As the Democratic Republic of the Congo prepares for the run-off presidential election, political and ethnic tensions look set to "hit an all time high." This East African article warns of "major ramifications for the stability of countries in East and Central Africa" should the election spark a return to militia based violence.

At the August 2006 World Water Week in Stockholm, researchers presented initial findings from the "Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture" carried out by 700 experts over five years. In 2000, researchers had predicted that water scarcity would affect one third of the world's population by 2025.

The author of this Ethical Corporation piece argues that NGOs should not blame multinational firms for human rights violations but instead seek accountability from states. However, such an argument overlooks how big companies sometimes push governments for "favorable deals" that further corporate interests.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has officially charged former militia leader Thomas Lubanga for forcefully recruiting children as soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war. Although the war began in 1998, the ICC can only indict Lubanga for crimes committed after the Court's inception in 2002.

Angola's soaring economic growth from its diamonds and oil exports comes with worsening human rights and health, two separate reports warn. Alleged problems are said to include security companies' "profoundly sadistic" human-rights violations in Angola's diamond-rich eastern region, reports the Financial Times.

Throughout this process, women's groups from around the world have urged the creation of a well-resourced, independent women's entity that would have normative, operational and oversight capacity, and universal country presence. It is the best way to ensure the effective implementation of gender equality goals and gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system.

Move over Bill, Chris, Michelle, Rush, Sean, & Company. Make way for a worthy challenger to the title of leader of the racist rant pack holding court weekday evenings on his hourly show on CNN.

August 18 marked the launch of a campaign to spread consumer awareness about telecommunications in South Africa. The campaign is inspired by successful consumer advocacy campaigns such as the Spread Firefox campaign, where thousands of grassroots activists pledged money to take out a double-page spread in the New York Times telling the world that there was an open source alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Corruption and tribalism are derailing economic growth, the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) has said. Dr Grace Ongile, Nepad executive director, said unless the Government eradicated the vices, last year’s 5.8 per cent economic growth was likely to drift back to negative in a few years.

South Africa says it is investigating reports that 137 women among its delegation to an Aids conference in Canada are applying for refugee status. A total of 151 delegates - including El Salvadorans, Eritreans, Zimbabweans and Ugandans - have applied, a Canadian newspaper reported. An immigration lawyer said the women were facing severe discrimination.

The Spanish government has said it will not tolerate the continued arrival of African migrants on its shores. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega called on African countries to help cut off the flow of migrants, and to take them back again. She was speaking after a weekend in which more than 1,400 Africans landed on the Canary Islands alone.

Two Niger journalists have been jailed for 18 months over an article which criticised PM Hama Amadou. The publisher and editor of Le Republicain, Maman Abou and Omar Keita Lalo, were also fined $10,000 (£5,250) for spreading false news. The article said Mr Amadou preferred ties with Iran to those with the West.

The GBV Coordinator will be responsible for the development, implementation, standardization, and evaluation of all GBV-related activities. Primary duties in the first 4-6 months will include the establishment of the GBV sector, the initiation of the GBV pilot program in Northern Uganda and supervision of the GBV projects in the refugee settlements.

The Program Officer will be responsible for developing, monitoring and evaluating the Ford Foundation’s work in the field of Sexuality and Reproductive Health (SRH) in the Middle East and North Africa region, with special focus on Egypt and Palestine

Some three million people live in Liberia, but after a decade and a half of warfare there are only 34 government doctors catering for their healthcare needs. Fighting destroyed 95 percent of Liberia’s healthcare facilities and the number of trained government doctors in the country dropped from 400 to less then 20 at the civil war’s end in 2003, according Liberia's National Human Development Report.

Advocacy groups in Zambia are forcing HIV/AIDS issues onto the agenda in the run-up to this month's general election. "All election candidates should make clear their personal commitment to tackling HIV and AIDS because we want Zambian politicians to take a leading role in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We want them to tell us what they will do about the pandemic if we elect them to office, because they should recognise that HIV is as much an election issue as a better economy or improved education."

Book Review: Article 19. 2006. Broadcasting pluralism and diversity: training manual for African regulators. London: Article 19. 112 pp. ISBN: 1-902598-82-2.

The 1990s saw the unfolding of the process of liberalisation, a facet of economic globalisation, across sub-Saharan Africa. This process had significant, albeit differing, implications for the broadcasting landscape. For one thing, there was an emergence of commercial and community broadcasting projects, posing a challenge to the hitherto monolithic broadcasting systems extant in most countries. For another, the process of technological convergence was tugging at telecommunications and broadcasting policy-makers, presenting them with new problems and possibilities. Underpinning all these developments was the value of democracy and democratisation.

Which is why the manual by Article 19, under the banner of the Global Campaign for Free Expression, is a propitious contribution to the escalating debates about media regulation and its desirability for the transitional democracies of Africa.

Chapter 1 explores the principles underpinning broadcast media regulation, not least freedom of expression, freedom of information, diversity and pluralism, media access and editorial independence. It also ratchets up the regulatory challenges posed by digitalisation and convergence, arguing that this presents opportunities for expanding the broadcasting-communicative space. Chapter 2 analyses the structure and functionality of broadcasting regulatory bodies. It emphasises the importance of independent and accountable regulators, endowed with the necessary powers and funds to operate effectively. Chapter 3 discusses regulatory aspects relating to the licensing of broadcasters: the necessity of a licence; eligibility for a licence; the three-tier broadcasting licensing system; the licensing process itself; and the licence conditions that must apply.

Chapter 4 isolates the regulation of content for specific discussion, giving the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) as a useful model in this regard. Lastly, chapter 5 examines the nature of complaints and sanctions meted out by regulatory agencies, noting that these must generally be proportionate to the ‘offence’ committed (p. 80). The rest of the manual is devoted to ‘further resources’, appendices and ‘notes for trainers’ (pp. 93-112).

The manual is a decidedly easy read -- this is its first striking feature, as soon as you start flipping through the pages. It is a step-by-step training resource. Apart from being a simplified read, the manual is didactic. This is evident in three devices used to engage the reader. There are three types of box, each focusing on one of the following: ‘brainstorm’; ‘discussion point’ and ‘revision point.’ These serve as participatory tools, engaging the reader in deeper and more critical reflection on the subject. It is this simplicity of argumentation and exposition that makes this training manual stand out from most of the other written pierces of discourse on broadcast media regulation.

This very simplicity is also its major weakness. Admittedly, this is not an academic treatise to bother about ‘theorising’ broadcasting regulation. By definition, a manual is essentially instructional. But the ‘instructions’ therein are informed by some ‘theoretical’ principles evolved over time. Which is why one is at liberty to ‘theoretically’ interrogate some of the assumptions implicit in the manual, such as, for example, the apparent dislocation of the regulators from their social and political structures. Media regulation is a heavily politicised activity. It is not surprising that Horwitz postulates six theories – ‘public interest’, ‘regulatory failure’, ‘conspiracy’, ‘economic capture-conspiracy’, ‘organisational’ and ‘capitalist state’ theories -- to explain the dynamics of media regulation (Horwitz, RB. 1997. Theories of media regulation, in The political economy of the media edited by P. Golding & G. Murdock. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

Examples abound in which some, or all, of these theories are applicable. Only recently the South African minister of communications attempted to introduce an amendment to the ICASA Act 2000 that would make the state have a stronger say in the appointment of councillors of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Had this motion become law, the regulatory authority would have been ‘captured’ by the state machinery. Furthermore, human agency suggests that regulatory bureaucrats are susceptible to even subtler controls than those alluded to by the manual. Of course, we need not belabour the fact that the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has resulted in a heavily regulated media regime. In such a situation, broadcasting ‘deregulation’ would be preferable to ‘regulation’. But, for understandable reasons, it is beyond the scope of this manual to delve into the political contextualisation of media regulation in Africa.

Apart from this substantive observation, the other problematic aspects of the manual are editorial. Firstly, many of the details in the map on page 18 are blurred. The explanatory key is completely illegible. Secondly, page 69 has one glaring conceptual error. In trying to explain the ‘quantitative’ definition of ‘local content’, the author confuses it with the ‘qualitative’ aspect of local content requirements. Thirdly, here and there, one notices some typographical errors (for examples of this, see pages 29, 42 and 54).

These shortcomings do not, in any way, derogate from the integrity of the manual as a resource worth reading by all those who would understand the complexities of media regulation.

* Professor Fackson Banda is the SABMiller Chair of Media & Democracy,
School of Journalism & Media Studies, Rhodes University.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Many thanks and congratulations for this thorough contribution to the work we are doing for a better society (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/364710).

Early in July I was in Banjul, the capital of the country that dubs itself ‘the smiling coast of Africa’, for the AU Summit. A year had elapsed since I last saw many of the political elite who make it a point to attend these gatherings. I am referring to the media professionals and the NGO types.

Many of my friends, especially those in the AU whom I had branded as ‘bureaucrats of our Union’ ‘AUcrats’, and ‘AUrats’ were already waiting to confirm if it was indeed true that I had recently joined the UN Millennium campaign.

I had to keep reminding myself that it was in fact the truth. I couldn’t help thinking that either there was something wrong with me or them. Of all possible employers, it had to be the UN! Crowds of people wanted to exchange business cards with me. They did not want my new business card to correspond with me. Believe it or not, they wanted to keep my card as a souvenir. For them, the card represented ‘Taju joining the system’ or ‘Tajudeen selling out’.

The AUcrats had a field day taunting me as a latter day ‘UNOcrat’ and ‘UNORat’. All my attempts to convince them that I am still within the CSO community, for the UN Millenium Campaign is meant to empower citizens of the world, went unheeded. One of them even boasted to me that I would be saying ALUTA STOPEE instead of ALUTA CONTINUA soon! Time will definitely tell.

I was barely two months in the Campaign but somehow people were looking for evidence that I have mellowed or been bought over. Those who have not received my weekly column now believe that it must be because the UN has put an end to my writing career. Many now look for evidence in my writing that I have had a paradigm shift in my political worldview.

I had arrived in Banjul with an even bigger change in my public persona. After two decades of serious Piping I had given up smoking. The obligatory pipe dangling from my mouth was no longer there.

It was the second day of the Summit when one of the sisters observed that ‘something has changed about you’. Those present chorused: ‘He has joined the UN’ but she disappointed them by saying that my detour into what many of them regarded as ‘behind enemy lines’ was not it. Someone also observed that I had lost a few pounds. Thanks to the craze for losing weight these days, it could have been misinterpreted as evidence that ‘the man is going’ as we euphemistically refer to people suspected of living with AIDS in Uganda. But my weight loss was not due to any dietary change but the result of a serious bout of Malaria.

The sister asked people to guess what could be amiss about my physical appearance. It was not like I was wearing a three-piece suit and a tie in tropical conditions. So what were they supposed to be looking for?

I was in my “Acting Big Man” full Nigerian National Regal Attire. That did not come as a surprise to many, for an enduring popular aspect of the AU razzmatazz is the orchestrated display of colourful African dresses with the West Africans, invariably leading the pack. However, there seems to be increasing competition for the lead role from other regions, especially Southern African women.

So if there was nothing amiss with clothes, what then was the problem? Finally, with the smugness of the only one who knows and the sense of discovery comparable to Newton discovering the Laws of Gravity, she shouted: “Look at him! The pipe is missing.”

Everybody started demanding to know where the pipe was. Instead of congratulating me, they wanted to know why I had stopped smoking.

I had stopped smoking over a year earlier. I must emphasise that I had not stopped because I had realised that smoking was dangerous and bad for my health. Every smoker knows that (and does not care about the legal warning) just as alcoholics know that liquor is not good for their health.

When it comes to alcohol there is still a half hearted debate about whether alcohol is good when drunk in moderation. There is no such debate about smoking. Those who smoke pipes delude themselves that they smoke less. But the truth is that it is the same nicotine.

So, the message should not be ‘smoke less’ but ‘do not smoke at all’. Even now that I have stopped the impact of my previous smoking will be with me till the grave. And what is frightening is that my second-hand smoke might have affected someone else’s health.

It is often said that smokers are the only true Socialists left because they share their smoke with you whether you like it or not. This is why smoking ceases to be a matter of personal choice.

Suppose I had designs to poison my family or circle of friends or whole community, wouldn’t the State be compelled to put me behind bars? Yet smokers are doing this every time they smoke.

I am no latter day convert to ‘no smoking evangelism’. I do not wish to preach to people. I still miss the buzz and elation of bonding with complete strangers, the cancer friendships, the emotional release and other feelings that go with smoking. I am still very tolerant towards my former comrades. But I hope for those still in the Club that the puff they are now blowing is their last one.

What prompted the change was a plea from my older daughter, Aida, 10.

On a wintry morning, I was taking her and her younger sister, Ayesha, 6, to their school in North London. I rolled down my window for my first puff of the day (which any smoker cherishes. I must add that at the time our house had become a Talibanesque no smoking, no drinking Sharia Zone!).

Out of the blue, Aida said: “Baba do you know that you will not see me graduate?” I was shocked and asked why she was talking death at 8.00am. She said: “Because you are smoking.” And proceeded to reel out all the medical, social and environmental reasons befitting kids brought up on ICTs. Gone were our days of ‘do as you are told’, ‘do not speak unless you are spoken to’ and grandfather of all indiscipline, to correct the Mzee!

I was happy and saddened at the same time. I was happy that my 10 year old daughter was confident that she was going to graduate, but sad that my lifestyle was making her feel that her father might not be there. The buzz, the urge and everything that goes with that puff drained out of me that morning and ever since I have not filled up the pipe again.

Africa is far away from the litigations nightmare of the US that makes long-term smokers go to court to prosecute tobacco makers for not warning them that smoking is bad for their health!

Be that as it may, it is a scandal that tobacco companies just like oil companies and other corporations get away with serial murders in Africa and other Third World countries. It is not just their exploitation of the environment and people, but that most of their adverts would not have been broadcast or published in the West.

Tobacco and alcohol advertising are still booming in the poorer countries, where both political corruption and weak regulatory capacities allow big corporations to do what they like. They also present themselves as “partners- in-development” because of the economic contributions they make to tobacco growing countries. They have loads of money to advertise, and the media is financially dependent on this.

Governments may be compromised, and media owners reluctant to act but as individuals there are little things we can do. For me the least of the actions I can take begins with the picture editors at New Vision newspapers in Uganda, the original publishers of this column.

With this article I am making a public break with the tolerated poison industry that the tobacco industry represents. I am no longer active in the fraternity. I may not be able to stop the British American Tobacco and other tobacco companies but at least I can demand that The New Vision no longer uses a picture of me with a pipe.

I hope my good friends Owori Charles, Kevin and Sue O’Connor in the East African branches of the anti-smoking lobby ‘Tobacco or Health’ and others who have written to me take this as a public atonement and a determination to affirm life instead of being an accessory to my own death and that of others. There should be nothing glamorous about smoking. The tobacco corporations have too much money to convince and confuse the public about their merchandise. So, it would be an act of making the rich even richer on my part were I to appear with a pipe every week in my newspaper column.

From now on I say: not in my name.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement,
Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Nnimmo Bassey argues for clean and renewable energy. “The truth is that Nigeria has been immersed in the murky waters of energy crisis for many years now and with current groping in the corridors of power it does not seem that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” writes Bassey.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, while inaugurating the board of Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) which he chairs, declared among other things that although Nigeria was “unequivocally committed to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, the country cannot but embrace the global trend in the utilisation of nuclear energy for the generation of electricity."

Unless this trend is seen in the light of activities going on in Iran and South Korea, it is difficult to see new developments in the nuclear power generation sector as a popular move among nations. However, it is also thought that this commission will provide the answer to the “imminent energy crisis facing the country.”

The president must have been making a politician’s speech when he spoke about an imminent energy crisis facing the country. The truth is that Nigeria has been immersed in the murky waters of an energy crisis for many years now, and with the current groping in the corridors of power it does not seem that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

This writer fully agrees with the president that Nigeria should look for alternatives to existing oil and gas, hydro or thermal sources. But we think that looking at nuclear energy is a misstep and this thinking should be revisited and reversed.

When people think of nuclear power the pictures that come to mind are those of a cheap and clean energy option. Some analysts even suggest that nuclear energy is one of the solutions to climate change, as it would not lead to the release of greenhouse gases as fossil fuels do when they are used to generate energy. There is also the rather romantic view that the power plant would possibly be so small you could compare it to the size of an atom. In 1980, a presidential candidate in the United States of America was quoted as saying that the matter of nuclear waste ought not to worry anybody as “all the waste in a year from a nuclear plant can be stored under a desk.” (See the book, The Experts Speak, the Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky).

At present, Britain has an estimated 470,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste. This includes 2,000 cubic metres of high-level waste at Sellafield, stored in surface vaults across the country. But the lack of any long-term disposal strategy has alarmed experts, who fear an accident or terror attack, according to a recent report published in the Guardian newspaper. Three years ago, the government set up the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management to find a long-term solution to the nuclear waste problem. Their published report proposes that a concrete bunker, cut into solid rock at least 300 metres (1,000ft) underground, would be needed to store the waste. It is also reported that the ‘so-called "deep geological disposal" would require a repository that would take 35 years to build and 65 years to fill’. It sounds like this would not fit under a desk! And now the British government is currently planning to ask regions to compete to see who would provide the hole for this hazardous waste.

In return, the regions would have new projects provided as compensation. They would also be trained to act as monitors over the permanent hazard they would inevitably be exposed to. It reminds you of promises made to Niger Delta communities after their environment had been wrecked.

Cape Town’s chapter of Earthlife Africa, a South African environmental NGO, recently raised an alarm over alleged negligence by ESKOM at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in that country. Reports indicate that certain maintenance works may have been neglected at the power station for over ten years. The organization lamented this laxity saying “Safety at a nuclear power station is of the highest concern. The potential for accidents at nuclear power stations and the consequences of such accidents have been well illustrated by historic events at Chernobyl and inthe USA and Japan. These accidents have resulted in numerous deaths and environmental destruction as well as a legacy of radioactivity that isresponsible for illnesses and deaths until today.” Would Nigeria do better?

Conceiving of nuclear energy as clean energy is only possible if one turns a blind eye to the entire production cycle of the energy. This may be true when considering only reactor operations, but if we consider the process by which uranium is mined, transported and processed it becomes quite clear that this is not a clean energy form.

What about the uranium enrichment process, fuel fabrication, and the unavoidable long-term radioactive waste storage? Nuclear power stations may generate little greenhouse gas but their radioactive by-products are among the most toxic substances imaginable, and remain so for thousands of years. We see the dilemma for the British. Nigeria can simply not handle it.

Perhaps the president needs to take another look at nuclear power generation in Nigeria. It is still early in the day and this is the right time to retrace our steps. We need to look critically at how much we have failed as a nation at efforts to provide electricity supply through the rather conventional hydro and thermal generation systems. President Obasanjo has failed spectacularly to deliver on his first term promise on this matter. Nuclear energy is not a solution to the abysmal infrastructural deficit confronting us as a nation.

Nuclear power is basically about energy generation. Nuclear power reaches users through a power-grid system. In other words, it is not a wireless system. And if truth be told, the distribution grid in Nigeria is rather substandard. This is because of weak controls and because home owners often extend power lines to their properties with very little official oversight. This has engendered a situation where cables of diverse qualities reign in the land, and electricity transformers are often camouflaged by weeds. Thus, even if sufficient electricity power were to be generated today, we lack the infrastructure to deliver such power to users. Even if we were to have the power plants up and running in a couple of years, we are decades away from having a good enough power distribution network.

Another draw back is that there is a worldwide shortage of skilled manpower in this field. We can add to this concern the fact that we have a poor record of environmental safety and our emergency response mechanisms are still suspect. Nuclear energy is a ticking bomb and needs extreme care.

Besides, nuclear plants need to be shut down for periods of maintenance. Thus where such plants are in use, the country would still need to maintain an elaborate system of alternate plants thus adding to the overall costs outlay.

Why is Nigeria contemplating this energy system in a time when the world is concerned with developing sustainable energy and is gradually shifting away from nuclear energy? It is reported that industrialized countries such as Germany are moving towards more friendly energy sources. Indeed , a June 2006 report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety suggests that “Europe could cut carbon emissions from electricity generation by 70 per cent and phase out nuclear power by 2050 using 'concentrating solar power' (CSP) generated in the Middle East and North Africa.”

It appears that if Nigeria pursues the nuclear energy path, she will end up with an unnecessary liability when the system is finally ready. I say this because the world would have shifted away from this unsustainable mode of energy generation.

Another matter that may not have been inserted into the decision-making matrix may be the fact that nuclear power stations require huge amounts of water for cooling the reactor’s core. Experts say that nuclear plants do not work particularly well in warm climes. In a nation where fire trucks often run dry and water hydrants are left literally dehydrated, it takes very little imagination to reach the conclusion that setting huge quantities of water aside for this purpose will only compound the water problem of the nation.

We have a penchant of saying that issues like this are of no consequence because we do not lay much stock in analyzing scenarios that indicate how we unnecessarily, but rather continuously, box ourselves into tight corners. We have a penchant of superstitiously repeating to ourselves that everything will be okay even when we are taking wrong decisions and sliding down precipitous slopes.

In addition, the nuclear industry is yet to sufficiently address any of the negative aspects of this power generation system. It is a dirty industry, it is an expensive venture and it is extremely hazardous. There is nothing to recommend it except that it may confer some sense of “power” on the nation to say that we are on the nuclear league.

Honestly, rather than waste the resources of the nation on this wild enterprise, the Nigerian government should take steps to popularize solar energy systems in the nation. Solar and wind power systems may be expensive at the onset, but these costs are quite likely to fall as the world turns more to it in the face of rising cost of fossil fuels and the harmful potential of nuclear plants.

Moreover, solar systems are safe, the energy is clean and the system is amendable to discrete small scale whereby even remote communities can be easily serviced. In fact with the demise of crude oil that will happen in a few decades, the oil giants who hold vested interests in solar power development will see the need to allow popular access as this will be the next profit spinner.

In his speech to the NAEC board, President Obasanjo pointed out that "The new policy initiative of the US Government on nuclear energy, The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership" seeks to popularise and expand the generation and use of electricity from nuclear plants around the world. It does appear to us that the government is once more buying into offshore economic policy thrusts. The entire idea is rigged to shore up an American industry that is set to face decline. It may be argued that the dream of nuclear electricity plants has been on the shelves for three decades now, but common wisdom dictates that we should let sleeping dogs lie!

Again, I regret to say that I totally disagree with the president’s thinking that nuclear power would uplift the citizenry to a state of prosperity. It will rather expose our hapless citizenry to untold dangers apart from being another uneconomic sinkhole.

The World Bank, in its internal report on climate change, categorised nuclear energy as clean energy and announced plans to support it. The document, which was leaked to an environmental NGO, shows that the Bank lays a lot of emphasis on what poor countries could do to reduce greenhouse emissions, and says little about what the huge polluters should do. Although the bank keeps harping on the need for clean and renewable energy, it has not slowed down on its continual funding of oil and gas projects. Could Nigeria’s nuclear dream have been concocted by alchemists at the World Bank?

We have already squandered borrowed resources that rightly belong to future generations. Let us not make the problem worse.

This ten day advanced course is designed for practitioners from government, inter-governmental non-governmental agencies, donors and community representatives in the Middle East and Africa with institutional responsibilities in the field of refugees and migration. The participants will explore the practical implications and challenges of applying the much-touted human rights approach to policy making in real situations. The course will be both theoretical and practical, drawing on the wealth of lessons arising from trial and error, to determine the best-possible development outcomes for hosts, refugees, and migrants. Participants will take away new skills and techniques to apply in their own context.

On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina we speak with Jed Horne, an editor at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and author of "Breach of Faith."Horne says, "Louisiana is part of the old south...The mayor is a Democrat but could probably be called a neoconservative. He's as much a believer in the kind of free market, less-is-more approach to government as Karl Rove, one of his mentors."

It has been three months since the signing of a peace deal between the Sudanese government and one of the three main rebel groups in the war-torn Darfur region. The deal was touted by the international community as a possible end to the three-year-old crisis, but since the deal was signed, violence in the region has in fact increased.

The world's largest humanitarian operation in the western Sudanese region of Darfur is on the verge of collapse due to escalating violence, a United Nations humanitarian official warned on Monday (August 28). "Insecurity is at its highest level since 2004, access at its lowest levels since that date and we may well be on the brink of a return to all-out war," the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, told the UN Security Council on Monday.

The government of the Republic of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army/Movement agreed this week to a cessation of hostilities. Click on the link to read the text of the agreement.

The Sanctions Against Israel Coalition hereby pledges our unconditional support for the national strikes in the cleaning sector and at Shoprite. The rampant super-exploitation in these sectors reflect the crisis of capitalism and its inability to meet the basic needs of the majority. The massive income gap at Shoprite is one of the contributors to making South Africa the exploitation capital of the world [the Gini co-efficient is of the highest].

In the aftermath of the Lebanon disaster you can open up the Israeli press, particularly the Hebrew language editions, and find fierce assaults on the country's elites from left, right and center. The overall panorama is one of chickens of all ages coming home to roost. Small pustules highlight larger rot.

On 5 July 2006, Tanzania's minister of land and settlements development, John Magufuli, instituted criminal proceedings at Dodoma police station against two editors and one journalist of a privately-owned media house, Habari Corporation. The accused, Mr. John Bwire (chief editor), Mr. Muhingo Rweyemamu (editor), and Mr. Nephilitius Kyaruzi (journalist), were summoned only on 24 August to the Kijitonyama police station.

Attacks on civilians by the rebels that have wreaked havoc across the region have decreased considerably, according to the Ugandan army. The security situation should improve even more rapidly if the cessation of hostilities agreement between the rebels and the Ugandan government lasts. However, the humanitarian effects of the conflict are still evident across the region.

The Constitutional Court in South Africa has weighed arguments from two parties on the question of whether it is correct to discriminate against refugees who want to enter the private security industry. Twelve refugees have launched a challenge against a provision of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority Act.

Heavy rains pounded the Somali capital early on Tuesday, flooding vast swathes of the city, destroying dozens of makeshift homes and sending thousands fleeing for higher ground. Residents said that many of those hit by the floods were internally displaced people who had fled deadly conflict and crippling drought in their home villages in southern Somalia for the past months.

"The UNIFEM Annual Report 2005-2006 report celebrates UNIFEM's 30th anniversary, highlighting the organization's accomplishments over the past "30 Years of Challenge, 30 Years of Change." It provides examples of UNIFEM's initiatives around the world to defend women's human rights, promote their political participation, empower them to participate in the global market, and combat gender-based violence."

On August 9, 2006, Burkina Faso deposited its instruments of ratification with African Union. We can now count 20 ratifications and 42 signatures of the protocol to the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (ACHPR).

The Commonwealth Press Union has put together a toolkit on Gender for Journalists. This is an interesting toolkit for those organisations who collect human rights news and disseminate the same as well as for those who prepare annual reports compilations, from news sources. This toolkit is designed to help journalists in the newsroom to understand the term ‘gender’ and to adopt the best practice when writing about gender issues.

The new e-publication AfricaNews provides a more positive and balanced view of the African continent than the mainstream media. Rather than publishing news on hunger and war alone, it focuses on culture, business, sports, nature, conservation, business and development.

Nigeria has announced that elections to choose a successor to President Olusegun Obasanjo and a new national assembly will be held on 21 April 2007. Voting for state governors and regional assemblies will take place on 14 April.

Malawi's parliament is stalling the appointment of a new director of public prosecutions until President Bingu wa Mutharika explains why he fired the previous prosecutor. Earlier this month Mutharika gave prosecutions director Ishmael Wadi 24 hours notice after he dropped corruption charges against Malawi's former president, Bakili Maluzi.

Security operatives in an early morning operation, yesterday, raided the Asokoro District, Abuja office of the National Development Project (NDP), the political resource centre of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, seizing an American information technology (IT) expert there. He was, however, released a few hours later.

There are big challenges facing those returnees who fled Burundi in 1972 – some 60,000 since the Burundian government signed a peace agreement with rebel factions in 2000. These challenges – including identity, language skills, and land ownership – are particularly acute for people who fled overseas to escape the first major surge of violence in 1972, and for children born in Tanzania.

2006 sees the hosting of our fifth globalisation school. This year’s theme will look at “Alternatives to Globalisation”. ILRIG has been hosting its annual globalisation school since 2002.Activists from a wide range of organisations throughout Africa are invited to apply.AIMS OF THE SCHOOL Activists from trade unions and social movements meet to share experiences of struggles against globalisation.

The United Nations has conducted more investigations into sexual exploitation and abuse by its peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) than in any other country, according to figures recently released by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Out of a total of 313 investigations of civilian and military staff since the beginning of 2004, 202 have been carried out in the DRC, UN News said on Friday (August 25).

Submissions are now being accepted for the Global Development Network’s Seventh Annual Awards and Medals Competition, which carries prizes in cash and travel of over $300,000. Submissions can be for an ongoing development project, completed research, or a new research proposal.

On 1 March, 2005, the distinguished development economist and, as of the time of his death, member of the Executive Committee of CODESRIA, Professor Guy Mhone, passed away in a Pretoria, South Africa, hospital to which he had been admitted a few days earlier for what was expected to be a minor medical procedure.

The Centre for the Study of AIDS, University of Pretoria is proud to announce the launch of its sixth AIDS Review – What’s Cooking? by Jimmy Pieterse and Barry van Wyk on Thursday, 31 August at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria.

The Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP) works to prevent violence against women in Uganda. We are looking for two experienced and committed professionals to join us in this work on a part time basis. The successful candidates will be articulate and dynamic individuals with demonstrated commitment to promote women’s rights.

There is overwhelming evidence that rapid population growth worldwide, together with the effects of high consumption levels in developed countries, pose substantial challenges to the attainment of the MDGs. Yet, population has been virtually ignored at a political level for the past decade.

Based on the Post Gu 2006 Assessment, the Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FAO/ FSAU) and FEWS NET Somalia confirm earlier predictions (Press Release June 2, 2006) that although there are some improvements in certain areas, the conditions of humanitarian crisis in Southern Somalia persist and will continue at least until December 2006.

Malawi will be hosting the 3rd edition of the Southern Africa Social Forum 2006 in Lilongwe, Malawi from 13-15 October 2006.This year's SASF is expected to bring together thousands of participants from community-based groups, social movements and civil society organizations from SADC under the theme, 'People's Solidarity against Poverty and Oppression'.