January 12 at 5 p.m. local time, a powerful magnitude-7 earthquake struck in Haiti. It was centered near the capital city Port-au-Prince and has caused massive destruction. We have word that School Director Réa Dol is okay and has converted her house and the school (which suprisingly survived the quake) into a makeshift hospital and shelter . There are 30 to 40 people at her home and 60 to 70 at the school.Unfortunately, we now know that some of the teachers and students were killed.

The Tanzania government has signed a five-year livestock and fishing agreement with China that would see Chinese firms invest in aquaculture and livestock projects.

A group of 41 prominent Nigerians, led by former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, were at the National Assembly in Abuja, the Nigerian Federal capital, urging lawmakers to take immediate steps to resolve the current political and constitutional crisis created by the 59 days of absence of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua from the country on account of ill health.

The US embassy in Zimbabwe has confirmed a report in the state-run Herald newspaper that the US would not oppose the restoration of Zimbabwe's voting rights in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

A Ugandan MP who proposed introducing the death penalty for some gay people has told a newspaper he is willing to change his draft legislation. In an interview with the Daily Monitor, David Bahati said he had talked to the cabinet about the bill and was willing to "amend some clauses".

Amnesty International has called for much stricter controls for the military assistance being given to Somalia's transitional government. The human rights group says weapons are all too often being used against civilians or they end up in the hands of groups opposed to the government.

The Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) seeks a Program Assistant to provide administrative support to department members in the Nairobi office. Working under the supervision of the Program Officers, the Program Assistant will provide general administrative and programmatic support.

This workshop aims to provide an academic forum aimed at the discussion of immigration detention in liberal, democratic countries. This practice raises important questions for researchers from different fields of study: What implications does it have for understanding state power and the future governance of communities?

Herders of cows or camels in arid northern Kenya can obtain a new type of insurance against drought, the first of its kind in Africa using satellites to gauge rainfall.

At 4pm January 21, 48 law enforcement officers from the City of Cape Town invaded the city's Temporary Relocation Area, Blikkiesdorp, and removed about 60 people from the one roomed dwellings. This was done completely unlawfully without any high court eviction order, without any explanation, and even more inexplicably by the same city officials who installed the people in the first place.

Recently-appointed Minister for Public Sector Modernisation Mohammed Saâd Alami has embraced his new position by vowing to curtail corruption in Morocco. Combating corruption "requires much thought from all players, be they the government, official institutions or charitable associations," he announced at a meeting on Tuesday (January 12th), when he convened an inter-ministerial committee to oversee government actions against corrupt practices.

The South African Department of Environmental Affairs has expressed a “firm intent” to complete the country’s national climate change policy white paper by the end of 2010.

Non-medical abortions are frequent in Ghana, where abortion is illegal. Yet, as more people witness the suffering and deaths of women who've attempted unsafe abortions, more international organisations are trying to provide birth control, or to exploit legal loopholes to carry out abortions.

While lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) groups are up in arms against the alleged appointment of controversial columnist John Qwelane as South African ambassador to Uganda, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s remains ambiguous about his appointment.

When David Magang sat down to write his memoirs, he certainly could not complain that his career had left him short of material. The former Minister of Mineral Resources and Water Affairs, who has waged a protracted battle for diamond beneficiation against De Beers, had a front row seat at some of the most questionable goings on between the diamond mining giant and the Botswana government.

Because of the world economic and financial crisis, the African Development Bank (AfDB) last year more than doubled its financial commitments to Africa to US$11 as against US$5.0 billion, the chairman of the financial institution, Donald Kaberuka, has said.

More than 20 Egyptian bloggers, who were on their way to pay their respects to the families of the victims of the Coptic massacre, were arrested when their train arrived in the village of Naga Hammady in Upper Egypt. They were released shortly afterwards and they are now telling their side of the story.

A Rwandan doctor wanted on charges of genocide and war crimes has been arrested in France, police say. Sosthene Munyemana, 45, who had been working in a hospital in Bordeaux for eight years, denies the charges.

After researchers in Burkina Faso identified the best crop varieties for the Sissili region, a local organization, FEPPASI, introduced ICTs to inform farmers and explain new growing techniques. As a result, production is up to nine times greater than before.

A Ugandan preacher said on Friday he planned a “million-man” march to support an anti-gay draft law which the United Nations top human rights official called “blatantly discriminatory”.