Pirates off the coast of Somalia are keeping ahead of attempts by international authorities to stop them, capturing ever more hostages and bounty, a UN official has said. B Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said on Tuesday that more viable economic alternatives are needed to prevent the migration of young Somalis into piracy. More than 438 crew and passengers and 20 ships are currently being held hostage at sea near Somalia, according to latest International Maritime Organisation figures.

Yakpaoro is part of a new trend in South America. The refugee from Guinea is one of a growing number of Africans and Asians, many of them refugees, making their way to the continent before joining mixed migration routes from the south to the north. UNHCR statistics show that so far this year between five and 40 per cent of total asylum applications submitted in various Latin American countries were lodged by nationals from Asia and Africa.

A cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 600 people in Haiti has gained a foothold in in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince and is expected to spread widely and quickly in the sprawling city of three million people, health authorities said on Tuesday. The three-week-old epidemic, which had mostly hit Haiti's rural central regions so far, now menaced crowded slum areas of the capital, as well as tent and tarpaulin camps there housing more than 1.3 million survivors of the 12 January quake.

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation has released a major study on violence in South African society, recommending that government define its response to violence more clearly. The report notes that whilst it is clear that dealing with the problem of illegal firearms is a central pillar of government’s efforts to address crime, the argument for a focus on armed violence goes beyond this. 'This is partly through the fact that it motivates that knife violence also become a focus of attention, but also because it challenges government to reconceptualise its approach to how it defines violent crime priorities,' says the report.

While the ICC (International Criminal Court) may do its part in ending an entrenched culture of impunity in Kenya, write Leigh Brownhill and Kiama Kaara, it is the Kenyan people, not the ICC, that will play the bigger part in achieving the noble but elusive goal of peace.

Dominicano Mulenga, national coordinator of Zambia's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, goes through his to-do list as the rainy season sets in: Industrial pumps to suck water out of the roads serviced. Tick. Enough stocks of tents and mosquito nets. Tick. Mobile phones delivered to communities living along the upper catchment areas of the River Zambezi. Check. 'We do not want a repeat of the situation from last year, when 1,000 people were displaced in Lusaka [the Zambian capital] alone because of poor drainage,' said Mulenga. Mulenga is one of several officials in Southern Africa gearing up for the rainy season which normally goes on until the end of March 2011.

The police have reportedly issued a warrant of arrest against Wilf Mbanga the London-based editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper following publication of a story linked to the death of a senior official with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in 2008. Mbanga is accused of publishing a story after the 2008 elections 'which undermined President Robert Mugabe'. According to The Zimbabwean, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported that the police want to question Mbanga over an article published in The Zimbabwean following the death of ZEC director for polling, Ignatius Mushangwe.

South African politicians and businessmen who pocketed R1-billion from the arms deal are set to be named in a new investigation by Britain's auditing watchdog. The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) is to investigate KPMG, which advised BAE Systems on offshore companies that were used to pay 'commissions' to influence the awarding of lucrative contracts in South Africa's R47.4-billion defence procurement package.

A recent decision by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit means an 'effective suspension' of the SADC tribunal, which will deny SADC citizens redress, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) said last week. The challenge by NGOs including the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the Africa regional office of the International Commission of Jurists, comes after a decision by the Sadc summit in August that the tribunal would not hear new cases. The tribunal hears cases between citizens of SADC member states and the states themselves, when the citizens have exhausted all domestic legal avenues.

The two authorised sales of Marange diamonds make clear the Zimbabwe government has no reason to feel threatened by a Western diamond import ban, says this commentary from the International Crisis Group. Emerging powers are challenging the rules and becoming more influential. Buyers, especially from India, have been more than willing to fill the gap resulting from the absence of most Westerners. Chinese buyers could also potentially compete. With world diamond production falling by 24 per cent since 2009 and increased competition, buyers are becoming readier to push human rights and governance standards aside.

Eldoret North MP William Ruto wants the International Criminal Court to indict President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the roles he says they played in the post-election violence. In a statement that could form the core of Mr Ruto’s defence at The Hague, one of the suspended minister’s lawyers says the process of securing justice would have no credibility if Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga are not charged.

In an audio-tape released to Al Jazeera on October 27, Osama bin Laden castigated France for its intervention in the affairs of Muslims in North and West Africa. It is likely to have profound implications on the so-called war on al-Qaeda in the Sahara and Sahel, as well as on French and European policies in the region, writes Jeremy Keenan, a professorial research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and author of 'The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa'.

Amnesty International says it is concerned that the government of Uganda has failed to date to ensure thorough, prompt and independent investigations into frequent reports of human rights violations, including possible unlawful killings, by the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), in the Karamoja region thereby ensuring impunity for the perpetrators. The alleged violations have been committed in the course of an ongoing disarmament process in the area.

A diplomatic row is brewing between Nigeria and Iran over the shipment of 13 containers of arms and ammunition into the country. Although the arms-laden ship came from the Indian port in Mumbai, it was alleged that the ship originated from Iran. It was also alleged that Nigeria might have been a routing point for the arms, which are believed to be on the way to Gaza Strip in the Middle East, with the consignment belonging to the Hamas Militant Group.

Sudan policemen and Darfur rebel militias clashed in Sudan's western region of Darfur, government and rebels said. It was reported that both sides are claiming a crushing victory. The Sudan government said its forces had killed many rebel fighters while rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) claimed to have killed about 50 policemen. The interior ministry said the fighting begun when Jem rebels ambushed a government fuel and food supplies convoy in southern Darfur.

Morocco exercises secret detention and ill-treatment of detainees under counter-terrorism laws, Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleged in a provocative new report titled 'Stop looking for your son: Illegal detentions under the counterterrorism law in Morocco'. 'While Morocco has demonstrated the political will to adopt enlightened human rights legislation, it lacks the political will to enforce it when it comes to terrorism suspects,' said Leah Whitson, head of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.

For more than a decade, a host of young footballers, overwhelmingly under the age of 18 (more than 3,000 since 2000), have left the African continent to try their luck in Europe and Asia, according to the website of Association foot solidaire, a non-governmental organisation based in Paris, which fights against mistreatment of young African footballers. The mafia-type characters who extract money from parents, most of them poor, take young Africans to Asia or Europe with the promise of a trial at a big club. In the end, many of them are abandoned in the street, with no means to support themselves.

Somalians in Khayelitsha say they are wondering which one of their countrymen in the township will be killed next after Somalian shopkeeper Cyrix Man was shot on Tuesday night. Man, 23, was shot twice in the head outside his shop on Endlovini Street, in Khayelitsha C-Section at about 11pm last Tuesday, and died in hospital at about 3.30am on Wednesday morning. Khayelitsha’s Somalia Retailers Association chairperson Abbi Ahmed said more than 22 Somalian’s had been killed in the past three months.

The Home Affairs office in Cape Town is facing a court interdict for refusing to renew asylum seeker permits and refugee status documents for foreign nationals who originally obtained their documentation in another province. As many of these foreign nationals whose documentation has expired cannot afford to travel back to the province where they originally received documents, they face the possibility of arrest and deportation, or, if they have a job, may lose it.

As Egypt assumed its year-long chairmanship of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees executive committee in Geneva last month, its policy of shooting unarmed migrants along its 'death zone' border with Israel has come into stark relief. Last week a Sudanese man was shot and killed by Egyptian security guards as he attempted to sneak through a portion of the 160-mile barbed wire fence running through the barren Sinai desert. At least 25 African migrants have been killed this year alone, adding to the scores since 2007.