The World Bank should ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment are rigorously protected before funding a power transmission line connecting Kenya to a controversial dam in Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. The World Bank's board of directors was scheduled to meet on 12 July to consider the project. The World Bank project has the important goal of improving electrical service to people in Kenya, where more than 80 per cent of the population does not have access to electricity. However, the bank has been unwilling to apply the institution's social and environmental safeguard policies.

The economic and social prosperity of 130 million people in the East African region - minus those of Burundi - would be affected by how four countries, namely Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, implement their combined $34 billion budget. The three main East African economies raised their spending plans for the 2012/13 fiscal year to fund key infrastructure sectors, but analysts faulted their Finance ministers' sunny dispositions on growth outlook and borrowing proposals. Officials in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania face the challenge of maintaining their recent economic growth rates - among the fastest in Africa - amid global economic uncertainties as well as high inflation and weak currencies at home.

GSec (Grey Security), a hacking crew associated with the international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, is claiming responsibility for hacking and defacing multiple Ugandan websites, including websites belonging to the Ugandan parliament, PayUganda.com, and pepsi-cola.co.ug. The Anonymous hacktivists claim they have access to Uganda’s official Bank, official news websites, and department of defence.

Members of the African Union Peace and Security Council meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Saturday warned the Islamists, including al-Qaida, are intent on creating a new sanctuary for their activities. AU Chairman Jean Ping called the situation one of the 'most serious crises to confront the continent'. And AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra said 'the strengthening of the grip of armed terrorist and criminal groups in the area' also poses a serious threat to international peace.

Doctors working in Tanzania government hospitals are leaving the country for greener pastures in other African countries after the government terminated their services over a strike. The Tanzania Medical Association says the exodus of medical specialists has peaked over the past week in response to what the professionals see as the arrogance and vindictiveness of senior state officials.

In a decision outraging campaigners for food sovereignty and agroecological approaches, the Gates Foundation has awarded a $10 million grant to develop genetically modified (GM) crops for use in sub-Saharan Africa. The grant is for the John Innes Centre in Norwich, which hopes to engineer seeds for corn, wheat and rice that will fix nitrogen (take nitrogen from the air) so that the crops would not need fertilizers. But GM Freeze, which campaigns against GM food, crops and patents, says that 'nitrogen fixing wheat and other cereals have been promised by the GM industry for several decades' and that other, non-GM methods are the solution. Pete Riley, campaign director GM Freeze, adds that 'GM is failing to deliver'.

A new supply of African blood diamonds is threatening to entrench the rule of Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe, just as Britain and other European countries plan to lift sanctions against the regime, it has been claimed. Human rights charity Global Witness says money is being siphoned from diamond mines to finance a 'parallel government' and its secret police force in Zimbabwe, helped by a Chinese businessman. It comes as a row brews over plans to lift travel restrictions and partial asset freezes imposed on some of President Mugabe's ministers by the EU.

Over 500 foreign nationals have been displaced in xenophobic attacks in Botshabelo in the Free State, the SA Red Cross Society (Sarcs) said. The Red Cross said it was currently supporting 584 displaced foreigners at the community hall, providing food, blankets and other aid. 'Sarcs is pleading with the public, businesses and corporates to assist with clothes, school uniforms, toiletries and food to help the victims.'

Gay rights activists have opened Uganda's first clinic for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in the capital, Kampala, where it will provide testing, counselling and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. But Richard Nduhura, Uganda's Minister for Health (General Duties), told IRIN/PlusNews the clinic was unnecessary because despite the government's anti-gay stance, 'We don't discriminate and marginalize when it comes to offering health services. When people come for treatment at our health facilities, we can't ask for their sexual orientation.'

African governments have been urged to improve their investment on health. According to the Coordinator of the Africa Public Health Alliance 15 per cent Plus Campaign, Rotimi Sankore; health budget in Africa is lower than that of other continent. 'The gap in health investment between industrialised and developing countries is currently too wide. Average percentage allocation of budget to health in Africa region is only 9.6 percent – but a much higher 16.9 percent in America; 14.6 percent in Europe; and 14.4 percent in Western Pacific,' Sankore explained.

What is the relationship between economic development and rights violations? What limits are there on the international community and on the use of force in serious human rights crises? How do we reconcile the need for understanding and the urgency of action? What is the real impact of technology on the enforcement of rights? These four questions, which figure prominently on the agenda of human rights organizations from the Global South, constitute the themes of the debates and exchanges of ideas at the 12th International Human Rights Colloquium – Innovation in Human Rights: Rethinking Agendas and Strategies in the Global South.

The July edition of the Art for Humanity newsletter is available. The edition includes news on 'Dialogue Among Civilizations', 'Artwork by Amodou Kane-Sy and Poem by Marouba Fall', 'Youth Day 2012' and 'Art and Social Justice Workshops'. Click .

The independent trade unions that have sprung up across Egypt over the last 17 months face an uncertain future, caught between Islamists and the military and operating under labour laws that have not changed since Hosni Mubarak was in power. 'The government and business owners don’t want to respond to workers’ demands or give them rights, so they are opposed to seeing workers establish independent syndicates,' says Kamal Abu Eita, a leader of the independent union movement.

A prominent Ethiopian journalist and blogger has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for violating the country's anti-terrorism legislation. Eskinder Nega and 23 others were found guilty last month. They were accused of links with US-based opposition group Ginbot Seven, which Ethiopia considers a terrorist organisation. Opposition activist Andualem Arage was given a life sentence by the court in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Armed, masked assailants abducted and beat a veteran journalist in Mali on Thursday, leaving him with a broken hand and other injuries, according to news reports and local journalists. Eight gunmen stormed the offices of L'Indépendant newspaper in the capital, Bamako, at about 9pm, firing in the air to disperse staff and bystanders, and then seizing publisher Saouti Labass Haïdara and taking him away in a 4-by-4 vehicle, news reports said. Haïdara, dumped by a roadside four hours later, was treated at a hospital in Bamako, local journalists said.

Darfuri refugees in Chad continue to depend almost entirely on humanitarian assistance for their basic needs, notes a June 2011 report by the US Cultural Orientation Centre. Access to arable land remains generally non-existent for these refugees, says ACT Alliance, an alliance of 125 churches and related organizations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development.

A Ghanaian NGO called Abantu for Development has teamed up with the country’s Department of Women to draft a political affirmative action law to open the doors for women. 'If we do not put in place special temporary measures, women will never make it into public office,' said Hilary Gbedemah, a lawyer and the rector of the Law Institute in Accra who has worked on the draft legislation.

A Liberian parliamentary delegation on security says it was told of the presence of rebel training bases in Grand Gedeh County, near the border with Cote d’Ivoire. The disclosure is contained in a report by the legislators to the House of Representatives. And it comes at a time when Ivorian authorities have been warning that disgruntled supporters of ousted president Laurent Gbagbo could be regrouping across the border in Liberia to wage war against the government of Alassane Ouattara.

Saudi Arabia has a major problem with water scarcity and only 1% of its land is suitable for agriculture. 'Saudi investors have reportedly planned or concluded investments covering 800,000 hectares of land in Africa (accounting for almost 70% of all large deals struck by Saudi firms globally),' says Standard Bank in a recent report.

The highest court in Egypt has overturned a decree by President Mohammed Mursi to recall parliament. Mr Mursi had issued the decree in defiance of a military council ruling that dissolved parliament. Members of parliament gathered for a brief session earlier in the day before the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court was announced. Thousands have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against the court's latest decision.