Pambazuka News 592: After Rio +20, struggles in Sudan and Algeria and helicopters in Haiti

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsy has ordered parliament to reconvene, a month after it was dissolved. Mr Morsy, whose Muslim Brotherhood won most seats, said the chamber should reconvene until a new election is held. The military had enforced a court order last month dissolving parliament because party members had contested seats reserved for independents.

A coalition of local and international non-governmental organisations in health in Ghana, is asking the government to reject World Bank's proposal to adopt cost-sharing to sustain its National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which has been operational since 2003. In its January report titled: 'Health Financing in Ghana at a Crossroads', the World Bank said Ghana's NHIS basic benefit package was financially unsustainable and, therefore, the government must consider cost-sharing. The coalition,...read more

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas on Sunday after demonstrations broke out at the University of Khartoum, where nationwide protests against high prices began last month, a witness said. The university is where an unprecedented three weeks of national protests began on June 16, when students first voiced their opposition to high food prices.

Kenyan women match men almost coin for coin in the now vibrant mobile money transfer market, surveys published by an international polling firm show. According to three studies on payments and money transfer behaviour carried out in Kenya and another 10 sub-Saharan African countries carried out by Gallup and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, both genders are involved in mobile money transfers in equal measure.

This Fact Sheet highlights the involvement of the EU in the global land grab, both directly through the involvement of European capital and corporations in the acquisition of land and indirectly, through the suite of EU policies which are transforming land into a global commodity. It concludes with a number of concrete demands and proposals for the EU to end its collusion in the global land grab and align with international human rights law, especially the Right to Food.

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