'As we observe the 30th anniversary of the African Charter, there are reports of continuous harassment, arbitrary arrests, rapes and murders of Africans on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Such is the case in Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, among others. In many other African states the criminal laws against same sex sexual conduct continues to expose an already marginalized population of people to abuse and violation.'

'The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is disturbed with reports that Nation Publications Limited (NPL) Journalist Phillip Pemba is receiving death threats over an article that revealed that Robert Chasowa had dealings with the police before he was murdered. We are also disturbed with reports that the police summoned Weekend Nation Editor George Kasakula and Malawi News Deputy Editor Innocent Chitosi of Blantyre Newspapers Limited - papers that carried detailed insights into Chasowa’s death and dealings with the police - for questioning over recordings of the articles.

Iowa-based investor Bruce Rastetter and fellow investors in the industrial agricultural corporation AgriSol Energy have their sights on 800,000 acres (325,000 hectares) of land in Tanzania that is home to 162,000 people. The proposed site is inhabited by former refugees from neighboring Burundi. Most of the residents, several generations of families who have successfully re-established their lives by developing and farming the land over the last 40 years, will be displaced against their will. They will lose their livelihoods and their community. Once they are gone, Agrisol Energy will move in. Despite rising international criticism of the proposed plan to evict the residents in the proposed lease areas for foreign investors, the Tanzanian government plans to move forward with the project. We need your help today to make sure that won’t happen. Please send a message to Bruce Rastetter, other principal investors, and the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, to urge them to drop this project.

DePaul’s Program in African and Black Diaspora Studies provides its students with a systematic, interdisciplinary, and integrated course of study of Africa and the Black Diaspora. Students will have an opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in African and Black Diaspora Studies with a concentration in Africa, Black America, or Afro-Caribbean and Latin America.

Stereotypes and misconceptions linked to sexual orientation and gender can have adverse consequences on the health of lesbians. The aim of this project from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association is to demystify 'myths and realities' on certain aspects of lesbian health, such as breast and cervical cancers, HIV and sexually transmitted infections and well-being.

Tens of thousands of refugees living in Kenyan cities will continue to suffer police harassment, lack of protection, violation of their human rights and discrimination, as long as the government fails to properly implement recent legislation, says a report by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG), International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK). 'The rights of such refugees to move freely within Kenya and reside in urban areas are currently unclear,' Sara Pavanello, a researcher with HPG at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), said during the launch of 'Hidden and Exposed: Urban Refugees in Nairobi'.

Guinea’s Justice ministry has confirmed that 51 persons have been arrested and detained in connection with the failed assassination attempt on President Alpha Condé last July. The figure contrasts with another one given by Attorney-General William Fernandez last Saturday. Mr Fernandez had told a press conference that only 38 people were in custody over the case, among them 27 military personnel.

The international acclaim for the Libyan revolution is being tempered by growing revulsion at the treatment of the bodies of Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim. The UN has called for a full investigation into the circumstances of the dictator's death. Video footage recording the minutes after Gaddafi's capture last Thursday, when his convoy came under Nato and rebel attack, shows an alive but injured Gaddafi pleading for his life.

For millennia, people have coped with drought in the Horn of Africa, comprised mainly of drylands. Yet today, more than 13 million people there are starving because of political instability, poor government policies and failure to invest in the world's poorest people, say experts here in Changwon. Two billion people, half of whom are extremely impoverished, live in drylands around the world, according to Anne Juepner of the Drylands Development Centre at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Nairobi. Governments often invest very little in infrastructure like roads and schools in these poor regions. Similarly, development agencies and other donors don't think these are the best places to make investments, according to Juepner.

Earlier this year, the Blue Planet Project launched Maude Barlow's report: ‘’. The Blue Planet Project is calling for domestic right to water plans that will form a local sixth chapter to Maude Barlow's five-chapter report.

Tens of thousands – perhaps hundreds of thousands of people – are scattered throughout Blue Nile state in Sudan after fleeing their villages to avoid aerial bombardment. Blue Nile state lies south east of Khartoum and borders Ethiopia. The rebel Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) says Sudan is waging a war of terror from above against civilians. 'The main strategy of Khartoum to bomb the civil population is to break the will of the combatants,' Malik Agar, leader of the SPLM-N, told IPS.

Occupy New York's Wall Street. Occupy Cape Town's Company Gardens. Occupy mailboxes of senators and congressmen. Occupy your mind...The millions of unemployed around the world can, finally, find an occupation these days, it seems, as momentum from the camped protest at New York's Zuccotti Park near Wall Street continues to spread to other cities in the United States and beyond American borders to Australia, the Czech Republic and South Africa. In South Africa, an academic in Durban, who chose to remain anonymous, said: 'The protest here is being organised totally arse-backwards.' The Facebook campaign, the Occupy Durban City Hall page, has 126 people confirmed to attend the protest. It was being run 'by white kids who are not ­usually plugged into social activism or to activist networks. I think it will be a massive fizzle-out, but I'm still going.'

Egypt's apparently crucial role in orchestrating the Palestinian prisoner swap with Israel leaves those who have observed the cooling relations between the two countries wondering what more the deal signals. Omar Ashour, the director of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter told Al Jazeera that, while many Egyptians view their government's involvement in the deal with pride, there was also a sense of 'bitterness and frustration'. Deals like this, he said, spell 'continuity rather than change in foreign policy.

Freedom House says it is deeply troubled by the recent outbreak of violence in Cairo that resulted in the deaths of more than two dozen Egyptians and has condemned the manipulation of the media by the ruling authorities. 'While events were ongoing, the state-controlled television claimed that violent protesters had attacked the military and three officers were killed...Egyptian authorities stormed buildings hosting two independent channels and cut electricity to the office of newspaper Al-Shorouk, apparently due to their coverage of the violence.'

Robert Chasowa, a student and political activist, was found dead on the campus of Malawi University Polytechnic on 24 September in circumstances that were far from clear. 'Reporters Without Borders deplores the death of this activist and is surprised at the pressure being put on journalists investigating the case,' the organisation said. 'We urge the judicial authorities to conduct an impartial investigation into Chasowa’s death, which took place in particularly worrying circumstances and in a climate hostile to freedom of expression.'

Experiencing a traumatic event affects survivors in many ways. This guide gives working journalists concrete tools for understanding the effects of trauma and for conducting sensitive reporting and writing on trauma stories.

The South African government will enact an emissions cap and new energy industry regulations in an effort to spur development of alternative, clean and renewable energy and mitigate climate change. The new regulations will penalize heavy polluters that don’t comply with greenhouse gas emission limits with fines.

Its gritty portrayal of sex, violence and gangsters in Kinshasa will come as little surprise to people who live there. The unknown quantity is how Congolese film Viva Riva! will play from Kenya to Senegal, from Zimbabwe to Burkina Faso, reports The Guardian. 'The award-winning thriller is set for release in an unprecedented 18 African countries, its producers say, signalling hopes that a new generation of African cinema-goers will watch home-grown productions instead of foreign imports. Viva Riva! is the first film shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the industry was shut down by President Mobutu Sese Seko 25 years ago.'

Algeria's ruling party is facing the biggest internal crisis in seven years. The divisions have surfaced between the National Liberation Front Secretary-General Abdelaziz Belkhadem and some reformist elements within the party. Some 600 party dissidents recently held a meeting authorised by the interior ministry amid tight security measures. The reformists debated three topics: the condition of the ruling party, evaluation of the party reform movement and political reforms initiated by the government.

In the immediate aftermath of this spring’s revolution, something new and unfamiliar happened in Egypt: women and men participated equally in political events. But this article also notes: 'Yet today, political, economic and cultural barriers prevent women from being accepted as full members of society. Egypt’s dwindling economy prevents women from landing jobs in the public sector - which used to offer guaranteed employment.'