After four years of giving each other a cold shoulder, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and the King Ronald Muweanda Mutebu II of the Buganda held an hour-long private discussion at the State House in Entebbe on Wednesday, government officials said. The meeting is aimed at easing tension between the dominant Buganda ethnic group - with an estimated 12 million population out of the country's 30 million " and the President Museveni -led central government, after riots 11-14 September 2009 level several people dead.

Zimbabwe's economy is projected to grow by 3.7 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, the first expansion since 1997. The IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook published on Thursday did not give reasons for its assessment. It forecast that growth in the southern African nation's gross domestic product would accelerate to 6 percent in 2010.

Residents of the Somali port of Kismayo are burying the dead and tending to the injured after a day of fierce clashes between rival Islamist groups. Al-Shabab has gained control of the city and the Hizbul-Islam fighters have withdrawn to villages to the west.

Sudanese women who escaped the Darfur conflict to eastern Chad are facing high levels of sexual violence, an Amnesty International report says. Despite the presence of a UN force, women and girls are being attacked when they leave 12 designated camps in search of water, the report says. It also documents cases of refugees being attacked inside the camps by Chadian aid workers.

It wasn't an oil spill that made Nnimmo Bassey an environmentalist. It was a massacre — the 1990 assault by Nigeria's armed forces on the village of Umuechem, where residents of the oil-rich Niger Delta had accused the Shell Petroleum Development Company of environmental degradation and economic neglect.

Guinean security forces should immediately cease violent attacks on demonstrators protesting against the military government, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch called upon the government to hold accountable security forces responsible for firing upon and killing dozens of generally peaceful demonstrators in the Guinean capital, Conakry, on September 28, 2009.

Damage to wetlands high in Lesotho's Maluti mountains has impacts on the health of the whole of the Orange-Senqu river system. The wetlands in this mountainous region stabilise soil, retain sediment and contribute to river flow from this area of high rainfall. In so doing, they indirectly support the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), which captures water in dams and supplies it to water-thirsty South African industry and agriculture. The water Lesotho sells to South Africa is the mountain kingdom's largest source of foreign income.

14 leading African Finance and Education Ministers have written to development and finance ministers in leading OECD donor countries, appealing for financial help to send 20 million children to primary school for the first time by the end of next year.

Kenyan government auditors found losses of about 131 million shillings ($1.8 million) in two World Bank-funded projects “due to what appears to be fraud and corruption,” Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said. As many as 50 project managers, junior and senior staff accused of involvement have been suspended while investigators look into the cases, Kenyatta said at a briefing in the capital, Nairobi.

Botswana – where nearly one quarter of people between the ages of 15 and 49 are living with HIV – is taking steps with the help of international assistance to combat the devastating AIDS pandemic, an official from the Southern African nation told the General Assembly. “HIV/AIDS undoubtedly continues to be one of the most daunting challenges of our time,” Charles Thembani Ntwaagae, Botswana’s Ambassador to the United Nations, told the Assembly’s annual high-level gathering.

The United Nations has welcomed the reported decision by President Omar Al-Bashir to immediately lift censorship on Sudanese newspapers. “This decision will advance the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and is an important step towards creating an appropriate environment for the multi-party elections scheduled for April 2010,” the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said in a statement.

On Wednesday close to two hundred thousand people from Arizona to Zanzibar read the last email from ZW News – a daily email compilation of the latest news stories on Zimbabwe. Despite the cost effectiveness and wide subscriber base, the man behind ZW News in the UK, and his colleague in Zimbabwe, have been unable to source funding to keep going.

Less than half of adults and children needing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa - where two-thirds of all global HIV infections occur - are receiving it. This is despite the region showing the greatest gains worldwide in terms of access to the lifesaving drugs. According to a report released today, (Wed) 45% of HIV positive pregnant women received the drugs needed to prevent them from passing the virus on to their baby, up from 35% the year before.

A study of patients who failed to return to their HIV clinic in Uganda found that the majority were still alive after one year, contrary to assumptions, and in many cases had either transferred to other clinics or faced transport and access difficulties in getting to the clinic, according to research by Elvin Geng and colleagues in a paper published in advance online by the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The Civil Society and Outreach Unit of the United Nations Secretariat's Division for Social Policy and Development invites organizations to take part in a survey on the current situation that local, national and international civil society organizations (CSOs) are facing as a result of the global economic and environmental crises. The results of the study will be published for advocacy use of CSOs and also made available at the next session of the UN Commission on Social Development.

Aid for thousands of survivors of an earthquake in the Indonesia port of Padang began trickling in on Friday, but rescue efforts were hampered by power blackouts and a lack of heavy equipment to shift masonry. The United Nations said more than 1,000 had been killed in Wednesday's quake in and around the city of 900,000, which sits atop one of the world's most active seismic fault lines along the Pacific "Ring of Fire".

Criminal charges and the closure of several radio stations over alleged incitement to violence in Kampala have sparked a debate about the limits of free speech in Uganda. The Uganda Broadcasting Council (UBC) silenced four Luganda* radio stations during three days of riots in September 2009 sparked by the government's refusal to allow the king of Buganda, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi, from travelling to a district within his kingdom.

As three truck-loads of newly arrived soldiers from the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) drove through Obo, local residents talked with bitterness and resignation about the continuing security problems and inability of either local forces or their allies from the better-equipped Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to flush out combatants from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Aid workers in eastern Chad are preparing to move some 28,000 Sudanese men, women and children from a refugee camp infiltrated by supposed rebels. The Chad government decided in mid-September to relocate Ouré Cassoni camp, which is near the northern town of Bahai and 7km from the border with Sudan.

Despite efforts to accommodate disabled students in Niger's schools, a lack of trained specialists limits the number of children schools can serve, according to the NGO Handicap International. "Schools for blind and deaf persons do not have qualified teachers to work with this population," Abdourhamane Barké, an outreach worker with Handicap International in the capital Niamey, said.

Simmering animosity and tension between non-governmental organizations and the conservative authorities of donor-dependent Swaziland are threatening to boil over, bringing legislation that could restrict the activities of civil society. "It has been building for some years. The deeper Swaziland sinks into poverty, hunger and AIDS, and the more dependent we become on non-governmental organizations [NGOs], the more hostile government officials, like MPs and some chiefs, become to NGOs," said Amos Ndwandwe, who works as a counsellor for an HIV/AIDS NGO he declined to identify, in the second city, Manzini.

Mohamed Bakari reviews Issa G. Shivji's 'Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism? Lessons of the Tanganyika–Zanzibar Union' in this week's Pambazuka News. The first study of the Tanganyika–Zanzibar Union from a Pan-Africanist perspective, Shivji's book represents a very effective interdisciplinary approach, Bakari writes. If the book is perhaps slightly dominated by elitist narratives at the expense of popular discourses, the work is a valuable and comprehensive addition to the literature on Pan-Africanism, Zanzibari politics and the Tanganyika–Zanzibar Union, Bakari concludes.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's refusal to accept the findings of a recent International Crisis Group (ICG) study on his country smacks of a basic contempt for the truth, argues Alemayehu G. Mariam in this week's Pambazuka News. Ethiopia's 'ethnic federalism' policy has proven itself to be of dubious value, the author argues, and is ultimately highly divisive in its politicisation of power, representation and resources along ethnic lines. If it wants to achieve genuine representation and a vibrant democracy, Ethiopia's would do well to follow Ghana's example as a strong and functioning federal system, Mariam concludes.

Appalled by the recent threats to kill human rights defenders made by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, Sam Okudzeto and Maja Daruwala of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) call on the Commonwealth to seek assurances of Gambian and foreign citizens' safety in the country.

Bishop Rubin Phillip testifies to the brutality of the local Sydenham police in attacking Abahlali baseMjondolo members in his and other church leaders' presence. Phillip suggests three main courses of action for how to proceed: 1) the wide publicising of the attack; 2) conveying concerns to political leaders; and 3) donations made to relief funds, such as that administered by the Anglican Diocese of Natal.

Friends and comrades, the situation in Durban is dire. To summarise:

1. On Saturday night members of the Kennedy Road Development Committee were subject to a surprise attack by a group of about 40 armed men chanting anti Mpondo slogans. The police failed to intervene. People were killed. Later on that night all key AbM (Abahlali baseMjondolo) leaders were subject to attack. Everyone's houses (and businesses in two cases where people had shops) were destroyed. This mob (now known as 'the Zulu mob' in the settlement) has direct connections to the local ANC who had promised, two weeks ago, to turn the AbM office into an ANC office.

Slum Dwellers International (SDI) echoes the outrage that has been widely expressed in response to the violent attacks perpetrated against AbM in Kennedy Road over the weekend. These attacks come as no surprise. They mirror similar acts of violence that are regularly perpetrated against slum dwellers throughout the world. Only last month shack dwellers in Old Fadama, Accra, Ghana, also had to deal with an outward manifestation of ethnic violence, which was in fact an attack launched by vested political and property interests against organized communities of the urban poor. Almost two years ago SDI members were seriously affected by the violence against the urban poor that ripped through Kenya's informal settlements. At this very moment SDI linked groups in Gauteng and Cape Town face similar threats. SDI groups in Zimbabwe had to deal with devastating evictions in 2005. The list goes on and on.

In the past several years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has bolstered its diplomatic presence and garnered international goodwill through its financing of infrastructure and natural resource development projects, assistance in the carrying out of such projects, and large economic investments in many developing countries. This report examines China’s economic impact in three regions — Africa, Latin America (Western Hemisphere), and Southeast Asia — with an emphasis on bilateral foreign assistance.

The resource-based corruption and international greed that has typified so much of the West's interactions with African countries has now arrived in the tiny and impoverished West African country of Gabon. Only this time, the external predator, working in tandem with a venal, autocratic local ruler, isn't the West - it's China.

Since its founding 60 years ago, the People's Republic of China has been transformed from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The journey has been fraught with twists and turns on a road paved with hardship, upheavals and reversals. It's been an important process, however, as any search for direction in the course of human development. And it's taught us valuable lessons about the entire process of a planned-to-market economy transformation.

The Kibaki administration is ruffled by the United States Government latest actions on Kenya and it has nothing to do with travel bans. Money is at stake and the soft underbelly of the regime is exposed. Although it touts itself as financially self-reliant, in truth the Grand Coalition Government of Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga cannot afford to ignore the International Community and especially the United States’ stated intention of scrutinising all loans and financial programmes for Kenya by the International Financial Institutions.

The Zimbabwe Social Forum (ZSF) will be hosting the 5th edition of its annual commemoration in Harare, on the 2nd of October 2009. The theme for this year’s activities is, “Reclaiming the Political Transition for People-Centered Governance; and Sustainable Social and Economic Reform.”

Reflecting on South Africa’s recent wave of protests, Ibrahim Steyn argues in this week’s Pambazuka News that the original source of the country’s ‘social malaise’ is threefold: The difference between legal definitions and grassroots interpretations of socio-economic rights, government pursuit of neo-liberal policies, and the limitations of liberal democratic frameworks for facilitating genuine public participation in decision-making.

It's no wonder South Africa's poorest are angry, MP Khwezi ka Ceza writes in this week’s issue of Pambazuka News – despite earlier efforts to present its struggle against its predecessors as pro-poor, the post-Polokwane administration is beginning to reveal its neoliberal stripes. As an ‘emerging democracy with a painful legacy of deliberate underdevelopment, South Africa cannot rely on the private sector to lift people out of poverty, ka Ceza says. Arguing that left to their own devices, market forces are more likely to exacerbate inequality, ka Ceza calls for the state to ‘be activist in the economic life’ of the country, if it really wants to take a pro-poor stance.

‘Our default setting is one that sees the world through white values – unless programmed otherwise,’ writes Lurie Daniel-Favors in this week’s Pambazuka News. With reference to the US legal system, Daniel-Favors argues that ‘white judges have the privilege of acting as though their race and rationale are the default setting from which every other race and rationale deviate’. When white judges ‘use the law to rule in favour of white interests’, their rulings are seen an unbiased application of the law’, says Daniel-Favors. But when judges of colour are confronted with making decisions ‘that might in some way give some benefit to people of colour’ or ‘make a decision that impinges on white freedom’, they face criticism for ‘making decisions based on “race” or “personal” politics’.

On 30 September 2009 Kontax – an m-novel created for the Shuttleworth Foundation’s m4Lit project– launches in South Africa, making world history as the first of its kind to be offered in both English and isiXhosa. The m4Lit project, led by Steve Vosloo, 21st Century Learning Fellow for the Shuttleworth Foundation, aims to not only explore the potential for increased reading and writing for 21st century teens through mobile phones, but also to introduce a more interactive style of story writing and publishing that holds appeal to the participatory culture of youth.

The Portuguese Political Science Association (APCP) is inviting submissions for panels and papers for presentation at its Fifth Conference, which will take place at the University of Aveiro during 4-6 March 2010. Proposals should be sent by email to congressos(at)apcp.pt no later than 31 October 2009.

Ethiopia has been ruled for too long by a dictator who mocks all Ethiopians with puppet elections, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam in this week's Pambazuka News. While Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi talks about the 'moral and prudent' need for a 'single negotiating team' for Africa on climate change, the same demands could easily be made around ensuring a genuinely democratic election in 2010. But if democratic progress is to be achieved in Ethiopia, the author concludes, pro-democracy forces need to draw on the successes of the 2005 election, and not simply support Meles's party's pseudo-participation and 'silly little game of "elections"'.

In this week’s Pambazuka News, Okello Oculi reminisces about the relationship between Makerere University alumni, the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem and Professor Ali Mazrui. In particular Oculi contemplates how Tajudeen might have responded to a recently announced joint initiative between Ugandan President Museveni and Makerere University to honour Professor Mazrui by establishing a new centre for Global Studies and scholarship fund in his name.

Amid the chaos and lawlessness of Eastern Congo, a local organization has developed an innovative approach to settling disputes and promoting justice, one community at a time. , a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP) in Uvira, has created Comites de Mediation et Conciliation (CMCs), or conflict resolution committees, in 24 communities across South Kivu.

Reflecting on the recent wave of protests and strikes across South Africa, just three months after Zuma won the election with two-thirds of the vote, Peter Dwyer examines why the country’s poorest have taken to the streets to express their anger. ‘Whenever the ANC government fails to deliver, it comes up with excuses and blames it on individuals. It’s true that its councillors lack commitment and skills, but it is the national leadership that is also to blame,’ said one protestor, ‘and meanwhile people have to suffer. The only way the government notices us is when we express our anger and rage. Then they understand how we feel.’

Hamudi Majamba reviews Professor Issa Shivji's book, . 'Contentious issues notwithstanding', Majamba finds it 'a valuable and welcome addition to the literature on the history of Zanzibar from legal and political perspectives, that provides 'thought-provoking insights on efforts to revitalise Pan Africanism'.

New York University Wagner announces a call for applications for the African Women Public Service Fellowship, a fellowship program made possible by a donation from the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, which expands the opportunity for African women to prepare for public service in their home countries. As fellows at NYU Wagner, African women study in one of two graduate programs: the two-year Master of Public Administration or the one-year Executive MPA: Concentration on International Public Service Organizations.

People and the environment in the vicinity of the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania are being exposed to heavy metals and cyanide pollution, according to a report published in June for the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). The study collected and analysed samples of water, sediments/soil for four heavy metals Nickel, Cadmium, Lead and Chromium. Concentrations of almost all of these were found to exceed the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Tanzanian and US Environmental Protection agencies.

In this week’s Pambazuka News, Kola Ibrahim reflects on the life of the recently deceased Gani Fawehinmi, one of Nigeria’s leading human rights lawyers and activists. Gani, as he was affectionately known, had not only been an advocate for human rights in Nigeria but addressed other issues such as the capitalist system in general that led to human rights abuses indirectly, writes Ibrahim. Gani Fawehinmi must not be forgotten and seen as a role model for the Nigerian youth in its struggle against the injustices of neocolonialism, Ibrahim concludes.

Angelina Silva doesn’t remember the exact dates when her sons died. She just remembers their ages. "One was one year old, the other was one year and nine months," she said. "They had an illness. We think it was malaria, but we don’t know for sure." The 30-year-old, who has five other children and lives in a shantytown on the outskirts of Angola’s capital Luanda, is unsentimental.

In a unanimous decision, the Constitutional Council rejected the appeal of MDM against the exclusion of its lists from most provinces. It upholds the CNE’s interpretation of the law, and publishes lists of unqualified candidates to show that MDM simply did not have enough candidates in most provinces.

Nigerian militants said on Tuesday they opposed a bid by a Chinese energy group to secure 6bn barrels of crude reserves, comparing the potential new investors to “locusts”. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told the Financial Times that the record of Chinese companies in other African counties suggested “an entry into the oil industry in Nigeria will be a disaster for the oil-bearing communities”.

Mamadou Goita—Executive Director of the Institute for Research and the Promotion of Alternatives in Development (IRPAD) in Mali—was interviewed at the Salzburg Global Seminar by Susanna Thorpe, of WREN Media. This interview was during a high-level conference entitled “Toward a ‘Green Revolution’ in Africa?” The Salzburg Global Seminar partnered with the Institute of Development Studies and the Future Agricultures Consortium, bringing together stake holders from around the globe, to work on the challenges facing Africa regarding agriculture and farming.