The University for Peace (UPEACE), a United Nations Mandated University located in Costa Rica, is pleased to announce its second annual UPEACE Institute. The Instititute consists of three-week short courses that will be given in different areas such as Media and Peace, Leadership, Culture, Politics, Conflict and Peace, War and film, Gender, Environment, Law, Development, among others.

Victims of Kenya's independence war with Britain 50 years ago are to start proceedings to claim compensation from the British government. Veterans of the Mau Mau - who fought a guerrilla war with their colonial masters - are demanding an apology and an out-of-court financial settlement. Tens of thousands of Mau Mau fighters were killed or imprisoned in camps. "Many are in their 70s and 80s and would like to see reparations before they die," lawyer Martyn Day said. Mr Day added: "We recognise the pain, suffering and torment that these freedom fighters have gone through - many of them are still suffering from the after effects today.

The authorities in Libya have ordered protesters at a jail in Tripoli to return to their cells by the end of the day after violence erupted. A sit-in protest began at Abu Salim prison last week over trial delays. Amnesty International say security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at the prisoners, leaving one dead. Hundreds were reportedly shot dead by guards during a protest over conditions in the same prison in 1996. The authorities are refusing to comment.

Police are defying a magistrate's order to produce a detailed report on the alleged assault and torture while in custody of more than a dozen Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) members after a protest was foiled by the security forces. On Tuesday magistrate William Bhila dismissed a police report written by the arresting officers, which said there was no substance to the torture allegations, and ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to take over the enquiry, as it was improper for the police "to investigate themselves".

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls much of southern and central Somalia, has warned of imminent war between it and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which reportedly took Buur Hakaba, a town close to its headquarters in Baidoa on Monday, a senior UIC official told IRIN. Buur Hakaba, some 180 km from Mogadishu, was in the hands of a local militia sympathetic to the UIC, according to a local resident, until around 7.30am, when the militia left. The resident said TFG and Ethiopian troops had since entered the town.

West African leaders discussing Cote d’Ivoire’s future have decided to present their recommendations to the African Union and the United Nations to help determine a way forward for the divided country. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reaffirmed their support for UN Resolution 1633, which laid out a peace plan for Cote d’Ivoire, but announced no decision on the country’s future beyond the end of President Laurent Gbagbo’s term at the end of the month.

For the first time, heavy fighting between Sudanese rebel groups and the government of Sudan has spilled across the border from the embattled Darfur region into eastern Chad, aid workers said on Monday. Previously, such clashes had involved the Chadian army in pursuit of rebels seeking to oust Chadian President Idriss Deby.

The situation remains calm on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon as steady progress is made in demarcating their common boundary, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest update on the work of the commission charged with overseeing the peaceful transfer of the once-disputed oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula. In a letter to the Security Council detailing the work of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, Mr. Annan says about 462 kilometres of the border have been demarcated so far, although there have been some delays to that progress.

West African leaders began talks in the Nigerian capital on Friday aimed at breaking a political deadlock in Cote d'Ivoire that threatens to further destabilise the country. A key issue to be resolved is the status of President Laurent Gbagbo. A United Nations-backed peace plan extended his term in office by one year until the end of this month.

Almost 70,000 people from four countries have been displaced by floods from seasonal rains and need food, blankets, mosquito nets and other assistance, according to a report from three United Nations agencies.Niger is the worst-affected with 46,472 people displaced, followed by Burkina Faso with 11,170, Mauritania with 9,000 and Guinea with 1,200, said the October report by the UN humanitarian coordination office (OCHA), the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) and the UN World Food programme.

We would like to draw the attention of this Council to strengthen measures to ensure comprehensive protection of rights of the girl child in armed conflict. Today, in every continent, wherever there is conflict, children are disproportionately affected. Among them, the girl child is especially vulnerable to sexual violence.

Militant groups in the Niger Delta are proliferating, and the country’s security situation will degenerate further unless President Obasanjo and his administration urgently address the region’s grievances.

The dumping of toxic chemical waste in Côte d'Ivoire that has already killed eight people and led nearly 78,000 others to seek medical care is clearly a crime although who was responsible and the actual nature of the crime has yet to be determined, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) said.

Kenya risks a polio outbreak following the influx of Somalia refugees, the World Health Organisation has said. WHO Diseases Surveillance Coordinator, Dr John Ogange, said the organisation's surveillance report on Somalia shows that Polio cases increased from 21 to 30 between May and August.

Two years down the road the defeat of the Lords Resistance Army rebels in Teso, time seems to have come for the internally displaced persons to bid farewell to camp life. When the rebels invaded the region on July 15, 2003 through Obalanga Sub-county, little did we know that the attack would culminate into massive displacement.

IOM, in collaboration with Kenya’s Department of Immigration, has developed a manual on border procedures to help immigration officers, particularly in remote border stations, deal with procedural challenges in situations where they need to act promptly. IOM has also developed a manual on procedures for examining passports.

President Yoweri Museveni has said Uganda will expect Washington's support to hunt down the LRA's top leadership if the Juba peace talks do not yield a comprehensive peace agreement. At a State House meeting with Mr John Edwards, the North Carolina Senator, who was candidate John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 US presidential race, Mr Museveni hinted that with the peace talks mired in a circus of generic proposals between the parties, Plan B may already be in motion.

A fresh offensive by Niger-Delta militants on an oil installation in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has left five soldiers dead. Military sources in Port Harcourt told Daily Champion that about 70 unidentified gunmen stormed Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) oil facility at Cawthorne Channel in Kalabari area of Rivers State being guarded by soldiers from 2nd Amphibious Brigade, Bori camp.

Human rights organisations have become increasingly concerned that Angolan government pressure to enforce a peace deal it brokered with oil-rich Cabinda's splintered secessionist movement may stoke political tensions. According to Vegard Bye, Head of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in the capital, Luanda, "the government has made it clear that it would crack down on those who don't accept the peace deal."

Almost a quarter of a million people in northern parts of the Central African Republic (CAR) have been forced to flee their homes in recent months because of "severe levels of violence" perpetrated by armed groups, including Government soldiers, the top United Nations aid official in the impoverished country said, warning of the regional impact of this unrest.