A Moroccan soldier on a motorbike who struck and killed a Sahrawi pedestrian has not been prosecuted for his actions.

One of the striking features of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is that it is mainly being signed by Western/'developed' countries, says this post from ACTA is the last-gasp attempt of the US and the EU to preserve their intellectual monopolies. Much of the challenge to the old order is coming from the BRICS group of emerging countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Of those, the one in the vanguard of adopting innovative approaches to making knowledge widely accessible in the Internet age is Brazil. One of these approaches is a draft bill for a civil rights-based framework for the Internet.

On 22 September, a shocking study from Oxfam International provided the evidence and insight on how the World Bank, coupled with the United Nations, used the carbon credit scheme introduced by Al Gore, and other green advocates, to literally rob landowners in the country of Uganda of their property, and even bringing about the death of a child when they burned down homes and villages. All so that a grove of trees could be planted on that land.

Sierra Leone's opposition parties have announced an indefinite suspension of their participation in parliament, citing 'attacks on democracy' they say are being perpetrated by the governing All Peoples Congress (APC) party of President Ernest Bai Koroma. Among other things, they demanded the 'immediate' lifting of a ban by the police on political processions, rallies and public meetings.

In August, SA's minister of water affairs and Lesotho's minister of natural resources signed an official agreement to implement Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). The LHWP has been fraught with problems since the treaty was signed in 1986, says this article from Business Day, which
notes that there are good reasons why the public should be paying more attention to the huge development and that there are better alternatives to building more huge dams in Lesotho.

Government has secured 300 acres of land to set up a multi-functional prison for terror suspects.
The disclosure was made by the Commissioner General of Prisons, Dr. Johnson Byabashaija. He said the new detention centre would also accommodate cyber crime suspects and drug traffickers.

As Occupy Wall Street protests in the US enter their fourth week, the size of the crowd has begun to grow. 'But as the nascent movement gathers steam, struggles and problems are apparent. Is their message clear enough? Who is their leader? How long can they last, camped out in a concrete park as the weather chills? Who will control it?'

Thousands of Americans have non-violently occupied Wall Street - an epicentre of global financial power and corruption. You can sign a petition in support of the movement: 'If millions of us from across the world stand with them, we'll boost their resolve and show the media and leaders that the protests are part of a massive mainstream movement for change.'

In 2011 Global Witness visited 67 communities in three provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This short film tells the stories of the people they met, who are impacted by the expansion of industrial-scale logging. A pattern of similarly devastating outcomes emerges. This film was shown at the World Bank’s annual meeting in Washington DC, September 2011. The World Bank is undertaking a review of its forest policies, such as those implemented in the DRC.

AFRODAD has published a new report entitled ' Ecological Debt: the case of Tanzania'. The report interrogates and defines the concept of ecological debt, it traces the origins and applicability of the concept in Africa and more specifically in Tanzania, it identified the fact that repayment of Third World financial debt is having destructive effects on natural environments.

President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire is determined to apprehend compatriots he accuses of committing crimes during the country’s protracted post-election crisis. The position bumps against his other declared quest for national reconciliation. When he arrived in Accra on an official visit on 6 October, President Ouattara sought to proclaim national reconciliation but at the same time pushed for the arrest and repatriation to Cote d’Ivoire of persons who have been indicted for war crimes. Earlier, his foreign minister, Mr Daniel Kablan Duncan, had signed a tripartite agreement with Ghana and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of the approximately 18,000 Ivorian refugees.

South Africa’s Home Affairs department has notified Zimbabwean authorities that it is resuming the removal of illegal immigrants after lifting a special moratorium which has been in place since May 2009. South Africa had given Zimbabwean immigrants, estimated in the millions, a 31 December 2010 deadline to regularise their stay but just 275,762 submitted work permit applications which were decided by 31 July.

Al Jazeera is carrying a four-part documentary series on the global financial crash. The documentaries examine what caused banks to stop lending, the true causes of the crisis and what is being done to prepare for the next crisis.

The UN Security Council has called on the African Union (AU) to urgently increase the strength of its peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) to its mandated level of 12,000 to enable it to better carry out its UN-authorised mandate to stabilize the war-torn country. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body also extended AMISOM’s authorisation until 31 October 2012, and called on UN member states and regional and international organisations to provide additional equipment, technical aid and funding to the enlarged force.

The involvement of men is key to the success of the gender-equality movement, but changing long-held social structures and convincing men of the importance of equal opportunities for women will not happen overnight, experts say. 'Men giving up their superior position is akin to acting out of the normative or prescribed way and [means men can be] ridiculed for acting differently - not like men,' Maria Magezi, programme officer with the NGO, Akina Mama wa Afrika, told IRIN in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Some of Egypt’s Public Transit Authority (PTA) workers returned to work 4 October, after striking for two weeks. Workers from the Giza and Imbaba transit garages have remained on strike, however. The workers were on strike to demand fair wages and better work conditions.

The ECOWAS Community Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on 26 September adjourned indefinitely its hearing over applications for the review of two landmark judgements brought before by it by Gambian authorities involving two Gambian journalists. The first relates to the illegal arrests and torture of Musa Saidykahn, a former editor-in-chief of the banned The Independent newspaper. In the second case, the Gambian government was ordered to release Chief Ebrima Manneh, a foreign editor of the privately-owned, pro-government the Daily Observer newspaper and compensate him. Costs were awarded against the authorities in both cases.

Three former Anglo American workers who were left destitute and devastated by lung disease acquired in their line of work have expressed their desire for justice, reports The New Age Online. Wilson Mafulwane, Daniel Thakamakau and Alpheos Blom form part of hundreds of former Anglo American workers who are squaring up against the global mining giant in a court battle domiciled in Johannesburg and London. Their course closely resembles the Cape PLC case where 7,500 South African asbestos miners successfully sued for more than £21m (about R268m) in a London court.

Thousands of people are held in immigration detention in the Middle East and North Africa on any given day. This practice is expensive, can harm the health and wellbeing of those detained and has been found to be ineffective at deterring irregular migrants. To address this growing human rights issue, the first-ever regional workshop on immigration detention was held in Beirut recently by the International Detention Coalition (IDC) with the assistance of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).

Botswana and Namibia are set to lose preferential access to the European Union, which wants African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign controversial free trade agreements within two years or face potential loss of market access to the 27-member EU bloc. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are contested because countries fear unfair competition from the EU market. Brussels has finally set an ultimatum for the talks: a total of 18 out of 36 countries that have not yet concluded or implemented an EPA now have till 1 January 2014 to do so, reports IPS.