Algeria launched the Maghreb Digital Library on 23 January in an effort to expand access to information. The initiative was part of a joint endeavour between the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and US-based NGO Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). The Maghreb Digital Library will help the University of Algiers open to the scientific field through different partnerships; something that would give the sector access to technological media that provide researchers with information and documents needed in their work.

Worldreader.org is testing the idea that e-readers are libraries you can fit in your pocket. The non-profit is piloting a new campaign that would deliver e-readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, to children in Ghanaian schools. The e-readers will function as all-purpose textbooks by providing instantaneous access to the thousands of books now digitally available.

RADICAL-8 is an open political think tank blog aiming to trigger a global uprising against war, poverty, and misery in Africa. It advocates a 180º directional change on the continent while simultaneously pushing for peace, progress, and prosperity for all. Ultimately, Radical-8 ambitions to change Africa for the better one day at a time, one intellectual battle at a time, and one mind at a time.

The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) is a non-profit policy institute and grant-making organization that promotes the transparent, accountable and effective management of oil, gas, and mineral resources for the public good. RWI provides expertise, capacity building and funding to help countries maximize the long-term economic benefit of their natural riches.

INTERIGHTS is pleased to invite applications from lawyers for an internship as part of the development and implementation of its work. This is a part-time or full-time placement (three to five days per week) to begin ideally in the first week of February 2011 for six weeks. It will provide an opportunity for a researcher with knowledge of women’s human rights and relevant law to assist our programme in developing a publication with:
- Legal research on international and comparative human rights law and practice with respect to the protection of women’s human rights;
- Researching case law and comparative and human rights standards on women’s human rights
- Compiling indexes for the publication
- Case summaries.

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research has a number of courses available, including:
- Mediation and Consensus Building for Efficient Diplomacy
- Négociation bilatérale et multilatérale : stratégies et techniques
- Climate Change Diplomacy
- Multilateral Conferences and Diplomacy
- Mediation Skills
- United Nations Protocol
- Information Session on the Structure, Retrieval, and Use of United Nations Documentation

Flood alert levels are on orange in parts of Mozambique as disaster management services mobilise to respond to flooding potentially as bad as the catastrophe in 2000. Heavy downpours are steadily swelling the Southern African country’s rivers, while authorities watch rainfall and water level indicators in countries upstream with a wary eye. Some people living in the Limpopo Rver basin in the south of the country have started moving to safer ground after warnings that some 7,000 people could be affected if the river reaches the expected 2 metres above alert levels.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have committed to working together to reduce child stunting in Eastern and Southern Africa in an effort to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Director Elhadj As Sy and WFP Southern, Eastern and Central African Regional Director Mustapha Darboe signed an agreement prioritising both goals and acknowledged the progress that had been made to address the nutritional factors hampering children’s health.

An estimated 300,000 to 350,000 people remained internally displaced within Ethiopia in late 2010. There were reported displacements related to violence and human rights violations in Gambella and Somali Regions in 2010. Armed conflicts and localised episodes of violence have continued to cause displacement in various areas. In particular, government forces have continued to fight insurgency groups including the Ogaden National Liberation Front in Somali Region and the Oromo Liberation Front in the south of the country.

Algerian police have broken up an anti-government demonstration by about 300 people in the centre of the capital, Algiers, calling for greater freedoms. Several protesters were injured and a number are reported to have been arrested. Seven police officers were also hurt, according to state media. The leader of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) said those held included its parliamentary leader.

Fleeing Somalia may mean an end to dodging bullets and living in fear, but for many Somalis who manage to cross the border into Kenya, it is also the start of a long and difficult journey as a refugee. 'We have refugees who have been in Kenya since 1991,' said Salam Shahin, registration officer with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Dadaab, the world's largest refugee complex, home to more than 300,000 people, mainly Somalis.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, on Wednesday called on European countries to increase resettlement places and support for refugees as a show of solidarity for the host countries of the world's refugees, four fifths of whom live in developing countries. Guterres made a specific request to Switzerland to consider restoring their resettlement programme.

The University of Ilorin in Nigeria has established the Association of West African Universities, AWAU, as a sub-regional body that will coordinate and promote the ideals of University education in West Africa. According to a communiqué signed by Dr Mahfouz A Adedimeji, deputy director of the Directorate of Information and Protocol in the vice-chancellor's office, the association was established on 10 January to strengthen and develop the capacity of leadership in universities in West Africa to address the challenges confronting the region.

It is time that the people take their destiny into their own hands, writes Mazibuko Jara. 'Can poor and working people, working with middle class people committed to social change, open the path to a new politics that can change this country? Can a modest national conference under an umbrella of democratic left politics offer any hope for the majority and those interested in social change in this country? This 1st National Conference of the Democratic Left, which will follow two weeks after the celebration of the ANC’s 99th anniversary in January 2011, is a milestone in a maturing long-term political process.'

Esperança Chidzinga lives in the rural town of Chicualacuala in Mozambique's Gaza province. Accessible only by a train that comes twice a week, the town is isolated and under-serviced. When Chidzinga was nine years old she went into the forest with school friends to gather wood for a party and she stepped on a landmine and lost a leg. Her life has never been the same. 'I was at the hospital and my father came to see me,' she said. 'When he left I tried to follow him but when I got off the bed I fell down. That's when I realised I had lost my leg.' Chicualacuala is a typical example of the many areas in Mozambique still affected by landmines laid during the country's civil war.

The extrajudicial killings that were carried out along Lang'ata Road by the Kenya Police indicates to all Kenyans that the death squads are now completely out of control. It is now clear to all that the Kenya Police have abandoned all pretext of any reform and are now operating totally outside the law.

'The Southern Sudan referendum allowed the free expression of the will of the people for self determination. Turnout was massive, in a peaceful environment, and administrative procedures met national legal requirements in an atmosphere of respect and cooperation. Though the counting and tabulation stages of the referendum have yet to be completed and the final results are still awaited, our observation showed that voter participation far exceeded the required 60 per cent threshold and indicated that the final official referendum results will show that people chose a peaceful secession.'

The Rotary Foundation is now accepting applications for the world-competitive Rotary Peace Fellowship. The fellowship provides academic and practical training to prepare scholars for leadership roles in solving conflicts around the world.

Many Malian farmers are boycotting cotton this year, instead planting cereals. Cotton isn’t edible, but observers say that the shift could weaken food security. Discouraged by falling prices for cotton, and poor administration at the state-owned Malian Textile Company (known by its French acronym, CDMT), many Malian farmers are reducing the area planted with cotton on their farms – or abandoning growing it altogether.

Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House are challenging the blanket immunity from prosecution given by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to BAE Systems as part of its February 2010 plea bargain settlement with the company. In exchange for securing this immunity, BAE pleaded guilty to a relatively minor accounting offence in its complex scheme of offshore companies used to pass and make payments relating to its supply of a radar system to Tanzania.