Somali political groups participating in the Eldoret peace talks have called on Kenya's new president, Mwai Kibaki, to save the talks from collapse. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the leaders' committee alleged that the talks were being mismanaged and conducted contrary to agreements.

The self-declared republic of Somaliland has postponed presidential elections from January to March, according to a senior official. Mahmud Jama Warfa, the Somaliland deputy information minister, said the move was taken after the independent electoral commission decided more time was needed to have everything in place for smooth elections.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that ongoing tensions in Liberia and the emergence of a new conflict in Cote d'Ivoire continued to pose threats to peace and security in the sub-region.

There are huge differences in the health of mothers and children living in conflict-ridden poor countries and the predominantly rich countries exporting arms to them, says a study published in the British Medical Journal. The study says trading in arms - both legal and illegal - is highly detrimental to the health of mothers and children in the countries where armed conflict occurs and questions the commitment of powerful arms trading countries to addressing the problems they are responsible for causing.

Organisations representing survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide are unhappy with a plan to free thousands of people who have pleaded guilty to participating in the genocide but have not yet been tried. On 1 January, the government announced that those who had pleaded guilty, along with the elderly, minors and the seriously ill, would be freed on bail until their cases are heard in court. Some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in 100 days between April and June 1994.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged the Ivorian government to find a new, safer area for thousands of Liberian refugees living some 40km from the frontline between loyalist troops and rebels in western Cote d'Ivoire.

Some 35,000 people fled heavy artillery fire around Makeke, on the western edge of Ituri region in North Kivu Province of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Beni on 31st December 2002, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

As the next round of talks aimed at ending 19 years of conflict in Sudan draws near, Sudan's warring parties are still reluctant to take the necessary decisions leading to conditions for peace in the country, a UK-based think tank has said. Justice Africa, an organisation which works on peace and security issues on the continent, has urged the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to heed the consolidated pressure for peace in order to reach a lasting solution to the conflict.

Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) must start serious work if it is to avoid losing the confidence of civil society and international donors.  There are still considerable problems with management issues, funding and, in particular, the performance of the commissioners and its partner, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Statement takers have been sent out this month to begin collecting stories from all citizens who wish to come forward, but this is just a first step. Civil society also must be brought back into the process to assist with education, to act as a watchdog and to encourage popular participation in the TRC, says the International Crisis Group.

President Thabo Mbeki will interrupt his leave to go to the African National Congress' headquarters in Johannesburg on Monday to discuss a looming legislative crisis in Kwazulu-Natal with the party's leadership.

Parts of Africa such as Liberia, Western Sahara and Burundi remained deeply troubled, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in its review of 2002. The UNHCR said there had to be "fundamental improvements" in the way millions of Africans were treated by the rest of the world.

The United Nations said last Thursday that all Rwandans who fled to Tanzania after the 1994 genocide had now returned home. Tanzania, which is host to more than one million refugees, has said it cannot cope with the influx of people escaping regional wars.

Hopes rose in 2002 that some of Africa's deadliest and most intransigent conflicts could soon be resolved, with peace deals or cease-fire agreements reached in six war-torn countries. Sierra Leone, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Somalia and Burundi - countries that for much of the past decade have been a byword for strife - each made significant strides toward peace over the past year. But observers say the real test will be whether the deals signed on paper will translate into peace in practise during 2003.

In a dark storeroom in the Kruger National Park lies the booty of a massive environmental war: South Africa's ivory collection.  Many conservationists would view the room as a ghastly chamber of horrors. South Africa says it needs to unlock the value of its stockpile for badly needed conservation projects.

United for Peace is a new national campaign that brings together a broad range of organisations throughout the United States to help coordinate work against a U.S. war on Iraq. At an initial meeting in Washington, DC on October 25, more than 70 peace and justice organizations agreed to form United for Peace. United for Peace invites you to join and become part of this new effort.

With the deadline for the cessation of refugee status for Eritreans expiring on 31 December, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says thousands are seeking continued refugee status, while others have asked to be taken home or have applied to remain as immigrants.

At least 130,000 people had been displaced around the towns of Beni and Lubero, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Mission in the DRC (known as MONUC) said on Thursday.

Hundreds of plant and animal species around the world are feeling the impacts of global warming, although the most dramatic effects may not be felt for decades, according to new research from a Stanford University team. They predict that a rapid temperature rise, together with other environmental pressures, "could easily disrupt the connectedness among species" and lead to numerous extinctions.

The definitive implementation of a ceasefire between government and rebel forces in Burundi has been delayed from its scheduled date of Monday, government and rebel officials said. "It was not possible (to implement the accord on Monday) because the ceasefire depended on the arrival of the African Mission, the setting up of a joint ceasefire commission, and the cantonment of belligerents," Foreign Minister Therence Sinunguruza said.

The leaders of three rival militias groups fighting along the Isiro-Beni axis of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed a ceasefire agreement on Monday, which could, if respected, allow for the provision of humanitarian assistance. The agreement, reached in the northern town of Gbadolite on Monday, became effective immediately.