It’s a busy day as usual in the city-centre, with everyone moving about their daily business. Looking around, it seems that you will mostly find women and girls sitting by the roadside selling fruits and vegetables, while men are operating bigger businesses, like construction. Male directors are moving up and down their construction sites to make sure work is at its best. Meanwhile, women dust their wares, waiting for passersby to purchase, so that at least they are able to put food on the table by the close of day.

It is projected that if the economy does not improve within the next two years, more than half a million mineworkers in the region will lose their jobs. It is estimated that more than 25% of mineworkers are HIV positive. Only two countries reviewed in the study have sufficient reserves to deal with a long-term recession.

Diplomats from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are mediating in the talks, the latest in a series the regional group has brokered to find a durable solution to Zimbabwe's long-running political instability. Tsvangirai, accusing Mugabe of violating a power-sharing agreement they signed last year, partially pulled out from government some two weeks ago, sparking the latest political crisis.

The detained Campaign Manager of Gambia's main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Femi Peters, appeared before Banjul Magistrates' Court charged with "organising an unlawful assembly". According to sources, Mr. Peters refused to enter into a plea when the charges were read out to him in court on Monday in the absence of a lawyer.

An investigation by the government in Liberia has concluded that the Firestone Rubber Plantation Company has polluted local water sources. The three-month investigation found that a plant south-east of the capital Monrovia was responsible for high levels of orthophosphate in creeks.

An in-depth investigation into the September 28, 2009 killings and rapes at a peaceful rally in Conakry, Guinea, has uncovered new evidence that the massacre and widespread sexual violence were organized and were committed largely by the elite Presidential Guard, commonly known as the “red berets,” Human Rights Watch has said.

Women's football is being used in Zimbabwe to confront the stigma associated with HIV and Aids. A total of 16 women's teams now take part in competitions for players who have openly declared that they are HIV positive. But despite the courage of the women involved, there has been much resistance.

The Security Council has extended the sanctions imposed on Côte d’Ivoire, warning that the situation in the divided West African nation continues to pose a threat to international peace and security for the region. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member Council voted to maintain for another year an arms embargo, restrictions for certain individuals on travel and financial movements, and the ban on any State importing rough diamonds from Côte d’Ivoire.

India has offered Democratic Republic of Congo $263 million in loans to build hydroelectric plants and repair battered infrastructure in the war-ravaged central African nation, Congo's foreign minister said on Friday.

Vuyiseka Dubula, general secretary of the will be speaking on ‘HIV/AIDS: The struggle for human rights and dignity in South Africa’ on 4 November 2009 in Oxford, England, at an event hosted by Ruskin College and Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice.

The International Council on Human Rights Policy has released a new report, When Legal Worlds Overlap: Human Rights, State and Non-State Law. This report highlights human rights impacts and dilemmas associated with plural state and non-state laws, such as family laws based on religion, customary justice practices and Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. Drawing on examples of such plural legal orders from around the world, it proposes principles and a framework to guide human rights practitioners and policy-makers.

With the click of a mouse, students at Canadian universities find information quickly and download what they need at high speeds. They could not imagine doing research without using the Internet to supplement material from their university library.But it’s a different story in most parts of Africa, where limited library collections make access to the Internet even more critical for research, yet that access is harder to come by.

Gender Links is commissioning submissions that will be used as part of activities for 16 Days of Activism 2009. Commissioned pieces may be used in a booklet to be launched on Human Rights Day entitled “World Cup 2010: Problems and Possibilities" and/ or distributed to mainstream media and through the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.

The conference on contractual teachers, called Bamako +5, ended in the Malian capital, Bamako, with an appeal to African governments to mobilize more resources to ensure a better quality of their education systems and the training of contractual teachersThe conference in a declaration called on African governments to initiate political dialogue between stakeholders of their educational systems in order to find ways and means to build leadership in schools. They should also allocate at least 20% of their national budgets to education.

The Constitutional Court in Tunisia has validated the results of Sunday's presidential election, won by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali with more than 86.62% of the votes, official sources said. The 73-year-old Ben Ali, who was the candidate of the ruling party in power for 22 years, beat three opposition candidates to win his fifth, consecutive five-year term, which should be his last, since the constitution prescribes 75 years as the maximum age for presidential candidates.

Germany has granted 23 million euros to the Organization coordinating the fight against Endemics in Central Africa (OCEAC) as part of its project for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Central Africa. An agreement to this effect signed Monday in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, by a representative of the German Development Bank (KFW), Hubert Eisele, and the Secretary-General of OCEAC, Dr. Jean Jacques Moka.

Kenya is to carry out a census of its gay population in an effort to bolster the fight against HIV/Aids - despite homosexuality being against the law. Nicholas Muraguri, head of Kenya's Aids prevention programme Nascop, told the BBC it was vital that the government reached out to the gay community.

What are the key strategies for closing the gender gap in agricultural production? This paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute reviews attempts to increase poor female farmers’ access to, and control of, productive resources in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say locals.

The total number of people forced from their homes in the past six months by persistent violent conflict in Central and Eastern Africa has topped 1 million, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. According to the data compiled by OCHA’s regional office, the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the region has now passed the 10 million mark.