The Guardian reports that for 48 turbulent hours she was the victim of a conspiracy that left the future of Malawi hanging in the balance. Then Joyce Banda made a critical phone call to the head of the army, asking if she could rely on his support. He said yes. And at that moment her place in history was assured. In the interview, she revealed the inside story of how Mutharika's sudden death pushed Malawi to the precipice of a coup. By 6 April, the news had spread worldwide yet there was still no official confirmation inside Malawi itself. The cabinet met secretly in an attempt to thwart Banda and install Mutharika's brother, Peter, as acting president.

Labour on May Day threatened to mobilise Nigerians for another street protest if the Federal Government fails to implement the report of the Farouk Lawan-led committee on the probe of the fuel subsidy. The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar, who issued the threat in his goodwill message to the May Day celebration in Ibadan, Oyo State, also accused the government of an alleged plans to outlaw strikes.

While it is a recognised universal fact that eliminating gender inequality and achieving women’s empowerment are paramount to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, progress with implementation of the MDGs is the slowest in those areas that depend most heavily on improving the status of women and girls. The Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) held a seminar titled 'Uniting parliamentary efforts to end violence against women in Africa' to discuss the important role parliaments can and do play in ending violence against women in Africa. Besides being an opportunity to learn, meet and develop new projects, this seminar also served as a base for a parliamentary resolution and two parliamentary guidelines on FGM/C and UNSC Resolutions 1325.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has expressed deep concern about current or recent moves in a number of countries to curtail the freedom of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society actors to operate independently and effectively. Pillay noted that freedom of association is under increasing pressure in many countries across the world. 'Freedom of association is the lifeblood of NGOs,' she said. 'Systemic legal or administrative attempts to curtail their activities can be very damaging.'

Parliament has passed a law that spells out the punishment for torture - 15 years imprisonment or a fine of Shs 7.2m upon conviction. It is intended to define and criminalize torture, and provide for sanctions and compensation in case of the offence of torture, and regulate the use of information obtained through torture.

The world’s recent financial and political upheavals have not been kind to women. In Libya’s Tripoli, female suicide rates increased tenfold during the revolution, while dismal job prospects have young Greek women abandoning their career aspirations, participants in a global forum on women’s rights said over the weekend. 'Many people say this is a time for transformation and moving forward but we know from our work that it’s also a time of instability and uncertainty,' Jamaican activist Mariama Williams, a senior programme officer at the South Centre, said at the closing session of the 12th International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development in Istanbul.

The traditional farming methods of smallholder farmers – which, researchers say, also help to fight soil depletion, reduce irrigation needs and adapt to climate change – may soon disappear. They are being wiped out by governments focused on promoting commercial monocultures that they hope will bring fast, high yields in order to boost national agricultural sales on global markets.

The Land Matrix is an online public database of large-scale land deals. It provides a visualisation of records documenting land deals since 2000. The data you can explore represent about 50 per cent of the entire data base. The remaining deals are being crosschecked and added, together with new data provided, on an on-going basis. The visualisations offer overview of the data as well as giving full access to the public database down to the level of an individual deal.

In this episode of Africa Today, Walter Turner interviews Anuradha Mittal from the Oakland Institute on land grabs in Africa and speaks with Kambele Musavuli from Friends of the Congo on resource exploitation and contemporary developments in the DRC.

With a recent report detailing corruption in the fuel subsidy system, a symposium is planned to address the issues and map out a plan of action on the imperative of accountability and probity
on how the collective state resources must and should be managed.

The partners leading the efforts to control measles have announced a new global strategy aimed at reducing measles deaths and congenital rubella syndrome to zero. According to a joint statement made available to PANA, the announcement comes with the publication of new data using a state-of-the-art methodology showing that accelerated efforts to reduce measles deaths have resulted in a 74 per cent reduction in global measles mortality, from an estimated 535,300 deaths in 2000 to 139,300 in 2010.

Four senior judges in Kenya have been declared unfit for office in a landmark ruling by a new committee investigating the impartiality of the judiciary. The vetting panel was set up as part of the deal to end post-election violence in 2008 when it was agreed to reform political and judicial institutions. Five other judges were cleared. The four told they are unfit to continue have seven days to appeal.

Sonke Gender Justice has launched a new publication, 'Mapping the Legal Framework to Prevent Sexual Violence & HIV in South Africa’s Correctional Facilities.' Sexual violence and HIV and AIDS are key areas of concern for Sonke, as inmates experience both at heightened proportions. HIV and sexual violence are inherently linked, particularly in South Africa’s prisons where external estimates for HIV range between 40-60 per cent.

Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), Citizens’ Manifesto Coordination Office, Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform (UGMP) and Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), said the debate to restore term limits should not be partisan because it affects the whole country. 'It is unfortunate that the NRM party organs are making an attempt to trivialise an issue of national importance to a partisan conversation. All Ugandans who have suffered at the hands of political instability and uncertainty know that the issue of presidential term limits is colourless.'

In two days of consecutive protest, Egyptian youth continued to demand the release of human rights lawyer, Al Gizawi, who is detained in Saudi Arabia for allegedly defaming its monarchy. The human rights lawyer is particularly contentious due to a lawsuit he filed in Egypt against King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz over alleged arbitrary detention of hundreds of Egyptians.

Two of the world's biggest mining companies endured a barrage of protests as a broad coalition of unions, individuals, social and environmental groups from as far afield as South Africa and Mongolia travelled to London for Rio Tinto and Anglo American's annual meetings. At Anglo American's AGM, the miner came under fire amid allegations its South African subsidiary is responsible for cases of silicosis and tuberculosis in the country contracted between the 1960s and 1990s. About 1,200 former gold miners suffering the lung diseases are bringing a case against it in the High Court in London next month.

This issue brief from the International Peace Institute provides a brief overview of the legal, political, and operational frameworks protecting children from the effects of armed conflict, notably from violations by nonstate armed groups. It explores some of the limitations of these frameworks and their mechanisms, and then discusses ways to maximize the comparative advantages of different actors when engaging nonstate armed groups to improve the protection of children’s rights.

King Mswati III of Swaziland has received a luxury jet as a gift from 'anonymous sponsors', a government spokesperson has confirmed to the BBC. The DC-9 twin-engine aircraft is for the use of the king and his 13 wives, Percy Simelane said. Swazi's banned opposition party says taxpayer money must have been used to buy it, but Mr Simelane denies this.

Despite the escalating aerial bombardment deep into her territories, South Sudan has called for resumption of talks with Sudan to resolve the outstanding issues that include demarcation of the fragile borders, status of Abyei and security. Meanwhile, in Beijing, South Sudan’s leader accused Sudan of declaring war as Khartoum’s warplanes bombed border regions in defiance of international calls for restraint.

Thousands of people took to Cairo's Tahrir Square 20 April to protest against the handling of the nation's transition period by the ruling military council following the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak. The demonstrators called for a quick exit of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and that officials from the ousted president's government be barred from May's upcoming presidential election.