Researchers on Northern Kenya severely contest the Cultural Survival Report to the UN Human Rights Council on the Samburu: The truth will only be known by an Independent Investigation into the Violence in Northern Kenya, says watchdog Mars Group Kenya.

The ruling Swapo has taken a comfortable lead as results of last weekend's national elections continued to trickle in. Also, the opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) is fast emerging as the new official opposition.

The ICC Prosecutor has issued a notice by which he informs victims of alleged crimes committed in Kenya during the post-election violence of 2007-2008 that he will request authorization from Pre-trial Chamber II to open an investigation into such alleged crimes, in accordance with Article 15(3) of the Rome Statute and Rule 50 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

Jacob Zuma, the President of Africa’s most powerful democracy since April 2009, and the recently chosen ‘African President of the Year’ (Sapa 2009), arouses strong passions from his supporters and detractors. A longtime ANC official from a humble peasant background in what is now Kwazulu-Natal province, Zuma was picked by the ANC to be the country’s deputy president under Thabo Mbeki in 1999.

HIV/AIDS remains a major health and development challenge in Africa. According to the 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update by the UNAIDS and World Health Organization, 22.4 million Africans live with HIV/AIDS. At least 1.9 million Africans contracted HIV in 2008 and 1.4 million died of AIDS in the same year. Every day in Africa, about 5200 Africans contract HIV and at least 3800 Africans die of AIDS.

Ekklesia is calling on on Christians around the world, and particularly Christian leaders, to oppose the extreme and violent “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” proposed in Uganda by signing this . Ekklesia calls on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to end his silence on the matter, to condemn the bill in public and to urge Ugandan Christians to oppose it.

A new report entitled: Public Broadcast Services in Africa Series has urged the government of Zimbabwe to commit to media reforms. Citing the highly controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which established the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Commission, a body that has immense power to make or break all media in the country; the report, launched in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, urges the government to place top priority in ensuring that: ‘Laws inhibiting the free operations of the media are repealed without delay.’

In Mali the government has approved long-term leases for outside investors to develop more than 160,000 hectares of land. Government officials say the country could not develop its cultivable land otherwise, but local farmers say they fear being pushed out.

The South African government has announced that it will provide treatment for all HIV-positive babies in a significant policy shift for the country which has been ravaged by the pandemic.

The Ivorian National Press Council (CNP) has banned the publication of opinion polls conducted on presidential candidates for the forthcoming election. "Within the framework of the electoral process, the National Press Council informs the media that in accordance with Article 39 of Ruling Né 2008-133 of 14 April 2008 on adjustments to the electoral code for out of crisis elections, it is prohibited to publish or issue estimates of vote or conduct polls of any kind, from any place, based on the provisional electoral roll,' a statement from the Press Council said.

A new report by the UN has said almost a quarter of the global population, or 1.5 billion people, live without electricity, and that 80 per cent of those people live in the least developed countries (LDCs) of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Zimbabwe’s three governing parties have suspended until Saturday their negotiations on outstanding issues impeding the work of the unity government after three days of marathon meetings.

Professor Ben Cousins of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at UWC has been awarded the South African Research Chair in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (funded by the Department of Science and Technology and administered by the National Research Foundation.) This will allow him to support and supervise a number of post-doctoral fellows and masters and doctoral students, who will undertake field research in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces. Applications are invited for these positions.

HIV prevention efforts - and the promise of antiretroviral therapy as prevention - are being undermined by punitive laws targeting those infected with and at risk of HIV, Human Rights Watch has said on the eve of World AIDS Day.

With a whopping credit facility of $200 million (N25.2 billion), World Bank Assisted Improvement projects in Lagos State have reportedly not lived up to expectations. Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) supervised and executed most of the projects under the World Bank-Assisted Road Improvement Scheme, towards the end of the administration of former Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, between 2006 and 2007.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has lauded a new report which outlines steps to be taken by Africa and its development partners to help lift millions of people across the continent out of poverty.

Somali gunmen have released two foreign journalists who were held for 14 months in the capital city of Mogadishu of war-torn Somalia. Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan and Canadian freelance reporter Amanda Lindhout were abducted in Mogadishu in August 2008 while they were visiting a refugee camp outside of the capital.

Increasing access to antiretroviral therapy is starting to have a major impact on the global AIDS epidemic, according to a report released by UNAIDS and WHO. Prevention is also having an impact on new infections, although some of the decline in new infections is due to the natural course of the epidemic.

A tree introduced to Kenya to combat desertification has itself become a problem, invading farmland and damaging farmers' livelihoods. Prosopsis juliflora, known as the 'devil tree' in some areas, was introduced from Latin America to semi-arid districts of Kenya by nongovernmental organisations in the 1980s.

Our movement is under serious attack in Durban. Our comrades in Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban have been attacked and had their homes destroyed by an armed ANC militia supported by the local police and politicians. We will be holding a protest against state repression at New Road, Maccassar Village, from 11:00 on Saturday 28 November 2009.