The highlights of the November issue of the Biowatch Bulletin include a GM update for South Africa and an article on building resilience through farmer exchanges and seed rituals. To read the full issue and to subscribe to future editions, please visit their website.

Election violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) spilled over in the Cape Town CBD last week as DRC refugees sympathetic to opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi protested against President Jacob Zuma’s perceived support of incumbent Joseph Kabila. Frustration among DRC refugees has mounted as election results, the provisional figures which were due to be announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) yesterday, put Kabila in the lead over his closes rival Etienne Tshisekedi, resulting in demonstrations in London, Brussels, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The feminisation of poverty, limited social mobility for women and discriminatory gender practices tied to culture are limiting factors for women's rights, says this article. With some political reforms in Morocco, can political statements contained in the new constitution be translated to tangible outcomes? And how long will it take to secure the promised women’s rights?

With a national vote set for 2012, Ghana is already in pre-election posture, and the concept of purely reflective media could prove increasingly dangerous as the vote draws nearer, says this article on Al Jazeera. 'Politicians have been boiling over with dangerous remarks - that the election period will be like the Rwandan genocide, for example - and the media is over-reporting these statements, handing out public platforms without adequate consideration for the consequences. While there is debate and dialogue about all the inflammatory rhetoric, no one has seriously implicated the media in the overall mix.'

WikiLeaks’ archive of US State department cables on Zimbabwe has highlighted human rights abuses, corruption, and profound divisions within both the ruling party and the opposition, shaking the establishment in Zimbabwe. Political analysts suggest that the revelations may have brought the party to a breaking point. This post summarises the revelations that have been revealed by WikiLeaks.

It was tragedy in Kaduna on 7 December as more than 15 people lost their lives and several others injured following a bomb blast that hit the heart of the city. The incident occurred shortly after the elders in the North ended the Peace and Unity Conference intended to find solution to the insecurity posed by the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram in the country.

Income inequality in South Africa as measured by the Gini co-efficient widened from the early 1990s to the late 2000s despite government efforts, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In a report entitled 'Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising', the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) notes that income inequality in OECD member states, which are developed nations, has widened over the same period, while in emerging market economies (EMEs) it has narrowed.

Militias outside the control of Libya's central government are holding vast stores of tanks, rockets and small arms in the city of Misrata, an arsenal that will test the ability of the country's new rulers to assert their authority. A Reuters team gained rare access to militia warehouses in Misrata and counted thousands of boxes of arms and ammunition, most of it seized from forces loyal to ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi and hauled back to the city in trucks.

Anti-riot police Monday 5 December broke up a 'Day of Anger' rally by Mauritanian youths demanding the ouster of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, detaining about 20 protesters. As the tide of Arab uprisings swept to the west of Africa, police used tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators who sought to enter a square in downtown Nouakchott that has been declared off-limits for protesters since rallies began in late February.

Gambia’s opposition coalition, the United Front, has urged President Yahya Jammeh to retract his 'no coup or elections can remove me' from office statement, PANA reported. The coalition, consisting of four opposition parties that supported an independent candidate, Hamat Bah, made the call in a statement issued on the heels of the country’s just-concluded presidential election.

WikiLeaks announced a new project on 2 December that they say aims to 'reveal the details of which companies are making billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers, flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes that abuse human rights'. The whistleblower website calls their latest release 'The Spyfiles' and launched it with 287 files available for download. Among these files are presentations and product brochures for two South African companies: VASTech and Seartech. WikiLeaks said one of the companies sold equipment that could permanently record the phone calls of entire nations.

Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzoury’s 'national salvation government' was sworn in on Wednesday 7 December, with the mysterious name of interior minister disclosed just hours before for alleged 'security reasons.' The new government includes 12 ministers from former premier Essam Sharaf’s Cabinet - two of which have been in office since ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s reign: Electricity Minister Hassan Younes and International Cooperation Minister Fayza Aboul Naga. The choice of General Mohamed Ibrahim, former head of the Giza Security Directorate, as the new interior minister heightened the agitation of activists towards the new Cabinet.

We will consider arresting George Bush when Amnesty International 'give us the facts', said Zambia President Michael Sata on Sunday shortly before he saw off the visiting US former president. The Zambian president also said 'it’s a coincidence' that Mr Bush and Zimbabwe long-time ruler Robert Mugabe were in Zambia at the same time. Sata was responding to questions from journalists at KK International Airport in the capital Lusaka about Amnesty International’s calls on Zambia to arrest Mr Bush for human rights violations during his 2001-2009 Presidency.

Zanele Muholi and Khanyisile Mbongwa put together a collaborative show around the idea of interstices, of spaces in between/in-between spaces - literal, metonymic, metaphorical. 'Ngaphakathi esiphakathini' is directly translated as 'inside the in-between', writes Khanyisile. The artists respond to the economies of violence of the everyday, a reality of bodies marked and inscribed in particular ways.

With stamped ballots piled on the desk in front of her, rights activist Ghada Shahbandar, said: 'As long as I have these obtained in my hands, I cannot trust the final declared results.' Speaking at a press conference held Saturday by the Egyptian Coalition for Election Observation, Shahbandar of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights highlighted several incidents that demonstrated incompetence by the judicial committee supervising the elections. The stamped ballots, for instance, should only be found inside polling stations and vote counting centers and heavily guarded throughout the process.

The opening statements in the Durban climate talks sounded more like conclusions, writes Nnimmo Bassey on the New Internationalist blog. Negotiators will be grappling with two key issues - the first is whether to have a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol or whether to bury it and raise a Durban Mandate in its place. 'A whole lot of the foot dragging here is about money. Avoiding responsibility means holding tight to one’s money bag. And the rich countries, reeling from the financial crisis, do not want to take any step in the direction of doing the right thing.'

The blog has a photo gallery of the Global Day of Action Against UN Conference of Polluters (COP) in Durban, while the Durban Climate Justice blog has a

You are cordially invited to the launch of three Pambazuka titles, To Cook a Continent, Earth Grab and African Awakening on Tuesday the 6th of December at Ike's Books in Durban. Authors and activists, Nnimmo Bassey, the ETC Group, Patrick Bond and more will be present at this exciting event happening alongside the COP17 talks in Durban. Visit this to find out more or click on the link provided to view a flyer about the event.

The US is losing the global information war, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared while appearing before a congressional committee to ask for extra funds to spread US propaganda through new media. Clinton said existing private channels are not good enough to handle the job, naming as rivals Al Jazeera, China's CCTV and RT - which she watches, she added.

State officers must enforce the Constitution fully or honourably resign, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga told the Kofi Annan meeting on Kenya progress Monday. Speaking when he gave a key note address at the two-day meeting, Dr Mutunga said complying with Kenya's new Constitution was not an option, however unpalatable some officers may find its provisions.