The Map-the-World and Map-Maker teams at Google have been making some major, and much needed, additions for Africa. With a large data push yesterday, Google Maps has one of the most impressive sets of maps on Africa that you can find. There are now 27 more African countries that now have detailed maps.

Reporters Without Borders has voiced its concern for journalist Sylvia Blyden, forced into hiding after receiving death threats, and for Umaru Sitta Turay, who suffered a vicious knife attack. Both journalists were targeted for attack because they had allegedly “libelled” Sierra Leone’s president, the worldwide press freedom organisation said, urging the head of state to call off the “witch-hunt” against them.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from an interview by Violet Gonda with Zimbabwean analysts Raftopoulos and Alex Magaisa, reflecting on the first 100 days of the unity government in Zimbabwe, passed earlier this month. Results continued ambiguous this week, as the MDC headed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formally appealed to the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to intervene to resolve remaining roadblocks to implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Discord continued for a second week between the leadership of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) and other union members over recent allegations of poor representation, raising concerns that the conflict would negatively affect the country's press industry if left unresolved.

The Ghanaian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the interconnection of fibre optic networks with Burkina Faso to enhance communications between the two west African neighbours. The Ghanaian communications minister has said the signing of the MOU is in line with the commitment of ECOWAS member states to foster economic integration.

2009 is the year of the Big Change. Cheaper and more abundant international fibre capacity will come to East Africa and 2010 will see the same happen in West Africa. New cross-border fibre connections will tie more countries together: two announcements are in the news sections below. But Africa is in danger of getting all the pipes and hardware in place and missing out on thinking about the user and the services and applications they might use.

Repeated promises by the unity government to reform the repressive media environment in Zimbabwe are proving hollow, with no evidence of any action being taken to ensure media freedom. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday said there have been “significant improvements in media freedom in the country,” during an announcement on the outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement. But improvements, in the form of pledges, are not translating into action.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the arrest of two senior independent journalists by police in Harare over a story about the alleged involvement of state security agents in the abduction and torture last year of human rights activists, journalists and members of the opposition.

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has resolved most disagreements but remains deadlocked on the appointments of the central bank governor and the attorney general, the Prime Minster said on Thursday. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) would be approached to mediate over the disputed posts.

Amid concerns on the safety of genetically-modified cro ps and the cost of acquiring GM seeds by the largely peasant African farmers, the debate over the acceptability of biotechnology continues to rage in Uganda, just it does in most parts of Africa. Supporters of biotechnology said it offered Africa the best chance of guarding against food insecurity because it enhances agricultural productions.

Women in Mauritania who press charges for sexual assault face the risk of jail time because of poorly defined laws and stigma that criminalise victims rather than offenders, according to a local UN-funded non-profit. The subject of rape is still so taboo in Mauritania that there is no mention of it in the law and the word is absent from government documents, according to the NGO Mauritanian Association for Maternal and Child Health, based in the capital Nouakchott.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned an attempted murder of the editor of the independent Arab-language daily, El Wattan, and radio presenter Mohamed Ould Zeine in Mauritania. Mr Ould Zeine was allegedly attacked by two men with baseball bats and knives on the evening of 12 May. He reportedly suffered very serious injuries to his left hand.

The two Zimbabwean journalists arrested on Monday were detained on the orders of the Attorney-General, Johannes Tomana, the Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa has revealed. Mutsekwa's revelation is contained in the Parliamentary Hansard in response to a Member of the House of Assembly, Blessing Chebundo's inquiry.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the threats and intimidations against journalists in Somalia after the head of an Islamic militia group in Somalia warned journalists against reports which are critical of the movement. “We condemn this climate of terror and intimidation against journalists in Somalia,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office. “It is against press freedom and ethical journalism to interfere in journalists’ work.”

Over one thousand registered participants and speakers are looking forward to this year’s eLearning Africa conference in Dakar! Taking place from May 27th – 29th, this conference is THE event in the field of ICT-supported learning and training! High-level participants from ministries, organisations and companies from all over the world are coming to Dakar. Don’t miss out on this unique conference and the chance to network and share the latest on learning and technology.

Gambia has rejected a joint United Nations-Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) report on the alleged murder of more than 50 West African nationals, including 44 Ghanaians, in the Gambia in 2005, which dem a nded compensation be paid to the relatives of the victims. According to Ghana’s foreign minister Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, the report of the committee prepared after eight months of investigations was presented to the two countries in Abuja, Nigeria, on Monday.

The Storymoja Blog has been off schedule for a while, due to the unfortunate illness of one of the editors. We are back now, with a few changes. The blog stories will go up every Monday.Please send in your stories before each Friday at 4pm. This will allow the editors to read, choose and edit the stories that will go up on the blog on Monday. All stories on the blog will be considered for nomination to the Story of the Week. The editors will make their comments and all readers will have a chance to vote for the story of their choice. The story with the most votes will be awarded the STORY OF THE WEEK crown and will be posted on
both the blog front as well as the Storymoja website.

The much anticipated lawsuit against the British government for the atrocities committed against freedom fighters in Kenya during the colonial period will be filed next month. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has instructed London-based solicitors, Leigh Day & Co to commence the process. If successful, it would lead to the compensation of the surviving freedom fighters.

Despite the international regulations to prevent electronic waste from being dumped in developing countries, mountains of western e-waste are rising higher in Africa. Especially Ghana and Nigeria have emerged as new target countries for our used electronics. The implications of this waste industry are shocking for both environment and human health.

Following reports of federal government plans to repossess temporary housing from Katrina victims, the has called for the Obama administration to reverse this decision and provide those affected with substantive directive support.