Pambazuka News 410: Lessons from Zimbabwe; debates on Obama, Africom, and the food crisis

Reporters Without Borders condemns the imprisonment of Abdel Fettah Ould Abeidna, the editor of the privately-owned Arabic-language weekly Al-Aqsa, in Nouakchott on a criminal libel charge. Abeidna was immediately jailed on his arrival from Dubai, from where he was extradited.

The European Union has said it will take "appropriate measures" to punish Mauritania after failing to restore constitutional rule, the French foreign ministry has said. Frederic Desagneaux, the foreign ministry spokesman, said on Thursday: "Given that the junta's proposals have been deemed insufficient by the international community, EU member states will examine, based on the proposals of the European Commission, appropriate measures".

Ten Sudanese newspapers have suspended publication as part of a growing protest against state censorship, Sudanese journalists said. Reporters said on Tuesday that it was the biggest voluntary shutdown of the media since the days of British rule in the 1950s.

As the world commemorates World Aids Day whose theme is Leadership and Unity to stop HIV, Aids and TB, gay rights groups in the country have said that the gay community is still marginalized in terms of HIV and AIDS programming in the country. Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, OUT LGBT Sexual Health Fieldworker, said that government does not recognise LGBTI people as high risk in their programming.

The South Africa Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA GLAAD) and other gay rights groups will stage a protest outside South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)’s head office on Thursday 4 December. SAHRC has come under fire recently following its alleged silence on the controversial column written by Sunday Sun’s John Qwelane, published in July this year.

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