named by the military - a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) loyal to Abdel Wahed al-Nur which walked out of peace talks in 2006 and has refused to return.

The South Africa government is extremely concerned about the continued dissatisfaction of patients who often face rude staff, long queues as well as dirty and unsafe clinics and hospitals, the Director General of Health acknowledged at a meeting on healthcare standards and quality. Dr Precious Matsoso said South Africa’s healthcare outputs were very poor in relation to its inputs.

Cameroon’s Biya regime has embarked on a ‘futile battle it will never win’, writes Dibussi Tande, following the government's attempt to silence digital activists by banning a mobile Twitter service.

In Egypt, where the country begins to look toward its future, women are in danger of being sidelined again. 'Incredibly, despite decades of discrimination and inequality, women are being denied a role in the creation of a new Egypt. They are being excluded by both the caretaker government and the international community. Most recently, a new national committee formed to write the new Egyptian constitution was composed only of men. This is not acceptable,' says Widney Brown, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Law and Policy.

Representatives of the parties to the Western Sahara dispute, Morocco and the Frente Polisario, have wrapped up another round of talks, during which both sides continued to reject each other’s proposal as a sole basis for future negotiations, United Nations envoy Christopher Ross said. 'The proposals of the two parties were again presented,' said a communiqué read by Mr. Ross, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara at the end of the two-day meeting, held in Malta. 'By the end of the meeting, each party continued to reject the proposal of the other as a sole basis for future negotiations,' it added.

The Ethiopian region of Gambella is home to Africa’s second-largest mammal migration, with more than a million endangered antelope and other animals moving through its grasslands. But the government has now leased vast tracts to foreign agribusinesses who are planning huge farms on land designated a national park. Unreported, an environmental tragedy is unfolding in a remote corner of Africa, on the borders of the newly-designated state of South Sudan, that could imperil the second-largest mammal migration on the African continent.

At least 80,000 households in 133 districts are expected to be covered by research aimed at testing reading and basic arithmetic capacity of children aged between five and 16 years. 'We are embarking on the second annual assessment after the release and dissemination of the findings from the maiden one in 2010 where we covered 38 districts,' the Uwezo Research Manager, Dr Grace Soko said.

African Women and Child Feature Service has produced a 24-page special newspaper that looks at the gains, challenges and obstacles women have faced - particularly in relation to advancing in leadership and education. 'Strength of a Woman' takes stock of women's progress 25 years after the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies and 16 years after the Beijing Platform for Action.