Mauritanian media is buzzing with news about the upcoming baccalaureate exams. Both parents and students are apprehensive about the bac, hoping and praying for good results. This year's stress level is even higher due to a teachers' strike which may cause the exams to be postponed.

The Gender & Diversity program invites applications for the first round of fellowships under the AWARD Program. The fellowship will support African agricultural women scientists from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia with PhD degrees, including those in post-doctoral positions, and women scientists with MA/MSc/MPhil/BA/BSc degrees.

In Mali the most important exams come last: the baccalaureate at the end of June. But this year, with secondary-school teachers in their seventh straight month of strikes, the exam risks going unmarked, meaning students may face a blank school year. That is making many of them angry.

President Yahya Jammeh’s reported threats to expel or kill lesbian and gay people not only encourage hatred, but also contribute to a climate in which basic rights can be assaulted with impunity, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the president. Human Rights Watch called on Jammeh to completely disavow all such statements, and to work toward repealing the country’s colonial-era sodomy law, which allows arbitrary and discriminatory arrests and invasion of privacy.