The British oil trader Trafigura has offered to pay out in a historic damages claim from 31,000 Africans injured by the dumping of toxic waste in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history, the Guardian can reveal. The compensation deal for the victims of toxic oil waste dumping in west Africa – likely to be confirmed imminently – means the full extent of attempts to cover up what really happened can be spelled out for the first time.

Leading to Choices, developed by the Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) in collaboration with its partner organizations in the Global South, is based on a conceptualization of leadership as horizontal, inclusive, and participatory. WLP views leadership as a process that leads to greater choices for all by fostering communication among individuals who learn from each other, create a shared vision, and reach a common goal forged by consensus.

From The Local To The Global: Key Issues in Development Studies
2nd edition
Edited by Gerard McCann and Stephen McCloskey
Released October 4th 2009
PB / £ 17.99 / 9780745328423 / 215mm x 135mm / 320pp

The International People’s Health University (IPHU) and People’s Health Movement (PHM) in association with the Medical University of Cuba, the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Cuenca (Ecuador) and the Global Forum on Health Research are pleased to announce THE STRUGGLE FOR HEALTH - A short training course from 4-13 November 2009 In Havana, Cuba.

The government of Zambia’s decision to further delay the tabling of the proposed Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill and its failure to guarantee the introduction of the Bill in the next parliamentary session represents a huge setback in the nation’s fight against corruption. Indeed, the failure of parliament to enact or even debate this crucial piece of legislation appears astonishing when we consider the revelation of the Ministry of Health corruption scandal earlier this year.

With the prospects for development across the African continent severely undermined by the effects of the global financial crisis, Africa has seen Western countries break promise after promise, writes Lee Wengraf in this week's Pambazuka News. While the US continues to be nowhere near fulfilling its commitment of 0.70 per cent of national income towards foreign aid, it has had no trouble finding funds for militarisation programmes, with some US$500 million available for AFRICOM alone. As imperial competition heightens in the spectre of a global financial crisis, Wengraf writes, it is ordinary Africans who will continue to suffer under a system based on profit.

Food sovereignty, the democratisation of food systems and the trouble with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa are among the topics touched on by Raj Patel and Eric Holt-Giménez, in a lively interview with Pambazuka News about their latest book, .

There are many African rulers that hang onto power, coming very close to the practices of a monarch, writes Okello Oculi in this week's Pambazuka News. This is a dynamic exacerbated by the involvement of the World Bank and NGOs in Africa, who supplement the income of these kleptocrats and who sustain themselves through refusing to condemn the practices of corrupt leaders. We must fight the creativity of leaders like Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville in hiding the sources of their wealth, Oculi urges, and support a common legal norm to bring those that are breaking the law against human dignity and development to justice.

Appalled by President Yoweri Museveni's order that the 'Bafuriki' in Bunyoro speak Runyoro, Vincent Nuwagaba chastises Uganda's premier for a grave 'human rights' violation. If such sharp ethnicisation is not to get out of hand, Nuwagaba stresses in this week's Pambazuka News, Uganda and the global community at large must guard against government restrictions on political and cultural participation along ethnic and cultural lines.

The current global crisis, writes Samir Amin in this week's Pambazuka News, is neither a financial crisis nor the result of myriad systemic crises, but rather derives from the risk of a challenge of the power of the imperialist capitalism of the world's oligopolies by those marginalised. While global powers seek to restore the system to its pre-crisis state, the current crisis in fact allows us to conceive of a 'possible integrated front' involving all the social and political forces which collectively represent the victims of the exclusive power of the oligopolies, Amin contends. Challenging historical capitalism represents the core element in the emancipation of the oppressed, a challenge that will only be met when the peoples of the global South and North struggle together, and without which capitalism will ultimately be overtaken by the destruction of civilisation, and perhaps even life on our planet, Amin concludes.

To survive the devastating impact of the global financial crisis, William Gumede tells Pambazuka News, African countries must learn one simple lesson they appeared not to have heeded since the end of colonialisation and apartheid: Do not listen to the advice of global financial institutions and leading Western nations. For that matter, do exactly what these Western nations do.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/448/58810_SA_Palestine_tmb.jpgIn an open letter to President Jacob Zuma, Hadar Eid, expresses his deep ‘disagreement and dissatisfaction’ with South Africa’s Middle East policy, in particular Zuma’s support for a ‘two-state solution’ for Israel and Palestine. Drawing parallels between Israel’s relationship with Palestinians and apartheid-era South Africa, Eid argues ‘The two-state solution is a racist solution, comrade Jacob. If you did not accept it for yourselves in South Africa, why force it on Palestinians instead of supporting us as we demand the right to our homeland?’

In an open letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder, the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) sets out the organisation’s concerns about US military operation Africa Command (AFRICOM), and calls for it to be dismantled. While officials insist that it is ‘a force for peace’, says NCBL, AFRICOM is ‘perceived as a military command that is designed to facilitate warfare’. The US has a ‘history of using military advisors to guide and direct troops in other countries to no good end’, says NCBL, and AFRICOM’s agenda ‘makes it possible for more lawsuits to be filed in the future, challenging US involvement in Africa’s conflicts.’

On Friday, September 11, 2009, in a flagrant abuse of the immense power the people of Kenya have given them, the police at Central Police Station refused to receive our re-notification for peaceful demonstrations on Monday, September 14, 2009. They insisted and continue to insist that they have banned the peaceful demonstrations for security reasons, which they do not specify. This is in spite of the fact they know that we are non-violent agitators for self-determination.

cc The China AnalystA substantial presence of Chinese OFDI on the world stage essentially dates from 2004 – a short yet vigorous history of barely 5 years. In this brief period, Chinese companies Going Global have become fundamental to the next stage of China’s integration with the global economy. Why is this happening Now, Who is at the forefront of this outward drive, and Where is it heading, asks Barry van Wyk.

‘The idea that every single African who in their post-teenage years have left Africa for a life in a land which offers them more opportunity must be sad and depressed, is one that I am unwilling to acknowledge,’ Anengiyefa Alagoa writes to Pambazuka News, in response to .

Njeri Kabeberi is the winner of the inaugural “Prize for Outstanding Commitment to Law and Justice.”Announcing the award, Prof. Lutz Simon, President of the German Chamber of Lawyers said: “The Chamber of Lawyers Frankfurt am Main wishes to honour you for the many years of work fighting for justice, democracy and human rights in disregard of the private and professional drawbacks and threats.”

International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) has received disturbing news of the arrest of journalist, filmmaker and talk show host, Kalundi Serumaga, on 11 September 2009. It is reported that he has suffered severe beatings, requiring hospital treatment. PEN urgently calls for the release of Kalundi Serumaga, who appears to be detained solely for having spoken on recent clashes in Kampala and nearby Kayunga.

The Kirwan Institute is hosting its second biannual Transforming Race conference on March 11-13, 2010. The theme of the conference is Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama. It will feature the following three thematic tracks:
* Racial Dynamics and Systems Thinking introducing the theory and application of systems thinking to social and racial justice.
* Race Talk exploring constructive, productive, and inclusive racial dialogues.
* Race, Recession and Recovery focusing on the impact of and solutions to the economic downturn for populations of color. The agenda is still being constructed and we need your input.

The ILRF has created the Freedom at Work Toolkit to understanding one of the human rights most widely violated in the workplace: the right to associate freely around the world. Only when this right is in place can we say workers enjoy freedom at work.

The first undersea fibre optic cable, Seacom, reached the east African coast in July 2009. This "Digital Express" is the most important infrastructure investment in eastern Africa since the construction of the Uganda Railway which integrate colonial east Africa into the British Empire.

The University of Texas, Austin is pleased to announce a three-day conference centered on the theme of “Women, Gender and Sexualities in Africa”. Academic discourses on women, gender and sexualities in Africa have increased by leaps and bounds since the 1980s when they began to establish root as veritable fields of professional, systematic and academic endeavor from March 26-28, 2010. The deadline for submitting paper proposals is November 1, 2009.

With East Africa reeling under a severe drought, India offered all possible help and assistance in spurring a green revolution in Tanzania. Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo K. Pinda, who is on a four-day visit to India, held wide-ranging discussions with the External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, where the issue of agricultural cooperation was discussed in detail.

Land grabbing of small farmers’ land by large national and foreign companies is becoming an increasingly concerning issue in Mali. After investing in various sectors of the economy in Mali and in Africa, these national or multinational corporations are looking for new avenues of opportunity, namely land.

Kenya's civil society organisations have lauded Parliament's move to annul the unilateral re-appointment of Justice Aaron Ringera as Kenya's Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) Director. Executive Director Harun Ndubi of HAKI Focus, a civil society organisation, said Thursday the move signified a new era in Kenyan politics where all leaders were held accountable for their actions.

Africa registered 8,000 cases of the H1N1 A flu, called swine flu, 46 of which resulted in deaths, out of the the 164,152 cases reported throughout the world, a researcher with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Sénégal, Dr. Mang Coly, has disclosed. Coly said South Africa was one of the most affected countries in the continent with 5,877 cases of contamination, followed by Tanzania, with 96 cases, Mauritius , 69 cases, and Kenya, 85 cases.

The National Election Commission (NEC) of Cote d'Ivoire has postponed the publication of the temporary voters' list in the country, scheduled to take place on Tuesday. In a communique, made available to PANA here, NEC stated that the publication had been "moved forward a few days". It did not give further details but merely said that the display was postponed for reasons "beyond its control".

Sixteen people died and 49 others are missing and presumed dead in three separate incidents involving smuggling boats in the Gulf of Aden over the last 48 hours, the UN refugee agency has said. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that the first incident took place early Sunday morning off the coast of Radfan, some 150 kilometres east of the Mayfa'a reception centre.

Zimbabwe's minerals sector could attract investments of up to $16 billion once a more conducive business environment is in place, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said. That could help boost gross domestic product by $3 billion per year, Tsvangirai said.

Two weeks ago, Global Voices Online reported the story of Januário Alves de Santana, a black man who had been beaten and punched by security guards of one of the largest international retailers in Brazil. He was waiting for his family in the car park of a supermarket when he was accused of trying to steal his own car, under the argument that, being black, he would not be able to afford a luxury car.

Kenyan authorities have begun to move residents out of Africa's largest slum - the Kibera settlement in Nairobi. Officials expect to take from two to five years to clear the slum, which is home to about one million people. The first people to move are being rehoused nearby in 300 newly built apartments, each paying about $10 (£6) a month in rent. But some residents and landlords have gone to court in a bid to stop the moves as they claim they own the land.

South Africa's Sumbandila Satellite blasted off into space on Thursday evening. The blast-off was accompanied by rousing applause and delight by keen South Africans who had traveled to Baikonur, Kazakhstan to witness the event. Among the guests were Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor. She said the launch of Sumbandila which is Venda for "lead the way" has paved the way for bigger and better things.

The World Bank and major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on leaders who will gather for next week's Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh not to forget the needs of the world's poorest countries, which have been severely affected by the last year's financial crisis.In a report released on Wednesday, the Bank said the global recession, whose repercussions are still being felt around the world, will have resulted in an additional 89 million people living in absolute poverty, or on less than 1.25 dollars a day, by the end of next year.

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday he had blocked possible "unprocedural use" of IMF aid allocated to the country under a global assistance agreement for member states hit by a global crisis. Biti dismissed as "rubbish" reports in state media that he had written to the International Monetary Fund effectively rejecting over $500 million in IMF special drawing rights extended to Zimbabwe because Harare has external debts of about $5.7 billion.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the death threats issued against Kadi Adzuba and Delphine Namuto of Radio Okapi and Jolly Kamuntu of the privately-owned radio station, Radio Maendeleo, who were all threatened through an unknown SMS in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province in the east of DRC.

The number of incidents against humanitarian workers operating in the volatile North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surged by 26 per cent in the first six months this year, and the attacks are becoming increasingly violent, according to a United Nations report.

The Liberian leader president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has filed a lawsuit against the New Broom newspaper for libel, amounting to $5 million in damages. The paper recently accused president Sirleaf of receiving US$2 million as kickback to favor a company for control of the Cavalla Robber Plantation in the south eastern region of Liberia.

Millions of years ago, Madagascar separated from the other continents and evolved separately. Today it has about 12,000 plants most of which can be found nowhere else in the world. Many of these plants have medicinal properties, but their habitat is under threat. In the town of Tolear, people rely on herbs as the nearest hospital is far away. Traditional healers combine plants and a little bit of magic to cure patients.

The deaths of 73 African migrants who drifted for three weeks in the Mediterranean without rescue have heightened concern about Italy's crackdown on immigration, opening cracks in its ruling coalition and a rift with Brussels. Five survivors, picked up off the Italian island of Lampedusa, said their grey dinghy left Libya carrying 78 people. A day later, the motor died: two pregnant girls, raped by traffickers, were among the first to die of thirst and exposure.