The Institute for Palestine Studies’ Congressional Monitor project, launched in 2006, tracks every legislative initiative introduced in the US Congress that mentions Palestine or Israel or has bearing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Congressional Monitor Database contains all relevant legislation from the 107th through the 110th Congress (2001-2008) and will be updated on an ongoing basis to include legislation from before 2001 and after 2008. It includes key information such as legislation number, sponsor, party and state represented, number of cosponsors, brief summary, related measures (if any), and final status of the measure.

Almost 1,000 suspected cases of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease that causes fever and severe joint pain, have been recorded in the Republic of Congo's capital over the past two weeks. The disease's symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash, and are similar to those of dengue fever. There is no known cure; treatment consists of relieving the symptoms.

The website is a campaign to make ecocide - the destruction, damage or loss of ecosystems - a crime. 'You can help us close the door to the ecocide and open a new one to a clean green world. The more of us that stand up and call for ecocide to be made a crime the sooner our world will change for the better.' This involves demanding that ecocide be made a criminal offence, that
ecocide be made the 5th UN Crime Against Peace and that ecocide be eradicated.

Somalia's prime minister says he has resigned, following an agreement between the president and parliament to remove him from office. Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had initially refused to step down, but will now go 'in the interest of the Somali people'. His removal was part of a UN-backed deal that extends the mandates of the president, the speaker and deputies to August 2012.

The latest in the South African Broadcasting Corporation's fight against the BCCSA ruling on unfair reporting in favour of the Mail & Guardian has seen Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) warning that the issue could pose a serious threat to media freedom in South Africa. MMA has added its voice to the call for action against the broadcaster in the face of a damning Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) ruling on unfair reporting. Earlier this year, the BCCSA ruled the SABC had contravened the Broadcast Code of Conduct by making unsubstantiated claims of alleged corruption against the M&G, as well as ordering the state broadcaster to issue an apology.

Successive poor rains coupled with rising food and fuel prices are leading to a worsening food security situation with alarming levels of acute malnutrition being recorded in drought affected parts of Kenya, mainly in the north of the country, say experts. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2011 is the driest period in the eastern Horn of Africa since 1995 'with no likelihood of improvement until early 2012'.

Nato is using information gleaned from Twitter to help analysts judge which sites could be targeted by commanders for bombing and missile strikes in Libya. Potentially relevant tweets are fed into an intelligence pool then filtered for relevance and authenticity, and are never passed on without proper corroboration. However, without 'boots on the ground' to guide commanders, officials admit that Twitter is now part of the overall 'intelligence picture'.

Climate campaigners have raised the alarm at the direction of the UN climate negotiations as the latest round of talks came to an end in Germany last week. Speaking after the talks closed on Friday, Dr. Sivan Kartha of the Stockholm Environment Institute outlined the current 'gap' between emission reduction pledges and possible 'safe limits' of emissions of global-warming causing gases. 'In the race to stop climate change which will destroy homes, crops, and entire lives across the world, it is developing countries that are first out of the blocks. It is developing countries that have made pledges that add up with the science. Developed countries seem to be skulking away, trying to avoid picking up the tab for the pollution they've caused,' Chair of the panel, Asad Rehman, Head of International Climate at UK Friends of the Earth said.

Zimbabwe has vowed to defy moves for international monitoring of diamond sales from its disputed Marange fields, at a meeting of the global 'blood diamond' watchdog, state media reported. Mines minister Obert Mpofu said the Southern African nation must be allowed to export gems without any monitoring, insisting Zimbabwe has met the minimum requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), which seeks to prevent diamond sales from financing conflicts. The Marange fields, touted as Africa's richest diamond find of the decade, have been at the centre of a years-long controversy over reported abuses by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's military.

Reports from the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane indicate that acute hunger is worsening in several districts. Families have resorted to eating wild fruits and roots due to irregular rains and wild animals destroying the little production in the area. Though there are no reports of famine-related deaths, state television, TVM, has reported that if measures are not quickly taken, the situation will become catastrophic.

Following the second India-Africa Forum Summit held in Addis Ababa in May, two articles focus on the event in this edition of the newsletter. First, Prof K Mathews provides an overview of the activities and outcomes of the Summit, as well as commentary on the state of relations between the Indian government and Africa. A second article by Manish Chand also looks at the Summit, with specific mention of some of the commitments made during the event focusing on capacity building, education and human resource training. In addition, Rashaad Amra provides an interesting overview of Turkey’s engagement with Africa in terms of trade and investment activities. Mandarin translations for this month’s edition focus on the African journalist study tour to India conducted by the EMPA Initiative. It also draws comparisons with the tour to China conducted last year. The second article provides a review of the recent report by Global Witness titled 'China and Congo: Friends in Need'. The May edition is available

Morocco's youth-based February 20 Movement has called for nationwide protests against constitutional changes proposed by King Mohammed VI. The king outlined curbs to his wide political powers in an address to the nation on Friday and pledged to build a constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliament. The proposals, to be put to a referendum on 1 July, devolve many of the king's powers to the prime minister and parliament.

Egypt’s premier has said that delaying a parliamentary election scheduled for September would give political parties more time to prepare, state media said, amid fears that an early poll would benefit Islamists. His comments come amid a mounting campaign by liberal and secular groups to delay the election until after a new constitution has been drafted. The 'Constitution First' campaign has sparked intense debate, with critics arguing that delaying the poll would keep the ruling military in place for longer.

A UNHCR report released on World Refugee Day reveals deep imbalance in international support for the world's forcibly displaced, with a full four-fifths of the world's refugees being hosted by developing countries - and at a time of rising anti-refugee sentiment in many industrialised ones. UNHCR's 2010 Global Trends report shows that many of the world's poorest countries are hosting huge refugee populations, both in absolute terms and in relation to the size of their economies. Pakistan, Iran and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million and 1 million respectively.

'Congress believes that discussion of ANC leadership should be opened and members should at all time be at liberty to discuss and deliberate on the leadership question, particularly for the 53rd National Conference of the ANC in 2012. Putting timeframes of the leadership question disadvantages members and structures of the ANC to honestly reflect on the kind of leadership needed to lead the ANC post 100 years of its existence. Congress further disapproves of emerging tendencies to use State power as a tool to dispense patronage and empower friends and families.'

Swaziland's labour unions are planning a series of further strikes to voice their feelings about proposed wage cuts and to lobby the government for regime change. Sibongile Mazibuko, the president of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, said the next protest action would take place over three days and their message was clear. 'We want this government to vacate office and we want regime change,' she said.

African farmers’ organisations, members of the International Movement of Peasants, La Via Campesina, and allied organisations denounce every attempt to adopt genetically modified organisms, GMOs, as being a false solution to the food crisis in Africa. According to the farmers, all of the myths promoting GMOs as a 'miracle' to increase productivity are false, as they threaten the genetic integrity of the local varieties that are the basis of African food security. Only organic food production, based on local knowledge and skills, can feed the continent, as diversified, agroecological farming systems actually produce more total food per hectare than does industrial monoculture.

Reflecting profound concerns of developing countries, a new report has strongly criticised the World Bank group for promoting false solutions to climate change, such as carbon trading, megadams, agrofuels and industrial monoculture tree plantations. The report - 'Catalysing Catastrophic Climate Change' - also gives vent to anxieties of social movements, environmental and social justice organisations, and affected communities. It was tabled at a side event by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) during the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn that concluded on 17 June 2011.

The Botswana government said on 20 June that it had amended legislation classifying essential services workers to include teachers in an effort to prevent more civil servants from striking. Making the announcement through a government gazette, Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Peter Siele said that veterinary services, teaching services, diamond sorting, cutting and selling services and all supporting services connected to them have now been placed under the essential services.

Julius Malema’s recent attack on ANC policies at the opening of the ANC Youth League’s 24th national congress struck at the very core of the ruling party, setting the stage for a bruising battle in the run-up to the 2012 conference over the future direction of the party, writes Jabulani Sikhakhane in the Sunday Independent. 'Borrowing from Hugo Chavez and other populists, Malema built his narrative this week on three pillars: he tapped into and stoked the anger and feelings of social despair among the black majority; framed poverty as a function of conflict between the powerful elite (white people in this case) and the majority (poor, landless black people who own very little of the economy); and then presented the youth league, if not himself, as capable of radically transforming the lives of the poor.'