Activists and researchers in the United States are raising the alarm on what they call the “land grab” in Africa. Outside governments and foreign corporations have been turning increasingly to African countries to purchase large areas of land, to the dismay of activists, who say economic mistakes of the past should not be repeated.

The president of the World Bank group, Robert Zoellick, has begun a visit in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, with working sessions with the Ivorian government and civil society organisations. According to Mr. Zoellick, the aim of his visit to Côte d'Ivoire is to listen and learn.

Guinea's interim government should exclude key military officials suspected of involvement in the 28 September massacre of pro-democracy activists in the West African nation, an African Union lobby group has said.

Foreign ministers gathered for talks on the change of the African Union Commission into an Authority should focus on giving this proposed government real power, the Libyan Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, said.

Fighting between Islamist insurgents and African Union peacekeepers that started late on Thursday and continued into Friday killed at least 12 people in Somalia's capital, health services and witnesses said.

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formation has called for urgent regional intervention to save the coalition government amid signs the country’s feuding parties are drifting further apart in efforts to resolve outstanding power-sharing issues.

Nigeria's Senate and cabinet are at loggerheads over President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has spent two months in hospital in Saudi Arabia. The cabinet has declared that he is still capable of governing the country.

The European Union should maintain its travel restrictions and asset freezes on President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle until Zimbabwe carries out the concrete human rights reforms set out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, Human Rights Watch has said. The EU is currently reviewing its sanctions policy toward Zimbabwe.

Violations of civil and political rights by Sudanese security forces throughout the country are seriously undermining prospects for free, fair, and credible elections in April 2010, Human Rights Watch has said.

Nancy Alexander's new report finds several worrying trends in how the World Bank spends its money, namely that it is increasing its lending to middle income countries while loans and grants to low income countries stagnate, that DPOs with less stringent safeguards are outpacing project lending, and that the Gender Action Plan is not achieving its goals.

Djibouti has announced to send 450 troops to Somalia next month as to join the African Union peacekeepers mission in that country, the foreign ministry said.

African countries must develop clear infrastructure improvement plans to tap soft finance available for investment in the transport and energy sectors, an African Union official said on Friday.

Millions in West Africa's arid Sahel belt could face famine this year unless the world acts quickly to help, the European Union's humanitarian aid arm has said. The warning came as Niger confirmed the veracity of a leaked government forecast that half its population will face food shortages this year after a dive in grain production, but said it had enough food stocks to care for the most needy.

Civil society organisations have expressed strong opposition to the imprisonment of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a gay couple, in Malawi. More than 40 African civil society organisations have called for the immediate release of this couple, and for the repeal of discriminatory laws against same-sex relationships.

A Human Rights Watch report has revealed details of health care providers withholding care or engaging in treatment that intentionally inflicts pain on patients for no medical reason. World report 2010 details major human rights violations in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide. It is a record of investigative work carried out by the organisation in 2009.

After the 26th September 2009 attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road by the shebeen owners and the ANC the life of the people has changed into misery. Everything is out of their control and some people are even abandoning the area due to a high level of crime activities making it unsafe. These activities are being started in the shebeens which are operating right through the night again.

A new telecoms tax epidemic is sweeping across Africa adding to the already high tax levels imposed on operators on the continent. This time the tax is being levied on inbound international calls and will increase their costs by between 20-100%. This will make the cost of doing business with Africa rise significantly in a time of global economic downturn.

In any economy, a vibrant SME sector is essential for sustainable job creation, poverty reduction and private sector development. It plays a catalytic role in the development of any country. All accept that poverty-elimination in Africa can only come about through investment-driven economic growth.

People with HIV who selected treatment partners to support their adherence were more likely to return to the clinic to collect further doses of antiretrovirals, and showed a higher rate of viral suppression after six months of treatment, but showed no longer-lasting advantage in terms of viral suppression, CD4 cell counts or mortality, Nigerian and American researchers report in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The East African Community (EAC) is set to boost business ties with the United States in a new trade platform that is to be launched in February. Operating under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (Tifa), the arrangement will help EAC member countries to utilise existing trade opportunities such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The book Urgency Required focuses on urgent issues of gay and lesbian liberation, taking a historical perspective and reflecting worldwide geographic diversity. Employing the term ‘LGBT-persons’, the acronym used for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, it explores concepts and strategies for taking steps towards decriminalization and equal rights and treatment regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

Thanks to funding from the UN refugee agency, hundreds of primary schoolchildren in Sudan's volatile West Darfur state no longer have to study in the open. At the same time, UNHCR is helping to form bonds between different ethnic groups and avoid conflict in an area where hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly displaced in recent years.

The testimonies of women who survived sexual violence during post-election conflict in 2008 should be heard, say advocates. The magnitude of the crimes committed against women because of their gender must be recorded and prosecuted to prevent such violence from occurring again.

The seizure of large commercial farms - almost all white-owned - has continued despite the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe. The country's farm workers say they are the biggest losers. The workers say that Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders must intervene immediately to stop the violence against them.

New vaccination programmes against rotavirus are starting to have a positive impact, and could eventually prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths a year, according to a new report.

Gender based violence, sexual orientation, gender equality and sexuality of people living with HIV/AIDS will be issues discussed at the upcoming Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, 8-12 February in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This fourth conference is expected to open up discourse about sexuality in Africa and to source possible insights of reducing the spread of HIV and Aids in Africa.

South Sudan's former rebels have chosen a northern Muslim as their candidate in April's presidential election, the country's first multiparty poll since 1986. The candidacy of Yassir Arman was announced by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which leads the government in the semi-autonomous south, on Friday after lengthy talks among party officials.

Big dams have frequently imposed high social and environmental costs and long-term economic tradeoffs, such as lost fisheries and tourism potential and flooded agricultural and forest land. According to the independent World Commission on Dams, most projects have failed to compensate affected people for their losses and to adequately mitigate environmental impacts.

Malili – a 5,000 acre East African technopolis – is a city built up for technology firms and it’s the Kenyan government’s way of creating a regional ICT brand. The Malili project is modeled off of other large technology and research parks around the world. One often cited in comparison is Smart Village Cairo, which currently hosts 120 companies and 20,000 professionals and they’re expecting that to increase to 500 companies and 100,000 professionals by 2012.

The international human rights body has called on Moroccan authorities to cease a ban on foreign travel against selected Sahrawi activist, saying it hampers the freedom of movement. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said since August 2009, the government has revived an arbitrary and repressive measure, which it had used frequently more than a decade ago to bar Sahrawis’ from traveling abroad.

The announcement in late 2009 that the government had approved a new HIV/AIDS policy in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was widely welcomed by AIDS and human rights lobbyists as long overdue. A November 2009 statement by the SANDF noted that the new policy made provision for the "recruitment and selective deployment of HIV-positive members" of the military and complied with a High Court ruling in May 2008, which found the previous policy of excluding HIV-positive people from recruitment and foreign deployment unconstitutional.

For those anticipating sweeping, immediate change from Barack Obama's election to the US presidency, the results of the president's first year in office will undoubtedly have proven profoundly disappointing, writes Demba Moussa Dembele. Just as his Accra address was rooted in patronising references to 'corruption' and 'tribalism', it should be always borne in mind that Obama operates and will continue to operate first and foremost in defence of the 'interests of empire', Dembele stresses.

A year into his presidency, Barack Obama is essentially following the same course of militarised action in Africa pursued by his predecessors over the past decade, writes Daniel Volman. A consequence of the US president's faith in the necessity of the global war on terror and pragmatic political concerns around retaining oil supplies, Obama's approach to Africa has been entirely rooted in asserting his country's military might, Volman concludes.

Following the devastation wrought by the recent earthquake in Haiti, Peter Hallward stresses the role of 'systematic postcolonial oppression' as a chronic obstacle to Haiti's progress. If the West is sincere in its desire to help Haiti, Hallward contends, it will need to stop trying to control the country's government before 'paying for at least some of the damage we've already done'.

While Article 39 of Kenya’s Revised Harmonised Draft Constitution makes giant steps in guaranteeing media freedom, Henry Maina finds it still lacking. Maina explores Article 39’s shortcomings in the areas of licensing, censorship and confidentiality and suggests some fundamental safeguards as solutions.

Kenya’s government, Paul Mwangi Maina argues, has failed to involve the youth in political processes, despite pre-election promises to do so. Maina portrays a system in Kenya where youth participation is dependent on wealth and connections. These youths are then merely used as political pawns, corrupted by politicians even before they enter politics at a national level, he stresses: ‘These people do not represent the young people of Kenya accurately.'

Can or will Barack Obama deliver a more peaceful, humane world, asks Ama Biney, a year after his inauguration as 44th President of the United States. Offering a tentative evaluation of the path followed by the Obama administration so far, Biney suggests that genuine change lies not with the president, but in the remobilisation of a grassroots movement among the ordinary Americans who had the optimism and motivation to campaign for him.

‘There's no such thing as a 'natural' disaster,’ writes Greg Palast, ‘200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF “austerity” plans.’ Palast takes a look both at international community’s response to the Haiti earthquake and at its role in impoverishing a nation that was once the wealthiest in the western hemisphere.