As 2015 draws near, Africa has effectively engaged in the process of defining the contours of the post-2015 development agenda, according to a report published in Addis Ababa by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African Union, African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. The report, 'Assessing Progress in Africa towards the Millennium Development Goals 2012', was considered and endorsed by the 19th Summit African Union Heads of State and Government, according to ECA’s Information and Communication Service. The report explains ongoing efforts to capture emerging perspectives from Africa on the post-2015 development agenda, but urges countries in the region to remain focused on the MDG targets.

Three guards who worked for the security firm G4S have been told they will not face manslaughter charges over the death of Jimmy Mubenga, an Angolan refugee who collapsed while being escorted on a flight from Heathrow airport in London 21 months ago. The men worked as guards for the firm, which was contracted to escort deportees for the Home Office when the incident occurred. Mubenga, 46, died after losing consciousness on British Airways flight 77 to Angola, as it waited to take off on the runway.

Beijing is eager to rewrite negative perceptions of its growing ties with Africa at a summit this week, citing expanding private investment and a push to shift low-end manufacturing to the continent long seen as a commodities and energy cache for China. Chinese state-owned firms in Africa face criticism for using imported labour to build government-financed projects like roads and hospitals, while pumping out resources and leaving little for local economies, an image Beijing wants to change at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

News that Eskom plans to seek a nearly 15 per cent electricity price hike this year has sparked a call for greater energy efficiency, while the DA says the state-owned company’s monopoly should be ended. DA deputy energy spokesman David Ross said he would write to the Competition Commission to ask it to examine the case for separating Eskom’s electricity generation and distribution components.

Angola's political opposition have accused the National Electoral Commission (CNE) of irregularities ahead of general polls set for late August. 'We call on the CNE to take the necessary decisions to correct these irregularities to ensure that the electoral process is truly free, fair and transparent,' said Abel Chivukuvuku, president of the Broad Convergence of Angolan Salvation (Casa) coalition after meeting the CNE. 'The number of voters is unclear, the CNE cannot say how early or foreign voting will be organised, or give the publication date of the voters' roll.'

The global battle for natural resources - from food and water to energy and precious metals – is only beginning, and will intensify to proportions that could mean enormous upheavals for every country, leading academics and business figures told a conference in Oxford. Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, who convened the two-day Resource 2012 conference, told the Guardian: 'We are nowhere near realising the full impact of this yet. We have seen the first indications – rising food prices, pressure on water supplies, a land grab by some countries for mining rights and fertile agricultural land, and rising prices for energy and for key resources [such as] metals. But we need to do far more to deal with these problems before they become even more acute, and we are not doing enough yet.'

The Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCO, has been fined U.S.$5 billion over the massive oil spill that occurred at its Bonga oil field on December 20, 2011. This was disclosed by the director general, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, Dr. Peter Idabor, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Environment.

Liberia has no plans to abolish Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) despite mounting demands by local and international organisations, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said. President Sirleaf said, 'to hastily abolish the practice could spark off a serious societal crisis'. FGM is widely practised in Liberia with thousands of young girls annually initiated in traditional 'schools' known as the Sande Society in preparation for mutilation.

What is the future of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP)? This was President Mutharika's flagship programme, which put Malawi on the forefront of international development debates and provided subsidies for seeds and fertiliser. Through the FISP, which was implemented against fierce donor resistance, Malawi was able to break free from a vicious cycle of hunger and food insecurity. This article from Africa Report examines whether the FISP will continue under new president Joyce Banda.

An investigation by the Conflict Awareness Project has exposed an active arms trading network of associates of former trafficker Viktor Bout that involves companies from the United States, South Africa and the United Kingdom, among other countries. All are cross-linked in a complex system with its centre in the island of Mauritius. The traffickers’ ultimate goal was to access countries such as Iran, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and possibly Syria, researchers say.

Sudanese refugees who fled fighting between rebels and Sudan's military are suffering in primitive camps without enough aid because the international community has not provided the needed funds to help, a top United Nations official said. Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, urged donor nations to ease 'the enormous humanitarian tragedy'. Sudanese troops are fighting rebels, who were once aligned with what is now South Sudan, in two states near the countries' shared border. Guterres said more than 200,000 refugees have fled the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile and into neighboring Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Three lawyers were arrested in Nyala after they met with the government of South Darfur. During a meeting with the head of security and head of police they handed over a petition in which they demanded President Omar Al Bashir to stop the use of excessive violence against peaceful protesters.

Child mortality rates have slowly come down, although they are still significantly high. Health experts say this is attributed to huge inequalities that exist in accessing health care. According to health experts at a Peoples’ Health Movement conference in Cape Town, last week, poverty and high unemployment rates are some of the barriers that prevent people from accessing quality health care. Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, Professor Dave Saunders, says child mortality in South Africa is still high and it has a direct link to the levels of unemployment and rising poverty.

The verification report into Limpopo’s textbook debacle, compiled by professor Mary Metcalfe and her team, has unearthed even more rot in the education department. The report estimates that 280 schools in the province are still without the required textbooks. The verification team sampled 411 schools – 10 per cent of the total number of schools in the province. They could only get proof of delivery receipts from 93 per cent of the schools sampled.

Green Berets from the famous 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Carson, Colorado, trained with the Botswana Defense Forces Special Forces (BDFSF) on marksmanship, close quarter battle, medical and tracking training in an effort to strengthen relationships and to promote and support Special Operations Capabilities. This was all part of field training exercises called 'Eastern Piper 12'. Exercise Eastern Piper 12, conducted by US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and Special Operations Command, Africa (SOCAF), was a three week Foreign International Defense (FID) structured counter-terrorism base exercise, which took place at the Thebepatswa Air Base in Gaborone, Botswana.

The website features a photo essay by Phumeza Mlungwana that shows the effects of winter flooding on RR and TR sections in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.

Sudanese security forces broke up a protest in central Khartoum on Tuesday 17 July by dozens of people demanding the release of relatives jailed for taking part in four weeks of anti-government demonstrations, a witness said. The demonstrators began gathering in front of national security headquarters in the centre of the capital, but police and security agents quickly dispersed them, the witness said. Some 2,000 people have been detained since small protests began last month.

Nigeria's army has warned thousands of Plateau state residents to leave their homes as it begins an operation against those accused of a recent spate of deadly attacks. Some 100 people were killed recently after attacks on villages inhabited by Christian ethnic groups. Two senior politicians then died after gunmen opened fire at a funeral for some of the dead. Reports say thousands of Muslims are refusing to leave. Plateau state straddles the dividing line between the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria and its largely Christian and animist south.

The British Government on Tuesday 17 July acknowledged that colonial forces in Kenya tortured and abused detainees during the Mau Mau rebellion. Queen’s counsel Guy Mansfield made the first ever official acknowledgement in the British High Court during the hearing of a case filed by three elderly Kenyans. Mr Mansfield told the Kenyans suing for damages that the British Government did not dispute that 'terrible things' happened to them. Before cross-examining witnesses, the lawyer said he did not want to dispute that civilians suffered.

For months now East Africans have been expectantly waiting for an economic revolution to begin as they anticipate the launch of a new standardised payment system that will integrate the electronic transfer of money in the region. But continued delays in the launch of the system have economists fearing that the weak financial infrastructure here is hindering its implementation. The system, a replica of the Single Euro European Payments Area (SEPA), will make all electronic payments in the East African Community (EAC) domestic ones through harmonised laws, policies and regulations within the region.