Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed Friday to agree on who should control powerful ministries, leaving their proposed unity government in doubt. Four days of lengthy negotiations, Tsvangirai said he still hoped that diplomatic efforts by fellow African countries would find a way to save the month-old power-sharing deal, seen as the best chance for rescuing the country from economic collapse.

Côte d’Ivoire still faces formidable obstacles before it can achieve true national reconciliation and begin the path to recovery, a United Nations report says today just weeks before the West African country is slated to conduct much-delayed presidential elections.

Corruption, arms sales and a civil war in Africa: France's biggest ever bribery scandal sees 42 leading figures of the French business and political world on trial. They are accused of being involved in a murky network said to have facilitated the illegal transport of arms to Angola in the 1990s.

Drought-hit Ethiopians are facing a worsening food situation as the cost of maize soars nearly three-fold in some areas of the Horn of Africa country compared to last year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has cautioned. Migration by people from rural to urban areas in search of food is increasing, it noted, and aid agencies have identified critical malnutrition. A rapid assessment team said it found grave water and pasture shortages in some areas.

The recent debate about the poverty statistics released by Kenya’s Ministry of Planning vis-à-vis allocation of community development fund (CDF) is an issue about targeting of the prized funds. Established in 2003 through the CDF Act in The Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 107, the fund is expected to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects.

The World Bank has agreed to help developing countries strengthen their economies, bolster their financial systems and protect the poor against the financial turmoil in international markets. Robert Zoellick, the bank's president, said the contagion affecting the global economy “has been a man-made catastrophe and responses to overcome it lie in all our hands.''

The ex-premier of South Africa's Gauteng province has resigned from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to join those calling for a new party. Mbhazima Shilowa said the rebels, led by ex-Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, would hold a convention on 2 November.

Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu remain in custody in Bulawayo Central Police Station tonight following their arrest earlier in the day. The seven other members that had been arrested before the demonstration had started have all been released without charge.

Talks on forming a Zimbabwean cabinet deadlocked on Thursday with political parties still fighting over who should control key ministries but negotiators said they would try again on Friday, the opposition MDC said. President Robert Mugabe voiced optimism a deal could be reached but said both sides were digging in their heels and compromise was needed on all sides.

Your commentry, , is a bunch of facts/observations but with no clear conlusion - in short very misleading.

Your commentry talks about democracy in the ANC as if the ANC came to power without resistance from those they defeated(competitors). Address issues knowing that an ideal situation is only on paper not in real life! People are trecherous and cunning! Therefore expect prudence from rulers and not church service while the Laws of the state prescribe between acceptable and non acceptable behaviour.

Therefore rewrite your article - it has all the truth but has misplaced facts!

Love thy neighbour the same way you would want them do unto you, then we shall be building the nation. And not what Bishop Tutu is doing in his old age, that is Dividing the Nation!

And give credit to the ruling party. They are facing elections just around the corner.

Abdurrahman Nelson's letter on, , assterts that Nyerere was not a scientific socialist, and that George Bush and Gordon Brown are using scientific socialist method to deal with the financial crisis! This is to confuse nationalization with scientific socialism; in any case, Nyerere nationalized all commanding heights of Tanzanian economy, and he was not scientific socialist.

As a Zimbabwean I was disappointed that the writer, still regards the Zimbabwe case as an academic political science assignment. Clearly I just didnt see his point at all. People are dying in that country. More people would have died if Tsvangirayi had proceeded to the runoff elections.

Mugabe's youthful butchers were instructed to wait in the villages until the outcome. We appreciate meaningful help from the international community and this includes the writer but please spare us this academic grandstanding.

Following a review workshop in Kenya, the East African Community (EAC) deputy secretary general announced that national consultations on the proposed EAC political federation were on course in Rwanda and Burundi. In addition, military commanders from 13 Eastern Africa countries met in Kenya, under the patronage of the AU, to finalise preparations for the establishment of a ‘united force to deal with conflicts on the continent’ through the Rapid Deployment Unit and the East African Stand-By Brigade. Regarding the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Institute for Security Studies is set to publish a monograph arguing that ‘regionalisation/integration have both an external and internal logic’ and going further to explain that ‘the inability of ECCAS to discharge its mandate on human security is a function of the perceived potential benefit and cost to domestic politicians with regards to their political security or future. Thus, a weak ECCAS is a reflection of its importance to the political calculus of member states’.

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday in a bid to save the country’s power-sharing deal after the opposition party was denied key cabinet posts. Though the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai threatened to pull out of the deal, he said he still hoped the mediator would unlock the impasse so that the country may move forward. The African Union (AU), calling on its Member States not to accept the unconstitutional change of government in Mauritania, has reiterated the position of its Peace and Security Council (PSC) for restoration of the constitutional order and has welcomed the unanimous support of the international community. The AU, following a PSC meeting, called for urgent, flexible and sustainable funding for its peace operations on the continent.

In other news, the AU-EU Ministerial meeting called upon the African and European Commissions to further contribute to the new Africa-Europe relations framework, characterised by a consensus on values and a shared vision, and based on a more open and mature dialogue addressing global issues as well as to share experiences, best practices, and to develop joint initiatives. More than 200 civil society organisations are meeting for the ‘Second Euro-African Non-governmental Conference on Migration and development’. In addition, to mark ten years after the United Nations issued the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a high-level conference entitled ‘Ten Years of Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement - Achievements and Future Challenges’ will take place in Oslo. Further, the Korean Strategy and Finance Ministry and the Import-Export Bank of Korea, in collaboration with the African Development Bank are organising the 2008 Ministerial Conference on Economic Cooperation between Korea and Africa under the theme ‘Promoting Synergies between Africa and Korea’.

Exploring the challenges and limitations to have faced Tanzania’s educational development, Salma Maoulidi assesses the progress of various educational initiatives and the prospects for the country’s population. Underlining the importance of the role of both state and non-state actors in Tanzania’s implementation of effective policies, the author argues that putting adult learning and education (ALE) back on the national development agenda will be critical for the country’s negotiation of an ever globalising world.

In a potent challenge to the Bush administration’s stated aim of increasing security on the African continent, Nunu Kidane argues the US’ sudden interest in the military AfriCOM initiative to reflect both unease over future control of natural resources and the increasing Chinese presence in Africa. As a means of actively opposing the initiative’s progress, the author urges readers to participate in the Resist AfriCOM campaign to say a clear and unequivocal ‘no’ to Washington’s AfriCOM programme.

October 08, 2008
PRESS STATEMENT: CLEANING THE VOTERS’ REGISTER FOR PEACEFUL AND CREDIBLE ELECTIONS IN DECEMBER2008

We, the members of the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) a coalition of Civil Society organizations committed to the conduct of a free, fair, peaceful and transparent election in Ghana on December 7, 2008.

Having met at Alisa Hotel, North Ridge, Accra on Thursday, 2 October 2008, to inaugurate our coalition and take stock of the limited registration exercise of July- August 2008, realized that, the challenges that face our country constitute a grave threat to the holding of credible elections in 2008 and beyond.
Have concluded that;

The present voters register should be cleaned to restore the confidence of the voting public in it and create the appropriate environment for free, fair and peaceful elections; and
CSOs and other citizens groups and public-spirited Ghanaians from all walks of life should be mobilized to participate more effectively in the election process in our country.

The Forum accordingly wishes to affirm its commitment, to ensuring credible and peaceful elections by;

i. Appealing to political parties, traditional authorities, churches and all religious bodies to appeal to their members to volunteer information to the EC on all cases of underage, alien, double or multiple registration and deceased persons whose names remain in the register;

ii. Educating the voting public to participate fully in the exhibition of the voters register and thereby help clean it up through the removal of illegal names;

iii. Giving maximum publicity to the exhibition of the voters register to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the exercise;

iv. Mounting an observation of the exhibition” of the voters register and make recommendation on further appropriate measures to be taken to guarantee the integrity and credibility of the register;

v. Undertaking a broad advocacy campaign to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful election on December 7, 2008;

vi. Disseminating peace messages throughout the length and breadth of Ghana to ensure peace and national unity before, during and after election 2008;

vii. Asking the security agencies to firmly and impartially perform their duties before, during and after the election;

viii. Advising all political leaders and election candidates to bring their influence to bear on their political support base to keep the peace and ensure a successful election in December 2008; and

ix. Appealing to all Ghanaians in all they do to put Ghana first, political power second.

* For more information, please contact the Civic Forum Initiative Host Secretariat at: Tel.021-506466/518017; Fax: 021-518018 or by E-mail; [email][email protected]

The street is called Mtipesa because at the head of it is an old mkanju (cashew nut tree) where the local drug dealers sit on truck tyre wheels half buried and cemented into the ground. The mabeshte, as someone decided to call them, sit here all day, selling their wares quite openly, collecting cash from their customers while the police stroll by just a few metres away, aware that they will get a cut from the collection later.

Tidiane Kassé - 2008-10-12

Tidiane Kassé looks at the current state of affairs with regard to the extractive industries in West Africa. He points to the complicity of governments and major corporations in exploiting these resources without any real benefits accruing to the populations. The lack of transparency and information available to the populations of the regions obfuscates all manner of corruption and malfeasance. Panos Institute of West Africa organized a workshop for journalists in early October aimed at equipping them to provide accurate information to affected populations and spur action by civil society to confront the ills associated with the sector.

Keith Slack - 2008-10-12

Mineral exploitation is both one of the oldest global industries and an economic sector of great importance for contemporary developing countries. In light of the new record price for minerals such as gold and copper, the sector’s influence has increased enormously over the last few years. Exploring the environmental concerns and escalation of local conflicts associated with mineral exploitation, Keith Slack reviews the continuing difficulties arising from governments’ collaboration with multinational corporations and the consequences of countries’ dependence on commodities.

Dibussi Tande reviews the following from the African blogoshphere.

Nigerian Curiosity
Hii Dunia
Vultures Dreaming
My African Father
Scribbles from the Den

Kenya's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, on Thursday blasted African leaders' fear of criticising each other, saying it was stifling the continent's progress towards democracy. "The African Union has fallen short, failing to condemn brutal regimes and sham elections, including the second round of elections in Zimbabwe. This has now become the norm.