Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's romantic partner Gugu Mtshali has allegedly been linked to a scheme to 'buy' government approval for a plan to sell helicopters to Iran, according to a report by the Sunday Times. Mtshali, former De Beers executive Raisaka Masebelanga and others allegedly met with representatives of 360 Aviation to solicit a bribe of R104 million.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has cautioned against blindly supporting President Jacob Zuma in his court battle with the DA as divisions among the federation’s leaders intensify. The Supreme Court of Appeals is expected to deliver its judgment on the application by the DA to set aside the decision of former National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mokotedi Mpshe, to halt prosecution on fraud and corruption charges against Zuma. In his political report to the federation’s central executive committee, Vavi said they could no longer use political excuses to protect Zuma.

In its first month of existence, Corruption Watch received 500 complaints from the public, the organisation has said. Complaints about municipalities, traffic officers and the health sector featured the most prominently, according to a statement. Corruption Watch was started as a non-profit organisation by the Congress of SA Trade Unions in January.

In line with calls from the Global South for changes in the UN governance system, a survey report carried out in 2010 showed overwhelming support for changes in the mandates and functions of the UN agencies and for NGO and private sector representation in UN governance. The government respondents to the survey were also equally strongly in favour of both, and more so than the UN respondents. Download the report by clicking on the link provided. To participate in a 2012 survey report, please .

Senegal's opposition joined forces Sunday in a mass rally to block 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade from landing a third term in office and back challenger Macky Sall. The 12 presidential candidates who fell out of the running in a first round of voting on 26 February have formed a coalition they hope will usher ex-prime minister Sall into power. Wade is facing a stiff battle to retain power at the March 25 poll after a strong opposition showing crushed his hopes of overall victory in the first round and forced him into a run-off.

Decades after peasants’ networks have advocated for a new legal instrument to protect the rights of small farmers to land, seeds, traditional agricultural knowledge and freedom to determine the prices of their production, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) may decide to start drafting a declaration on peasants’ rights next week. 'The idea of an international declaration on peasants' rights comes from our (base) because many small farmers don’t have access to land, work, water and seeds,' Henry Saragih, the general coordinator of Via Campesina, a movement representing more than 200 million small farmers around the world, told IPS.

The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) are pleased to announce - in the framework of the second three-year phase of the Africa/Asia/Latin America Scholarly Collaborative Program - the call for applications for participation in the Fifth South-South Summer Institute on Rethinking Development: Global and Regional Alternatives for the Development in the South. The Institute will be held in Recife, Brazil, from 21 May to 1 June 2012.

Kenya's commercial sex workers say they are ready to pay. MPs don't.

The marginalization of indigenous communities during concession negotiations and project implementation has resulted in high tensions around a number of foreign direct investment projects in Liberia, says this report from Columbia University's Centre for Conflict Resolution that looks at the social impact of FDI. 'This tension has occasionally led to violence and other forms of social unrest, which could feasibly lead to conditions that might threaten peace in the country.'

Nuclear power is the epitome of extremely dangerous concentration of energy, with massive cost externalization and is antithetical to the very idea of justice.

Stratfor - as evidenced by their own content - is neither a politically nor ideologically neutral intelligence agency.

As the power struggle between capital and the working class intensifies over whom and how the economic crisis will be resolved, the working class would do well to recall the lessons of 2011 and build on them.

The Tunisian unemployment rate reached 18.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, with nearly three-quarters of jobless citizens under the age of 30. The rate marks a 0.6 per cent rise from the second quarter of 2011, according to data released by the Tunisian National Institute of Statists (INS) on 23 February. The total number of jobless Tunisians was reported at more than 738,000, a jump of 33,500 people.

Brushing aside high-level UN appeals for cooperation to halt murder and violence against gays and lesbians around the globe, Muslim and Arab countries recently stalked out of a Human Rights Council panel to tackle the issue. The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Pakistan described homosexuality as 'licentious behaviour' while African group leader Senegal said it was not covered by global human rights accords.

The 74,000 agricultural workers who plant, weed and harvest hundreds of thousands of acres of cane are mostly not unionised. They work in extremely dangerous conditions with very little by way of rights and protections. Until recently, they didn’t even enjoy a minimum wage.

By merging domestic and foreign intelligence, the new Bill raises the unenviable spectre of the all-powerful apartheid-era Bureau of State Security – and not without good reason.

A full commitment to transformative change differs from a commitment to charity that does not recognise its inherent problematic nature, because the latter sustains itself on marginalization.

Tanzanian ports may soon become idle if plans to build new and competitive facilities are not implemented now.This comes in the wake of plans by Kenya to construct a 23 billion US dollar transshipment port at Lamu. Experts say that in today's business every port in the world keeps pace with fewer but much larger shipping lines and concentration of cargo into bigger vessels able to utilise just a few key hub ports.

A key message the marchers wanted to pass across was the problem of stigma and discrimination they face in their lives and work. These include challenges in accessing health, legal, medical and social services.

The young journalist was not only devoted to his work but also to the community and the whole nation of Haiti. Those who were close to him remember Jean Ristil as courageous, humble and socially conscious.