President Robert Mugabe has raised the temperature further in strife-torn Zimbabwe when he named three opposition politicians as "terrorists" and claimed Britain was funding them.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's warning that he will crush the opposition for plotting against his government is likely to see a rise in political violence before elections next year, analysts have said.

Zambia has faced hard questions by the UN's Committee Against Torture over the lack of legal protection of suspects against maltreatment by the police, a statement by the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights has said.

Poor communities in South Africa have limited access to media, to enable them acquire information that is relevant to their lives, and also to express themselves in order to contribute to national debates. While the main source of income for media companies in the country is advertising, the findings of the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) research report that there is discrimination (on the bases of content and the racial group that listens to the station) and several other problems in the advertising industry is a cause of great concern.

Debates and space for critical engagement is essential for democracy. There can never be enough emphasis on this point. It is therefore unfortunate that African National Congress (ANC) has chose to stifle debates by resorting to use of derogatory terms to describe opposing voices in the Congress of South Africans trade Unions (Cosatu), South African communist Party (SACP) and ANC alliance.

COSATU welcomes the comprehensive report tabled to the people of South Africa today and welcomes the exoneration of government from any wrongdoing or corruption.

The Magistrates' and Judges' Association of Malawi has written to President Bakili Muluzi, urging him to reject his United Democratic Front (UDF) MPs attempts to sack three senior High Court judges.

Zimbabwe's Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) fear being next on President Robert Mugabe's "hit-list" after a weekend of political violence.

South Africa is moving on many fronts to combat corruption.

'Six months ago I wrote in these columns that, "Mugabe may well use food in state hands to wreak additional havoc on society by distribution through the party, the so-called war veterans and the nefarious secret service. He undoubtedly will use that power over life and death to elicit party support and commitments to vote for him.'

Whilst the world's attention is directed towards Afghanistan and the wider fall-out of the events of 11 September in the United States of America, Amnesty International today urged the international community not to ignore Burundi, where the short period since the commencement of a government of transition on 1 November has been marked by massacres of civilians by government forces and the abduction of hundreds of children by an armed political group.

The head of a Congolese non-governmental organization from Uvira has been detained and severely beaten by the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) Human Rights Watch has said.

The head of a Congolese non-governmental organization from Uvira has been detained and severely beaten by the
rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) Human Rights Watch has said.

The Federal and Sokoto State governments are poised for a fight over the sharia verdict passed by a Gwadabawa sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini to death for committing adultery.

The UK government wants the courts to throw out a multi-million pound compensation claim brought by Kenyan herders over damage from British army bombs.

The Moroccan authorities have taken the important step of releasing 56 political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, following a royal pardon.

Human Rights Watch welcomed news that a new treaty banning the use of children in combat will take effect early next year. With New Zealand's ratification on November 12, ten countries have now ratified the treaty, which will enter into force on February 12, 2002.

After last-minute intervention by House GOP Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), House and Senate negotiators agreed to prohibit any U.S. cooperation in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which is being established in the Netherlands to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

As the United States searches the earth for links between the Al Qaeda terrorist network and its sources of financial and logistical support, reports from West Africa are connecting Osama bin Laden to the collapsed states of Liberia and Sierra Leone

At least 486,900 refugees in Kigoma, Kibondo, Kasulu and Ngara districts in northwestern Tanzania received some 2,455 mt of food from 22 October to 4 November, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in its emergency report of 9 November.