Gender-based violence is a persistent human rights violation in South Africa, especially seeing girls and women of all ages continually enduring incidents of rape and assault. Official estimates that have been criticised as being overly conservative, put the number of women raped in South Africa at 27,750 a year, or three an hour. Last week, an 8th grade girl was allegedly gang raped by three schoolboys on the high school’s premises. The incident was allegedly filmed by students using mobile phones. Media Monitoring Africa says that numerous aspects of how this story has been reported have given cause for concern.

Other Worlds is working to document the ways that communities and social movements, together with their allies around the world, are working to build just economic, environmental, and political alternatives out of the ruins of the earthquake. You can read the ongoing reporting coming out of that work in the 'Another Haiti is Possible' archive on the Other Worlds website.

Western governments are rigging the market against poor cotton growers in Africa by pouring billions of pounds of taxpayers' money into farms in the United States and Europe, according to a new report. The US and EU have handed cotton farms subsidies of $32bn (£20bn) in the past decade, disadvantaging otherwise cheaper West African imports, according to the report by the Fairtrade Foundation.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 'We are the World', United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa) and Trust Africa sponsored, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Africa Humanitarian Action, co-hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), a Symposium entitled 'Reflections on International Humanitarian Interventions in Africa' was held at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 21-23 September 2010. The stimulating discourse of the symposium, which included thinkers, practitioners and activists on the continent and beyond, was the driving motivation for AfricaSpeaks4Africa.org.

The US adult film industry was brought to a virtual standstill recently after an actor tested HIV-positive and all his sexual partners were tested for the virus. There are no such precautions in Kenya's porn industry, where actors usually perform without a condom or routine HIV testing. 'I don't know my HIV status and I can't say I know that of the men we act with,' said Angela*, who recently made the switch from eight years of street-based sex work to acting in local porn films.

Bangalore-based Indian company, Karuturi Global, the world’s largest flower producer, couldn’t get enough land in India to compete with rivals. So the company went to Ethiopia early this year and leased 1,200 square miles of land - larger than the State of Rhode Island - to grow flowers. After a few years, the land will become useless due to heavy use of fertilisers. Millions of Ethiopians are facing food shortage and yet the World Bank-financed dictatorship leases huge tracts of land to foreign agribusiness to grow and export flower, reports the Ethiopian Review.

South Africans are fearful that Johannesburg may soon be at the mercy of acid water, with whisperings of the CBD crumbling as basements flood and buildings corrode. The government is said to be too slow, gutless and corrupt to enforce necessary action, the mining companies too heartless and unwilling to pay, the community and environmental activists too alarmist and the solutions too expensive or ineffective. South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper is featuring a series on acid mine drainage, or AMD, in South Africa, with each week focusing on a different area.

The latest issue of the Kakuma News Reflector is now available online. The Kakuma News Reflector (or KANERE) is a refugee free press devoted to independent reporting on human rights and encampment.

The is seeking a PhD candidate who has just finished or who is already on the job market with a specialisation in comparative politics and foreign relations of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The candidate should be interested in coming to India for this exciting new school.

Approximately 8,000 Somalis, who fled across the Kenyan border from the Somali town of Belet Hawo following intense fighting there, were ordered to return to Somalia by the Kenyan authorities between 1 and 2 November. On 4 November about 3,000 were forced further into Somalia by Kenya's administrative police, where they are at risk of serious human rights abuses. Amnesty International is urging those concerned by the development to write to the Kenyan authorities.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the independence of most of the French-speaking African states and has been so celebrated in France and in the former French Sub-Saharan African states. The independence of North Africa followed a different course, but the 1954-1962 Algerian War heavily influenced French policy in Sub-Saharan Africa - usually referred to as Afrique Noire (Black Africa). Less celebrated are the political assassinations which were carried out in the lead up to the 1960 independences. Thus the November 3, 1960 death of Felix Moumie, the Cameroun independence leader, by poison in Geneva, merits attention to remind us that State-sponsored murders have terrorism of population as an aim.

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) has announced that issue number 11 of 'Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism' is available. It includes:
- At the End of the Baton of South African Pretentions - Warren McGregor (ZACF)
- Electricity Crisis in Protea South - Lekhetho Mtetwa (ZACF)
- Conned by the Courts - Sian Byrne, James Pendlebury (ZACF), Komnas Poziaris
- Death and the Mielieboer - Michael Schmidt
- The Crisis Hits Home: Strategic Unionism or Revolt? - Lucien van der Walt
- Sharpening the Pangas?: Understanding and Preventing future Pogroms - Michael Schmidt
- Riding to Work on Empty Promises - Jonathan P. (ZACF)

Pirates off the coast of Somalia are keeping ahead of attempts by international authorities to stop them, capturing ever more hostages and bounty, a UN official has said. B Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said on Tuesday that more viable economic alternatives are needed to prevent the migration of young Somalis into piracy. More than 438 crew and passengers and 20 ships are currently being held hostage at sea near Somalia, according to latest International Maritime Organisation figures.

Four minors are among nine people who have been sentenced to death for a carjacking in Khour Baskawit in South Darfur. The case has raised fresh concerns over protection for children's rights in Sudan. Sudan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the execution of minors. In line with this, Sudan reformed its laws in January 2010, raising the age at which an offender can face capital punishment from 15 to 18.

The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) has denounced the decision by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to refuse them observer status. 'We have finally received a formal letter from the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights that our application for observer status has been declined. It [letter] has no reasons why our application has been declined. The immediate thing that comes to mind for me is that they must provide reasons for their decision and that we must appeal the decision,' said Fikile Vilakazi, Director for the Coalition of African Lesbians.

The Rwandan authorities are trying to tackle gender-based violence by addressing the role of security personnel in ending the scourge. 'Violence of any sort is an affront to society, an abomination that is simply unacceptable,' Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza said. 'Security forces in Africa must recognise gender-based violence as a crime.' The prime minister, who was speaking at a recent high-level conference in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on the role of security bodies in ending violence against women and girls, called for community involvement in efforts to root out the vice.

When Oussama Benjelloun was a child, he wrote to Majid magazine about his ambition to become famous. He never heard back. Now the 26-year-old has realised his childhood dream by entering the world of media. His gateway to fame came by starting a blog. Today, Maghreb viewers can find him on Nessma TV, where he hosts a segment on new developments concerning the internet.

Oil has not even started flowing but, already, it is causing conflict in Bunyoro, western Uganda where land disputes have erupted. The two billion barrels of oil discovered in the Lake Albert area have drawn speculators hoping to cash in on rising land values in the area and sparked conflicts in many villages, particularly in the district of Buliisa.

As the World Bank pushes forward with a massive investment in North Africa’s energy sector, it is up to the institution to ensure that this program benefits those who need it most, says the Bank Information Centre. In December 2009, the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), under the leadership of the World Bank, approved a $750 million Investment Plan for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The plan aims to invest in CSP projects in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan and to mobilise an additional $4.85 billion from other sources bringing the total cost of the program to $5.6 billion.

UN aid Chief Valerie Amos said that United Nations is to help the voluntary return of people displaced by the conflict in Darfur. During her six day tour of the region, Amos said the decision would also be based on whether 'there is some provision of basic services that the security situation is such that their safety has been considered.'