The Minister of State for Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, has alleged that about 30 per cent of the corruption in the public service is traceable to the Nigeria Customs Service. She also accused officers of the service of contributing to the closure of many manufacturing companies in the country. Usman said if the service could be reformed the larger part of the ongoing economic reforms embarked upon by President Olusegun Obasanjo would have been done.

"We the participants in the 3rd Annual InterCED Conference on ICT and Economic Development, held in Accra, Ghana from March 3 to March 5, 2004 recognize that Information Technology is simply a tool for the realization of the dreams of people. We further recognize that the creation of economic opportunity, jobs, and social capital require that all hands are put to the task and that all sectors of the society have a meaningful role to play in bringing about a renaissance of the African economy."

On 15 March 2004, cameraman Robert Kadima Baruani, assistant cameraman Milla Dipenga and reporter Eric Ambago were harassed and detained briefly by a group of about 10 police officers at the Wagenia building in Kinshasa/Gombe. In addition, the journalists' equipment was confiscated. The three journalists work for Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM), which broadcasts from Kinshasa. According to JED's sources, the RTKM crew had gone to the building to cover an illegal expropriation.

Recent utterances by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo that he intends to deal with foreign correspondents who he accuses of “externalising” foreign currency and being “mercenaries” must be taken seriously coming from a man who has a history of carrying out his threats. Minister Moyo likens journalists to criminals the state is currently targeting for the so-called “economic crimes” and that they must also be dealt with. He argues that foreign media houses such as Reuters, Agence France Press and others operating in Zimbabwe are keeping “foreign currency” earned in Zimbabwe outside the country.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is disturbed at the prison sentence handed down to journalist Jean-Baptiste Hounkonnou on 16 March 2004 for "defamation". Hounkonnou, the publication director of the daily "Le Nouvel Essor", was sent to Parakou (Centre-Est) prison immediately after the trial to begin serving his sentence. The verdict stems from a December 2003 "Le Nouvel Essor" article in which a woman was accused of adultery.

This online forum invites reflection about education following collective violence. How do educators confront the past and promote reconciliation in an effort to prevent future conflict? What are the opportunities and challenges facing educators in the aftermath of collective violence? What roles do schools, curricula and pedagogy play in the creation of civil societies?

In an attempt to consolidate work in various African countries and inform each other of new opportunities and events, an ARYI newsletter has been created that is available every two months.

This toolkit provides tips and practical suggestions for applying for funding and proposal writing. It is based on interviews with experienced research fundraisers.

The World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) has begun its biennial World Assembly with strong words from Botswana President Festus Mogae about the relocation of members of his country's San community. The assembly is being held in Botswana's capital, Gaborone. A non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Britain, Survival International, claims that Mogae's government has evicted the San - or Basarwa - from lands they had traditionally occupied in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to make way for mineral exploitation.

It is 7:00 o’clock in the evening, and students at the University of Development Studies (UDS) Ghana, Navrongo campus are gathered in their various common rooms. All eyes are transfixed on a box, an electronic box: the television. They are watching Ghana Television News at Seven, the only source of up-to-date information for an information thirsty university. The University of Development Studies is the fifth state university in Ghana. For a campus with the sciences as its main focus, UDS Navrongo is in serious crisis: the university has a computer lab of about 30 computers with no Internet connection.

The Shuttleworth Foundation is hosting an event for innovative projects to market themselves to potential grantmakers. To this end, the Foundation invites applications from South African initiated education projects involving subject areas such as maths, science and technology for implementation in Gauteng and/or Western Cape in 2005.

The Commowealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has singled out Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as vehicles for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the chief executive officer of CTO, said bridging the digital divide and building an information based society is the most effective way of enhancing the realisation of the millennium goals — reducing the alarming global poverty levels by a half by the year 2015.

To boost electronic commerce and the country's foreign exchange earnings, Uganda is working on legislation that will recognise contracts entered into electronically. Peter Edopu, principal legal officer of the Uganda Law Reform Project, said that the e-commerce law under the E-Transactions, Computer Misuse and Electronic Signatures Bill 2004, the first of its kind in East Africa will recognise electronic signatures and transactions in national and international businesses.

A collection of views from several electronic discussion groups established by the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa-UNECA in the past 5 - 6 years.

UNDP and Ethiopia's ICT for Development Authority have delivered the first batch of 1,500 computers to the Ministry of Education as part of efforts to bring information and communications technology (ICT) to more than 160 high schools around the country. UNDP has provided US$3.5 million for the initiative and is seeking support from donors for an equal amount to enable all high schools to get online. Partners include the Ministry of Capacity Building and the Ministry of Education.

Farmers in the field and artisans and fishermen on the sea can use their mobile phones to check prices before they set off and find out where they will get the best offer for their produce. Manobi is a Mobile & Internet added value services operator for the agri-business sector and rural communities. Manobi had developed the T2M, a system that enables users to use their mobile telephone, a PDA or Internet in order to know in real time (i) the price and arrival status of their products at the markets, and (ii) the availability of the same products in the production sites.

The following are excerpts from an interview that was conducted in September 2003 between CINSA, Africa Pulse and the station manager of a Soweto Community radio station, Jozi FM. The station manager takes us through a journey the station endured to sustainability, which serves as a lesson for establishing or strengthening similar initiatives in the SADC region.

On the steamy shores of West Africa, oil seldom brings good tidings. Equatorial Guinea, the nugget-sized nation at the heart of last week's bungled apparent coup attempt, is no exception. A despotic leader, his playboy-rapper son, scheming relatives and thousands of American oil men are the characters of a twisted plot that reads like Dallas set in equatorial Africa. And although attention has focused on 67 alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe, a far greater intrigue swirls around the dictatorial regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Dan Ndzabela, aged 82, stood at the foot of Table Mountain and looked out to the sparkling blue sea. He smiled. "It's good to be home," he said quietly. Mr Ndzabela was standing in District Six, the scene of one of apartheid's most notorious travesties. Now, in his dying years and a decade after the end of white rule, some justice is finally his. Until the 1960s District Six was Cape Town's most vibrant quarter. Blacks, coloureds, Jews and immigrants from all over the world bustled through its cobbled streets and crammed into colonial-era houses. Its diversity represented everything apartheid opposed. In 1966 the area was declared "whites only" under the hated Group Areas Act, and the first bulldozers rumbled in. Houses were levelled, streets wiped from the map, and an entire community dismembered and banished to squalid townships on the marshy Cape Flats.

Alfred Ngamba, a journalist with the bi-monthly newspaper "Le Nganga", was arrested and detained on 8 March 2004. He is currently incarcerated at the "Gros bouquet" prison in the Gabonese capital, Libreville. "Le Nganga" is published in the capital. According to "Le Nganga" editorial staff, Ngamba has been charged with libelling a medical doctor in an article he wrote for the paper. The unidentified doctor is also director of a well-known Libreville-based non-governmental organisation.