SADC tribunal rulings against the seizure of farmers land in Zimbabwe should be registered, recognised and enforceable by the South African government, the High Court in Pretoria has ordered. Judge Garth Rabie ruled in favour of white farmers - represented by AfriForum - who have argued that the seizure of their land without compensation was a human rights abuse.

Ivory Coast authorities have announced a new election commission, key to ending disputes that have threatened the country's peace process. The crisis began two weeks ago, when President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the previous body, accusing it of fraud and being controlled by the opposition.

South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%. Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, unions argue. The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry said firms were already struggling to cope with the fallout of recession and slow economic recovery.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the West moved quickly to crack down on the money laundering and secret banking systems that fund much of the terrorism in the world. But as evidence in both the U.S. and Europe suggests, illicit finances continue to circulate around the globe — and quite often the money has nothing to do with violence, but plain greed.

The World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corp., won’t make new commitments in Democratic Republic of Congo until a dispute over a canceled mining contract is resolved, an IFC spokesman said. The IFC owns 7.5% of a $553 million copper and cobalt project led by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. that Congo canceled in August after a review of mining contracts. The case is now before an international arbitration court in Paris.

A three-day seminar to discuss ways to strength en cross-border co-operation for the protection of children at risk and to better regulate inter-country adoption has opened in Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation and the Hag ue Conference on Private International Law based in the Netherlands are co-hosting the seminar, which opened Tuesday.

South Africa's land reform minister said on Friday it would be impossible for the government to meet its own target of acquiring farm land to restore to blacks after it was taken from them during apartheid.

The process of drafting a new Zimbabwean constitution has been further delayed, meaning the country’s new charter is now running seven months behind schedule. A co-leader of parliament’s constitutional committee Munyaradzi- Paul Mangwana told journalists in Harare this week that Zimbabwe would not have a new constitution before February 2011 at the earliest.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced the former head of legal affairs at the Ministry of Defence to 25 years in prison. Lieut-Col Eprem Setako was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
He was convicted of ordering the killing of at least 30 people at a military camp in 1994.

Members of Niger's military junta and the interim administration it is setting up will not be allowed to run future democratic elections. Junta spokesman Abdoul Karim Goukoye reiterated that the coup leaders' priorities were to hold transparent polls and restore democracy.

The Angolan government should promptly release three human rights defenders who were arrested on apparently political grounds following the January 8, 2010 attack on Togolese footballers in Cabinda, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the continued detention without charge of five other people.

The Secretary General of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) is back in hiding this week after police raided the union’s offices on Wednesday. Gertrude Hambira fled to safety after five men and one woman, who identified themselves as officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, raided the union’s office in Harare apparently looking for her. Hambira, who wasn’t in the office at the time, is now in hiding fearing for her safety.

*The Right to Know: The Fight for Open Democracy in South Africa*

- A Short Film Showing and Discussion -

*7pm - Wednesday 3rd March*

*Room 4418 (4th Floor, SOAS Main Building)*

Nigeria's ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua has returned home after spending 92 days in Saudi Arabia, where he has been undergoing medical treatment, but no one has yet confirmed seeing him. A text message sent to the telephone handsets of several State House correspondents in Abuja in the early hours of Wednesday alerted them to the President's arrival.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged that France made mistakes during the 1994 genocide, paid homage to the victims but stopped short of apologising during his landmark visit to Kigali on Thursday. “What happened here is unacceptable, but what happened here compels the international community, including France, to reflect on the mistakes that stopped it from preventing and halting this abominable crime,” he said.

Malcolm X was assassinated 45 years ago this weekend. Earlier this year, WNYC Radio unearthed a 1960s interview between the civil rights leader and a reporter named Eleanor Fischer. On this somber anniversary, we consider Malcolm X’s legacy through the rediscovered tape, which has not been heard since the 1960s. We also speak to two people whose lives were profoundly affected by his leadership.

Sudan has freed 57 prisoners from a key Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), officials say. President Omar al-Bashir announced the releases during a speech in Darfur's capital El Fasher, and declared: "The war is over."

Renewed fighting is reported to have broken out in Darfur despite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir declaring the war in the western region was over. French aid group Medecins du Monde said it has had to suspend its operations in central Darfur's Jebel Marra.

South Africa’s children, the country’s most vulnerable population group, will benefit through the increase in social grants recently outlined in the national budget. South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan’s national budget speech on Feb. 17 has largely been met with approval by development experts for the social grant increases.

Madagascar's President Andy Rajoelina has called a meeting next week with leading opposition groups to try to resolve a year-long political crisis before the African Union imposes sanctions. While one opposition party cautiously welcomed the move, it was unclear whether Rajoelina would be able to rally enough cross-party support to strike a deal and head off the punitive measures.