Egyptian protesters have called for a massive demonstration on Tuesday in a bid to force out president Hosni Mubarak from power. The so-called April 6 Movement said it plans to have more than a million people on the streets of the capital Cairo, as anti-government sentiment reaches a fever pitch. Several hundred demonstrators remained camped out in Tahrir square in central Cairo early on Monday morning, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has signed a new law that allows his information minister to ban publications deemed 'contrary to the public interest', an official said on Wednesday. The new law gives powers to the information minister to ban a publication if he has 'reasonable grounds to believe that the publication or importation of any publication would be contrary to the public interest'.

The theme for the 16th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa is 'Towards Greater Unity and Integration through Shared Values'. Arguably, the success story of South-South cooperation around shared values is the African Peer Review Mechanism, says the South African Institute of International Affairs. It is the continent’s home-grown governance tracking system and will be re-examined when African leaders meet on the summit margins. Key agenda items for the APRM forum include Liberia’s accession as the APRM’s 30th member, the much-anticipated peer review of Ethiopia, and progress reports on the National Programmes of Action (NPoAs) from South Africa, Lesotho and Nigeria.

'This call is an appeal to develop wise initiatives to prevent Ivory Coast from going over the edge into disaster. This call addresses itself directly to the decision-makers of the UN, the EU, the Americas, the French, the African Union, and ECOWAS , who, by their actions, are liable to precipitate Ivory Coast and, maybe, the entire West African region into irreparable chaos.'

The November 2011 issue of the international journal Gender & Development, (published for Oxfam
GB by Routledge/Taylor and Francis) will focus on Citizenship. Development and feminist policymakers and practitioners, and academic researchers, are all invited to share insights from research and experience of Citizenship-focused development/humanitarian work in particular country contexts, which has direct relevance to development policy and practice.

Amnesty International has revealed disturbing new evidence of the brutal methods used by Tunisian security forces to try to quell anti-Government protests in recent weeks. An Amnesty International research team which has just returned from Tunisia found that security forces used disproportionate force to disperse protesters and in some cases fired on fleeing protesters and bystanders. Doctors' testimonies seen by the Amnesty International research team show that some protesters in Kasserine and Thala were shot from behind, indicating that they were fleeing. Others in Kasserine, Thala, Tunis and Regueb were killed by single shots to the chest or head, suggesting deliberate intent to kill.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), in partnership with the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO ), is pleased to announce a two day workshop on 'African Film, Video & the Social Impact of New Technologies' that it is organising in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 27th-28th March 2011.

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) has released its annual analysis of the cost of crime, corruption, and trade mispricing on developing countries. The report, 'Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2000-2009,' finds that approximately US$6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from 2000 through 2008. The report shows the annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two categories of drivers: trade mispricing and 'other', which includes kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official corruption.

Pambazuka News is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the first annual Pambazuka Samir Amin Award. This award, launched to mark Samir Amin’s 80th birthday in 2011, pays tribute to the extraordinary contribution Samir Amin has made to our understanding of the exploitation of the peoples of Africa and the global South.

Social justice group SECTION27 has welcomed the release of a report on the investigation into the tragic deaths of six infants on 18 May 2010 at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg. The report raised serious concerns about the extent to which the Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development adheres to norms and standards related to human resources, and the consequent overcrowding in public health facilities in the province. The expert medical panel that conducted the investigation found that the neonatal unit at the Hospital 'ha[d] been under severe pressure for a long time'.

Two years into Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government, President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have used violence and repression to continue to dominate government institutions and hamper meaningful human rights progress, says the Zimbabwe section of the World Report 2011 issued by Human Rights Watch. 'The former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), lacks real power to institute its political agenda and end human rights abuses. The power-sharing government has not investigated widespread abuses, including killings, torture, beatings, and other ill-treatment committed by the army, ZANU-PF supporters, and officials against real and perceived supporters of the MDC.'

This book traces the role of politicians and public intellectuals in media, civil society and the academy in producing and disseminating a politically usable historical narrative concerning ideas about patriotism, race, land, human rights and sovereignty. It raises pressing questions about the role of contemporary African intellectuals in the making of democratic societies. In so doing the book adds a new and rich dimension to the study of African politics, which is often diluted by the neglect of ideas.

Pastoralist communities in two districts of northeastern Ethiopia have outlawed female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), saying it causes serious health problems to the women and is against their culture, a local official said. The two districts are Amibara and Awash-Fentale in Afar region. 'We are very happy to declare the abandonment of this horrible act on women,' the head of women's affairs in Amibara district, Fatuma Ali, said. 'We would like to thank the elders, our community and all our partners.'

It is now official that almost half of Tanzania’s public servants and politicians are yet to declare their wealth as required by the law. According to the 1995 public servants ethics code and act all public servants are required to declare their wealth 30 days within their election and appointment. Thereafter they are required to continue declaring their wealth annually.

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Prime Minister Raila Odinga has disowned the shuttle diplomacy spearheaded by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to seek the support of African Union to defer Kenya’s case at the International Criminal Court. Mr Odinga, at a news conference in Nairobi, said what Cabinet had agreed on was the referral of the cases involving the masterminds of the post-election violence suspects to the International Criminal Court and not to defer them.

The protest movement in Egypt has mobilised the young and the middle classes using the Internet and social networks in a challenge to the authorities that has seen both Twitter and Swedish video-streaming site Bambuser blocked. Mobile phones too were unable to get a signal on Tuesday in Tahrir Square in the centre of the capital Cairo, which has been a rallying point for thousands of protesters. Pro-democracy activists countered on Wednesday by disseminating technical advice to overcome these obstacles to enable the mobilisation to continue.

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The United Nations and the African Union will hold a high-level meeting in a few days to review efforts to achieve peace, security and reconciliation in strife-torn Somalia, which has been suffering through two decades of conflict and numerous humanitarian challenges. The meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sidelines of the African Union Summit.

Consultations on the post-transitional government process in Somalia have started, and will involve all stakeholders and the international community, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Somalia said. 'There was unanimous agreement, both inside and outside Somalia, that the transitional period has to end in August as envisaged under the Djibouti Peace Agreement,' Augustine Mahiga told a news conference in Nairobi. 'In the meantime, consultations are under way to develop a consensus on how to end the transition and on the nature of post-transition political arrangements.'