Pambazuka News 562: Corporate profiteering brings famine to Africa

Malawi will review a series of controversial laws, including a ban on homosexual acts, Justice Minister Ephraim Chiume has said. Chiume said the review was in response to 'public opinion'. Western governments criticised Malawi last year for jailing a gay couple on sodomy charges.
On Tuesday last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would use foreign aid to encourage countries to decriminalise homosexuality.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said it would be an act of cowardice for him to retire ahead of elections expected to be held next year. Closing his party's annual conference, Mr Mugabe, 87, condemned the current power-sharing government as a 'monster' which should be buried. Resolutions were passed endorsing Mr Mugabe as candidate, in spite of reports he is suffering ill-health.

Charles Ingabire, an online Rwandan journalist and genocide survivor, is the latest victim in a series of bloody attacks targeting Rwandan journalists. Ingabire was killed in apparent execution style outside a Kampala bar on Sunday, 30 November 2011. Another journalist, Charles Rugambgage, was murdered in June 2010 in Rwanda.

The US-based AgriSol Company has landed another lucrative land deal involving 10,000 hectres amid growing public outcry about the recent land deals sealed by the company in Rukwa region. The company, mid this year, came under attack from land rights activists and politicians, especially Members of Parliament for acquiring over 300,000 hectres located at Mishamo and Katumba areas in Mpanda district for agricultural development.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that more than a million children in the Sahel region of West Africa were at risk of severe and life-threatening malnutrition over the coming year as a result of ongoing food shortages. UNICEF in a statement made available to PANA in New York, said it would require an initial US$65.7 million to respond to the crisis. It stated it was already ordering therapeutic foods and distributing emergency stocks in affected countries. It said that the biggest c...read more

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