To get the economy of a developing country going, its government must stamp out corruption, ramp up efficiency and use open-source technology to build a cheap, reliable information infrastructure, experts at a conference sponsored by the United Nations told investors and policy-makers this week.

iEARN Sierra Leone, founded in 1999, is a member of the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN), a non-profit global network that enables young people to use the Internet and other new technologies to engage in collaborative educational projects. The core activity of iEARN Sierra Leone is the participation of young people and their teachers sharing their talents over the Internet. They create and participate in online projects covering a range of issues, including peace, human rights, conflict resolution and sustainable development.

The aim of this digest is to compile on a monthly basis the trends of violations on freedom of expression on the continent. It will be based on information gathered from partners within the IFEX network and elsewhere. The first part of the digest will highlight and summarize the regional trends and the second will take a closer look at legal dimension of one of the threats of the month. Email [email protected] for a copy of the digest.

The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday granted US $112,000 to assist flood victims in the Caprivi region of north-eastern Namibia. On 12 May 2003, floods caused by the Zambezi River bursting its banks submerged 22 villages in the Kabbe constituency of the Caprivi region, some 1,400 km north-east of the capital, Windhoek.

One of France's biggest ever corruption trials ended late Monday after four months of hearings, with top executives of the formerly state-owned oil company Elf Aquitaine facing prison terms of up to eight years. The executives are accused of presiding over a system of bribery and commissions that exploded out of control after Le Floch-Prigent took over the company in 1989 - with payments of millions to secure contracts in Africa and elsewhere.

Bukavu-based Radio Maendeleo in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been authorised to resume operations by the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), the Rwandan-backed rebel movement announced on Monday.

The Health Economics & HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) was established in 1998 as a research and teaching organisation. Heard all about it is the in-house publication of the division and is published quarterly. To receive this publication please send an email to [email protected] with the words `subscribe newsletter' in the subject line.

Daniel Nyirenda, photojournalist of the daily newspaper "The Nation", was on Monday severely beaten-up by suspected members of the ruling United Democratic Front youth wing at a mini-convention the party held in Blantyre, Malawi.

A conference of leading journalists, media lawyers and online news executives, held between June 26-28 in New York, endorsed a set of 16 principles representing fundamental guidelines for maintaining and protecting the freedom and independence of Internet news, and suggested actions to implement it.

Police personnel in Abuja on Tuesday assaulted journalists Funmi Komolafe, Labour Editor of "The Vanguard" newspaper, Rotimi Ajayi, also a reporter with "The Vanguard", and George Oshodi, photojournalist for the Associated Press (AP) news agency. Two others, Funmi Komolafe, a journalist with the "The Vanguard", and Ola Awoniyi, local correspondent for the Agence France-Presse (AFP), were earlier arrested and detained at the regional police headquarters before being released an hour later.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN says it is "deeply concerned" by the continued detention of three journalists on charges of "publishing false information and disturbing public order." The journalists concerned are Dimas Dzikodo and Philipe Evegno, editor-in-chief and publication director respectively of the weekly newspaper L'Evenement, and Jean de Dieu Kpakpabia, journalist with the weekly newspaper Nouvel Echo.

Michel Ngokpele, publication director of the Bangui-based newspaper "Le quotidien de Bangui", was sentenced on 26 June to six months' imprisonment with no parole for "defamation by means of the press"
and "incitement to ethnic hatred".

Although hopes were raised in the last week that new players would be allowed to enter the broadcasting arena before the end of the year, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) notes that this announcement comes nearly three years after the Supreme Court struck down a monopoly of the airwaves. "This delay brings into question Government’s commitment to allow new players into the broadcasting arena. Despite many calls by civic organisations for Government to revisit the Broadcasting Services Act to bring it into line with international norms and standards on freedom of expression, this has not happened."

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called for the release of two radio journalists, Abdurahman Mohamed Hudeyfi and Hussein Mohamed Gheedi, who have been held by the Mogadishu police since 30 June 2003.

The mission of the Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising: Education & Training is to raise the standard, ethics and skills of those raising much-needed funds in their communities and to encourage and support philanthropy in South Africa. With so many needs and worthy causes, so many people trying to attract funding for their cause is an onerous task. SAIF attempts to address this by running cost effective training courses to equip these people to use their resources and funds effectively. Visit their website for more details.

An online Northern Sotho-English dictionary has been launched by a group of academics called TshwaneDJe to promote interest in the official indigenous languages of South Africa. TshwaneDJe is an initiative of Professor Danie Prinsloo, who also heads up the African Languages department at the University of Pretoria, and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, a Belgian researcher of African languages. Together with David Joffe, who created the website AfricanLanguages.com, they hope to provide language reference and learning materials for the nine indigenous African languages in South Africa.

Ahead of President Bush’s first official trip to Africa next week, four leading advocacy organisations held a press briefing Wednesday to examine the current state of U.S. Africa policy. Africa Action, TransAfrica Forum, 50 Years is Enough and Foreign Policy in Focus hosted the briefing, in which a panel of African-American and African experts offered a critical analysis of Bush Administration policies on key issues in U.S. Africa relations. Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action said: "American unilateralism is at odds with African efforts to gain international cooperation to address the most urgent global priorities ­ such as AIDS, poverty and civil conflict ­ which have the most devastating consequences in Africa."

Police in Abuja this week arrested two journalists and beat up three others during union-led street protests against fuel price increases of more than 50 percent. In a letter to Police Inspector-General Tafa Balogun calling for a full investigation and the punishment of those responsible, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) said: "It is not normal for journalists covering demonstrations to be targeted in this fashion by police."

Amnesty International has condemned the confiscation of the 28 June edition and parts of the 29 June edition of the Sudanese independent daily Al-Sahafa by the country's security forces. "The Sudanese government and the National Security Agency must put an end to the confiscation or suspension of local newspapers. The intimidation and harassment of journalists with the attempt of restricting the freedom of the press must end," Amnesty International said.

The South African courts and the Truth and Reconciliation process largely failed to unravel the whole truth around apartheid atrocities, and this left people angry and disquieted, Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis said on Wednesday. Davis said the acquittal of apartheid-era chemical warfare expert Wouter Basson left people with the feeling that they had been "denied the truth".