Three Zimbabwean government ministers were briefly detained on Sunday evening (10 July) as tension continues to mount in Harare’s troubled coalition, it was reported. Industry and commerce minister Professor Welshman Ncube, also the leader of the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was arrested alongside two ministers from his party as they returned from a meeting in Victoria Falls. He was with regional integration minister Ms Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and her national healing and reconciliation counterpart Mr Moses Mzila Ndlovu.

A new tool for measuring food price volatility in global agriculture markets could help poor countries or aid agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP) decide where and when to buy staples, says Maximo Torero, director of the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Markets, Trade and Institutions Division. The early warning tool, NEXQ (Non-parametric Extreme Quantile Model) has been developed by IFPRI and is based on sophisticated economic modelling, which provides daily price variability ratings for four major crops - hard wheat, soft wheat, maize (corn) and soya beans - and aims to help analysts predict price volatility.

Alioune Tine, the executive secretary of the Dakar-based African Human Rights Organisation (RADDHO), who was on 23 June 2011 violently attacked by militants of the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) during a demonstration, has gone into hiding after being discharged from hospital. The militants indiscriminately attacked Tine, a prominent human rights defender, to the extent that he was rushed and admitted at the Dakar main hospital.

Senegal has suspended its plans to forcefully send home Chad's former President Hissene Habre, who has been sentenced to death in his home country, Senegal's foreign minister has said. The move followed an appeal by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay. Ms Pillay had expressed concern that Mr Habre could be tortured in Chad. Mr Habre is blamed for killing and torturing tens of thousands of opponents between 1982 and 1990, charges he denies.

Anne Maina of the African Bio-diversity Network says the introduction of patented seeds and related chemicals into Kenya’s farming systems threatens the country’s agricultural practices, its livelihoods, the environment, 'and undermines our seed sovereignty'. The House (Parliamentary) Committee on Agriculture has also warned that opening up the country to genetically modified products would endanger lives. Committee chairman John Mututho said last week that the country lacked technical capacity to assess the quantity and type of genes in imported products, and had a long way to go before fully embracing use of GM products while ensuring the health of its citizens.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and India have signed a deal to build a hydroelectric plant in southern Congo. Officials from both countries participated in a signing ceremony in the Congolese city of Kananga late Monday. Congo's Energy Minister Gilbert Tshiongo said the plant, when completed, will have a capacity of 65 megawatts. The project is part of Congo's effort to address power shortages and develop the country's infrastructure. Analysts say the country has huge hydroelectric potential because of its many rivers.

While ‘data exclusivity’ clauses will not feature in the India-European Union free trade agreement, the threat posed by the impending deal to the world’s supply of cheap generic drugs is far from over. India’s commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma assured Michel Sidibe, chief of the United Nations joint programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) at a meeting this week that India would reject attempts by pharmaceutical giants to include data exclusivity clauses in the FTA. 'The government of India reaffirms its full commitment to ensure that quality generic medicines, including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, are seamlessly available, and to make them available to all countries,' Sharma said.

ANC eThekwini regional secretary Sbu Sibiya was shot dead at his home in Inanda, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday, 12 July. Brigadier Phindile Radebe said Sibiya (40) was shot in his driveway at 10pm on Monday. He had just returned from his office in Durban.

Africa now accounts for about one per cent of global manufacturing, and cannot realistically hope to reduce widespread poverty if its governments don't take effective measures to expand this vital economic sector, says a new joint report by UNCTAD and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. The 'Economic Development in Africa Report 2011', subtitled 'Fostering Industrial Development in Africa in the New Global Environment', calls for a practical, well-designed approach to industrialisation, that is adjusted to specific country circumstances and based on extensive discussion with and feedback from businesses and entrepreneurs.

A United Nations agency wants Kenya to open up a new settlement to accommodate refugees who have flocked to the Daadab camp. The head of the UN refugee agency Antonio Guterres was taken aback by the pathetic state of affairs at the camp, one of the word’s largest, when he visited at the weekend. According to UNHCR, the camp initially set up to cater for only 90,000 refugees, has now exceeded the number by nearly five times.

While top government leaders of the world's newest nation, South Sudan, have announced plans to make the country not only the 'hub' of Africa but also the bread basket for the Eastern African region, the Civil Society Taskforce is stressing the need for creating a just, peaceful and equitable society. The new independent state needs hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in order to connect its territory, which is the size of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania combined with expensive roads and bridges. It plans to build refineries and pipelines to transport its crude oil to the international market, reported the Sudan Tribune.

The government of Equatorial Guinea’s ratification of the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women is a potentially important step toward gender equality in Equatorial Guinea, but to be meaningful it must be followed by concrete reforms designed to promote and protect the economic, political, and social rights of women, EG Justice said. Equatorial Guinea became the 31st African Union member country to ratify the Protocol, also known as the Maputo Protocol. It guarantees the equal rights of women to political participation, economic and social equality, reproductive rights, and an end to genital mutilation. Despite existing laws intended to forbid domestic violence and defend women’s rights, to date the Equatoguinean government has failed to consistently safeguard and advance the rights of women.

Hundreds of university professors are staging a sit-in at over a dozen campuses across Egypt to call for the ousting of university administration officials appointed by the former Mubarak regime and to replace them with elected representatives. 'We are calling for democracy that is part of the revolution that started on January 25th,' says Khaled Sameer, an assistant professor of cardiac surgery at Ain Shams Medical School and the spokesperson for the Unified Coalition for the Independence of Universities.

Contrary to popular belief, intra-regional trade has actually been slowly going up since 2000, though the figure still pales into insignificance compared to what the rest of the region trades with the outside world, specifically China and United States of America (USA). SADC Secretariat trade policy advisor Paul Kalenga told The Southern Times that intra-SADC trade grew in absolute terms to US$34 billion in 2009 from US$13.2 billion in 2000, a 155 percent increase.

The United Nations should ensure that peacekeepers have a strong mandate to protect civilians and should increase the number of troops deployed to South Sudan, a global coalition of eight international nongovernmental organisations said. The UN Security Council is expected to authorise a new peacekeeping mission in South Sudan to succeed the current United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). The UN secretary-general has recommended increasing the number of troops from the current 5,000 to 7,000. However, some member states have urged lower troop levels, citing cost concerns.

Tanzania and other sub-Saharan Africa countries have made rapid progress towards the millennium development goals (MDGs), but reaching all goals by 2015 remains challenging, a new report says. Despite major improvements, the report says, there were still too many people being left behind calling for intensified efforts to improve the economic gap. Progress tends to bypass those who are lowest on the economic ladder or are otherwise disadvantaged because of their sex, age, disability or ethnicity. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Geneva, finds that sub-Saharan Africa improved the fastest among all developing regions in many areas, especially those related to health.

Sea ice in the Arctic is melting at a record pace this year, suggesting warming at the north pole is speeding up and a largely ice-free Arctic can be expected in summer months within 30 years. The area of the Arctic ocean at least 15 per cent covered in ice is this week about 13.6 square kilometres - lower than the previous record low set in 2007 - according to satellite monitoring by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. In addition, new data from the University of Washington Polar Science Centre, shows that the thickness of Arctic ice this year is also the lowest on record.

German economic interests played a key role during Angela Merkel's three-country trip to Africa. In oil-rich Angola improving business ties was a major topic on the agenda for Chancellor Merkel. Ricardo Gerigk, who has headed the delegation of German business in Luanda since last year, said: 'Angola's oil production is close to two million barrels a day,' he said. Angola is the second largest oil producer in Africa after Nigeria. But with a population of just 17 million, compared to Nigeria's 150 million people, there's more wealth, he said.

A Bill that gives Cameroonians in the diaspora the vote has been passed into law. The Bill sailed through during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly. Opposition groups and civil society organisations have, however, termed the new law a 'political gimmick' by the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) party to gain political capital and extra votes from abroad during the forthcoming elections.

Cotton production resumed quietly in the small town of Sara after farmers won a victory in their fight with SOFITEX, the leading company in Burkina Faso which buys and processes cotton, reports Farm Radio Weekly. The renewed interest in cotton contrasts with the violent protests in June. Some farmers threatened not to produce the valuable fibre this year. But others had already planted and did not support abandoning the crop. Angry farmers destroyed some of the newly-planted fields. Police intervened to prevent them from pulling up all the young cotton plants.