Zimbabwe's white farmers have been branded racists and fascists by a government minister, urged tough action against those who are defying an order to stop working their fields. President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party said many white farmers were ignoring the government order, which took effect earlier last week.

The national property watchdog, the Estate Agency Affairs Board, has come out strongly against racism in the industry, following complaints from estate agents. CEO Stanley Moshidi said the industry's code of conduct was being flouted, and incidents of racist behaviour within the workplace were becoming more prevalent.

African nations on Tuesday signalled their intention to deal decisively with illegitimate regimes on the continent by barring Madagascar from the soon-to-be-launched African Union (AU). Agreement was also reached on the composition of an organ to stem war and conflict in Africa, a top Organisation for African Unity (OAU) official said in Durban.

CU has designed a multi-strategy Emergency & Rehabilitation Plan (ERP) that encompasses relief food distribution, supplementary feeding to malnourished children, winter cropping, basic food security related rehabilitation & recovery activities, etc. Therefore, this new & challenging Programme Co-ordinator position has been created to further develop & implement the ERP.

A settlement to the 19-year-old war between the predominantly Arab and Islamist government in Khartoum and the mostly African, non-Islamist rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is unlikely to be achieved any time soon unless the United States and Europe exert much stronger pressure urgently, according to a new report by an international think tank that specializes in conflict resolution. In particular, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) is calling on the U.S. Congress to enact the long-pending Sudan Peace Act (SPA) that includes penalties against foreign oil companies--currently from Canada, western Europe, China, and Malaysia--that invest in Sudan's booming but increasingly bloody oil sector.

Swazi labour leaders this week aim to draw world attention to their demands for political reform in Africa's last absolute monarchy at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions meeting in Durban, South Africa.

Facing imminent military defeat, former Madagascan president Didier Ratsiraka on Tuesday called for an internationally guaranteed ceasefire, sparking speculation that the reign of one of Africa's longest rulers has finally come to an end.

The number of refugees fleeing conflict to seek shelter in neighbouring countries peaked at 18.2 million in 1993. A further 24 million were estimated to be internally displaced. The risk of malaria is often high among refugees in tropical countries. What strategies
should be used to protect them?

The United Nations and the Angolan government are not providing sufficient protection for hundreds of thousands of people displaced during Angola's civil war, Human Rights Watch has said in a briefing paper. Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Angola continue to face serious security threats, including harassment by government forces, restrictions on free movement, and possible forced return to areas where they would be at risk of political persecution and human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said. Hundreds of thousands continue to live in poor conditions in government-run camps without access to basic food or medical care.

A worsening humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the south of South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as fighting rages between mainly Rwandan army troops and the dissident Banyamulenge forces of Commandant Patrick Masunzu, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday.

In years to come, we will reflect on this moment in 2002, and the deeper, more subtle ripples that will have been created by the Treatment Action Campaign's (TAC) Constitutional Court case, particularly in terms of the greater realisation of socio-economic and human rights. Why is it that civil society needs to use such extreme mechanisms to ensure that their message is heard? Surely we have sought to elect responsive and listening decision-makers who hear the voices of civil society and ensure that the concerns of the poor are at the heart of government policy? What has happened to the more traditional places for civil society to raise their concerns?

Zimbabwe's Minister of Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, warned media houses and journalists who refuse to register that the wrath of the "law" would descend on them. Moyo was quoted in the state controlled Sunday paper, The Sunday Mail of 23 June, saying that all media houses have to be registered.

Vultures circle overhead, waiting for new prey. In the blistering 40-degree heat and bone-dry conditions, it does not take long before another cow slumps dying to the ground. This is Lady - a tiny village in eastern Ethiopia and scene of a looming crisis. In the last 10 months the area has not seen a drop of rain. Cattle are dying, and the effects are now starting to hit the thousands of families in the area.

The Kenyan government has released a report warning that millions of Kenyans are increasingly threatened by desertification. In its latest National Action Programme on desertification, the environment and natural resources ministry said the phenomenon had "intensified and spread" in recent years, putting a severe strain on agriculture in the country.

With the number of people requiring emergency food aid in post-war Angola rising dramatically, WFP has made a fresh appeal for assistance to international donors. The Agency estimates that it will need US$ 241 million to feed up to 1.5 million people over the next 18 months - over a half-a-million more than the number of current beneficiaries.

A nutritional survey done by Epicentre among 15,000 people in Chiteta in Northern Huambo province of Angola between 10 and 14 June confirms a serious nutritional crisis. One in six children are malnourished, and malnutrition is the main cause of death in the region.

At least 13 people have been killed in northern Madagascar as troops loyal to President Marc Ravalomanana pushed ahead with an offensive into one of the last remaining bastions of the country's former ruler, Didier Ratsiraka, a military official said.

The arrival of some 8,000 new refugees from Liberia into eastern Sierra Leone in recent days has put a potentially dangerous strain on war-damaged Sierra Leonean villages along the border and threatens to sidetrack efforts to reintegrate tens of thousands of repatriated Sierra Leonean refugees into their home communities, according to an on-the-scene assessment this week by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), the public information program of Immigration and Refugee Services of America.

The influx into Sierra Leone of people fleeing instability in Liberia has continued steadily since clashes last week between pro- and anti-government forces near the western Liberian town of Sinje.

While seen by many as a burden on the country, the refugee crisis and the subsequent relief and development programmes in western Tanzania have, in fact, encouraged investment and opened up an inaccessible and forgotten part of the country, government officials and development workers in the region have said.