Uganda's hard stance on homosexuality and the possible introduction of legislation that would call for the death penalty for homosexuals led to a heated debate at the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, North of Johannesburg. The House had taken time off to pay tribute to Uganda as it celebrated 50 years of independence but as praises and congratulatory messages poured in, a remark by South African opposition MP Santosh Vinita Kalyan challenging Uganda government's hostility towards homosexuality momentarily changed the momentum of the debate.

Sierra Leone’s international partners and citizens are paying close attention to possible threats to peace ahead of presidential, parliamentary and local elections scheduled for 17 November, which it is hoped will consolidate stability a decade after the end of a civil war and lead to improved living standards. Campaigns are intensifying, especially between historical rivals the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), now in opposition. These are the country’s third elections since the war was declared over.

Turkey is the newest country to intervene in Somalia and its involvement has produced some positive results. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s courageous visit to Mogadishu in August 2011 at the height of the famine and his decision to open an embassy gave fresh impetus to efforts to establish lasting peace, says this briefing from the International Crisis Group.

South African Human Rights Commission has decided to go ahead with its own investigation into human rights abuses at Marikana, despite the strong misgivings expressed by Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice. The commission, which met the committee to discuss the matter a month ago, has decided it 'will continue with our investigation into allegations of human rights abuses'. It said it had received two complaints to trigger this action: one from a nongovernmental organisation ; and another referred by the public protector. The complainants cannot be named unless they choose to reveal their identity.

Nairobi's Kenyatta University has opened a campus in the north-east town of Dadaab and courses will be open to Kenyan citizens and refugees living in the nearby refugee complex, the world's biggest with almost half-a-million people. UNHCR officials working in Dadaab attended the formal opening of the tertiary education facility, which will welcome its first students in January for diploma, undergraduate and master's courses in subjects such as finance, marketing, project management, education, public administration, community mobilization, peace and conflict studies.

Oil and gas are likely to play an ever more prominent role in Ghana’s fast-growing economy following new discoveries both in the Jubilee field and the Tano Basin. Italian giant Eni, made a major discovery last month in the offshore Cape Three Points block, some 50 kilometres from the coast. Eni is continuing to drill other wells to confirm the feasibility of commercial development, but the production test revealed that this new well is capable of producing about 5,000 high quality barrels of oil per day (bpd).

Since the Patriotic Front government of President Michael Sata took power in 2011, several operations have destroyed dwellings deemed illegal. The previous government, helmed by President Rupiah Banda, was perceived as soft on corruption; its party supporters accused of displacing legal land owners to sell their land. In September 2012 about 100 middle-class houses were pulled down in Lusaka. Over 50 houses were demolished in the Zamtan shanty area of Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, and in Eastern Province, about 100 houses in a forest reserve of the provincial capital, Chipata, have been identified for destruction.

The Egyptian doctors' strike is entering its 'decisive week', the strike's general committee said. The doctors began an open-ended strike on 1 October to demand better working conditions and an increase in the healthcare budget. The committee confirmed its commitment to abide by decisions of the Doctors' Syndicate's general assembly and to ignore decisions by the syndicate's leadership which is 'simply against the strike'.

The extraction of the much needed water from a large underground aquifer in northern Namibia may need to wait for further studies, officials have warned at a water investment conference. The aquifer, discovered in July, may contain enough water to sustain about one million people living in the area for 400 years at the current consumption rate, as well as boost development through irrigation in this poor, heavily overgrazed area where women and children walk for hours to get fresh water from boreholes.

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria visited several communities in Kogi, Edo, Cross River, Benue and Delta States inundated by waters and have issued their findings in a special report available on their website. Excessive rains are believed to have caused the overflow of dams and the flooding thereof of communities along the banks of River Niger and Benue in Nigeria. The floods have led to destruction of farmlands across the affected states, complete inundation of hundreds of communities, loss of property in unquantifiable sums and about 104 deaths going by official statistics from the Nigerian government.

Egypt's authorities have used an attack on the Egyptian military in Sinai last August as a pretext to start a campaign to destroy tunnels into Gaza. So far over 120 tunnels have been blown up or filled in. This photo essay shows how the tunnels are used to get essential supplies into Gaza.

Distrust of foreigners has increased in South Africa in the four years since a wave of xenophobic violence swept the country. Some 67 percent of South Africans say they do not trust foreigners at all, compared to 60 percent in 2008, survey findings released this week revealed. The survey, by independent research project Afrobarometer and the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, found that nearly a third of the 2,400 respondents would take action to prevent migrants from moving into their neighbourhood and 36 percent would try to stop them from operating businesses.

Reporters Without Borders says it is concerned about the increasing violations of freedom of news and information in Morocco. Some journalists, such as Ali Lmrabet, are targets of sustained harassment for criticizing certain political leaders or for tackling subjects that directly or indirectly affect King Mohammed. 'Moroccan journalists must be allowed to work freely,' the press freedom organization said. 'Abuses committed by some elements of the security and intelligence services are a cause for concern. We call on the Moroccan government and local authorities in Tetouan to do all in their power to protect Ali Lmrabet and put an end to the campaign of harassment that the journalist is suffering for simply exercising freedom of expression.'

The UK government is bracing itself for thousands of legal claims from people who were imprisoned and allegedly mistreated during the final days of the British empire after the high court in London ruled that three elderly Kenyans detained and tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion have the right to sue for damages. The court rejected claims that too much time had elapsed since the seven-year insurgency in the 1950s, and it was no longer possible to hold a fair trial.

Anglo-Dutch oil and gas super major, Shell, will appear in a Dutch court to account for damage it caused in Nigeria. This is the first time in history, an European company is appearing in a Dutch court. Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) made this known to AkanimoReports in an online statement.

Whereas there are various causes of a breakdown in mental health, LGBT persons have been known to suffer serious mental health breakdowns on account of their sexuality and identities and the expression of the same thereof. Several studies suggest that gay men, lesbians and bisexuals appear to have higher rates of some mental disorders compared with heterosexuals. Discrimination may help fuel these higher rates.

With a couple of clicks, a photo appeared on the Burundian human rights activist’s computer screen: a hillside; a prone, male body, its severed head lying next to it; another man, naked, sitting, ankles and wrists bound, still alive when the photo was taken but since deceased; the uniformed legs of several other men, allegedly police, standing over the scene; the back of a jeep-type vehicle. 'This is reality,' said Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, chairman of the Association for the Protection of Human and Prisoners’ Rights, in his small Bujumbura office, adding that the photo was taken in April 2011.

At least 35 people were killed on Monday when Nigerian soldiers opened fire after a bomb blast struck their convoy in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, nurses at the hospital that received the bodies said. The nurses in the Umaru Shehu hospital said 30 of the dead were in civilian clothes, while another five wore military uniforms.

The UN refugee agency has for the first time issued guidelines for UNHCR staff and other aid workers on how to identify and support male victims of rape and other sexual violence in conflict and displacement situations. The new publication, compiled by UNHCR's Division of International Protection, was launched at a recent debate in Geneva on the rarely broached subject. The participants included academics, aid workers, women's rights activists, lawyers and diplomats.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Tuesday that Egypt would invite the International Monetary Fund to visit for talks about a loan facility at the end of October and said he hoped to reach an agreement 'by that time'. Egypt, which has launched negotiations for a $4.8 billion IMF loan but has also indicated it may want more, urgently needs support to prop up state coffers weakened by turmoil since the popular uprising last year that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.