February is the hottest month in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and Mading Ngor, a reporter and presenter for the Catholic-owned Bakhita FM, trudged his way through the heat to cover parliament proceedings last week - only to be thrown unceremoniously out of the assembly. 'Before I had time to argue, four security guards pinned me to the ground and dragged me across the floor, tearing up my trousers,' Ngor, a hard-hitting, critical journalist, told me. The ensuing furor included apologies, a protest, an opinion column, a committee investigation, parliamentary debate, the banning of Ngor from the assembly, and finally, a parliamentary call to revive deliberations over three media bills originally drafted five years ago.

Exiled Somali journalists based in Nairobi, Kenya celebrated the world’s radio day on 13 February 2012 at hotel Madina in East-Leigh village of Nairobi. The gathering was organised by the Somali Exiled Journalists Association (SEJASS) as UNESCO requested all countries to celebrate this Day by undertaking activities with diverse partners, such as national, regional and international broadcasting associations and organisations, non-governmental organisations, media organisations, outlets as well as the public at large.

Key Somalia groups have reached an agreement on a number of pending transitional government tasks, including a federal structure for a future government and representation in parliament. Delegates from the presidency, cabinet and the parliament of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government met representatives from the authorities of Puntland, Galmudug and moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea for three days in Garowe town to hammer out a final deal.

Tense negotiations are underway for the release of two Swedish journalists jailed by Ethiopia on terrorism charges in September. A delegation from the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is said to have already met with Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi. EU and Swedish officials are this week expected to outline options to further press the Horn of Africa country into releasing the journalists, including a review of aid obligations.

Senegalese riot police fired volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing demonstrators after prayers at a mosque in Dakar on Sunday, in fresh violence a week before presidential elections. Rescue workers took away one man who was unconscious after being hit by a rubber bullet, an Agence France-Presse journalist witnessed. It was the latest violence in days of urban clashes between police and protesters trying to defy a ban and hold demonstrations against 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade's plan to run for a third term in office.

Over 100,000 people in Mozambique are still recovering from losing their homes and crops, and from being cut off from schools and shops after a tropical storm and cyclone hit the southern African country in January. But the worst may not be over as another dangerous cyclone is expected to make landfall as emergency stocks run low.

Blog Black Looks has listed a number of Ugandan and African human rights organisations who have condemned the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, including the Ugandan Law Society, Coalition of African Lesbians, Urgent Action Fund Kenya and Ugandan Frontline Defenders.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma must try again to be elected as the African Union Commission chairperson, the Southern African Development Community decided at the weekend. Foreign ministers from SADC countries met in Cape Town at the weekend, where her recent defeat at the AU summit in Ethiopia was discussed. Dlamini-Zuma contested the election against Jean Ping, the AU Commission head, who was standing for a second term.

As the body count rises from the conflict between members of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) and the Senegalese army, Casamancais are starting to lose hope that they will ever see a path to peace. The latest in a string of killings by rebels took place on 14 and 15 February in Sindian (near the Gambian border 100km north of the Casamance capital Ziguinchor), when four Senegalese soldiers were killed and nine wounded in clashes with the MFDC during a Senegalese army search mission for MFDC fighters and bases. Casualty numbers on the MFDC side are unknown.

The DRC Government has pulled three media stations off air. The media houses, two close to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and one belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, saw their signals stopped by the ministry of Information. 'Last Friday, we just received a letter from the minister of Information urging us to refrain from broadcasting commercial advertisement allegedly because, as a private community media, we are not allowed. We do not know why exactly our signal has been stopped,' Mr Patrick Nsiala, the programme officer of the Catholic TV (RTCE) told the Africa Review. Unconfirmed reports indicated that the minister for Information, Mr Lambert Mende, had invited the affected media houses for talks.

An estimated $50-billion is exported out of the African continent illegally every year, former president Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday. Mbeki was speaking at the launch of a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) high level panel in Johannesburg. The panel, chaired by Mbeki, would investigate illicit and financial flows of finance out of the continent.

Rethinking development: global and regional alternatives for the development in the South

African applicants should send their applications to:
CODESRIA,
2012 South-South Summer Institute,
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: (221) 825 9822: Fax: (221) 824 1289
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.codesria.org

Asian applicants should send their applications to:
CODESRIA,
2012 South-South Summer Institute,
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: (221) 825 9822: Fax: (221) 824 1289
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.codesria.org

and

CLACSO,
2012 South- South Summer Institute
Callao 875, 3º (1023) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel: (54 11) 4811-6588 / 4814-2301; Fax: (54 11) 4812-845
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.clacso.org

Latin American and Caribbean applicants should send their applications to:
CLACSO,
2012 South- South Summer Institute
Callao 875, 3º (1023) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel: (54 11) 4811-6588 / 4814-2301; Fax: (54 11) 4812-845
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.clacso.org

'LGBT Liberians live in fear, disempowered and daily imperiled. The war for them has not ended. Their lives are defined by danger and violence, persecution, hate speech and threats, discrimination and harassment. They are stigmatized, publicly rejected and almost completely abandoned by government. Their vulnerability affects all areas of their lives – church, school, employers, landlords, media, street mobs, rapists, predators, political actors, opinion leaders, family.'

A French court has declared the US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. In the first such case heard in court in France, the grain grower Paul Francois, 47, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He blames Monsanto for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.

Egypt's first presidential elections since a popular uprising ousted veteran leader Hosni Mubarak a year ago will be held in the first week of June, officials were quoted as saying on Sunday. 'The election will start in the first days of June and will end in the last week of June if there is a run-off,' Ahmed Shams El-Din, a member of the presidential election committee told the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The head of the electoral committee Faruq Sultan told a press conference on Sunday that hopefuls can register for the election starting from March 10 to April 8.

An estimated six per cent of Kenyan couples - about 344,000 - are HIV discordant, while a further 22 per cent of couples know the HIV status of their sexual partners. Although Kenya has national guidelines for promoting prevention among people living with HIV, implementing them has proved to be a challenge. Dr Charles Okal, the AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Coordinator for Nyanza Province says providing services for discordant couples is made difficult by the fact that testing is the only way to find them, yet couples rarely turn out for testing together.

Top United Nations officials say 10 million people need help amid a food crisis in West Africa's Sahel region. UN Development and Humanitarian chiefs Helen Clark and Valerie Amos called Saturday for greater humanitarian response to the crisis that effects eight countries, including Niger.

An alleged police hit squad exposed by the Sunday Times is being investigated for at least 51 suspicious murders - including one in its offices and another in its toilets. The body count is higher than initially thought - and 18 KwaZulu-Natal police officers are now suspects. They include two from the National Intervention Unit and 16 from the notorious Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit. The Sunday Times initially investigated seven cases involving the Cato Manor unit and 16 suspicious deaths.

Swaziland and Lesotho have the highest HIV prevalence in the world. They also share another distinct feature: during the last century, they sent a large numbers of migrant workers to South African mines. This paper examines whether participation in mining in a bordering country affects HIV infection rate.

Sixteen Tanzanian human rights defenders were arrested on 9 February. In protest against the Tanzanian authority's act that goes counter their state commitment to protect, respect and fulfill human rights, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) has drafted a letter urging the Tanzania authorities to release and drops all charges against these activists. They are requesting people to support the 16 activists by:
1. printing and delivering/posting the letter to the president's office in Dar-es-salaam if based in Dar-es-salaam or any part of Tanzania
2. printing and delivering the letter to the Tanzania embassy/consulate in your country if based outside Tanzania,
3. adapting the letter and putting it on your organisation's letter head, signing it and delivering it to the president office or the representative of Tanzania government in your country.