Gabon's constitutional court has ruled that parliamentary elections will take place on 17 December as planned, despite opposition demands for a delay in the poll to introduce biometric voters cards, officials said. Gabon's opposition has been campaigning for months to delay the elections in order to introduce the biometric system, which has been implemented in many countries for digital chips in passports and electoral cards, using individual biological data such as fingerprints or eye retina scans to combat fraud.

Four opposition parties in the Gambia have coalesced and named Mr Hamat Bah as their presidential candidate for elections set for later this month. The coalition candidate is the standard bearer of the National Reconciliation Party, a long-time challenger to President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power through a military coup in 1994 and is hoping to remain in power for life.

Malagasy's new Prime Minister Jean Omer Beriziky has been sworn in at a ceremony in the capital, Antananarivo. Mr Beriziky was chosen by the Indian Ocean island nation’s four main political parties through consensus.

As the controversy over the plan by the Nigerian government to remove fuel subsidy deepens, the main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) rejected the plan. In a statement issued in Lagos and obtained by PANA, ACN called the proposal to withdraw fuel subsidy 'the handiwork of those propelled by the philosophy of the 'Washington Consensus' of rolling back the frontiers of the state.' Under the plan announced by the government, the price of a litre of fuel will go up from 65 naira (4 US cents) to as high as 150 naira (about US$1) from next year.

With more than five out of every seven people in the world lacking adequate social security, a high-level United Nations panel has called for guaranteeing basic income and services for all, not only as a means to ensure peace and stability but also to boost economic growth. Measures providing income security and scaling up essential health services are affordable even in the poorest countries, costing as little as one to two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), although international support is needed for some low-income countries, with donors providing predictable multi-year financial aid, according to the panel’s report, 'Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization'.

The ‘transition to a low carbon or green economy has massive implications for labour.’ Jacklyn Cock takes a look at the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ response.

As the global financial crisis deepens, China needs to reflect on 'what kind of international system can minimise war and break the power of the top one per cent', writes Horace Campbell. It should see the Occupy Wall Street movement ‘not as a challenge, but as an asset in the fight for social justice and democracy internationally.’

As interim rulers, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), step up the use of military trials to stifle dissent and create a climate of fear among Egyptians, Lillian Boctor

Young supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe stoned and beat backers of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday, blocking a planned rally of his Movement for Democratic Change party. 'Unfortunately we are unable to do this rally because of incredible acts of wanton violence, malicious violence that we have suffered at the hands of ZANU-PF this morning,' Tendai Biti, MDC secretary general, told a news conference. Biti said seven MDC activists were admitted to hospital, while five party vehicles were damaged.

African heads of state have ambitious plans to create a free trade zone, encompassing 26 countries and more than 600 million people on the continent. But economic experts warn the project is a bold step that comes with a plethora of legal, administrative and political hurdles. Others suggest the plan might be a pie in the sky. 'The free trade agreement is an incredibly complex undertaking by any measure,' warned Liepollo Pheko, international trade expert and managing director of economic consultancy Four Rivers in Johannesburg. Earlier this year, African heads of state had announced plans for a one trillion dollar free trade area (FTA) across three existing regional economic communities, namely the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Millions of Egyptians will head to the polls on 28 November in the first parliamentary vote after a popular uprising ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. But few Egyptians understand the complex election system or know what the parties represent. 'The election system is really confusing,' Saed Abdel Hafez, chairman of the local NGO, Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue, told IRIN. 'Because people do not understand the system, they will most likely vote for the people or the powers they used to vote for in the past. This means that the next parliament will not reflect the new political realities created by the revolution.'

In an initiative led by ARTICLE 19, 77 civil society organisations which are members of IFEX and the Freedom of Information Advocates (FOIA) Network are calling on the United Nations to champion access to information laws, transparency and free media as key requirements to environmental and human sustainability. The UN is holding a summit of world leaders in Rio in June 2012 (Rio+20) to discuss the environment and sustainable development goals. 'The right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas related to development and the environment are fundamental to ensuring sustainable development and environmental protection,' the 77 signatories said in a submission sent to the secretariat of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) on 31 October. The aim is for the recommendations in the submission to be included in the Rio+20 summit declaration.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has resumed a voluntary repatriation programme for tens of thousands of Angolan refugees after their displacement into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the civil war that ended in 2002. On Friday, 252 refugees were transported in the first convoy of the repatriation programme jointly organised by the UNHCR, host countries and the Angolan government. The UN agency estimates that 113,000 Angolans remain in exile as a result of 27-year conflict.

Just over three weeks before the presidential election on 28 November, Reporters Without Borders and Journalist in Danger (JED), its partner organisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, have written to Adolphe Lumanu Mulenda Bwana N’Sefu, the deputy prime minister and interior minister. The two organisations, concerned about the increase in violence against media workers since the start of the election campaign, are asking him to do all he can to ensure journalists are able to carry out their work without being targeted.

Activists are calling on South Africa to take the lead in moves for a 'Robin Hood' tax for health. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) have pointed out that as the only African country in the G20, South Africa had a role to play in ensuring that a portion of the FTT went to health and not bailing out banks. The FTT is not another tax on working people, but on financial institutions only – it could cover any financial transaction between banks or be more specific and cover currency exchanges between banks.

Walter Turner

Libya is the first country that the Euro-American consortium has invaded exclusively on the pretext of human rights violations, writes Aijaz Ahmad.

For Mohammed Bouaz, the vegetable seller who set himself on fire December 17, 2010 in the Tunisian city of SidiBouZid.

Charles Abugre explores the links between extreme financial deregulation, rising social inequalities and the falling Kenyan shilling.

Africa ‘must first take hold of the intellectual battle before it can wage a physical battle against violence and poverty and all other problems’ that it currently faces, argues Christopher Zambakari.