Since 2001, the Bank has led an expansive programme to increase transparency and stimulate economic growth in the DRC’s mining sector. However, opaque sales of mining assets by state-owned mining companies led the Bank to suspend all new programmes in the DRC in late 2010. The Bank resumed lending in June last year when it judged the government to be in compliance. However, only a month later it came to light that state-owned mining companies had again been secretly selling stakes in mining operations, in one case at a sixteenth of their market price.

Greenpeace announced in Brussels recently that annual industry figures to be released early next week are expected to confirm the commercial failure of genetically modified (GM) food in Europe. Widespread public opposition and environmental concerns expressed by several European governments, scientists and farmers have made GM food a commercial flop in Europe, said Greenpeace. Only Spain saw a noticeable rise in cultivation in 2012, slightly increasing overall figures for Europe after three consecutive years of decline.

Twitter has announced a new partnership with major satellite providers to give their subscribers access to Twitter SMS, the original text-based Twitter service. According to a statement, the company has partnered with Iridium and Thuraya, the world’s two largest satellite providers, to increase the number of people that can use Twitter SMS worldwide. The company said the new partnership will help guarantee greater global access to the microblogging network.

Human Rights Watch has hailed Mali's plan to probe child labour in gold mines. 'Our research found that children in Mali start working as young as six years old. Many child laborers are denied an education or drop out of school. Some children come to the mines without their parents and suffer economic or sexual exploitation,' HRW said in a letter to the Minister of Mines, Amadou Cisse.

Nineteen people were killed in the country’s cholera outbreak last year. More than 300 people cases were reported, and an epidemic was declared on 30 September 2011. Though neighbouring countries, including Cameroon, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have experienced outbreaks over the past decade, the Central African Republic had not seen a cholera case in as many as a dozen years. Today, the cholera outbreak is finally on the decline.

This Amnesty International briefing shows that the governments whose exported military equipment have over the years turned up at the site of serious human rights violations in Darfur - including Belarus, the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation - continue to supply those kinds of equipment to Sudan on a regular basis. The main ‘suite’ of arms used in Darfur by all parties to the conflict has been supplied to Sudan by this key group of state suppliers almost every year since the UN Security Council (UN SC) imposed an UN arms embargo on Darfur on 30 July 2004.

A Guinean court has filed charges against a top army officer over the killing of scores of protesters and mass rape of women during a 2009 demonstration against military rule, rights groups said. Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara, secretary of state in charge of fighting organised crime, is the highest-level official yet to be charged over the massacre, one of bloodiest events in the West African state's history.

The event entices filmmakers to enhance skills, develop collaborations and interface with the dynamic future of the film industry in Africa and the world.

Libya’s foreign minister says the interim government cannot stop Libyans from joining the Syrian uprising, as Tripoli takes the hardest line in the Arab world against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. On Thursday 8 February, Libya’s transitional government gave Syrian diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, just days after it handed the Syrian embassy in Tripoli to the opposition Syrian National Council – the first country to take this step.

Leader of the opposition John Tembo has said president Bingu wa Mutharika’s remarks on Friday 3 February when he opened the 43rd session of parliament offered no hope for a nation that is economically struggling. Mutharika had said he will offer concrete proposals to the present problems in May and also appealed to the IMF to give his administration three years to resolve the economic crisis. Mutharika has already been criticised for failing to provide proposals and measures to deal with the current problems Malawi is facing and many question his three year 'grace period' request when no tangible proposal has been seen in the past two years since many problems started to appear.

A renowned journalist was humiliated and beaten by security guards manning South Sudan’s National Assembly on Monday, eye witnesses told Sudan Tribune. Mading Ngor, host of the popular ’Wake Up Juba’ show on Bakhita FM, was roughed up by at least four security men and wrestled to the ground in front of other journalists. Only when a MP intervened was he let go by the security services.

The government is contemplating to open doors for Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs) in a decision expected to attract more international partners in the bio-technology industry. Addressing an international conference in Dar es Salaam, Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Prof Jumanne Maghembe said the country had no other option but to welcome the new technology. The national discussion on whether to allow GMOs is currently between the ministry of Agriculture and the Vice President's Office with a debate on safety legislation protecting farmers and consumers and whether to remove a contestable clause (strict liability clause) in the bio safety regulatory framework.

The TAC and SECTION27 have sent an open letter to the High Commissioner to India for South Africa to highlight their urgent concerns with final negotiations for the EU-India Free Trade Agreement. They are concerned about provisions for the scale up of intellectual property, pushed by the European Union, in an impending EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the impact of these provisions on the health of people across the developing world.

The Arabic Network of Human Rights Information has condemned the Mauritanian authorities for their inexplicable detention of Wan Biran, activist and coordinator Do Not Touch My Nationality movement, on 4 February as he was visiting his brother in the National Hospital. Do No Touch My Nationality is a movement that rejects racism and demands full equality between citizens. The movement also rejects the exclusion of colored people from the administrative statistics now done by the authorities in Mauritania, which distinguishes citizens on the basis of their skin color.

The South African government might consider supporting sanctions against Israel as it explores a variety of peaceful methods to step up support for the Palestinians’ fight for freedom and independence. We want to step up our support of the Palestinians and are investigating a number of peaceful ways to upgrade this support. We have no problem with supporting the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel,' Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile told The New Age.

Somalia President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has announced the government's plan to establish 100 schools in the capital Mogadishu. Several countries and institutions have expressed willingness to offer development assistance to Somalia, especially after the militants of Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group, were largely driven out of Mogadishu.

Egyptian judges probing alleged illegal foreign funding of non-governmental organisations accused domestic and foreign groups on Wednesday of illegally meddling in politics, further straining ties with key ally Washington. The judge said December raids on 17 NGO offices as part of a probe into illegal funding had been conducted 'according to the law'.

Former Liberian rebel leader George Boley is to be deported from the US over his role in the West African country's civil war in the 1990s. A US judge said evidence that the ex-Liberian Peace Council leader had been involved in killings and recruited children was grounds for his removal. Mr Boley, who has been in custody for two years, denies the accusations.

The recent outbreak of typhoid within the capital city, Harare, has brought with it immeasurable stress to both communities and the still-unwholesome public health delivery system, says this Financial Gazette article, which places the blame at the door of the local authorities. '...the outbreak of typhoid, whose casualties so far number close to 2,000 in the capital alone, exposes the delinquency ravaging our local authorities, particularly the Harare City Council where, despite the fact that rates and other services are being paid for in US dollars thanks to a hard currency regime adopted 2009, services still remain pathetic...'

The R7 billion (US$879 million) Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) payout to Swaziland for the 2012-13 financial year could keep King Mswati III's tottering government afloat for much of this year. Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has been tight lipped on what the Sacu windfall will be used for. Southern Africa Report says there is 'good reason to suppose that Mswati will squander much of it on resuscitating his large vanity construction projects, among them a second international airport and royal technology park, as well as private investment schemes to boost his already bloated state earnings.'