Barely two months after President Robert Mugabe assured the nation that noone would starve, thousands of villages in Matabeleland's two provinces are going for days without meals, it has emerged.

Up to 1,000 people were killed over the weekend as violence swept through the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, humanitarian groups active in the area saidon Monday.

Analysts warned on Friday of a "slow and steady" descent into lawlessness if the political deadlock in Madagascar was not broken soon.

The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) last week suspended Pierre Karangwa, a defense investigator, for his alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

TV star David Vlok was involved in an altercation with a first-class passenger on a South African Airways flight to London after the man delayed its departure from Johannesburg International Airport on Thursday night by demanding that two Muslim passengers be taken off the plane.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has ruled out an extension of the term of his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) interim administration, due to expire next year, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Thursday.

Defence lawyers at a United Nations tribunal investigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide blasted the court on Thursday, saying it was slow, unjust and under the thumb of the government in Kigali.

Five members of the radical Somali Al-Ittihad al-Islamiya group were on Thursday sentenced to death for committing "terrorist acts" in Ethiopia. The men face death by hanging after being convicted of killing 27 people in the attacks, according to the sentence handed down by Ethiopia's Federal High Court in Addis Ababa.

At least 15,000 people remained displaced in Pool region and perhaps 50,000 in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo (ROC) on Wednesday as a result of panic provoked by continued fighting in various localities of the interior of Pool region and the Kinsoundi neighbourhood of Brazzaville, UN agencies reported on Thursday. They cautioned, however, that as most displacement sites cannot be reached due to insecurity, these numbers may be higher.

A Rwandan former priest, Hormidas Nsengimana, was on Wednesday transferred from Yaounde, Cameroon, where he was arrested last month, to the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha, Tanzania. According to a news release from the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Nsengimana is the fifth clergyman to be arrested at the request of the Tribunal on charges connected with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

In its latest report covering the period 25-31 March 2002, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said it was was worrying that incidents of torture which started in early 2000 continued unabated, even after the country's controversial presidential election.

The sheer scope of the problem of trafficking almost defies description. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people - perhaps even more - are tricked, sold, forced or otherwise coerced into situations of exploitation from which they cannot escape. These individuals are the commodities of a transnational industry which generates billions of dollars and, almost without exception, operates with virtual impunity. Despite recent encouraging developments at the national, regional and international levels, little has changed for those caught up in this sordid trade. Attempts to deal with trafficking have, thus far, been largely ineffective. This is not a very positive evaluation but it is, I believe, an honest one.

Human Rights Watch have hailed the 60th ratification of the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty. At United Nations headquarters in New York, governments supporting the rule of law welcomed the establishment of the first permanent international tribunal to try those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

The world's long awaited permanent war crimes court, lauded by many as a giant step for humanity, has become a reality even though big states like the US, Russia and China will not take part .

Hundreds of Amnesty International’s members in Southern Africa have called on African leaders in general and Southern African Development Community (SADC) diplomats in particular to seize every opportunity to protect the rights of citizens in Zimbabwe. Current discussions on Zimbabwe at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights provide the perfect opportunity at the highest of international fora.

World leaders will gather in New York City in May for a major conference focused on global progress for children and the key role that investment in children can play in building global peace and security, the United Nations has announced.

Ghana's parliament has extended by six weeks the state emergency imposed in the northern Dagbon traditional area, where fighting between two clans last week left a traditional ruler and 28 other people dead.

Angola's peace plan could fail if the government does not have the capacity to meet the needs of UNITA soldiers and their families during the demobilisation process, a UNITA parliamentarian told IRIN on Wednesday.

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), an advocacy association representing over 70 nongovernmental agencies, has added its voice to those warning against the mass repatriation of Burundi refugees from Tanzania.

A one-day summit held in Lusaka, Zambia, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peace process ended on Wednesday evening with no new commitments made by the participating regional leaders.