Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is in Senegal for talks which are expected to centre on the issue of illegal immigration.He may confirm reports that over the next two years some 4,000 Senegalese will be allowed to work in Spain. Spain's Canary Islands are a tempting destination for many Senegalese.

The executive arm of the Senegalese journalist union, Bureau Executive National (BEN), was forced to convene an emergency extra-ordinary session today to shame and condemn waves of death threats against their members in the country.

With only three months before the Presidential and legislative elections in Senegal, 80-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade is implementing strategies geared towards re-election to power. One such move is to incorporate four opposition members into his cabinet line-up. President Wade, who had earlier reshuffled his cabinet after some ministers decided to declare their candidacy to run for President, named the new cabinet on Thursday (23 November 2006).

The UN Population Fund is organizing a film festival in Dakar on gender-based violence. Filmmakers from around the continent of Africa have been invited to submit films and documentaries in English or French for a film festival devoted to ending endemic violence against women in Africa.

Filmmakers from around the continent are being invited to submit their films and documentaries for a film festival devoted to ending violence against women in Africa. UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, the Senegalese Government, donors, NGOs, civil society and other partners are joining forces to sponsor the four-day festival beginning 23 November.

Yayi Bayam Diouf says that for the past two months, she has managed to prevent any boats leaving her home area in Senegal, loaded with migrants trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands - making her campaign more effective than all the warships and planes sent to the Atlantic Ocean by the European Union. "Every morning I go to the seaside, I call many young fishermen and I start speaking to them," she says. She started her campaign after her only son drowned trying to reach the Canary Islands.

A low hum rises from a row of rough wooden shacks in the winding, sand-covered back streets of the Fass neighbourhood in Senegal's seaside capital, Dakar. More than 30 children, known as "talibe", sit on the dirty concrete floor of a daara, or religious school, chanting verses from the Koran in Arabic. These children are lucky -- they have been spared the worst abuses of a centuries-old system of religious education that some say has been perverted.

Refugees from Senegal's southern Casamance region continue to arrive in Gambian villages along the border. Over 800 arrived across the border between Senegal and Gambia during the second half of October, bringing the total to more than 6,200 Senegalese refugees in Gambia.

Fighting has lulled again between the Senegal army and rebel factions in the restive southern Senegal province Casamance, but analysts say West Africa’s longest running conflict is far from being resolved. Senegal’s army overran the main base of a faction of rebels it had been fighting since mid-August on 6 October, and there have been three further skirmishes between the army and rebels since then, army spokesman General Abdoulaye Fall told IRIN.

Kewe Thiam is the exception to the rule that most Senegalese girls don’t make it to high school. Sitting with a group of her peers, Thiam’s is the only female hand that shoots up, along with those of a dozen boys, when asked who among them goes to school. “The girls here want to go to school, but their parents don’t have the means. They can’t afford the inscription fees or the supplies,” says Thiam, 20, speaking for the girls around her who haven’t had the opportunity to learn French, the language of instruction in Senegal.

Despite the scarcity of information on the numbers, it is estimated that during 2005 more than 65% of the people displaced from their homes in the southern region of Casamance were able to return. This followed the signing in December 2004 of a peace agreement between the Senegalese government and the rebel group Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC) to end a conflict that started in 1982. However, increasing insecurity along the region's northwest border with the Gambia may have prevented some 12,400 other internally displaced people (IDPs) from going home.

In Africa the digital divide has prevented electronic delivery of lifelong learning. A programme in Senegal has shown that it is possible for educators to work with employers to establish a distance professional training scheme using appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The Technical Specialist based in CST Dakar will provide technical support to countries while the Coordinator of the Campaign for Africa based in New York will be responsible for the overall coordination of the campaign in Africa and report to Headquarters.

Two groups of 56 and 48 clandestine migrants were arrested in Dakar and Thies, east of Dakar, last week by Senegalese authorities. The arrests were the first involving non-African migrants in the country, who were attempting to make it to the Canary Islands from where they hoped to be allowed to stay in mainland Europe.

The third newsletter provides information about the recent Plan of Action meeting held in July 2006 in Dakar, celebrates some successful outcomes from recent calls for action, and details about our latest publications.

In the last decade, discussions on the effects of climate change have become more intense. They mostly focus on reducing emissions in industrialised nations, but learning how to adapt to climate change is equally important. What lessons can policymakers learn from experiences to date?

The CODESRIA Annual Social Science CampusCall for Applications for the 2006 Session Theme: The Role of Institutions in African Development The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the fifth session of its Annual Social Science Campus, and invites applications from African scholars for participation in the programme which, this year, is scheduled to hold at the end of November 2006.

On 1 March, 2005, the distinguished development economist and, as of the time of his death, member of the Executive Committee of CODESRIA, Professor Guy Mhone, passed away in a Pretoria, South Africa, hospital to which he had been admitted a few days earlier for what was expected to be a minor medical procedure.

In Africa the digital divide has prevented electronic delivery of lifelong learning. A programme in Senegal has shown that it is possible for educators to work with employers to establish a distance professional training scheme using appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The incumbent will serve as Deputy Chief of Party on a collaborative USAID-funded project that seeks to improve the health status of families in Senegal. S/he must have a minimum of 10 years overall experience implementing maternal and child health and family planning programmes in West Africa.