A suicide bomber has driven a car full of explosives into a church in northern Nigeria, killing 12 people in the latest deadly attack on Christians. Security forces at a road block nearby said the bomber forced his car through the checkpoint and drove into the church in Yelwa, on the outskirts of the city of Bauchi, on Sunday. A Reuters reporter at the scene counted 12 bodies being pulled from the building.

Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission has summoned Ghana's investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, to testify in a landmark corruption case involving a top government official. In a joint story with Sorious Samura aired on Al- Jazeera, the award winning Ghanaian journalist shocked the nation after he exposed a criminal ring defying an existing moratorium on timber export in the country. The indicted men allegedly claimed to be representing a top government official and accepted bribe to facilitate the registration of their illegal timber export business.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Ghana to remove subsidies on energy and fuel, a move that is likely to be met with resistance as it will make the commodities more expensive. Ghana's neighbour, Nigeria at one point removed fuel subsidies but the move was met with fierce and sometimes violent resistance. The IMF advised that a public service audit and the scrapping of subsidies will generate monthly savings of about GH¢160 million, which are needed to protect more productive expenditure and allow for an expansion of well-targeted social programmes to help the most vulnerable groups to cope with the tighter cost of living.

When Redempta*, 22, fled the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) two years ago and came to Kenya, she quickly had to find a source of income to feed and house herself and her two younger siblings. But as an illegal immigrant with no knowledge of local languages, her options were very limited. 'I met some women from my country [DRC] and they introduced me to sex work because I needed to pay for the house and buy food for my siblings. I couldn't get any [other] work,' she told IRIN/PlusNews. As an illegal immigrant she is especially vulnerable because she can't report violent clients to the police, and is too afraid to seek medical help for her injuries.

In this Birthing Justice narrative, Nayeli Guzman, a young Mexican woman who went to New Mexico to be part of the effort to restore traditional agriculture, talks about how she and other farmers are using long-abandoned farmland to grow long-abandoned crops, building up seed libraries, and teaching others ecological methods for growing food. Birthing Justice: Women Creating Economic and Social Alternatives is a series features twelve alternative social and economic models which expand the possibilities for justice, equity, and strong community.

The Peace and Security Council of the African Union and the Political and Security Committee of the European Union have called for 'concerted international action' and inclusive solution to the political crisis in Guinea-Bissau, worsened by the coup d'etat of 12 April. According to a statement, made available to PANA in Luanda, Angola, the call is part of the recommendations at the fifth annual advisory meeting between the two councils, held from 29 to 30 May, 2012, in the Belgian capital, Brussels.

France is not ruling out military intervention in Mali, but the former colonial power says that would only be in the context of a UN Security Council resolution. That was the gist of the message newly-elected French President François Hollande put across at a joint press conference with Benin’s President Boni Yayi following a closed-door meeting in Paris. Boni Yayi is the first African president to be received at the Elysée Palace since the election of Hollande.

This article written by Ndifuna Ukwazi researcher Fritz Jooste recognises recent commitments made by Cape Town mayor, Patricia De Lille, and the City to address service delivery shortcomings in poorer areas, but it goes on to identify certain obstacles that stand in the way of meaningful engagement between local government and communities, calling on the City to address these.

The Ethiopian government has committed gross human rights violations by uprooting the indigenous people of Gambella from their traditional territories, which they have inhabited for centuries, in order to make more land available for commercial agricultural investment. During the first phase of the government’s 'villagization' programme, over 21,000 households were forcefully relocated from their traditional villages, farms and water resources. By the end of the programme 45,000 households (about a third of Gambella’s indigenous population) will be moved to new villages. The government has failed to fulfill promises to provide new villages with social services. And since the land in the new places is not suitable for traditional agriculture, people now rely on gold mining in order to survive.

The TaxCast from the Tax Justice Network is a 15 minute podcast that follows the latest news relating to tax evasion, tax avoidance and the shadow banking system. In the latest podcast, tax haven insiders speak out, the co-founder of Facebook ‘unfriends’ the US, and Europe considers a Financial Transaction Tax.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, will take place in Rio de Janeiro from June 20 to 22, twenty years after the celebration of the 'Earth Summit' in the very same city. There are several topics in the agenda resulting from intense negotiations that are still underway. In this respect, the World Forum of Civil Society Networks - UBUNTU - has issued a statement calling for mobilization at all levels in order to ensure that this new 'Earth Summit' measures up to the serious occasion we are going through. 'The world cannot afford another fiasco in Rio. It is time for responsibility. And, above all, it is time for action.'

If the life sentences for former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and one of his key allies were meant to placate Egyptians, they have had the opposite effect. Shortly after the verdict, tens of thousands of Egyptians from across the politcal spectrum, with perhaps the exception of die-hard Mubarak supporters and supporters of presidential candidate and former Mubarak cabinet member Ahmed Shafik, filled the streets of Egyptian cities to voice their anger at the verdicts. Northern cairo criminal court Judge Ahmed Refaat convicted Mubarak and Habib Al-Adly, the former head of Egypt’s interior ministry (MOI) merely of 'failing to stop the killings.' Many Egyptians believe Mubarak and Al-Adly together with the state’s security services, were responsible for the killing of hundreds of protestors and the torture and detention of thousands more political detainees.

Activists, supporters and officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), made the majority of indecent expressions recorded by a Media Foundation for West Africa study during weeks seven and eight monitoring of language use on radio. Twenty one (21) out of the total of 28 indecent expressions recorded were made by NDC officials and supporters.

Contrary to widespread expectations and public pronouncements, the Ugandan government has pulled the plug on controversial legislation which since 2000 has granted blanket amnesty to more than 26,000 members of armed groups, most notably the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The Act was passed as part of efforts to end hostilities in northern Uganda and bring the LRA to the negotiating table. Over the following six years, several detailed accords were drawn up but LRA leader Joseph Kony repeatedly refused to sign a comprehensive peace agreement. 'There will be no blanket amnesty for anyone now,' said Internal Affairs Minister Hilary Onek, who on 25 May used his prerogative to allow significant sections of the Amnesty Act to lapse.

Clashes between two communities in western Kenya's Rift Valley Province have led to the displacement of thousands of people, the closure of several schools and calls for the government to beef up security. Relations between the Tugen and the Pokot in what is now known as Baringo County have for decades been marked by tit-for-tat cattle raids and the occasional attendant fatality. Over the years, firearms have replaced more traditional weapons, especially among the Pokot. An escalation - in intensity and frequency - of hostilities since January has, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), left more than 7,500 Tugen people displaced from their homes, living either with other members of their community or in rudimentary shelters in the bush.

Since the end of apartheid in South Africa, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities have made unprecedented legal gains under the rubric of the bill of rights. The traditional courts bill threatens to undermine this security for millions of South Africans living in rural areas. The bill is the latest in a series of clumsy attempts to define, regularise and institutionalise the role of traditional leaders. In so doing, the bill undermines the protection afforded by constitutional civil rights.

Kenyan soldiers have killed 14 Al Shabaab fighters after the rebel force launched an attack on a Kenyan warship in the Indian Ocean. Ten other Al Shabaab fighters were injured in the attack, the first major naval operation in recent months. The Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF), which is part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) contingent, said the Kenyan Naval Ship engaged the militants at an Al Shabaab seaport watch station on Tuesday, 29 May.

Indigenous foods, neglected and derided by many in the agro and food industries as well as urban consumers, can be an important component in alleviating hunger, malnutrition and protecting the environment, the regional representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations told a symposium. A century of globalization has reduced the number of plant species used for food and other purposes from roughly 100,000 to about 30. With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, FAO is concerned that the world may not be able to produce enough food to meet demand. Today, an estimated 925 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, with over 60 percent of them residing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through the generous support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, SAHA is able to distribute a limited number of free copies of the project report ‘Transition’s Child: The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF)’ to interested activists, researchers, NGOs and educational organisations. The report is based on an oral history and document collection project on the South African social movement, undertaken by Dr. Dale McKinley on behalf of SAHA in 2010 - 2011.

The APF was formed in 2000 in direct response to the political and socio-economic conditions in which many poor communities have found themselves in the post-1994 era. The APF brought together community organisations, workers’ groups, activists and individuals to oppose privatisation and fight for free, fair and decent provision of essential services for disadvantaged people of South Africa.

In line with SAHA’s commitment to capture and document neglected histories as well as to create and support awareness of contemporary struggles for justice in the making of democracy in South Africa, the aim of this project was to create a comprehensive and accessible archive on the APF. In addition, the project was an attempt to explore some of the complexities and challenges of recording and archiving the history of social movements, the growth and development of which is often organic and decentralised, and as a result, usually poorly documented.

Along with the report, SAHA has developed an online virtual exhibition on the APF showcasing materials from SAHA’s archival collection on the social movement to ensure that the work is easily accessible on an on-going basis. The virtual exhibition serves as a participatory tool as visitors to the virtual exhibition are encouraged to comment on this telling of the APF’s history, share their memories of the events and issues profiled and thoughts on the issues central to the work of the APF, and contribute new materials to the virtual exhibition. The project report can also be downloaded from the virtual exhibition as well as from SAHA’s main website.

In conjunction with the launch of this report, SAHA has put together a small exhibition on the history of the APF, now on display on level 3 of Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg, until March 2013.

If you would like to request a copy of the report (accompanied by a CD of the virtual exhibition), please email your contact details to [email][email protected] by 21 May 2012.

If you would like to contribute materials (documents, photographs, posters, pamphlets, reports, t-shirts, banners, etc) relating to the APF to the archival collection at SAHA, please email [email][email protected] .

Should you require further information about the project, the report, the physical exhibition or the virtual exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact SAHA on the following details:

Tel: 011 7171941

Fax: 011 7171964

Email: [email][email protected]

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Editors