The United Nations refugee chief has appealed to Spain and Morocco to consider any measure to pave the way for the movement of a Saharawi activist who started a hunger strike last month and whose condition is rapidly deteriorating.

Talks to resolve outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement will continue over the weekend, amid reports the government will make an ‘important announcement’ next week. Speculation is rife in Harare that the principals might have agreed on the final composition of candidates to sit on the various commissions meant to reshape and democratize the country’s political arena.

Africa faces two linked problems that are holding back the extension of mobile services into a wider range of rural areas: diesel supplies are sometimes unpredictable and prices are high. For the first time mobile operators in Uganda this week sought to address the power problem by forming a consortium.

Blind women, long marginalised in Arab society, should be allowed to rise from the role of mere workers to become dynamic leaders, according to local and international activists who convened in Tunis this week.

COPA will for the period 15th to 25th February 2010 hold 10 day peace building training in Nairobi for peace and development practitioners from from Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. The training is ideal for persons wishing to build their skills in different thematic areas related to peace matters.

The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy is announcing a call for paper proposals for its upcoming conference, U.S. Engagement with the Muslim World: One year after Cairo. The deadline for submitting paper proposals is December 10, 2009.

As African countries attract foreign investors looking to rent agricultural land, a group of civil societies who met in Addis Ababa has called on African leaders to reject what they call the “corporate takeover of African land for food production”.

A24MEDIA has scaled the heights in its pursuit to give voice to Africa by letting Africans tell their own stories, their own way. In this end-year roundup, A24MEDIA presents East and Horn of Africa’s most viewed stories in the A24 Media’s online portal. The list however casts an apparently real but unfortunate situation that; even Africans prefer the so-called negative stories.

As the Oromo Liberation Front has repeatedly stressed, the current Ethiopian regime has, since it came to power in 1991, dispossessed, displaced, and disenfranchised tens of thousands of the Oromo people. TPLF’s policies of dispossession and marginalization of the Oromo nation have remained at the root of today’s underdevelopment and the spectacle of mass starvation that has been witnessed throughout Oromia in recent years.

In his Kenya diary, Guardian journalist Xan Rice reports on how a decision by the prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to investigate the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya threatens the corrupt elite.

The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund is pleased to announce a call for applications for the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF). Fellowships support temporary academic positions at safe universities and colleges anywhere in the world for threatened academics whose lives and work are in danger in their home countries. Applications are due January 15 2009.

Construction is cleared to begin on the SIDAREC-Mukuru Kwa Njenga Center, giving the expectant community a powerful tool to end the cycle of poverty. The community center, designed for Slums Information Development Resource Center (SIDAREC) and the needs of Nairobi youth, will give Mukuru residents access to the Internet, computer and technology training, health clinic services, early childhood development programs, and a community theater.

On 18 November 2009 Jan Egeland gave the tenth annual Harrell-Bond lecture. Mr Egeland is the former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and currently director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. The lecture was entitled 'Beyond Blankets: in search of political deals and durable solutions for the displaced.'

Men and women with disabilities face many challenges in Southern Africa, especially related to discrimination and access to services. For many women, this also means that they face challenges when accessing health care services at one of the times when it is most important – when they are pregnant.

Burundi's government should immediately reverse a new policy of deporting Rwandan asylum seekers without considering their cases, Human Rights Watch has said.

The academic and administrative staff of the University of the Witwatersrand have organised a to express their disgust and opposition to the retrenchment of cleaning staff from the University in its aim to cut spending.

For the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, at CHOGM in Trinidad & Tobago, there was significant representation of GLBTQ (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/queer) activists among civil society participants, and a concerted effort to highlight issues of sexual citizenship and rights.

On Saturday 5 December the Abahlali Solidarity Campaign will be holding an info stall and leafletting at Trafalgar Square by the South African embassy in London to raise awareness of the state repression and violence that the movement is currently facing. This is a joint action with the Landless Peoples Movement, AntiPrivatisation Forum, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front solidarity march in Joburg at the same time. As it also coincides with the COP demo, we anticipate a lot of people there. Come down on the day. .

War on Want is a dynamic organisation working in partnership with people across the developing world. War on Want’s International Programmes Department works to change people’s lives in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. We are seeking two programme officers with extensive practical experience in international development programmes, one to lead our Informal Economy programme and the other our Conflict Zones programme.

'The proof of the pudding is in the eating'. Meaning that for Kenyans to fully test something they need to experience it themselves. We have seen Parliament boycott the debating chamber whenever the Special Tribunal Bill came up for debate. Now Kenyans are experiencing the bitter taste of Impunity.