ALISON, the online learning website, has officially announced the release of a new free online course on how to create your very own Podcasts. The course is ideal for anyone looking to record and share audio and video podcasts with others over the web.

Google has launched Google Voice Search in South Africa to enable internet users to use their natural voice to speak into their cell phones for Google searches. Google senior staff engineer Johan Schalkwyk has said 'you speak into your phone and it sends your voice over the network where it's analyzed and you get your search results.'

When Oussama Benjelloun was a child, he wrote to Majid magazine about his ambition to become famous. He never heard back. Now the 26-year-old has realised his childhood dream by entering the world of media. His gateway to fame came by starting a blog. Today, Maghreb viewers can find him on Nessma TV, where he hosts a segment on new developments concerning the internet.

Radio Horseed Media FM director Abdifatah Jama Mire has been released after 86 days of detention in Bosaso, in the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland. Sentenced to six years in prison for broadcasting an interview with the head of a rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda, he was pardoned by Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the mistreatment of Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the blog name of Kareem Amer. The detained blogger should have been freed on 5 November on completing a four-year jail sentence. Kareem Amer was transferred from Burj Al Arab prison to Alexandria on 6 November with the apparent aim of releasing him. But last night, an official reportedly gave him a severe beating at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria. Detained since 6 November 2006, he has been held illegally for the past four days.

The BBC website is encouraging comments from its readers on whether social media outlets such as Facebook, Youtube and blogs are having an impact on politics in Africa? The post points out that a rap record using the voice of Uganda's President Museveni is currently proving popular on websites like youtube. But a reader raises concern about whether such use of social media sidelines the real meaning of what political campaigning should be about. 'Instead of raising awareness of ideals to be fulfilled, and issues to be overcome, the parties are busy churning out entertainment schedules instead.'

African academies are still battling to obtain funding and recognition from policymakers despite several efforts to strengthen them. This message came out of the sixth meeting of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) taking place in Somerset West near Cape Town, South Africa, this week (7–11 November).

A group of journalists arrested in Libya have been released on the order of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan media report. Authorities had arrested 19 journalists and a senior media executive, reportedly as part of a power struggle inside the ruling elite.

Software piracy is becoming unnecessary. Open source software packages are becoming as user-friendly and adding as many features as proprietary packages - even in scientific circles. Africa should embrace open source scientific software, argues this article.

Soon all information on bananas in Africa, including the banana growing areas, yield, socio-economic status of the farmers and spread of pests and diseases, will be available on a scientist-driven online dictionary. The website (http://banana.mappr.info), developed by Philippe Rieffel a student of applied geography at the University of Münster, Germany, under supervision of scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), hopes to make a wide range of reliable spatial information on banana readily available to researchers, policy makers and development workers.

The Angola Monitor covers the politics, economics, development, democracy and human rights of Angola. It is published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). This issue covers Angola's progress in measures of poverty and governance, forced evictions and housing demolitions, international cooperation and the latest economic developments.

The government's contentious draft Protection of Information Bill will threaten whistleblowers trying to root out corruption, says Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. 'Cosatu is committed to free expression... I believe that the Protection of Information Bill as currently drafted clearly breaches these laws,' he told a gathering hosted by The Daily Maverick in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation.

Developed by Jidaw Systems Limited, a ICT training, consulting and web content provision firm in Nigeria, the Nigeria Computers blog is a public online resource for Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) in Nigeria. With an aim to promote ICT4D in Nigeria, the blog will provide information, insights and opportunities to network. The blog’s focus on ICT4D content is geared towards ICT for job creation, business development, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and poverty alleviation.

'We, the undersigned journalists and freedom of expression organisations, express to you and your administration our deepest concern at the worsening media freedom situation in the north-eastern regions of Somalia that are controlled by Puntland. Since you assumed the office of Puntland President on 11 January 2009, journalists have been arrested, physically assaulted, suspended, censored and even killed, and the operations of news media organisations have been threatened, closed or restricted.'

Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation. 'We are concerned by the fact that the victims all work for critical or opposition news media,' Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said in the letter, sent on 28 October. 'The level of violence is very disturbing. The physical safety of journalists is in danger. We are alarmed by the gravity of these attacks.'

How are we to understand Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to power? What does the movement which propelled him to power represent? And why has he not fulfilled the promises of his election campaign? Wazir Mohamed reviews a new book by Horace Campbell that seeks to answer these questions.

Issue 51, 29 October 2010 of the South Bulletin, produced by the South Centre focuses on key issues missing from the G20 Agenda. Articles deal with recent emerging issues in the global economy – the currency chaos, volatile capital flows, and a new protectionism in the U.S. The Bulletin also reports on:
- The slow progress in the UNFCCC climate talks in Tianjin, China;
- The South Centre’s conference and Board meeting in China;
- Impact of the global economic crisis on LDCs; and
- Yasuni initiative to leave oil in the ground to fight climate change

Like the massive death toll inflicted by the earthquake last January, the cholera outbreak in Haiti is not some natural disaster, but rather the product of desperate poverty created by centuries of imperialist oppression, says this World Socialist Web Site article. Haitian and international officials reported Sunday that the death toll from the outbreak of cholera had reached 337, with over 4,000 confirmed cases of the disease, mostly in the central and northern part of the Caribbean nation.

The Moroccan government has suspended all operations by the pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera in the country for allegedly failing to follow the 'rules of serious and responsible journalism'. The Qatar-based network condemned the decision and said its editorial guidelines would not be affected by the closure of its bureau in Rabat and the withdrawal of accreditation for its local staff.