Horticulture stakeholders are looking to negotiate a trade protocol with the European Union (EU) to graduate from the current Lome Convention. Kenya Flower Council Chief Executive Officer Jane Ngige says they want to amend the Lome Convention – under which the EU provides aid and extends trade and tariff preference to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries – in order to secure market access.

Press Freedom is a right enjoyed by a privileged minority of South Africans. Our print media is controlled by a cartel of four corporations. Broadcast Media is dominated by the SABC. The profiteering of private media and commercialization of the SABC have seen the mass media catering to the expression and information needs of lucrative markets (LSM 8- 10) representing under 15% of South Africans.

Niger's National Advisory Council, a legislative organ overseeing the country's transition, is reviewing a draft Constitution aimed at returning the landlocked west African nation to democracy. The document, laid out in 14 titles and 190 articles, is based on the texts of a previous Constitution, in force until the military coup of 18 February that toppled the regime of President Mamadou Tandja.

Pressure on African nations for elections - Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has lashed out at major world powers for putting pressure on African countries to organise elections. "On the issue of elections, I say to many of our friends that nobody can be more concerned than the Ivorians themselves." he said.

Four bodies have been found in an unused shaft of a mine run by relatives of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and ex-leader Nelson Mandela. Police said investigations were continuing into reports that up to 20 alleged illegal miners were shot dead by security at the mine.

Following last year’s Copenhagen Climate Summit, the five days of negotiations in Bonn last week in preparation for the big climate change meeting in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year, has been met by a profound display of disinterest.

It is 11 am and Mary Jusa seems unconcerned by the sun beating hard on her back. Humming a traditional tune, she carries on uprooting weeds in her maize field between two water canals. One of 24 members of this irrigation scheme in the rural district of Thyolo, Jusa’s plot measures just 50 by 20 metres. But she says it gives her enough income to meet the basic needs of her family of three children. She attributes her success to agricultural extension services.

Following reports of poor harvest expectations in central and southern provinces due to a prolonged dry spell, an FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) visited the country from 6 to 29 May 2010. The Mission evaluated food crop production in the 2009/10 agricultural season, assessed the overall food supply situation, forecast cereal import requirements and possible exports in marketing year 2010/11 (April/March) and determined the eventual food aid needs.

On behalf of the Board of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), and our local partners Coletivo de Feministas Lésbicas, Grupo Dignidade, Grupo Arco-Íris, and Instituto Edson Néris, it is our pleasure to invite you to attend the XXV ILGA World Conference to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between the 4 and 9 December 2010. As you may remember, Rio de Janeiro was the city voted for hosting the 2010 conference at the last world conference held in Vienna in 2008. However due to logistical problems the Executive Board of ILGA and the Brazilian organizers agreed on moving the conference location from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo.

The Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles has become the latest country to ratify the pact establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is tasked with trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Seychelles ratified the 1998 Rome Statute yesterday, which means it will enter into force for that country on 1 November, according to a press release issued by the court in The Hague, the Dutch city where it is headquartered

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has been told by his party chairman that he has the right to contest the upcoming January primaries. Okwesilieze Nwodo of the ruling People's Democratic Party however stopped short of giving the president his full backing

The Kennedy Road shack settlement burnt once again at about 10 pm on Sunday, 08 August 2010 - two hours before women’s day. As of today thousands of residents in Kennedy are homeless in this cold winter weather. If the municipality had given them houses or provided them with basic services, such as electricity, refuse collection, road access and water they would have been safe from fire.

The International Council of the World Social Forum and the African Social Forum and the Senegalese Organizing Committee launch a public consultation until September 10th to finalize the thematic axes of the centralized edition of the WSF, to be held in Dakar, Senegal, on February 06-11 2011. This methodological proposal was defined after Mumbai (Maharashtra, India), five years ago.

Zimbabwe's government netted around $71 million from a major sell-off of rough diamonds from its controversial Chiadzwa diamond fields, the country's mining minister has said. On Wednesday, Zimbabwe resumed full-scale diamond exports by auctioning close to 1 million carats to international buyers at Harare airport.

Angolan lawyer Suzana Antonio da Conceiçao Nicolau Ingles, was unanimously elected by the National Assembly as the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (CNE). She was elected during the third extraordinary session of the National Assembly, led by speaker Antonio Paulo Kassoma.

An estimated 5,000 refugees troop into the country every month, according to the United Nations. Most of them find their way through the porous Kenya-Somalia border (4,000) to cap the number of foreigners seeking asylum in Kenya at 400,000. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that a contingency plan had already been put in place in case the situation in Somalia worsened.

French officials have condemned a senior soldier who was filmed threatening a Togolese journalist. In a video released on YouTube, Lt Col Romuald Letondot is shown ordering the journalist to delete images from his camera during a protest in Lome.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has just released a document on the media for its National General Council (NGC) meeting, scheduled for September. The document, entitled 'Media transformation, ownership and diversity', claims to build on a resolution adopted at the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference, as well as a me

By the time Thandi Khumalo* brought her seven-month-old daughter to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, help came too late. The infant had developed acute diarrhoea and kwashiorkor, a condition caused by severe protein and calorie deficiency, and died a few days after being admitted.

Giant hydroelectric dams being built or planned in remote areas of Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Peru and Guyana will devastate tribal communities by forcing people off their land or destroying hunting and fishing grounds, according to a report by Survival International. The first global assessment of the impact of the dams on tribes suggests more than 300,000 indigenous people could be pushed towards economic ruin and, in the case of some isolated Brazilian groups, to extinction.