A plane carrying at least two senior members of a rebel movement operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo crashed on Friday in Geti, Ituri province, a spokesman for the movement announced on Radio Candip.

A UN panel on the exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo's natural resources told the UN Security Council on Friday that there was a need for a plan to rebuild state institutions, and that this process should be linked to an international conference on peace and development in Africa's Great Lakes region.

After weeks marked by tension, violent clashes, killings, rioting and looting, residents of Kenya’s biggest slum, Kibera, have slowly begun rebuilding their lives. But even as an anxious calm returned this week, deep-rooted tensions remain in the sprawling suburb, home to hundreds of thousands of people.

A Zimbabwean government official on Monday denied media reports that the army had been deployed in the opposition's Matabeleland stronghold and was allegedly intimidating villagers.

Eritrea on Monday rejected accusations by Ethiopia that it is mobilising troops in the buffer zone between the two countries, and that it is providing support to the Somali radical Islamic group Al-Ittihad.

The rights and freedoms of the citizens and communities were significantly scorned in Niger in 2000, according to the Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Niger (ANDDH). ANDDH reported that there was a "serious infringement" of the rights to life, health, education, work, physical integrity and other rights.

On Dec. 7, the U.S. Senate endorsed provisions introduced into a defense spending bill by Sen. Jesse Helms, voting overwhelmingly to block U.S. participation in an international criminal court. Despite the vote, it is increasingly clear that the International Criminal Court [ICC] Treaty will enter into force sometime next year. Alone among Western nations, however, the United States has declared its opposition to the Court in terms that have become increasingly shrill.

Half the world's population is living on the coasts, and human impacts on the coastal and marine environments are growing. It will take improvements in international ocean governance to deal with fisheries depletion and deteriorating marine conditions, especially due to pollution, concludes a new report released late last month by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

17 Nobel Peace Laureates signed an appeal calling for the prompt establishment of the International Criminal Court in Oslo, Norway last week.

On 7th September 2001, the security arrested Adbel Khaliq AlFatih Abdulla, a third year medical student, at Bakhat AlRuda University in White Nile province, and a leading member of the Student Democratic Front (SDF). Adel Khaliq was tortured while he was in detention, and was subsequently pressured and harassed by the security into not initiating any legal action against them.

The problem of Weapons of Mass Destruction must always be addressed on two levels. On one level, we find the scientific and technical aspects of WMD--their design, fabrication, and destructive effects. To a great degree, discussion on this level entails an understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of WMD. On the other level, we have the political and strategic aspects of WMD. This entails an analysis of international power relations and the political dynamics underlying decisions on the manufacture, deployment, and actual use of WMD.

"The US-led anti-terror coalition is close to neutralizing al Qaeda's Afghanistan base. While this is an encouraging start, the US and other nations must address another core reality: Africa is the world's soft underbelly for global terrorism. If countries around the world intend to win the war on terror, Africa must be an important focus of our long-term anti-terror efforts."

Amnesty International is concerned about the wave of arrests of former military personnel in the aftermath of an alleged coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau last week.

Judge Augustino Al Nur Shimela was picked from his house on 19th Nov 2001 and brutally killed by Sudan Government (GOS) sponsored militia group known as 'Nafir al Sha'abi' in Nuba Mountains, reports The New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs (NESI) network.

The Brookings-CUNY Project on Internal Displacement has just published a Selected Bibliography on the Global Crisis of Internal Displacement. Authored by Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, this 73-page bibliography compiles and catalogues available materials on internally displaced persons. It contains more than 800 items.

The leader of Zimbabwe's opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been charged with possessing radio-communication equipment without a licence, for which he could face a two-year prison sentence.

Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, the MDC MP and Treasurer who has been in detention since early November, is being held in a tiny prison cell – only 1 metre by 1 ½ metres in area. He is taken out only for ablutions and spells of interrogation, which have tended to be conducted at night for extended periods. He has been held in these conditions for over a month.

Zimbabwe's leader, Robert Mugabe, confirmed last week that he intends to hold the long-awaited presidential election in March and held his first rally on Friday. His speech and the events of the day provided a clear indication of how he intends to fight that election: polarising black and white and intimidating the opposition.

The dispute between Cape Town based Radio 786 and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies which is now before the constitutional court has again highlighted the need for engagement on hate speech versus the freedom of expression. The matter has also raised the incompatibility of apartheid regimes' laws on media and the country's constitution.

Government-sponsored paramilitary forces known as “Guardians of the Peace” have committed many killings, rapes, and other crimes over the last four years in Burundi, Human Rights Watch have charged.