Two new studies based on computer models of global climate change predict arid regions of Africa will only grow drier. The studies suggest changing water temperatures in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans may reduce the amount of rainfall in the Sahel region and southern Africa.

Geekcorps uses volunteers for four month stretches to contribute to ICT projects in developing parts of the world. Geekcorps takes care of most of the costs associated with volunteering, including air travel, lodging, inoculations and a meagre salary. In return for your time, Geekcorps promises adventure, excitement and foreign travel. Geekcorps currently has 3 500 willing geeks on its books, but is currently recruiting for a foray into Africa in 2006.

Fahamu, the Kenyan led human rights organisation, has been awarded a Silicon Valley technology award at a recent high profile ceremony in San Jose, California. Fahamu was one of five winners of the Microsoft Education Award, and beat stiff international competition from 85 entries. The Tech Museum Awards go to the "best of the best technologists whose innovations benefit humanity". The Tech Museum Awards honour organisations that use technology to address critical issues facing humankind today. Located in Silicon Valley, The Tech Museum encourages people to engage in technological innovation.

If anyone thought for a moment that the suffering caused by Operation Murambatsvina ("Sweep away the filth") was over, or had abated, they would be seriously mistaken. Nothing could be farther from the truth, reports Sokwanele, a Zimbabwean civic action support group. Six months on from the initial brutal assault which saw 700,000 people in cities across the country losing either their homes, their sources of income or both and a further 2.4 million affected in varying degrees, the misery of the victims continues. Indeed for many it has only intensified in the ensuing months. And the death toll among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) increases week by week.

The Media Monitoring Project (MMP), Save the Children Sweden and SAfm have announced the broadcast of South Africa's first ever 'radio conference' on the media's role in covering child abuse. Hosted by Jeremy Maggs, Media@SAfm presenter, the conference will feature a panel of local and international media and children's rights experts who will contextualise the representation of children and abused children in the media and unpack the South African complaints process. Each conference session will be followed by a roundtable discussion allowing for listener interaction.

Reporters Without Borders has voiced growing concern about the unacceptable way the authorities in the autonomous northeastern region of Puntland have been treating radio STN editor Awale Jama Salad, who has been forced to go into hiding after being arrested and threatened several times by the police. The organisation has written to President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed of Somalia’s transitional federal government (TFG) reminding him of his responsibilities “as guarantor of the rule of law, the safety of citizens and the free practice of journalism in Somalia” and pointing out that his influence is still decisive in Puntland, of which he is the former leader, and nothing is done there without his consent.

Ethiopian authorities have arrested two more journalists, bringing the total number seized since bloody political protests erupted early this month to 12, a media watchdog agency reported on Monday. Private newspapers have been prevented from printing, and journalists had gone into hiding after the crackdown, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

This paper examines how oral tradition - "verbal arts or oral literature, customs, belief and other institutions, arts including games, as well as musical instruments" - can be used to foster reading on the part of the African child. Research examined written prose, some of it in the Nigerian indigenous language (Yoruba), in an effort to explore linguistic and cultural differences of child authors (ages 7-15) based on the way they tell their stories. Findings suggest that African children can be stimulated to read if they are first told a story; storytelling should be encouraged, the author urges, especially in the primary and lower secondary schools.

Visit the website http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~lmo5/politicalEconomy/SacuInfo.htm for information on the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).

The International Federation of Journalists has called on the Eritrean Government to end uncertainty over the release of Dawit Isaac, reporter from the former weekly Setit, who had been locked away without trial and without access to his family and colleagues since the crackdown on the private media by Eritrean authorities in September 2001. Dawit Isaac was released from Karcheli Prison in the Eritrean capital of Asmara last weekend after more than four years in prison. However, he has not yet received permission to leave the country.

Reporters Without Borders has called on the Ugandan government to come to its senses after a week of police harassment of the independent "Daily Monitor" newspaper, according to a press statement. The week culminated in a spectacular raid on its premises on the night of 17 November 2005, all of which were part of the government's efforts to neutralise support for imprisoned opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

The National Media Institute of Southern Africa (Namisa) in Malawi is taking Parliament to court for refusing to allow a private radio station to broadcast its proceedings live, writes Samuel Makaka in an article on www.journalism.co.za. Zodiac Broadcasting Station has been refused permission to broadcast the proceedings. Charles Simango, Namisa national director, said in an interview that Parliament is a public entity. “Members of Parliament are accountable to the people who sent them to Parliament.”

The impact of new information and communication technologies on development is a subject of extensive international debate, particularly at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. While much of the debate focuses on the Internet, many planners and practitioners have begun to realise that it is to traditional media, such as radio, that poor people are most likely to turn for access to information and voice, says ID21, the development research web portal.

Sandra Nyaira was on a career high when she left Zimbabwe three years ago. For her work as political editor of the country’s leading independent newspaper the Daily News, she had earned a prestigious Courage in Journalism Award from the Washington-based International Women’s Media Foundation. After traveling to the United States to receive the prize, Nyaira attended the journalism master’s program at City University in London on a scholarship. Nyaira expected to be back at her job in Zimbabwe in a year. She has yet to return.

ARTICLE 19 has condemned the arrest of Fred M'membe, editor and CEO of Zambia's only private daily newspaper The Post, who has been charged under the country's defamation law for having insulted President Levy Mwanawasa.

The Somali Organisation for Community Development Activities (SOCDA) is a medium sized national Somali Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) founded in 1993 by a group of like-minded Somali professionals. Their newsletter is a watchdog of the Somali socio-political and economic landscape. Email [email protected] to subscribe.

South Africa’s Aids epidemic, one of the largest in the world, shows no sign of relenting, while infection levels continue to drop in Uganda and now also in parts of Kenya and Zimbabwe, according the UNAIDS Aids Epidemic Update. Released this week, the annual UNAIDS Aids Epidemic Update continues to paint a bleak picture of an epidemic that this year alone claimed three million lives of which 570 000 were children. The total number of people living with HIV worldwide reached its highest level – an estimated 40,3 million people are now living with HIV while close to five million were newly infected with the virus this year.

Young people who drop out of the formal school system would no longer struggle to grasp concepts at vocational training institutions following the Namibia Training Authority (NTA)’s initiative to simplify the curriculum. This week, NTA handed over a unit of standards, curricula and training manuals for the bricklaying and plastering occupation and the hospitality industry.

Much of the debate about the digital divide centres on getting computers into the hands of budding digital citizens in developing countries. But there are those who are looking to existing mobile phone technologies as the way to connect the world. "Everyone is talking about the digital divide, but the real issue is getting phones in everyone's hand," Tom Phillips, the head of GSM Association's policy unit, told the BBC News website.

After 75 000 translated words and many months of hard work, Translate.org.za is scheduled to release OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 in all 11 official South African languages later this month. Translate.org.za director, Dwayne Bailey, says that 20 people - academics, translators and reviewers - were involved in the translations, most of whom are language practitioners in their respective fields.