In recent weeks, the U.N. has bolstered a groundbreaking, but largely symbolic, resolution passed in 2000 that identified women's rights and roles during war. Recent public rapes in Guinea now pose a crucial test of their strength

Armed villagers have killed at least 47 policemen who were trying to intervene in ethnic clashes in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo, reports say. A number of civilians were also killed in the violence which erupted in the village of Dongo in Equateur province early on Thursday, the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi said, citing local officials.

Whatever else it is, information and communications technologies (ICTs) policy-making can often be symbolic, especially in poor countries. The vision is one of social upliftment, and a new golden age of possibilities brought on by technological roll-out. Sometimes these promises can feel like fantasy in contrast to the real spadework of laying cables, orbiting satellites, and securing billion-dollar investment deals that don’t exploit the poor.

The International Budget Partnership has released “It's Our Money. Where's It Gone?”—a new documentary film on the work one of its partners, MUHURI (Muslims for Human Rights), is doing to involve communities directly in monitoring the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Mombasa, Kenya. The CDF allocates approximately one million dollars annually to each member of parliament to spend on development projects in his or her constituency but provides for no meaningful independent oversight. This is the story of ordinary Kenyans stepping in to do something about it.

Tanzania Telecommunication Company Ltd customers will from this month enjoy a 50 per cent cut in Internet charges, making Tanzania the first East African country to lower Internet charges. TTCL chief executive officer Said Amour Said, told The EastAfrican that the lowering of charges follows the firm's connecting to the Seacom submarine fibre optic cable.

Nurses in Rwanda and Lesotho are successfully prescribing antiretroviral drugs and managing HIV treatment, two studies published this month show. Both Rwanda and Lesotho face a serious shortage of doctors, and in order to increase the capacity of the health system to treat people with HIV the World Health Organization recommends "task shifting"— the delegation of many medical tasks including ARV prescription and management to nurses and clinical officers.

Morocco is developing a new strategic framework to fight poverty, which will place top priority on addressing the vulnerabilities that lead families into destitution. "There was a need to bring all governmental and non-governmental initiatives together to fight poverty, given the necessity of coordinating all activities, both in terms of financial and human resources," said Minister of Social Development Nouzha Skelli, as her office unveiled the plan on October 22nd in Rabat.

Concerns abound about a nine billion dollar Chinese investment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially around environmental consequences and transparency. And, on the Chinese side, investors complain not only about the lack of security in the DRC but about their own government not providing enough support.

On the eve of the climate change summit in Copenhagen this December, momentum for action still falls far short of that needed to avert catastrophe. Africa will suffer consequences out of all proportion to its contribution to global warming, which is primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions from wealthy countries. But Africa can also make significant contributions to mitigating (i.e. limiting) climate change, by stopping tropical deforestation and ending gas flaring from oil production.

Arkadi Gaydamak, a Russian-born Israeli businessman and Pierre Falcone, his French associate, have been sentenced to six-year jail terms for organising the illegal trafficking of weapons to Angola.

The Ugandan Clergy have appealed to the government to scrape the death penalty in the Anti-homosexuality Bill 2009 currently being debated in parliament. The clergy said the government should rather opt life imprisonment. Earlier this month, the homosexual groups expressed rage over the tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality bill, saying it was in violation of their human rights.

The Institute for Human Security (IHS) will be hosting a multi-disciplinary and multi-genre colloquium on Cultures of Violence /War and Identity on the 3-4 November 2009. The title of the event this year is "Violent Cartographies: Mapping Colonial and Postcolonial Identities and Cultures of War"- a project that seeks to "unmap" the familiar world by raising questions and employing genres of expression that interrogate dominant ways of thinking about violence/ war , identities and the spaces of their occurrence.

Election observers from southern Africa have said Botswana’s elections were in conformity with regional standards and principles. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission (SEOM) said the elections were conducted in compliance with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections adopted by SADC Member States.

Opposition parties made strong advances in legislative elections held on Sunday (October 25th), capturing an unprecedented 53 of Parliament's 214 seats. The ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) of incumbent President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali obtained an expected majority, winning 161 seats, though only capturing 31% of the popular vote. Ben Ali himself was elected to his fifth five-year term with 89.62% of the votes in the presidential election held the same day.

More than half of Ugandan girls who enrol in grade one drop out before sitting for their primary school-leaving examinations. The fact that girls are dropping out between age 11 and 13 is being linked to the beginning of the menstruation cycle and its associated challenges.

The IICD-supported Global Teenager Project (GTP) has launched a new virtual learning environment to support online classroom discussion on social issues with peers from all over the world. Founded in 1998, GTP offers collaborative global learning to over 10,000 students in 34 countries based on themes, or Learning Circles.

Reporters Without Borders has noted the release from prison of Abdoulaye Tiémogo, editor of the independent weekly Le Canard déchaîné, after his sentence was reduced on appeal. The journalist, who is in poor health, had been held in custody since 1st August. He had been found guilty of “discrediting a judicial decision”.

Fifty-seven IFEX members and other rights organisations joined the Arab Network for Human Rights (ANHRI) to condemn the recent targeting of Moroccan journalists who have been hit with lawsuits, high fines and jail sentences, threatening media diversity. Orchestrated by the monarchy, newspapers have been shut down as the government ramps up its repression of independent journalism, report IFEX members.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza appeared headed for a resounding victory in an election on Thursday that would also see his ruling Frelimo party winning parliamentary and provincial polls. Partial results showed Guebuza, seen as welcoming of greater foreign investment, taking a commanding lead over his rivals, longtime opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, and the head of a new party, Daviz Simango.

A new report on Eritrea has been commissioned by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. Contributions were also made by other NGOs, including Human Rights House Foundation. “The HR violations are extensive and systematic, and the oppression by the authorities is total”, says the president of the Oslo Center, Kjell Magne Bondevik.