The United Nations has launched its first compilation of the best practices for its peacekeepers and other workers to prevent, deter and respond to the use of rape as a war tactic. The booklet, titled: "Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence - An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice", was launched at the UN headquarters in New York, US.

At least 220 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo when an overturned oil tanker exploded and set fire to parts of a village. Scores more were injured in the accident in Sange, near the border with Burundi. Some of those who died were trying to collect leaking fuel, but others were trapped inside buildings, including a cinema, by the fire.

Sudan has released Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi. Mr Turabi has spent a month and a half in detention after authorities arrested him in May and closed his party's newspaper. His wife alleged he had been apprehended after he repeated an allegation that the country's elections had been rigged.

Around 170,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Chad and living in 38 camps in mid-2010, as a result of internal armed conflict, inter-ethnic violence over land and natural resources, and attacks by bandits against civilians. The majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) had little or no means of sustaining themselves, making humanitarian assistance vital. Chad also hosts 270,000 Sudanese refugees in 12 camps along the eastern border with Sudan, and 81,000 Central African refugees in 11 camps along the southern border with CAR.

38 countries still criminalize same-sex relationships between consenting adults in Africa, four with death penalty. The map was launched together with the 4th edition of the State-Sponsored Homophobia published by ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The report is a collection of legislation criminalising consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private over the age of consent*. Maps are available in French, English, Portuguese and Spanish.

The United Nations envoy dealing with Western Sahara is holding consultations in the capitals of the nations comprising the so-called Group of Friends, a diplomatic cluster working to help resolve the dispute over the territory. Christopher Ross, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, started his latest trip on 21 June, and has so far visited London, Paris and Madrid. He is scheduled to visit Washington and Moscow at a later date.

President Jacob Zuma has declared that African leaders aimed to deliver on their commitments to allocate 15% of their budgets to health care and to allocate an amount for maternal, newborn and child health care.

Squealing with delight, young Elvis rushes off to greet his mother as she wends her way towards the family's hut in north-eastern Botswana's Dukwi refugee camp. The Zimbabwean infant, aged almost three, is a picture of health. But one year ago, carrying the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), he was near death's door. Elvis could barely sit up. His body was wracked with opportunistic infections, including tuberculosis, and he was constantly in hospital for treatment.

The food crisis in Niger is deteriorating faster than expected and could cost the lives of a generation, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) said. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the organisation, said the brains and bodies of children under five will be damaged for life if they don't have adequate nutrition. The drought-stricken Sahel region in West Africa - encompassing Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Mali - is facing dwindling food supplies and high prices at market.

In the newly opened red brick Lubango health clinic, a long line of Angolans wait their turn to see one of the two Cuban doctors working here. The doctors were assigned to provide health care to some 30,000 people in the southern province of Huila. The Lubango clinic is one of several that have recently opened across Angola. The clinics are symbols of hope for a country once plagued by one of the world’s longest civil wars, which ended in 2002 and left a severely damaged health-care system in its wake.

The candidate of the Union for democratic forces in Guinea (UFDG), Cellou Dalein Diallo, who won 39.72% of the votes, and Alpha Conde, of the Rally for Guinean people (RPG), who got 20.67%, will compete for the secon d round of the Guinea presidential election, the country's National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) ruled. Announcing the result of the 27 June elections, CENI said the leader of the Union for Republican forces (UFR), Sidya Toure, came third with 15.60%, followed by Lansana Kouyate, of the party for hope and national development (PEDN), with 7.75 %.

Amnesty International calls on the government of Zimbabwe to immediately and unconditionally release detained human rights defender, Farai Maguwu. He has been in custody since 3 June 2010, when he presented himself to the police and was arrested on allegations of “publishing or communication false information prejudicial to the state.” A Harare Magistrate denied Maguwu bail following state submissions that more time was needed to continue with investigations. Maguwu’s bail application was repeatedly postponed before being heard by the court.

A court in South Africa has found the country's former chief of police Jackie Selebi guilty of corruption. Selebi, also a former president of Interpol, was accused of having links to organised crime and accepting bribes worth 1.2m rand ($156,000, £103,000). But the court found him not guilty of perverting the course of justice. Selebi had denied both charges.

The UN is to set up a single agency dedicated to promote the rights of women and girls around the world. The UN General Assembly voted in favour of the body after four years of negotiations. The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women will be referred to as UN Women, officials said.

Drive a few hours north-east of Khartoum towards Kassala, near the Sudanese border with Eritrea, and you will come across one of the UN refugee agency's most striking achievements in the region – acre after acre of trees, stretching into the distance. UNHCR has planted more than 19 million of them in a programme, launched a quarter-of-a-century ago, to green the denuded landscape of eastern Sudan. Species of acacia, neem, eucalyptus and many others, now cover almost 28,400 hectares of once barren land.

The MSMGF is pleased to announce the launch of our newest policy brief, HIV Prevention with MSM: Balancing Evidence with Rights-based Principles of Practice. This document details the current context for the development and implementation of HIV prevention efforts targeting MSM, provides an overview of available MSM-specific HIV prevention strategies, and offers a look at recent guidelines from global health institutions. Recommendations emphasize the importance of respecting the role of MSM in efforts to determine research, policy, and program priorities, as well as other core principles of practice that are often overlooked in policy discussions.

Although the flow of Somali refugees into neighbouring countries has weakened, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today cautioned that the Horn of Africa nation’s security and humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. Compared to last year, the number of Somalis arriving in Kenya and Yemen – the two countries which have received the greatest number of Somali refugees – are down sharply.

The average American waits less than a second for Google to respond to a search query. In most of Africa, it takes three seconds to do the same thing. This two-second difference may not seem a drastic, but such a delay typifies the gap between Internet use in Africa and other parts of the world. Despite slow connection speed, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates the number of internet users in Africa has grown an astounding 1,809.8 percent in the past decade; this is almost three times the combined rate of the rest of the world. Despite this increase, only 3.9 percent of Africa's population uses the Internet.

Madagascan female activists are asking that the right of women to participate directly in politics be included in a new draft of the country’s Constitution, so that there can be 30 percent of female politicians in parliament by 2012 and 50 percent by 2015.

Agathon Rwasa, the leader of Burundi's main opposition party, has said he has gone into hiding after learning that the government wanted to arrest him on charges that he planned to mount a new insurgency. In a tape recording sent to media agencies on Wednesday, Rwasa, a former rebel leader, said that he had also been threatened for rejecting the results of last month's district elections.