This online map from the London Guardian shows what Africa would like if all separatist groups gained independence.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Ethiopian government to release six journalists who have been convicted in connection with their work. The call by the New York-based non profit organisation working to protect press freedom worldwide, comes barely a day after the Ethiopian government released two Swedish journalists. According to CPJ, since 2011, Ethiopia had convicted 11 independent journalists and bloggers, some in absentia.

Israel ended a stalemate with about 20 African migrants stranded along its border with Egypt for more than a week, allowing two women and a child to enter but turning the rest of the group away. A statement from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that although Israel granted entry to two women and a child, the country was 'determined to stop the flood' of migrants. A group of around 20 Eritreans had been stuck outside a nearly-completed border fence, where the Israeli military was providing them with food and water.

The Campaigning Toolkit is a comprehensive printed and online resource for people at risk of removal, and the groups working to support them. The Toolkit aims help migrants understand the asylum and immigration systems, to know their rights, and to be as well-equipped as possible to make a successful application. In the case of a refusal, we hope the Toolkit enables migrants to know what a campaign is, whether it’s right for them, and to be at the centre of the campaign and of all of the decisions made.

A presidential aspirant is among dozens of influential politicians and businessmen who own land on which slums in parts of Nairobi sit. The slum dwellers are going to court this week to lay claim to the land on which they have lived for years citing public interest. In what promises to be an epic judicial battle between the title holders and the slum dwellers, the group will also be claiming that the titles to these plots are no longer valid.

Uganda has failed to carry out a comprehensive environmental and social impact study in the Albertine Graben oil exploration and production area, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Director, Dr. Tom Okurut, admitted during a September 6 meeting in Kampala. 'This study was supposed to be the first thing we did before any activities began. But we did not have the money to do it. Now that we have the money, we are doing it and it will be completed by December 2012,' Dr. Okurut told some 200 researchers, government staff and civil society representatives at a public meeting hosted by Nature Uganda at the Uganda Museum.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, who attended the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Rasool discusses the Obama presidency, the militarization of Africa, Islamophobia, the Marikana massacre and his 2006 meeting with then-Senator Obama in South Africa.

South Africa is the 9th largest producer of GMOs globally and has cultivated, imported and exported GMOs since 1998. About 72 per cent of maize production is genetically modified and over 90 per cent of soya production is modified. The South African government granted approximately 1200 permits for GMO maize, just in the last three years. Up until 2010 South Africa was a major importer of GM maize, importing over two million tons from Argentina in 2007 alone. However, in that year South Africa produced an enormous four million ton surplus and has subsequently exported nearly 6 million tons of GM maize. Since the introduction of GM crops in South Africa, some fourteen years ago, labelling has been a contentious issue.

Egypt’s vibrant blogging scene may be at risk. Most online activists need funding to be able to carry out their activities professionally. Without conscious efforts to find viable funding models, this public sphere might disappear after the novelty of the 25 January 2011 movement wears down.

A six-day course designed to help journalists fine-tune their skills and enhance their coverage of women’s issues, opinions and empowerment will take place in Barcelona, Spain in November. Participants will attend four days of classes and then have two days of the News Xchange conference.

The Nigeria Evidence-based Health System Initiative (NEHSI) is a collaborative project between the Government of Nigeria, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) with the mandate of contributing to the strengthening of the health care system to deliver effective, efficient and equitable primary health care in two states of Nigeria.

The US ambassador to Libya and three other American staffers died on Tuesday (11 September) night in an attack on the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, US officials have said. An armed mob attacked and set fire to the consulate building during a protest against an amateur film deemed offensive to Islam's prophet, Muhammad, after similar protests in Egypt's capital. The US government confirmed that Ambassador Chris Stevens and information technology officer Sean Smith, in addition to two unnamed personnel, died in the attack. Libyan security source told Al Jazeera that Stevens died from smoke inhalation.

The huge inflow of asylum seekers to European countries in the early 1990s drove those countries to initiate policies that restricted asylum seekers’ rights and benefits. Were these policies spontaneous responses to the mounting inflow or instead political outcomes determined by political factors such as partisanship and election timing? This journal article finds that upcoming elections increase the likelihood of policy introduction. This election effect is greater in the presence of right-wing parties.

The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (Zela) and villagers living along Save River are seeking a court order to bar three diamond mining companies in Marange district from polluting water sources. In a High Court application last week, Zela and the villagers alleged that Anjin Investments, Marange Resources and Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC) were polluting Save, Singwizi and Odzi rivers with sewage, chemicals and metal deposits.

An over 12,000-acre land dispute spanning more than two decades in Loliondo division, Ngorongoro District in Northern Tanzania pitting Thomson Safaris, a US-based tourism company, and Maasai villagers has sparked an online campaign to boycott the tour company which prides itself on its community involvement. The primary cause of the conflict between the local community and Thomson Safaris is over the land ownership of Sukenya Farm and consequently the rights of the villagers to graze their cattle and access important water sources.

Somalia’s presidential elections have been marred by allegations of bribery, with up to $50,000 said to have changed hands among members of parliament, Al Jazeera has learnt. Senior diplomatic sources deployed in the region to ensure honest and fair election, have confirmed that the process of vote buying has been under way over the last few days. It was hoped that the vote for a new president, the first of its kind in decades, would alter the political landscape of the nation and be a milestone in the war-ravaged country's quest to end two decades of violence, corruption and infighting.

Barrenness is a delicate subject in Uganda, where the stigma attached to women who cannot bear children is strong. These women are called 'barren' or 'infertile', with some forced to leave their matrimonial homes or left by their husbands. Many turn to gynecologists, traditional healers and religious leaders for help. Medical experts say that there are 3.5 million cases of infertility in Uganda, making it a part of the 'African Infertility Belt'.

A first for South Africa was a gathering that brought together passionately techno-affluent computer geeks, media personnel and civic society with a craving for open-data systems. Held at Ndifuna Ukwazi’s office in Cape Town over the weekend, the event code-named 'Hackathon' started with a brief introduction to some of the initiative’s key objectives and what the Open Data and Democracy Initiative was about. Comprising a group of young people pushing for a more open democracy, the initiative is made up of ordinary citizen activists, technologists, journalists and entrepreneurs aimed at developing and applying practical open technologies and promoting open data as a means for efficient governance, increased transparency, improved service delivery and empowerment of SA citizens.

Tunisia’s Prime Minister and Secretary-General of the ruling Islamist al-Nahda party, Hamadi Jebali, was invited to close a two-day event held in Tunis in May to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. In his speech, Jebali remarked upon the importance of a free press for a properly functioning democracy, adding that the present government in Tunisia was 'fully committed to safeguarding a public and independent media'. Despite such words of assurance, the freedom and independence of Tunisian media remain under threat, says this article from

Tribesmen have attacked a village in southeastern Kenya, torching homes and sparking clashes that killed at least 38 people, in the latest round of tit-for-tat ethnic violence to plague the area, officials said. The vendetta between the Pokomo farming community and their Orma pastoralist neighbours already left 52 dead last month in Kenya's worst tribal killings in years.