The EU's Council of Europe has published draft plans to combat racism on the internet. The draft protocol is aimed at criminalising the dissemination of racist or xenophobic material via computer networks.

The American response to September 11th did not change the terms of international relations. It only enhanced and deepened a trend that was manifest in Bush's foreign policy from the beginning. Surprisingly, this trend should give pause to the corporate executives who lined up behind Bush's candidacy. Unsurprisingly, nobody else wins either. Bush is the ultimate lose-lose president.

Junior officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) who are threatening to embark on strike have written to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), requesting affiliation to the central labour body. However, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Alexander Ogomudia whose non-commissioned officers are also reported to be planning a similar strike declared that there could never be a strike by soldiers.

The Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army [SPLM/A] have agreed to accept a group of European and U.S. monitors, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher announced Monday.

Many children in the world are affected by conflict, and many lives have been shattered by on-going cycles of violence and despair. Action for Children in Conflict seeks to provide safe and supportive environments where such vulnerable children can begin to feel comfortable and be looked after. The story of Mary, a four-year-old orphan from Kenya, is a case in point.

Oxfam International has warned that the death of UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi, does not necessarily bring the end of suffering and war in Angola. Angola is at a crossroads; peace is one option, but the country could just as easily descend into fresh bloodshed if the right moves are not made now.

A ground-breaking lawsuit against a major multinational oil corporation accused of complicity in serious abuses of human rights in Nigeria has passed a major judicial hurdle and moved a big step closer to trial.

The African Human Rights and Access to Justice Programme (Access to Justice Initiative) was started in 2001 as a joint project of the Kenyan and Swedish sections of the ICJ. The overall objective is to work towards the incorporation of international human rights standards in national legal systems. One of the key activities of the project is to support innovative litigation across Africa in the field of human rights. A major contribution of the Initiative will be providing international legal expertise, in the form of expert opinions that may be used as lobbying tools or submitted as amicus briefs. The Access to Justice Initiative will give modest amounts of money (up to $3,000) to defray expenses incurred in human rights litigation. Applications should be submitted by the 15th of each month to the regional contact point in your region.

Despite some improvements, the Sudanese government's record on human rights remained a serious concern throughout last year, the US State Department reported this week.

Members of the Congolese Banyamulenge community recently arrested by police in Burundi are not refugees officially recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency's representative in Burundi, Stefano Severe, told IRIN on Thursday.

Tension remained high in Jos, Plateau State , through-out last week following the fire outbreak that razed down the Jos main market. Three people were burnt to death and property worth millions of naira destroyed, February 12. There were fears that the incident might spark off a new round of crisis in the state.

Moi has "anointed" Cabinet ministers Musalia Mudavadi, Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga as among the men that he will hand over the nation to when he leaves office in the next several months.

In the past two weeks, the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) has been active in southern Sudan. It says it is there to fight rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, who have terrorised northern Uganda from their Sudan bases for over 10 years, and that it has permission for its "hot pursuit" policy from the Khartoum government.

"If we have racism," writes Robin Chandler, "a digital divide is its new colonial frontier." He suggests that IT has become an important site of struggle for democracy and social and economic justice.

The European Union (EU) has allocated €27-million in support of humanitarian operations for refugees in Tanzania this year. This is in addition to €4-million issued earlier this year to non-governmental organisations working in refugee camps in the country, and administered through the European Commission's Humanitarian Office (ECHO).

Racism and discrimination may be contributory factors in the development of schizophrenia, according to a controversial scientific study. The research suggests for the first time that social factors have a major effect on people from ethnic minority groups with a medical predisposition to mental illness.

The United Nations and the government of Angola are failing to protect the rights of millions of people displaced by the country’s civil war, Human Rights Watch have charged.

Today, more than at any other time during Somaliland’s complex recent history, peace is prevalent and refugees are readily returning home. A self-declared independent republic located in Somalia’s northwest region, Somaliland has not received the international recognition it has hoped for and has endured more than a decade of unwanted anonymity.

Madagascan troops guarding government ministries did nothing to prevent the installation on Monday of an alternate cabinet appointed by self-declared president Marc Ravolomanana.

A local human rights organisation has warned of severe long-term humanitarian and socioeconomic problems in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa if municipal authorities continue to implement a local cabinet minister's order to demolish kiosks and shanty towns, which so far has left tens of thousands of people homeless and without any livelihood.