Despite longstanding laws against gas flaring - the burning of natural gas during oil extraction - in Nigeria, and shifting deadlines to end the practice, the activity continues, with serious health consequences for people living nearby. In the Niger Delta, where most of the flaring takes places, residents living near gas flares complain of respiratory problems, skin rashes and eye irritations, as well as damage to agriculture due to acid rain.

In line with calls from the Global South for changes in the UN governance system, a survey report carried out in 2010 showed overwhelming support for changes in the mandates and functions of the UN agencies and for NGO and private sector representation in UN governance. The government respondents to the survey were also equally strongly in favour of both, and more so than the UN respondents. Download the report by clicking on the link provided. To participate in a 2012 survey report, please .

After a massive strike by trade union federation Cosatu on 7 March, Lukhona Mnguni writes for Umbilo that he would 'definitely be feeling uncomfortable politically' if he was President Jacob Zuma. He compares the strike to a similar one that took place in the lead-up to the ANC 2007 elective conference in Polokwane that toppled former president Thabo Mbeki and asks if there is a realignment of forces poised to dethrone Zuma come an ANC elective conference in Mangaung in December.

The country’s Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA), has canceled 146 investment projects in various economic activities because they failed to meet the requirements of the country’s environmental laws. The canceled proposals include the activities of some major Western firms. Permanent Secretary Samuel Xirinda told journalists that the 146 projects canceled because of environmental legislation strictures constituted a third of the 437 projects audited by the government in 2011.

The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) will be officially launched 10 - 13 March 2012. The new group is expected to discuss how to step up its campaign for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Major protests are expected in April and May this year. TUCOSWA, which will have about 50,000 members, is an amalgamation of the existing Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL). It is hoped that the new group will enable trade unionists in Swaziland to speak with a single voice.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has asked the public protector to look into claims of corruption levelled against his partner, Gugu Mtshali - but he would do well to remember that this isn't the first time she has been linked to dodgy business dealings. This weekend, the Sunday Times reported that Mtshali had solicited a R104-million bribe to get government support for a South African company that tried to secure a R2-billion sanctions-busting deal with Iran.

As police and illegal vendors in Zimbabwe’s capital clash over licenses, others urge the government to address the underlying problems of unemployment and poverty. A federal government plan aims to address both, as the city government and residents association discuss a solution on the ground.

On 9 March, the Committee on Word Food Security (CFS) completed the intergovernmental negotiations of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security. The guidelines contain valuable points that will provide backing to organizations in their long struggle to ensure the care and use of resources and natural goods in order to produce more nourishing food, so helping to eliminate hunger from the world by addressing its root causes, says this press release from a coalition of civil society organisations.

The need for the adoption of a West African regional legal framework on Freedom of Expression (FOE) and Right to Information (RTI) received a significant endorsement on 5 March 2012, when Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, urged his colleagues from ECOWAS member countries to work towards bequeathing such a legal framework for the regional group, ECOWAS.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Liberian authorities to ensure the safety of journalists who have been repeatedly threatened for exposing the practice of female genital mutilation in the country. Mae Azango, a reporter for the daily FrontPage Africa and the news website New Narratives, told CPJ she had gone into hiding after receiving several threats for an article she published about Liberian tribes practicing female genital mutilation on as many as two out of every three girls in the country. 'They left messages and told people to tell me that they will catch me and cut me so that will make me shut up,' Azango said.

Platform has released a new briefing analysing Uganda’s draft 'Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Bill'. The report – entitled 'The Ugandan Upstream oil law: A search in vain for accountability and democratic oversight', highlights the lack of parliamentary oversight, transparency, or consultation or involvement of affected communities in the proposed oil law. At the same time, the Bill does include clauses that restrict information flow and could potentially threaten or close down public debate.

On the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, many minority and indigenous communities feel that despite some constitutional gains, increased ethnicization of politics has deepened their exclusion, making their situation worse today than it was in 2005, a new Minority Rights Group International (MRG) report shows. The report titled 'Kenya at 50', reviews the current status of minority and indigenous groups in Kenya, particularly how legal and policy changes over the last five years have responded to the social, economic and political challenges confronting them. ‘Despite the adoption of the new Constitution in 2010, very little has changed in the way the Kenyan state approaches the question of minorities,’ says Marusca Perazzi, MRG’s Governance Programme Coordinator.

London Mining Network has published a report calling on the government to include a review of regulatory regimes as part of the current discussion on the Financial Services Bill. Looking at eight case studies, the report, 'UK-Listed Mining Companies & the Case for Stricter Oversight', argues that many mining companies listed in London have very poor records of complicity in human rights abuse, environmental pollution or destruction of people’s cultures and livelihoods around the world.

Scores of people have been killed after the Somali armed Islamist group al-Shabab attacked Ethiopian troops in a town close to the border of both countries. There were differing accounts of which side bore the brunt of the fighting in Yurkud on Saturday, the worst involving Ethiopian troops since they returned in force to Somalia last year after withdrawing in early 2009. The fighting came the day after the African Union (AU) said Ethiopia planned to pull its troops out of the Horn of Africa nation by the end of April with soldiers from Djibouti, Uganda and Burundi taking their positions.

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has in an astonishing broadside at perceived opponents including the country’s media warned them to desist from insulting him or they would be 'properly dealt with by the law'. A press release signed by State House press officer Albert Mungomo said that Malawi law provides for the 'total respect and protection' of the country's leader and that the authorities would no longer stand by and watch as the President of the Republic of Malawi was ridiculed.

This is a recording of a speech made by Arundhati Roy as a part of the Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Trust Lecture that was delivered on the 20th of January, 2012 at Xaviers college, Mumbai, India.

A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church in Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 10 people in the blast, and the retaliatory violence that followed, officials said. The bomb detonated as worshippers attended the final Mass of the day at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands have died in the last decade in religious and ethnic violence.

Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian activist, academic and spoken word artist. She is currently a Phd. candidate in Political Science at York University in Toronto. She released her spoken word CD Hadeel in Novermber 2009. Here she performs 'Shades of Anger'.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Continued fighting in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has forced more than 3,000 civilians into Uganda since the beginning of this year, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says. In a statement, the UNHCR said that an average of 50 people were passing over into Uganda every day this year, after a series of attacks on farms and villages in the volatile northeastern region.