Anxiety has gripped Mali in the face of contrasting positions by the government and rebels in the north following clashes that have left scores dead in what is shaping up as a secessionist battle. Rebel leaders of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) said they were ready for a major offensive inland following a series of attacks that have targeted mainly small towns in northern Mali.

A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people Wednesday in the war-torn Somali capital Mogadishu when he detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near the presidential palace, officials said. The blast occurred outside the Mona hotel, where 32 people including six members of parliament were killed in an August 2010 attack by two Islamist suicide gunmen wearing government security uniforms.

Access to accurate information about the extent and nature of large-scale foreign investment in Ethiopian, Sudanese and South Sudanese land is extremely limited. So broader narratives of 'land-grabbing' - seeing governments as unwitting victims or as predatory regimes – are a potentially misleading oversimplification in the Horn of Africa, where local populations do not lack agency in this process, says this briefing.

Angolan anti-corruption campaigner Rafael Marques has started publishing a slew of investigations. Through a website he calls 'Maka Angola', after the Kimbundu word for trouble or problem Marques spares no blushes. He points the finger at some of the country’s most senior government officials and even President José Eduardo dos Santos’s own children. The reports make uncomfortable reading for overseas companies investing in Angola.

The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) decided at the weekend to delay Julius Malema’s suspension until its disciplinary committee had heard his submission in mitigation of sentence, party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on 6 February. This followed the decision of the national disciplinary committee of appeals (NDCA) to uphold the guilty verdict against the ANC Youth League president. The NDCA also ruled that the disciplinary case against Malema and five other members of the ANCYL’s NEC be referred back to the national disciplinary committee (NDC) for evidence in mitigation of sentence.

Minerals Resource Minister Susan Shabangu stood up at the Mining Indaba last year and declared: 'there will be no nationalisation in my lifetime'. On Tuesday 7 February she told a packed hall of global delegates with certainty that nationalisation is off the agenda for government and the ruling ANC. Instead, she highlighted the new approach of resource nationalism - a milder form of state intervention that will include a higher tax regime for the industry.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says the ruling party will not be bullied into stopping discussion on the nationalisation of mines because it will scare off investors. Mantashe said this as Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel told a high-profile mining indaba in Cape Town yesterday that the nationalisation of South Africa's mines was not an option. 'The mining sector is so fundamentally important as a platform to construct the [upliftment] transition that we can't be able to take this idea of nationalisation forward,' Manuel said.

Testimony before an inquest into a Zimbabwean power broker's fiery death has ended, leaving the last hours of General Solomon Mujuru's life shrouded in suspicion that he was murdered by political rivals. After three weeks of hearings that have been closely followed in Zimbabwe, Magistrate Walter Chikwanha did not say when he would report his conclusions after hearing evidence from 37 witnesses. He can rule the death was accidental or criminal and in the latter case an investigation would be opened. Chikwanha could also declare an 'open verdict', effectively saying he was unable to reach any conclusion.

The burning inferno of what used to be a Chevron Corp. natural gas rig still stains the night's sky orange more than two weeks after the rig caught fire, and no one can say when it will end as swarms of dead fish surface. The environmental damage is hitting a region whose poor still rely on the delta's muddy waters for survival. A nearby clinic remains overrun with patients who are showing up with skin irritations and gastrointestinal problems.

Twitter announced last week that it would begin restricting tweets in specific countries if they violated local laws, setting off claims of censorship by IFEX members Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). Previously, Twitter had to remove a tweet from its entire network if it received a takedown request from a government. But the company said in a blog post published on 26 January that it now has the ability to selectively block a tweet from appearing to users in one country.

The Department of International Relations and Co-operation says it will investigate threats against South African companies with investments in Nigeria by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend). The movement has threatened to attack the holdings of companies including MTN, Africa’s biggest cellphone network operator, and SacOil, an oil and gas exploration company, saying that President Jacob Zuma is interfering 'in the legitimate fight for justice' in the Niger River delta region.

The UN refugee agency said Friday 3 February it was alarmed by recent reports that Congolese civilians have been tortured and killed by armed groups entering camps for the internally displaced in the volatile province of North Kivu. The agency called for more security in and around the camps.

Three African transgender and intersex rights advocacy organizations have formed an alliance to enhance the trans and intersex movement on the continent. The organizations include South African based Gender DynamiX (GDX), Uganda’s Support Initiative for People with atypical Sexual Development (SIPD) and Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA).

The organisation Greenpeace has chosen the firm Mercadona as one of the worst firms of 2011 due to the fact that this company has taken advantage of the resources of Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco, and in acquiring 30 million tins of sardines, Mercadona has been supporting the occupation and thereby the ensuing oppressive rule by Morocco.

The Canadian Association Against Impunity (CAAI), expressed its profound disappointment with last week’s decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal overturning the decision of the Quebec Superior Court in the case against Anvil Mining Limited. While acknowledging the difficulties that the victims have encountered in their attempt to obtain justice, the appeal Court ruled that they lack the necessary legislation to allow the case to proceed in Quebec. Anvil Mining, a Canadian corporation, is accused of providing logistical support to the Congolese army who raped, murdered and brutalised the people of Kilwa in the DRC. According to the United Nations, an estimated 100 civilians died as a direct result of the military action, including some who were executed and thrown in mass graves. The CAAI, an NGO coalition representing relatives of victims of the 2004 Kilwa massacre, filed a class action in 2010 against Anvil Mining for its alleged role in the massacre. Anvil Mining denies any wrongdoing.

This edition of The Real News Network interviews the authors of a new report that calls for sweeping agricultural reform. The report states that the fundamental causes of the global food crisis remain. 'We sit poised on the verge of another food price spike that could push millions into poverty and hunger,' says one of the authors. Three of the main issues raised are the use of biofuels, which have driven up demand, financial speculation in the food system and land grabs.

Africa Today on KPFA 94.1 FM carries an interview with Yao Graham, executive director of the Third World Network in Accra, Ghana. Graham has written extensively on development and the role of extractive industries in Africa.

The International Refugee Rights (IRRI)’s experience over the last seven years is that in the enthusiasm to embrace the promise of international justice there has often been inadequate space for honest reflection on the practice and reality of international justice, particularly from the perspective of local advocates and local communities in Africa. This lack of debate has, not least, stunted assessment of how the objectives of international justice might be more effectively pursued. In response, IRRI is launching a discussion paper series entitled 'Just Justice? Civil society, international justice and the search for accountability in Africa'. The series will reflect local perspectives on international justice as it is being experienced in Africa.

More than a billion people in the world still lack access to electricity, while another one billion have unreliable access stalling efforts for improving health, livelihoods and conserve the environment. Findings from a new research published by the Worldwatch Institute (WI) urge governments and development organisations to invest in electrification to achieve critical health, environmental, and livelihood outcomes, a statement released by the Institute said.

The black market for foreign exchange and fuel is booming in the midst of an acute scarcity in Malawi. The shortage is so severe that even the Consumer Association of Malawi, an influential consumer rights body, has come out in support of the black market. Malawi continues to reel under severe economic problems after the country’s major donors cut aid to the country last year. Up to 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget has been dependent on donors and donors funded 80 percent of the country’s development budget.