CrisisWatch is a 12-page monthly bulletin from the International Crisis Group designed to provide busy readers in the policy community, media, business and interested general public with a succinct regular update on the state of play in all the most significant situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world. Each month, CrisisWatch briefly summarises developments during the previous month in some 70 situations of current or potential conflict.

Symplice Kalunga wa Kalunga, a journalist and host of the political affairs programme "Nouvelle donne", which airs on the private television network Channel Media Broadcasting (CMB), was arrested at the network's headquarters on October 29. He was taken in for questioning by police detectives possessing a summons, who were accompanied by armed members of the national police. The journalist was assaulted at the time of arrest, forced into a vehicle and handcuffed while being taken to the Kinshasa/Gombe Public Prosecutor's Office.

Ministers of science from across Africa are being asked this week to back a proposal that their nations increase spending on research and development to at least one per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) over the next seven years.

The current controversies in South African journalism call for robust debate among practitioners and the public. The issues – particularly in relation to journalistic ethics, and the role of journalists in society – are relevant not only to South Africa but to the whole Southern African region. It's critical that the issues are discussed at all levels of society, including practitioners and state and civic structures, to interrogate to what extent current practices pose a threat to the media in the region. The Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, with support from OSISA, is holding an important “Open House” to address these issues in the regional context.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has released an updated version of its journalist security handbook, titled "On Assignment: A Guide to Reporting in Dangerous Situations." This new edition, which is available in hard copy and online includes advice on coping with the sustained risks that so many local journalists and their families confront on a daily basis.

Radio and television leaders from five continents will meet in Geneva, December 9-11, 2003. Their goal is to highlight the essential role of media in building tomorrow’s world. Public and private broadcasters are joining forces to find the best way to meet the challenge of the Information Society.

The Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) seeks to provide access to information on child rights or related issues through documentation, research, website and/or other ICT models in Malawi.

Cote d'Ivoire was without newspapers on Friday after the country's only distributor suspended operations following several attacks on its distribution vans by gangs of youths who seized opposition titles and burned them.

The Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) has called for an urgent law to allow the public access to information as one way to stop corruption. The ACCU coordinator, Lydia Bakaki, said, "The Government must present a bill in Parliament about access to information. We want information which even the semi-illiterate will be able to access."

Amnesty International has called on the Lagos State government to stop any further evictions of residents from the Ijora-Badiya area on the outskirts of Lagos city. "The community's right to housing and to a fair hearing and due process must be respected," the organisation urged.

A Zimbabwean magistrate's court on Wednesday placed four directors of the independent newspaper The Daily News on remand, quashing a defence bid to have the charges against them dropped. The four are facing charges of contempt of court and publishing the newspaper, a harsh critic of the government of President Robert Mugabe, without a licence.

The Building Digital Opportunities programme (BDO), which aims to identify and help remove some of the key barriers to poverty-focused ICT for development, has been received with an overall positive appreciation, providing important ICT-focused support to development and poverty reduction, says a new study.

One of the perceived barriers to increased faculty involvement in online instruction is that it involves more time than traditional face-to-face courses, reports the SANTEC October 2003 Information Update. A study of three asynchronous online courses tried to determine the amount of time needed to teach them in terms of reading and responding to emails; reading, participating in, and grading online discussions; and grading assignments.

In Nigeria, the Internet may soon no longer be a phenomenon exclusive to urban communities. Using VSAT satellite communication systems, a government campaign plans to send buses from village to village, inviting people to use the Internet aboard.

Are you involved in an ICT initiative in Eastern Africa? The Kenya Civil Society WSIS Caucus with support from International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has established a database, http://www.kenya-wsis.org, to collate ICT initiatives in Eastern Africa to identify Eastern Africa ICT best practices.

Former South African President, Nelson Mandela, has launched a global fundraising campaign for HIV/Aids in Africa, Independent Online reports. The campaign is dubbed "46664 - give one minute of your life to stop Aids" and was launched in London on Tuesday. 46664 was Mandela's prison number during his incarceration on Robben Island. The campaign will use global telephone networks and the Internet to raise funds and awareness of the impact of Aids in Africa.

The media in Southern Africa is in the spotlight. News reports and publications are resounding with stories of media oppression, threats to press freedom as well as sensational headlines around accusations of plagiarism and unethical journalism.

The much vaunted respect for the freedom of the press in Nigeria did not make much impression on the World Press Freedom ranking of countries recently released by the Paris, France - based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The country was ranked 103rd of 166 countries. The ranking, which is the second by the group, listed North Korea at 166, as the worst violator of press freedom. Cuba was ranked second to the worst at 165 while China was near the bottom at 161.

Ken Opala from Kenya, an investigative journalist who reported on the inhumane and "horrid lives" of death row convicts, has scooped the gold medal in the 2003 Natali Prize - one of the world's leading awards for journalists. Ken Opala is also the winner of the regional prize for Africa. He and other top-class journalists from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America were honoured by the International Federation of Journalists and the European Commission at a special prize giving ceremony held at the International Press Centre Résidence Palace, in Brussels on 24 October 2003.

By 2050, the percentage of the world's children who are malnourished could drop dramatically from the current 31 percent to 11 percent, if policymakers respond to the global challenge of hunger. However, rates will drop only modestly if there are serious policy or technology failures in the next half-century. These new findings are from a paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research on October 29. "We have come to a major crossroads for the world food situation. Fifty years from now, one child in four could be suffering from chronic hunger, or it could drop to one child in ten. The outcome depends on decisions made now and in the next few years," said Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and lead author of the paper.