Algeria's government has been paralysed by arguments over who should be anointed as favourite to be the next president, exposing divisions within the ruling elite that could shatter the country's fragile stability. The cohesion and control with which Algeria's establishment runs the energy exporting former French colony has kept it steady even as its neighbours were buffeted by the 'Arab Spring' upheavals over the past 18 months.

The new Senegalese government must demonstrate its commitment to safeguarding human rights by addressing the rampant impunity which undermines the judicial system and the rule of law, Amnesty International said. In a report entitled ‘Senegal: An agenda for human rights’, Amnesty International highlights key challenges the new government must overcome to ensure human rights are enforced, respected and protected.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has vowed to mobilise more communities to fight for quality health should the Gauteng Health Department not deliver on their demands. Angry TAC members marched to the office of the Gauteng Health MEC, Ntombi Mekgwe, this week, demanding an end to the drug shortage in health facilities. Health services in Gauteng have been dealt a severe blow due to drug stock outs which have been ongoing for months.

A peaceful march by the ‘Save Togo‘ collective on 12 June 2012, degenerated into a stand off with security forces. Around 120 injured were recorded during clashes over 12-13 June. The ‘Save Togo' collective brings together several political and human rights organisations. It was created on 4 April in Lomé and totals 17 groups, including seven organisations dedicated to the defense of human rights.

Reuters reports on a London court case that 'has been given a glimpse into the opaque world of Angolan diamonds, in a battle between a Russian-Israeli tycoon and his one-time partner that has also thrown up how modern-day buccaneers are building fortunes from Africa's resources.' Reuters suggests Angolan officials have tried to stop the case because of the embarrassment it may cause in an election year.

The government is insensitive to the needs of the poor and does not understand the economic plight faced by many state employees. This is the sentiment of many public sector workers as the state and unions wrangle through wage negotiations, and while unions haven’t explicitly threatened to strike, their members are already preparing themselves for industrial action. The government suspended talks with unions last week, claiming they had no more money to put on the table.

The death toll of campaigners, community leaders and journalists involved in the protection of forests, rivers and land has risen dramatically in the past three years, said Global Witness. Brazil – the host of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development – has the worst record for danger in a decade that has seen the deaths of more than 737 defenders, said the briefing, which was released on the eve of the high-level segment of the Earth Summit.

Zambia's government estimates that some unscrupulous mining companies may owe the country up to $1 billion in unpaid taxes. What difference could that make to Zambia? A staggering one when we consider that Zambia’s external debt in 2011 was $1.6 billion. Countries like Zambia need fairer international tax rules to stop companies from dodging the taxes they owe, says this Christian Aid blog post.

Police in Kampala, Uganda on Monday raided a gay rights meeting and arrested several LGBT activists gathered at the Essela Hotel in Najjeera, a Kampala suburb, accusing the participants of 'propagating gay issues in Uganda'. East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, the organization behind the workshop, said that police interrupted the meeting and began questioning attendees at the event, including activists from Canada, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

After a year-long incubation process supported by the World Bank Institute, 19 Ugandan civil society organisations this week formally established a ‘contract monitoring coalition’ that aims to involve local communities in the oversight of government-funded projects - including those related to oil - awarded to private sector contractors. 'There have in the past been incidents of alleged collusion between contract parties,' Gilbert Sendugwa, who chaired the coalition in its formative stages, told Oil in Uganda. 'Our coming on board is going to minimise that possibility and also improve the flow of information.'

This report is the result of the work of an amazing group of women from Asia and Africa who came together to research into the conditions of women in same-sex relations in their countries. 'With great determination and courage this group of women set about revealing the many obstacles, humiliations and indignities these women face. They uncovered not only pain, invisibility and silence, but also the pleasures of bonding and the beauty of love,' says the preface. Major themes in the research were female masculinity, the silencing and invisibility of Women-Loving-Women (WLW), and attempts at organizing on the basis of non-normative sexualities.

Reporters Without Borders has strongly deplored the two-year jail sentence that a Marrakech court imposed on well-known blogger Mohamed Sokrate on trumped-up charges of drug possession and trafficking. He was also fined 5,000 dirhams (450 euros). Arrested on 29 May as he was leaving an Internet café, Sokrate was tried and convicted with unusual speed. The trial began on 7 June but was adjourned at the defence's request.

On the eve of a key United Nations Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Friends of the Earth International launched a new report exposing the increasing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN. 'Governmental positions have been increasingly hijacked by narrow corporate interests linked to polluting industries and business sectors seeking to profit from the environment, the climate and the financial crises,' said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International. The report presents a number of cases that clearly expose how UN policies and agencies have been excessively influenced by the corporate sector.

Gunfire and rioting rocked two northern Nigerian cities Tuesday in a fresh round of unrest, prompting authorities to slap curfews on both after weekend violence killed 52 people. The unrest broke out in the cities of Kaduna and Damaturu, adding to fears of spiralling violence in the country's north, where Islamist group Boko Haram's insurgency has been concentrated.

Nobody can actually buy land in Mozambique. The government owns it all. But the government will give companies exclusive rights to land for 50 or 100 years, and it's really cheap. Mozambique's government, in fact, has been encouraging investors to come and take advantage of this land. Dozens of companies, both foreign and local, have lined up to seize the opportunity.

The first batch of 700 South Sudanese have returned to Juba from Israel, as part of a policy to deport Africans and protect the state's Jewish identity. Israel and its military ally South Sudan, which gained independence in July 2011 after decades of civil war, both claim that the process has been one of 'voluntary repatriation'. While some among the first planeload of 124 people were very guarded about their feelings of returning to their new but still extremely impoverished nation, several people said the South Sudanese are being forced out.

Anger and rejection in Egypt followed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) new constitutional declaration. The declaration grants back power to head of SCAF Hussein Tantawi, who is also the Minister of Defense. Egyptian activists are calling the moves a 'military coup' and the deceleration 'another step in cementing a lingering presence [of the military] and a hold over public life by the military'.

The Ethiopian government is forcibly displacing tens of thousands from their land to make way for state-run sugar plantations, a campaign group has said. The displacements are happening in the country's Omo Valley, according to a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). The valley, a World Heritage site, is also the site of a controversial dam.

Formidable social and economic challenges threaten to undermine – or even halt – progress in Tunisia, despite the country’s positive transition to democracy. 'Tunisia: Confronting Social and Economic Challenges', the latest International Crisis Group report, shines a spotlight on the economic problems that largely were at the root of Tunisia’s uprising and that remain unresolved in its aftermath: rising unemployment, stark regional inequalities, smuggling and corruption.

Key stakeholders meeting on 14 June to discuss the future of Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya acknowledge that there are tough choices ahead, but no agreed way forward. The panel discussion, entitled 'Dadaab 20 years on: what next?', was organized by NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Nairobi, and included government officials, UN agencies, NGOs and representatives from Dadaab's refugee community. Dadaab, originally built to house 90,000 refugees, currently hosts close to 500,000.

Transparency International, the anti-corruption organisation, calls for the government of Gabon to uphold civil society’s right to peaceful activism following the detention last week of more than 40 people, including Grégory Ngbwa Mintsa, the 2010 recipient of the Transparency International Integrity Award. The civil society activists, who were taken into custody on 8 June and later released, were planning an alternative forum to a government-sponsored New York Forum Africa, a regional event to promote Gabon. The activists wanted to highlight the challenges ordinary citizens face in Gabon. Freedom of expression and the space for a vibrant civil society are essential in any country to ensure a government is accountable to its people.

Libya's government has sent troops to put an end to six days of clashes between rival armed groups in the west of the country. The fighting, which left least 16 people killed and scores of others injured, is the latest episode of instability eight months since the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime after a months-long conflict. As it seeks to impose its authority on a fractious country, Libya's new leadership on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in the fighting south of the capital Tripoli.

An al-Shabab suicide bomber has rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into the gate of a Somali government base in Afgoye, west of Mogadishu, the capital, causing casualties. Al-Shabab said its suicide bomber had 'killed dozens' in Saturday's attack, while the police said the blast had only wounded three soldiers. The figures could not be independently verified. Many parties in the Somalia conflict tend to exaggerate enemy losses and minimise their own.

The public debt crisis that has crippled the abilities of the Eurozone states is evolving into a banking crisis with negative ramifications worldwide, states this article from 'In such a case, the political turmoil that would ensue - along with the proliferation of conflicts, ethnic animosities and revolts - would potentially bring about the most radical transformation of the established political order that the world has seen since the 1940s. In the case of such a critical circumstances, policy makers would seek out desperate solutions, sacrificing less valuable parts of the system for the survival of the rest, implementing massive debt relief programs and considerable changes in political management practices in the Eurozone as well as globally.'

The European Parliament sent a bold message to the world last week with its comprehensive and ambitious resolution to put an end to the illicit global arms trade. But analysts regret the new resolution ignores several key factors, such as the impact of the arms trade on the socio-economic development of recipient countries, and the involvement of civil society in future negotiations. Next month member states will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York to negotiate the first binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a potentially ground-breaking humanitarian treaty regulating international trade in conventional weapons. Currently, there is no universal set of rules controlling the global arms trade.

Mauritanian salafists cannot agree on whether to follow their Maghreb neighbours into the political arena or reject democracy as an invention of infidels. The issue has led to cracks in the movement, with extreme adherents of the salafist current vowing to mobilise against the proposal from their more moderate peers.

Amid continuing instability and bursts of fighting in eastern Congo, civilians keep crossing into Rwanda - where the number of arrivals since late April has passed 10,000 - and south-west Uganda. The 10,000 figure was reached last weekend and the number of Congolese refugees registered at the crowded Nkamira Transit Camp had risen to 11,339. In recent days a daily average of about 230 arrivals have been recorded at Nkamira, which lies some 20 kilometres from the Goma-Gisenyi crossing with Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province.

The Worldwatch Institute has announced the launch of the much anticipated 2012 REN21 Renewables Global Status Report (GSR). GSR 2012 details worldwide developments in the renewable energy sector through 2011. The report highlights a number of key developments, including market and industry trends, investment flows, the shifting policy landscape, advancements in rural renewable energy deployment, and the evolving synergy between renewable energy and energy efficiency.

There was a dramatic turn this week in the ongoing row between Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who revealed that the Public Service Commission had illegally recruited 10,000 new staff members and among them were 4,600 soldiers. The revelation was surprising because the defence ministry had recently demanded $2.5 million from the treasury, insisting the funds were needed to feed soldiers who are going hungry in the barracks and to pay for an additional 5,000 new recruits. Mnangagwa went as far as threatening violence, vowing to send army generals to Biti’s offices.

Israel launched a high-profile deportation drive against African migrants on Sunday 17 June with an airlift of South Sudanese whose government said they would be welcomed back as economic assets. The planned weekly repatriation flights from Tel Aviv to Juba have been played up by the Israeli government amid uncertainty as to how it might deal with much greater migrant influxes from Sudan, a hostile country, and war-ravaged Eritrea.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce its Small Grants Programme for Thesis Writing for the year 2012. The grants serve as part of the Council’s contribution to the development of the social sciences in Africa, and the continuous renewal and strengthening of research capacities in African universities, through the funding of primary research conducted by postgraduate students and professionals.

The global financial crisis of 2008/09 has not sent migrant workers streaming back home, despite worsening employment prospects and anti-immigration rhetoric in some destination countries, says a new book on migration and remittances, published by the World Bank. In fact, migrants may have mitigated some of the pain of the crisis as they tend to work for lower wages, receive fewer benefits and rely relatively little on the state, says the ‘Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond’ book.

Thirty per cent of threatened species are at risk because of consumption in developed world according to research made by University of Sydney. The study mapped the world economy to trace the global trade of goods implicated in biodiversity loss such as coffee, cocoa, and lumber. Years of data collection and thousands of hours on a supercomputer to process, lead to these global supply chains in amazing detail for the first time. The study evaluated over five billion supply chains connecting consumers to over 15,000 commodities produced in 187 countries. This was cross-referenced with a global register of 25,000 endangered and vulnerable species.

Negotiations for Rio+20 have been fraught with attempts to take 'people' and social development out of the equation and lay the solutions at the altar of market driven forces through the 'green economy.' For women and young people, this means that fundamental issues affecting them, such as their right to health and education, are in danger of being sidelined, says this article.

A meeting of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) in South Africa discussed a proposed youth wage subsidy, the crisis of democracy, organising women and building the movement.

An Ethiopian musician has just released an upbeat song and a tribute to Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, the first African leader who defeated the Italian colonial forces at the battle of Adwa in 1896.

Judges at the International People's Tribunal at Columbia University Law School on January 14, 2012 found that the evidence presented made a prima facie case of crimes against humanity committed by Western powers.

A glimpse of the African side of India shows people with severe psychotic problems apparently related to their poverty and intense subjection to racist contempt.

Walter Rodney’s seminal work remains a compelling and persuasive living history and totem of critical resistance to the exploitation and underdevelopment of the African continent.

Sea of nostalgic generation
River of Facebook nation
In and out migration
Limited freedom of expression
No room for innovation,
But for incarceration,
Parroting, or imitation ...
Strong interest in destruction,
Not in building a lasting foundation
Almost impossible to tolerate difference
And to still be friends
Lack of political moderation
Torpedoes in silent ocean

Radicals left and right
Few with a practical mission statement,
Vision, and commitment
Almost all stuck in the past
Not too many visionaries
But plenty of revolutionary wannabes
And swarms of counterrevolutionaries,
Comrades, cadres, copycats, bullies,
Elitists, opportunists, ideologues,
Egotists, character assassins, and rogues
Relics of the bygone years

Most anachronistic
Few original or unique
Little or no political compromise
But bravado and false promise
Fake democrats
Allergic to alternative viewpoints

Almost everyone wants to lead, but few followers
Not too many look forward—thus, stagnant progress

Confused youth
Trapped in a maze …

Have we learned at all from the past:
From the red blood or feudal mindset?

The Sudanese president who is wanted by the International Criminal Court to face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges over Darfur could not travel to Malawi to attend an AU summit. The AU changed the venue to Addis Ababa after President Banda of Malawi said her government would collaborate with the ICC.

After killing a man in self-defense, Benson turned himself in to Malawi's police. More than two years later, he was still waiting for a court hearing, while his body showed the scars from the long wait in Lilongwe's main prison. The Open Society Justice Initiative is spearheading a Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice, documenting the costs of excessive and unnecessary pretrial detention. Watch Benson's story in the video accessible through the link provided.

The fact that China has been given a terminal to buy US debt directly, bypassing Wall Street, must be viewed in the context of the "architecture" of global capitalism which is a product of recent decades of the rise of financial-driven capitalist globalization.

Sudanese refugees have started dying as a camp in South Sudan ran out of water four days ago after a massive influx of people fled across the border to escape war and hunger. The refugees are fleeing Sudan’s Blue Nile state where insurgents are fighting to overthrow the Sudanese government.

Chad residents scrape the bottom of the barrel on most every indicator on the Human Development Index, despite vast oil wealth. In his new book 'Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power', Pulitzer prize-winning author Steve Coll examines ExxonMobil’s influence in poor countries.He examines the bankrolling of oilfields in southern Chad in 2001 that were conditioned on the use of revenues to eliminate poverty.

Identity Kenya has reported that two gay men were attacked by a mob after they were caught having sex in Kayole estate late last month. The two men were beaten by the mob on the night of 27 May 2012 as they were caught in the act by passersby. One managed to escape while the other died after being stoned by a crowd of people.

An uphill battle against mining, waged since 2007 by the impoverished South African Amadiba community, last year appeared to have been won. Now it's beginning again. A local subsidiary of Australian firm Mineral Resource Commodities has renwed its application to prospect for mineral sands along the Transkei's Wild Coast. The traditional owners of the area are outraged.