About 3 600 security stewards - half in Durban and the rest in Cape Town - have lost their jobs at the World Cup stadiums after a wage dispute escalated. Now police have taken over the stewards' duties at the Moses Mabhida and Cape Town stadiums at the request of the Local Organising Committee, spokesman Rich Mkhondo said.

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that," former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said. Uncomfortably close to a bald statement of fact for fans of the beautiful game in Somalia, who risk their lives to watch the World Cup unfolding in South Africa. In the final weeks before the tournament kicked off on Jun. 11, demand for satellite dishes was high. But the Islamist groups that control much of the country have declared the World Cup un-Islamic, threatening dire consequences for anyone found watching.

Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) and Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) is alarmed and concerned over the recent political violence witnessed during the by elections in Mufumbwe, Zambia.

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is alarmed by allegations that Namibian and Botswana Governments as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are intent on forcibly repatriating some 1 000 Caprivian refugees from Botswana. Concerned Caprivian refugee sources anonymously informed NSHR that they had fear of an “imminent abduction” from Botswana.

An enigmatic, controversial woman returns to Israel after decades away and announces she's running for Prime Minister. She regrets the Holocaust, but after a tour of Yad Vashem, the country's main memorial to the genocide of the Jews, she can't help asking why no one bothers recalling all those good people that were killed by Jews resisting the Nazis. In fact she says not even sure whether more Germans or more Jews were murdered.

On behalf of Activists from Kisarawe, Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) and Health Equity Group (HEqG), TGNP is pleased to announce the Gender Festival which will be held in Kisarawe! The theme is Economic Justice: Making Resources Work For Marginalised Women, and will take place from the 22nd till the 24th of June 2010 at Chanzige Primary School. Please View the attached letter for more information.

Oxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR) is pleased to announce the release of Debating International Justice in Africa: OTJR Collected Essays, 2008-2010, designed to coincide with the ICC review conference in Kampala. Drawing together academic and practitioner contributors from Africa and beyond, this collection highlights the challenges that international justice has faced in addressing atrocities in Africa.

On the 13th of June 2010, the Poor People’s World Cup successfully kicked-off their first day of matches at the Avendale soccer fields, next to Athlone stadium in Cape Town. Early in the morning, the first minibuses with soccer teams arrived from all over Cape Town to play their first games in this Poor People’s tournament. Everybody was excited and the atmosphere was amazing, considering the bad weather forecasts.

Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) has issued a call for the release from detention of human rights activist, Farai Maguwu, and the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process.

The soccer World Cup began this weekend here in South Africa, with the home team playing a 1-1 draw with Mexico before 95,000 fans at Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium. Regardless of whether South Africa’s Bafana Bafana (our boys), ranked #90 in the world, can survive its next matches against France and Uruguay to advance a round, we know this society is already a big loser. The reason: egregious mistakes made by national and municipal governments, apparently under the thumb of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concluded its first review of the human rights situation in Egypt under the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. The Geneva meeting on 11 June, in which the Egyptian government pledged to implement 140 recommendations presented by other state delegations, took place only a month after the government renewed the 29 year State of Emergency for another two years, in effect suspending most civil rights throughout the country.

The Human Security Report Project (HSRP) has launched its new website. It can be accessed at . The new website, which replaces four separate sites, is easy-to-navigate and provides access to all HSRP publications, research and data, as well as the eNewletter archive. The new site delivers improved usability, additional features, and significantly more content than the previous sites.

The Labor Council has condemned the May 31st Israeli commando attack on the Gaza Aid Flotilla, which killed at least nine unarmed people and seized and detained some 700 passengers and crew. Many of these labor organizations, as well as the U.N. and Amnesty International, have also called for an independent international investigation of the attack and for a permanent opening of the Gaza border in accordance with international law.

The Second Refugee Film Festival will be held in June 17-20, 2010 at the open air Cinema in Darb 1718 for Contemporary Art and Culture in commemoration of World Refugee Day. The festival will include screenings of 11 documentary and fiction films portraying the resilience of refugees. It will also include a two-day Bazaar of Eritrean, Iraqi, Sudanese and Palestinian food and handicrafts.The festival will end on June 20th with a closing concert by talented Sudanese artists featuring Reggae, blues and folk music.

Operation Amani Leo, launched jointly by MONUC (the United Nations Mission in Congo) and FARDC (the
Congolese army) in January to regain control of mining territories in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu from rebels, while ensuring security for the local population has been extended to September. But Congolese women are arguing for changes in the conduct of military operations.

For Pambazuka readers in Tanzania and East Africa at large, Dar es Salaam's Soma Book Cafe now stocks a range of titles. Soma's details are as follows:

Soma Book Cafe
53 Mlingotini Circle, Regent Estate
Kinondoni
Dar es Salaam
TANZANIA
Tel: 00 255 022 277 2759
Website:

The Zimbabwean artist, Owen Maseko, was arrested on 26 March when his art work illustrating ‘decades of oppression and violence that have characterised Zimbabwe’ was exhibited by Radio Dialogue, the Zimbabwean community radio station. Radio Dialogue praises Maseko’s bold political statements presented on canvas.

Boubacar Diop «Buuba»

Olivier Blamangin

Asha Elkarib

Kali Akuno

, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, has been ranked second in the University of Pennsylvania's 2009 'Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings' for the sub-Saharan Africa region behind the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). The ranking was undertaken by a panel of 300 experts from around the world, across the political spectrum and from every discipline and sector to help nominate and select public policy research centres of excellence. The members of the expert panel were asked to nominate regional or global centres of excellence that they felt should be recognised for producing rigorous and relevant research, publications and programmes in one or more substantive areas of research. The index is available from www.sas.upenn.edu.

Aid to poor countries should be tailored more towards benefiting European firms, a top-level Brussels official has recommended. Andris Piebalgs, the European Union's commissioner for development, is seeking a new aid strategy that has "value for money" as an overriding priority.