As the world marks World Water Day, the Gana and Gwi Bushmen of Botswana are marking eight years without access to a regular supply of water in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Attacks on rebels by government troops and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia kill and injure many civilians and should be much more discriminate, human rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. Islamist rebels have been fighting the Horn of Africa state's fragile government since the start of 2007. African Union's (AU) force AMISOM is supporting the U.N.-backed administration, which controls just parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Google Code Jam is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you program in the coding language and development environment of your choice.

Countries across the globe have been challenged to better manage and conserve the forests in their areas as one of the commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to a comprehensive forest review released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the rate of deforestation has slowed over the last 10 years, but each year an area roughly the size of Costa Rica is still destroyed.

In this week's roundup of emerging actors news, CNN pioneers its Africa business programme Market Place Africa, China-Nigeria trade ties continue to strengthen, 60 Indian firms express interest in Zambia for investing, and BRICs unlikely to push for a new global reserve currency.

Male circumcision modestly reduces the risk of an HIV-positive man transmitting HIV to a female sex partner, an analysis of the Partners in Prevention study published in the journal AIDS suggests. The risk of contracting HIV was 40% lower for the partners of circumcised men than uncircumcised men, but this reduction in risk was not statistically significant.

African cotton-producing countries hope that Brazil’s intended retaliation after its success at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement body will have a positive spin-off for them but seem reticent about pursuing a similar course of action against the U.S. for its continued use of subsidies in cotton production.

Reporters Without Borders is baffled by the fact that Albert Yangari, the publisher and editor of the newspaper L’Union, and Jonas Moulenda, one of his reporters, have been summoned three times in connection with a libel suit brought by Alfred Nguia Banda, the former director-general of the Gabonese Shippers Council (CGC), which oversees maritime traffic in Gabon.

Poor governance and management are jeopardising efforts to provide quality basic education in seven African countries according to a new report published today by Transparency International (TI).

Up to 11,000 students from various schools in Msambweni and Kwale districts on Kenya's coast have been forced to go home before the Easter holidays after an outbreak of cholera in the region. Bridgide Wambua, the Msambweni District Education Officer, told IRIN the department decided to close down the schools to prevent more students from contracting cholera and other waterborne ailments that had also been reported.

Today, China is indeed a world power in every sense of the word and it is unimaginable that up till now, the country is still being referred to as an emerging economic power. China seems not bothered about the appellation out of conviction that if she continues with her developmental efforts and gets more countries, especially those in the third world, to come along with her in terms of patronage; she too would continue to be a force to reckon wit

HIV prevalence among Tanzanians who attended secondary school fell sharply between 2004 and 2008, while remaining stable among the country's least educated people, a new study has revealed. "National HIV prevalence has fallen recently in Tanzania. However, the improvements have not been spread evenly throughout the population," James Hargreaves, senior lecturer in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and lead author of the study, said.

With a request for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a new coalfired power plant, South African political leaders seem determined to entrench a policy on climate change that disregards clear evidence of catastrophic consequences, echoing the earlier disastrous policies of former President Thabo Mbeki on AIDS. But opposition is mounting to the current plan, which would consolidate South Africa's Eskom as the continent's leading producer of greenhouse gases.

China will flesh out the details of its joint research programme with Africa at a meeting in Beijing next week. The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which includes 49 African countries, plans to implement several large-scale science and technology projects across Africa in the next three years

Major corruption loopholes are jeopardising Egypt’s attempts to combat the problem despite the existence of a broad range of anti-corruption laws and regulations, according to a new report released today by Transparency International (TI).

Thick dust clouds obscure the horizon as the convoy of UN military observers sets off to patrol the oil-rich, yet desperately underdeveloped Unity State in Southern Sudan. In these borderlands, monitoring a 2005 deal that halted decades of war between north and south is a major undertaking.

For a number of years now, particularly in the period of globalisation, trade unions have been faced with major challenges which call for strategic responses. These challenges include building trade union internationalism in the period of mobile capital, assessing relations with left political parties as these have been dragged towards the political centre, tensions between collective bargaining and defensive struggles and strategic, revolutionary unionism and so on. This, the first of a new series of Annual Conferences, hosted by ILRIG and other partners, is an opportunities for activists and analysts - trade unionists as well as those involved in social movement campaigns - in South Africa to debate experiences of organising in South Africa, and elsewhere, whilst hearing of other forms of trade unionism in South Africa and elsewhere.

Dozens of families on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital of Mali, are under threat of being evicted from their lands by the Government in favour of a housing project. The cultivation ban, ordered in July 2009, jeopardizes their right to adequate food. Moreover, if the eviction is realized, it will hinder the ability of the families to feed themselves in the long run.

Commemorating Freedom Day on 27 April, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) will be hosting a “Freedom for all Rally” at the Eudy Simelane Memorial Park (Kwa – Thema), celebrating constitutional freedoms by remembering all victims of hate crimes and demanding full liberation in South Africa.

As technological obstacles to the efficient use of solar energy diminish, economic and political challenges remain to its widespread adoption by the poor. "The sun occupies centre stage, as it should, being literally the original source of all energy," said India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, describing an action plan for India's national strategy on climate change, in June 2008.