The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) hosted its 24th world conference in Vienna, Austria on 3 to 6 November 2008. This assembly, which was attended by more than 80 member countries of the world aimed to, among other objectives, create and strengthen networks between activists campaigning in all regions of the world.

Ministers from across the developing world say they want to take control of their own health research agendas as part of a wish list presented at the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health yesterday (19 November). Launching the much-awaited 'Call to Action' at the closing event of the Forum they said they want to prioritise policies dealing with research for health and improve coordination between ministries so that their respective countries can have more ownership of research.

A new health data system has been introduced to rural parts of Sierra Leone, where lack of electricity and widespread illiteracy has prevented authorities and UN agencies from collecting reliable data about infant mortality and other health indicators. The method: Counting stones

Ugandan Inspectorate of Government (IGG) said police and judicial are most corrupt government institutions according to public perceptions. Newly released 2008 Inspectorate of Government National Integrity Survey report which investigated prevalence and incidences of corruption and administrative injustice in public service and the reasons for it, suggest that corruption has been glorified.

Like many teenagers in rural Ethiopia, Shekuria Mume, 19, became pregnant, quit school and got married at 15. The birth of her first baby remains one of her most traumatic experiences, as an untrained traditional birth attendant (TBA) delivered her. "I had heard that some women die while giving birth so I was scared most of the time during my pregnancy; I didn't sleep much," Shekuria told IRIN.

Christopher Mlalazi has written plays for Zimbabwean performing arts groups that include Amakhosi Theatre; Umkhathi Theatre; Sadalala Amajekete Theatre and the Khayalethu Performing Arts Project. His poems and short stories have been published in newspapers, magazine and websites that include Crossing Borders Magazine, Poetry International Web, the Sunday News and The Zimbabwean newspaper. Others have been featured in anthologies that include Short Writings From Bulawayo: Volumes I, II and III (Ama’books Publishers, 2003, 2004 and 2005), Writing Now (Weaver Press, 2005), and The Obituary Tango: Selection of Writing from the Caine Prize for African Writing 2005 (New Internationalist Publications, 2006, Jacana Media ,2006). Mlalazi spoke with about his work.

As he explores the general sense of euphoria to have greeted Barack Obama’s election victory in cities around the African continent, Pius Adesanmi considers the significance of the possessive ‘we’ commonly employed in African citizens’ descriptions of the new US president-elect. Deeply constrained by the expectations of some of the less level-headed parts of the US electorate, Obama’s potential pro-Africa posturing may well be limited by the need to remain palatable to the American populace. But if effectively harnessed, the author argues, Obama’s ascendancy represents a genuine opportunity for Africa’s community of conscience to fundamentally redress the anti-humanity, pro-resources plundering of the continent to have characterised Western countries’ and African leaders’ approach over the past five hundred years.

The Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Adama Dieng has said Kenya must try those implicated in the Waki Report on post-election violence. He said civilians; politicians, security officers and their senior commanders are in the crosshairs of war crimes and crimes against humanity investigations and indictment in the Waki Report. Dieng said forgiving suspects named by Justice Philip Waki "in the name of peace and reconciliation" would breed impunity and future violence.

United Nations Democracy Fund invites civil society organizations to apply for fundingThe United Nations Democracy Fund hereby invites civil society organizations to apply for funding for projects to promote democracy. Project proposals may be submitted on-line beginning 10 November through 31 December 2008. This is the third round of funding to be launched by UNDEF, which was established by the Secretary-General in 2005 as a United Nations General Trust Fund.

The election of Barack Obama as US president is still one of the most discussed topics on the African blogosphere, although the giddy post-election euphoria is steadily giving way to more subdued analyses and observations.

argues that Obama’s victory is bittersweet for Nigeria and most of Africa:

“…while we rejoice that YES WE CAN, it is sad that apparently in Africa it seems that NO WE CANNOT, at least not yet. Not that we cannot, as such, but we won’t have the opportunity to, at least not likely in this generation. The seeds of today were planted years ago, probably in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Barack Obama was born in 1961… the modern period of the struggle for the political and social emancipation of the African-American, the anti-apartheid struggle and the political (not economic) independence of African nations. Clearly, Nigeria and much of Africa are NOT effectively planting seeds now for tomorrow…

As the ancient Chinese proverb says, ‘If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.’ Today, we must educate our people and leverage global tools such as Information Communication Technologies to foster the requisite education for all people at all levels regardless of background, age, sex, physical and mental characteristics, creed, tribe, religion, status, income or any other social divide. Today, our competition is no longer local but global, and our core limiting factors are ourselves, our education and the opportunities we create.”

Kamer Stories argues that the jubilation in Africa over Obama’s victory have been over the top and are out of sync with the realities on the continent:

“We have an ongoing war in Congo, I hardly see Africans saying anything about it, much less doing anything. Hunger and poverty is still a reality in many parts of our continent, and until that is greatly reduced, I do not see why we should be in such a celebratory mood. Let me come closer to home. In my country, we have a president who has been on the ‘throne’ since before I was born (and I am in my twenties) and all attempts till date to make him see the error of his ways have come to naught. How can we be celebrating in such a manner, when all this is happening in out own backyard? …

Many Cameroonians (my parents included) are over the moon even as I write; they are still in a state of limbo. I’m not sure when they’ll get out of it. When I asked them why they’ve taken this celebration to such a level (they’ve been celebrating for five days now to the exclusion of everything else, mind you), they retorted that ‘this should show Biya!’ Show Biya what? I asked. ‘He should follow America’s example and let him let a minority rule. It would show him that a minority can also rule in this country’. I don’t even know where to begin.”

Dr. Ethiopia praises the Bush Administration’s “tireless effort and initiatives in transforming Africa” and list’s President Bush’s achievements in Africa which he describes as the most impressive of any US administration:

“It is supremely hard to follow that. But most importantly you have delivered a great deal in Africa in your eight years as president of the U.S.
The challenges in Africa are clear, and president-elect Obama will have to meet this high expectation and deliver even further more. We all should be grateful for what Bush has done and accomplished in Africa, but we are also keenly aware that our better days are yet to come.
Obama’s time to walk-the-walk in, Darfur and all corners of Africa has arrived. The urgency of Africa’s pressing issues cannot wait another day, another hour or another minute.
Well done President Bush, and farewell sir. It is my hope that as a civilian you would carry on this vision of yours in Africa, and elsewhere.”

Angry African comments on the life and death of African music legend Miriam Makeba:

“Mama Africa never forgot about the fight for justice. Never. She didn’t die at home. She died in Castel Volturno in Italy, in the evening of 9 November 2008, of a heart attack, shortly after taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation. Camorra finances itself through drug trafficking, extortion, protection and racketeering. It is the oldest organized criminal organization in Italy. Mama Africa… Mama World… Mama Ubuntu… No matter where you were, she was with you in your fight for justice, freedom, liberty and equality for all.
She died just after singing Pata Pata. She died on stage.
In the words of Mama Africa, “I will sing until the last day of my life.”
So she is gone. But live on. Always.
Viva Mama Africa! Viva! Long Live Miriam Makeba! Long Live!”

Elie Smith, the France-based blogger, writes about his recent trip to Sudan which changed some of his long-held assumptions about that country and its people:

“I considered Sudan… as an Arab state. For, the Western media do present Sudan as an Arab state and the crises in Darfur as a racial war. They present Sudan to be at best, a sort of Saudi Arabia or at worst, a kind of Afghanistan that doesn’t want to accept its name. But the Sudan that I saw for the first time on the 1st of November 2008 is not an Arab country, but a purely and proudly black African country proud of her multiple black African heritages. It is true that, in Northern Sudan, where Khartoum is located, the lingua franca is Arabic, but that doesn’t in any way mean that the Sudanese, be they from north, east and west and south, are not proud of the black African ancestry...

The western media made me think that the Sudanese were Arabs, which to me, meant White Arab from Saudi Arabia or northern Egypt. I discovered that the Sudanese were black and also discovered on Saturday November 2nd during the away finals of the 12th edition of the MTN CAF Champions League that the Sudanese were truly proud of their black African ancestry, even though a majority of them are practicing Muslims.”

Scribbles from the Den republishes an article from the Guardian newspaper which explains how the Obama campaign harnessed the power of the internet to create the powerful grassroots movement that propelled the democratic candidate into the White House:

“Obama's masterful leveraging of web 2.0 platforms marks a major e-ruption in electoral politics – in America and elsewhere - as campaigning shifts from old-style political machines, focused on charming those at the top of organisations, towards the horizontal dynamics of online social networks. The web, a perfect medium for genuine grassroots political movements, is transforming the power dynamics of politics. There are no barriers to entry on sites like Facebook and YouTube. Power is diffused towards the edges because everybody can participate. It's being used not only for vote-getting but - as the Obama campaign demonstrated - for grassroots fundraising too totalling more than $160m (£80m) from people who gave comparatively tiny amounts - $200 or less.”

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org/

A generally calm campaign for local elections on 19 November continues to be marred by incidents of violence and arrests, notably in Sofala, where 21 people are detained, and Tete provinces. In some places, both main parties seem to be encouraging youngsters (below voting age) to pull down posters and disrupt marches of the other party – and in a few case even to throw stones at members of other parties.

Islamist women, increasingly restless with their subordinate status in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, are pushing for greater representation and a wider role, according to a new paper from the Carnegie Middle East Center. Omayma Abdel-Latif explores the role of women within the movement, including recent debates following the release of the 2007 draft party platform that denied women the right to the country’s top position.

The African continent has diverse cultural backgrounds and in contemporary Zimbabwean culture, traditional customary practices have a strong foothold and remain an integral part of the everyday lives of many Zimbabweans. In this regard, women in Zimbabwe are still vulnerable to some entrenched customary practices, despite the legal prohibitions which have since been enacted by the Zimbabwe judicial system.

Despite overcrowding and teacher shortages, South African students at the Katlehong Technical High School are determined to do well in their end-of-year examinations. But last year, final year students at the school managed only a disappointing 16% pass rate, making Katlehong Technical High the worst-performing school in the country's financial heartland province of Gauteng.

Radio is still often described as the most powerful medium in developing countries, particularly as it is often more accessible than television or print. In South Africa for example, an often-quoted statistic tells us that there are more radio sets than mattresses in the country.

Greenstar builds a solar-powered community center that delivers electricity, pure water, health and education information, and a wireless Internet connection, to villages in the developing world. Greenstar records art, music, photography, legends and storytelling in traditional communities, and bring these unique, priceless products to global markets. Revenues from this "digital culture" are returned to the village to support their ongoing, independent development.

This week marks the 13th anniversary of the death of famed Nigerian activist, Ken Saro Wiwa. On November 10, 1995 Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni activists, known as the Ogoni 9 were ruthlessly executed by the then Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha. Wiwa and his colleagues were members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) who peacefully protested against Shell Oil and the Nigerian government for human rights abuses and environmental damage in their community.

Police in southern Tanzania say they have arrested a man accused of attempting to sell his albino wife. The man was allegedly planning to sell his wife to two Congolese businessmen for around $3,000. Albinos have been living in fear in Tanzania after a series of killings due to a belief their body parts can make magic potions more effective.

The Algerian parliament has approved a constitutional amendment that abolishes a two-term limit for the president. The change opens the way for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a third term in elections due next April.

In a broad discussion of the political circumstances behind Barack Obama’s election victory, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza argues that the US has finally grown up. This is maturing both in the sense of witnessing the election of an individual of African descent and in ending the forty-year Republican neoliberal hegemony, and is a development reflective in no small part of the Democrats’ ability to articulate a campaign true to contemporary socio-political conditions in the US. For while many challenges will face the administration-in-waiting, Obama’s ability to appeal to a diverse range of voters, Zeleza contends, represents an invaluable means of satisfying cosmopolitan Americans’ desire for renewed global respect.

Following the Waki report on Kenya’s post-election violence, the KNCHR offers its response to the report and its strong opposition to any political attempts to discredit the report’s findings and undermine justice. The KNCHR contends that an informed citizenry represents the last line of defence for democracy against those who abuse power. Keen to see Kenya’s political problems resolved within domestic institutions and mechanisms to avoid the need for intervention by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the KNCHR likewise urges Kenyan parliamentarians to work towards upholding justice and challenging any scope for impunity for those in power.

The Kenyan government, foreign donors, and United Nations agencies should rapidly increase their response to the worsening Somali refugee crisis in Kenya, Human Rights Watch has said. More than 65,000 Somali refugees will have sought refuge in Kenya by the end of this year, up from 19,000 in 2007. New arrivals face extortion and abuses when trying to cross Kenya’s officially closed border and are received in appalling conditions in overcrowded, underserviced refugee camps.

This 47-page report documents how ZANU-PF has compromised the independence and impartiality of judges, magistrates and prosecutors and transformed the police into an openly partisan and unaccountable arm of ZANU-PF. The report also documents how police routinely and arbitrarily arrest and detain MDC activists, using harassment and detention without charge as a form of persecution.

The essay, was a fair and informative article about a group I've always wanted to know more about. The article makes references to Sidi music groups and cultural troupes. Who are these performers? Are there recordings or other resources available that discuss their music?

Stephen Marks and Sanusha Naidu look at the the global effects of the recently announced $586bn programme of investment in infrastructure and social welfare amounting to seven percent of GDP in each of the next two years.

cc. Tonight, after Barack Obama was confirmed as the nation's president-elect, I looked in on my children, as they lay sleeping. Though they are about as politically astute as kids can be, having reached only the ages of seven and five, and there is no way they will be able to truly appreciate what has just happened in the land they call home. They do not possess the sense of history, or indeed, even a clear understanding of what history means, so as to adequately process what happened this evening, as they slumbered. Even as our oldest cast her first grade vote for Obama in school today, and even as our youngest has become somewhat notorious for pointing to pictures of Sarah Palin on magazines and saying ‘There's that crazy lady who hates polar bears’, they remain, still, naive as to the nation they have inherited. They do not really understand the tortured history of this place, especially as regards race. Oh they know more than most – to live as my children makes it hard not to – but still, the magnitude of this occasion will likely not catch up to them until Barack Obama is finishing at least his first, if not his second term as president.

But that's okay. Because I know what it means, and will make sure to tell them.

And before detailing what I perceive that meaning to be (both its expansiveness and limitations) let me say this, to some of those on the Left – some of my friends and long-time compatriots in the struggle for social justice – who insist that there is no difference between Obama and McCain, between Democrats and Republicans, between Biden and Palin: Screw you.

If you are incapable of mustering pride in this moment, and if you cannot appreciate how meaningful this day is for millions of black folks who stood in lines for up to seven hours to vote, then your cynicism has become such an encumbrance as to render you all but useless to the liberation movement. Indeed, those who cannot appreciate what has just transpired are so eaten up with nihilistic rage and hopelessness that I cannot but think that they are a waste of carbon, and actively thieving oxygen that could be put to better use by others.

This election does indeed matter. No, it is not the same as victory against the forces of injustice, and yes, Obama is a heavily compromised candidate, and yes, we will have to work hard to hold him accountable. But it matters nonetheless that he, and not the bloodthirsty bomber McCain, or the Christo-fascist, Palin, managed to emerge victorious.

Those who say it doesn't matter weren't with me on the south side of Chicago this past week, surrounded by a collection of amazing community organisers who go out and do the hard work every day of trying to help create a way out of no way for the marginalised. All of them know that an election is but a part of the solution, a tactic really, in a larger struggle of which they are a daily part, and none of them are so naive as to think that their jobs are now to become a cakewalk because of the election of Barack Obama. But all of them were looking forward to this moment. They haven't the luxury of believing in the quixotic campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, or waiting around for the Green Party to get its act together and become something other than a pathetic caricature, symbolised by the utterly irrelevant and increasingly narcissistic presence of Ralph Nader on the electoral scene. And while Cynthia McKinney remains a pivotal figure in the struggle, the party to which she was tethered this year shows no more ability to sustain movement activity than it did eight years ago, and most everyone working in oppressed communities in this nation knows it.

It's like this y'all: Jesse Jackson was weeping openly on national television. This is a man who was with Dr King when he was murdered and he was bawling like a baby. So don't tell me this doesn't matter.

John Lewis – who had his head cracked open, has been arrested more times, and has probably spilled far more blood for the cause of justice than all the white, dreadlocked, self-proclaimed anarchists in this country combined – couldn't be more thrilled at what has happened. If he can see it, then frankly, who the hell are we not to?

Those who say this election means nothing, who insist that Obama, because he cozied up to Wall Street, or big business, is just another kind of evil no different than any other, are in serious risk of political self-immolation, and it is a burning they will richly deserve. That the victorious presidential candidate is actually a capitalist (contrary to the fevered imaginations of the right) is no more newsworthy than the fact that rain falls down and grass grows skyward. It is to be properly placed in the ‘no shit Sherlock’ file. That anyone would think it possible for someone who didn't raise hundreds of millions of dollars to win – at this time in our history at least – only suggests that some on the Left would prefer to engage in politics from a place of aspirational innocence, rather than in the real world, where battles are won or lost.

So let us be clear as to what tonight meant: It was a defeat for the right-wing echo chamber and its rhetorical storm troopers, foremost among them Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

It was a defeat for the crazed mobs ever-present at McCain-Palin rallies, what with their venomous libels against Obama, their hate-addled brains spewing forth one after another racist and religiously chauvinistic calumny upon his head and those of his supporters.

It was a defeat for the Internet rumour-pimps who insisted to all they could reach with a functioning email address that Obama was not really a citizen. Or perhaps he was, but he was a Muslim, or perhaps not a Muslim, but probably a black supremacist, or maybe not that either, but surely the anti-Christ, and most definitely a baby-killer.

It was a defeat for those who believed McCain and Palin would be delivered the victory by the hand of almighty God, because their theological and eschatological vacuity so regularly gets in the way of their ability to think. As such, it was a setback for the religious fascists in the far-Right Christian community whose belief that God is on their side has always made them especially dangerous. Now, having lost, perhaps at least some of these will be forced to ponder what went wrong. If we're lucky, perhaps some will suffer the kind of crisis of faith that often prefaces a complete nervous breakdown. Either way, it's nice just to ruin their young-earth-creationist-I-have-an-angel-on-my-shoulder day.

It was a defeat for the demagogues who tried in so many ways to push the buttons of white racism – the old-fashioned kind, or what I call Racism 1.0 – by using thinly-veiled racialised language throughout the campaign. Appeals to Joe Six-Pack, ‘values voters’, blue-collar voters, or hockey moms, though never explicitly racialised, were transparent to all but the most obtuse, as were terms like ‘terrorist’ when used to describe Obama. Likewise, the attempt to race-bait the economic crisis by blaming it on loans to poor folks of colour through the Community Reinvestment Act, or community activists like the folks at ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), failed, and this matters. No, it doesn't mean that white America has rejected racism. Indeed, I have been quite deliberate for months about pointing out the way that Racism 1.0 may be traded in, only to be replaced by Racism 2.0 (which allows whites to still view most folks of colour negatively but carve out exceptions for those few who make us feel comfortable and who we see as ‘different’). And yet, that tonight was a drubbing for that 1.0 version of racism still matters.

And tonight was a victory for a few things too.

It was a victory for youth, and their social and political sensibilities. It was the young, casting away the politics of their parents and even grandparents, and turning the corner to a new day, perhaps naively, and too optimistic about the road from here, but nonetheless in a way that has historically almost always been good for the country. Much as youth were inspired by a relatively moderate John F. Kennedy (who was, on balance, far less progressive than Obama in many ways), and much as they then formed the frontline troops for so much of the social justice activism of the following fifteen years, so too can such a thing be foreseen now. That Kennedy may have been quite restrained in his social justice sensibilities did not matter; the young people whose energy he helped unleash took things in their own direction and outgrew him rather quickly in their progression to the Left.

Tonight was also a victory for the possibility of greater cross-racial alliance building. Although Obama failed to win most white votes, and although it is no doubt true that many of the whites who did vote for him nonetheless hold onto any number of negative and racist stereotypes about the larger black and brown communities of this nation, it is still the case that black, brown and white worked together in this effort as they have rarely done before. And many whites who worked for Obama, precisely because they got to see, and hear, and feel the racist vitriol still animating far too many of our nation's people, will now be wiser for the experience when it comes to understanding how much more work remains to be done on the racial justice front. Let us build on that newfound knowledge, and that newfound energy, and create real white ally-ship with community-based leaders of colour as we move forward in the years to come.

But now for the other side of things.

First and foremost, please know that none of these victories will amount to much unless we do that which needs to be done so as to turn a singular event about one man, into a true social movement (which, despite what some claim, it is not yet and has never been).

And so it is back to work. Oh yes, we can savour the moment for a while, for a few days, perhaps a week. But well before inauguration day we will need to be back on the job, in the community, in the streets, where democracy is made, demanding equity and justice in places where it hasn't been seen in decades, if ever. Because for all the talk of hope and change, there is nothing – absolutely, positively nothing – about real change that is inevitable. And hope, absent real pressure and forward motion to actualise one's dreams, is sterile and even dangerous. Hope, absent commitment is the enemy of change, capable of translating to a giving away of one's agency, to a relinquishing of the need to do more than just show up every few years and push a button or pull a lever.

This means hooking up now with the grass roots organisations in the communities where we live, prioritising their struggles, joining and serving with their constituents, following leaders grounded in the community who are accountable not to Barack Obama, but the people who helped elect him. Let Obama follow, while the people lead, in other words.

For we who are white it means going back into our white spaces and challenging our brothers and sisters, parents, neighbours, colleagues and friends – and ourselves – on the racial biases that still too often permeate their and our lives, and making sure they know that the success of one man of colour does not equate to the eradication of systemic racial inequity.

So are we ready for the heavy lifting? This was, after all, merely the warm-up exercise, somewhat akin to stretching before a really long run. Or perhaps it was the first lap, but either way, now the baton has been handed to you, to us. We must not, cannot, afford to drop it. There is too much at stake.

The worst thing that could happen now would be for us to go back to sleep, to allow the cool poise of Obama's prose to lull us into slumber like the cool on the underside of the pillow. For in the light of day, when fully awake, it becomes impossible not to see the incompleteness of the task so far.

So let us begin.

* Tim Wise is the 2008 Oliver L. Brown Distinguished Visiting Scholar for Diversity Issues at Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas. He is the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White. This article originally appeared at www.racialicious.com and can be found here.

Alarmed with Barack Obama’s choosing of one of most conservative Democratic figures as his chief of staff in the shape of Rahm Emanuel, Stephen Zunes asks whether the new president-elect will see the influence of his progressive base blocked from the White House. While the author underlines that the appointment will scarcely lead to a Clinton-esque centre-right agenda, the promise of change to have featured so prominently throughout Obama’s campaign will only be realised through revitalised efforts on the part of civil society to stem any potential conservative co-opting of the new administration.

Miriam makeba was an icon who used music to serve Africa and the cause of humanity. The ancestors would be pleased to receive her as a worthy daughter who gave her best. She lived through apartheid, fought it and survived to see a liberated multiracial dsemocratic state, was part of the liberation wars against colonialism across Africa and civil rights in America and she dies after the election of the first Black person to be president of the USA. She will have a lot to report to the ancestors. And how proud they will be that she was on the right side of all these struggles. Go well, Mama Afrika, your memory is forever green and your music everlasting.

In the run-up to the November 16 legislative elections in Guinea-Bissau, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), publishes today a mission report entitled Guinea-Bissau: A Detrimental Environment to the Work of Human Rights Defenders.

In response to an invitation extended by the Government of Zambia, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) deployed a short term Observer Mission to the Presidential and Mwansabombwe and Ndola Central Parliamentary By Elections in Zambia of 30th October 2008. Under the leadership of Mr Leshele Thoahlane, Chairperson of the EISA Board of Directors and Former Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission of Lesotho, the EISA Election Observer Mission consisted of 20 members from different African countries.

The lack of HIV prevention campaigns for Chinese workers in Angola is remarkable, considering how far away they are from their families, the length of time they spend away from home, and the extra cash they have left at the end of the month. Angola has an HIV prevalence rate of 2.5 percent, but it can reach 10 percent in some border areas.

The World Bank said last night it was gearing up to lend $100bn (£63bn) over the next three years to protect developing nations from the economic contagion spreading from richer western countries. Dashing hopes that the world's emerging economies might escape relatively unscathed from the downturn, the Bank said it expected almost 40 million people to fall into poverty as a result of the turmoil caused by the global credit crunch.

Fighting continues on several fronts in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite a unilateral ceasefire declared by the armed group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), on 29 October. The CNDP's offensive in October forced a routed government army and hundreds of thousands of civilians down roads towards the provincial capital, Goma.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turns 60 on the 10th of December 2008. As the declaration represents the worldwide expression of the rights which all human beings are inherently entitled to, it is important for the peasants to also commemorate this occasion.

A Kitwe based Roman Catholic Church priest Father Frank Bwalya has been arrested and detained on Wednesday for airing what is being deemed as biased post election analysis. He was charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of peace amid violent protests in the mining town of Zambia

Activists Wangui Mbatia and Ken Ochieng Onguka have just been arrested by the Kenya Police at Jeevanjee Gardens and have been taken to the Central Police Station where they are now being detained. Wangui Mbatia and Ken Ochieng Onguka were arrested for distributing t- shirts on the controversial taxes for Members of Parliament , and DVD's advocating for the full implementation of the Waki Commission Report. The activity is part of the ongoing activities by the Partnership for Change. STOP PRESS: News received shortly before going to press indicates that these activists have now been released.

Tafadzwa Sikwila, a DJ employed by ZBC’s Power FM Radio, sustained serious head injuries after being brutally assaulted by four Zimbabwe National Army soldiers in Gweru on 25th October. According to reports which only surfaced this week the soldiers accused him of wearing replica military camouflage trousers, without permission (under Zimbabwe’s obscure defence Act, civilians are prohibited from wearing camouflage).

Zambia's main opposition leader Michael Sata launched on Friday a court challenge to demand a recount of the vote in the October 30 presidential election, his party's lawyer said. "I know that (my colleagues) are currently in court filing a petition. I am now working on some more documents which we will submit to the court next week," Winter Kabimba, lawyer for Sata's Patriotic Front, told Reuters.