Bindura magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi on Tuesday threw out the State's request for the remand in custody of seven members of the MDC when they appeared before him facing charges of public violence.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's embattled government is talking tough in the face of rising international pressure, but political analysts said its senior members are showing signs of worry over their future. Many are taking seriously threats of sanctions against Harare and want to lie low to distance themselves from Mugabe's controversial record, they said.

UNHCR completed on Monday the voluntary repatriation from Cameroon of 288 Chadians who had fled civil war in their country in the early 1980s.

This report illustrates how racial discrimination in the administration of justice systematically denies certain people their human rights because of their colour, race, ethnicity, descent (including caste) or national origin. Based on research conducted by Amnesty International in recent years, it shows that members of ethnic minorities often suffer torture, ill-treatment and harassment at the hands of the police. In many parts of the world they face unfair trials and discriminatory sentencing which puts them at increased risk of harsh punishments, including the death penalty.

Mswati III has backed off on an earlier proclamation limiting rights. "That such an inward-looking, diehard government can respond in this way underscores how influential the liberal democratic value system has become in the world."

An interview with David Kuhns who worked for Médecins sans Frontières in Somalia and Afghanistan, and dealt with re-renty problems on returning home to the United States. He has set up a Peer Support Network which works with volunteers who need help dealing with what they experienced overseas.

A local editorial response to some of the mindless, racist blather from the mayor of Toronto and the head of USAID.

Over the past weeks, Nigeria's central region has been racked by violent ethnic clashes that have claimed many lives and displaced thousands of people. Fighting that broke out in June has pitted Tivs against their mainly Hausa-speaking neighbours in Nasarawa State, leading to at least 100 deaths, according to the police - more than 200, according to other sources - and the displacement of more than 50,000 people.

Zimbabwe's embattled government is talking tough in the face of rising international pressure, but political analysts allege its senior members are growing concerned over the threat of sanctions, Reuters reported.

Zambia's new opposition Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) won a landslide by-election victory in a working class Lusaka suburb on Tuesday, dealing a blow to President Frederick Chiluba's party, news reports said.

Rampaging political gangs torched several vehicles and attacked voters in a crucial parliamentary by-election in Zambia's capital on Tuesday, heightening fears that widespread political violence will undermine general elections scheduled for the year-end.

Two leading members of the opposition Rassemblement des republicains (RDR) left court free men on Friday after being acquitted of charges linked to election-related violence last year.

A total of 434 Liberians arrived in western Côte d'Ivoire's 'Refugee Reception Zone' between 16 and 19 July, UNHCR reported. This brings to 4,076 the new Liberian refugees in the area. The western towns of Danane and Guiglo, which lie along the border with Liberia, are within the zone.

Steps will be taken against 14 NGOs said to be operating illegally in East Shewa Zone of the Oromiya Regional State, the official Walta Information Centre reported on Thursday. The NGOs, which are engaged in reproductive health care, kindergarten and other social development activities without formal agreements with the government, include a number of international and local church-based organisations.

Rwanda has asked that the four former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) defence investigators, recently sacked by the Tribunal on suspicion that they played a part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, be arrested and tried, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Thursday.

The European Union commissioner for development has stressed the need for leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo to try to reunite the country if the DRC is to receive development aid, sources in Kinshasa told IRIN.

An apparent assassination attempt involving a 10-minute frenzy of grenades, rockets and gunfire against Itihi Ossetoumba Lekoundzo, defence minister of Congo-Brazzaville was reported to have taken place on Wednesday in Brazzaville, according to AP.

At the beginning of this year, there were 1.5 million people of concern to UNHCR in seven countries of East Africa and Horn of Africa, UNHCR reported on Wednesday. Of these, 339,446 were refugees from Sudan, 281,423 from Somalia and 368,969 from Eritrea, it said.

The northeastern MPs in Uganda's newly constituted seventh parliament have pledged support for a peace and reconciliation project among warring northern ethnic groups on the one hand, and between these groups and the government on the other hand, the international NGO World Vision reported on Wednesday.

Another 83 fighters from opposing sides in Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war disarmed on Thursday, marking the resumption of the stalled process in the eastern district of Kono, The UN Mission in Sierra Leone reported.