The great powers of the West, specifically the United States, need a new policy toward refugees. Although richer countries should acknowledge their moral responsibility for poorer ones, post-September 11 America needs to rethink its attitude toward refugees for more pragmatic reasons as well.

The Burundi army has denied responsibility for the massacre of over 170 people in central Gitega province, saying it had been "deliberately misquoted". Army spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN last Friday rebel fighters were "fully responsible" for the massacre which occurred on 9 September.

The town treasurer of Maquassi Hills has been fired for referring to the local mayor as a "kaffir burgemeester", municipality manager Ross Motsemme said last Friday.

The Burundian army is reportedly preventing civilians who are fleeing fighting between rebels and government forces from crossing the border into Tanzania, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told IRIN last Friday.

An opposition leader has been arrested in Malawi, accused of inciting people to demonstrate against President Bakili Muluzi's alleged bid for a third term.

The president of Niger's human rights league, Bagnou Bonkoukou, was last Thursday sentenced to a one-year jail term and a 20,000 CFA francs fine (US $30), in a case revolving around last month's mutiny in the country.

The Togolese government has fixed 27 October as the date for parliamentary elections, following a recommendation by the country's electoral college of seven judges.

The Angolan army has launched an offensive against separatist rebels who operate in the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda, according to reports from the area.

A commission has been established by the Burundi government to investigate the massacre of 183 people on 9 September by unknown gunmen in Itaba Commune, central Gitega Province.

The United States is preparing to take on suspected al-Qaeda members believed to be hiding in Yemen and has sent 800 US troops and an unknown number of special forces operatives to Djibouti, the tiny African nation facing Yemen.

Heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the commercial capital of Ivory Coast on Thursday as members of the security forces apparently staged a mutiny. Shooting was reported around military bases in three cities in the center and north of the country.

Critics of the Anambra state government in southeastern Nigeria have been receiving death threats following the assassination of Barnabas Igwe and his wife on September 1, 2002, Human Rights Watch says. "There is strong, credible evidence that Igwe and his wife were targeted for political reasons - because of Igwe's and the NBA's public criticism of the Anambra state government's performance," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

Toxic waste from some 120,000 tons of unused pesticides in Africa is threatening peoples' health and the environment, a U.N. food agency said Wednesday.

Cameroon's ruling party won 16 out of 17 seats in parliamentary re-elections held on Sunday, after irregularities in the original poll in June, Cameroon Radio and Television reported on Tuesday.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia expects to repatriate about 40,000 Angolan refugees next year. UNHCR Zambia spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN that the voluntary repatriation was likely to begin when the rainy season ends.

A process of "villagisation" is slowly taking place in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burundi's central province of Gitega and the northern province of Ngozi, according to humanitarian sources.

Renewed ethnic tensions in the Gucha, Transmara and Migori districts of western Kenya, in which several people have been killed since last week, have been linked to crucial presidential and parliamentary elections expected later this year.

There was good and bad news for Zambian opposition parties this week when they asked the Supreme Court to nullify last December's election, which President Levy Mwanawasa officially won by the narrowest of margins. The good news was that the Supreme Court was willing to listen to them. The bad news was that with no time limit, any decision by the judges was likely to take a very long time in coming.

More than 1,000 fearful Burundian refugees have fled their tiny central African nation for Tanzania over the last two weeks, sparking fears that the intensifying conflict between Burundian military and rebel forces could drive out larger numbers.

Local government administrations installed in occupied provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda survive through a war economy, with mineral, agriculture and forest resources extracted and sold to multinationals via Rwanda and Uganda, according to a paper on local governance in conflict situations. The result, figures presented by the paper show, has been a trading boom for Rwanda and Uganda since they became involved in the war that has engulfed central Africa.