A cholera outbreak in Uganda that has claimed eight lives among 280 cases since 14 February could escalate as predicted heavy rains are likely to lead to flooding, the Health Minister warned. In an alert issued in the capital, Kampala, on 7 March, Denis Lwamafa, commissioner for non-communicable diseases, said 280 cases had been recorded in the western Ugandan districts of Kasese, Buliisa, and eastern districts of Mbale, Bududa and Sironko. Others affected are Pallisa, Butaleja and Manafa districts.

In its first month of existence, Corruption Watch received 500 complaints from the public, the organisation has said. Complaints about municipalities, traffic officers and the health sector featured the most prominently, according to a statement. Corruption Watch was started as a non-profit organisation by the Congress of SA Trade Unions in January.

This year has already seen the largest-ever strike on record in India, hundreds of thousands marching for democracy in Bahrain, general strikes in Montreal and Spain where students once again occupied public space in protest of the austerity measures and spending cuts being enforced by the European banking elite, massive uprisings in the streets of Moscow, and more. Even in the United States, the movement grows. The corporate media claims that Occupy's strength is waning, but they are merely in denial. During the coldest months of this year, the United States has already seen more revolutionary momentum than it has in decades.

On the morning of 12 March, 20 computers were seized from the offices of the outspoken Folha 8, one of Angola’s few remaining private publications that is critical of the government, under a warrant investigating 'crimes of outrage against the state' and violations of press freedom. The effective shut-down of the paper and the questioning of its editor, William Tonet, whose mobile phone battery was also confiscated, comes just 48 hours after attempts by Angolan youths to stage demonstrations in the capital Luanda and southern coastal city of Benguela. Heavily armed police broke up the crowds making several arrests.

The World Bank should never expect a wholesale acceptance of their programmes aimed at bailing the country out of the current economic mess as President Bingu wa Mutharika says he is not an 'idiot' to do that. 'The level [of the mission] is not even that of a minister but a principal secretary. So you want me to meet every Jim and Jack who comes from wherever at the expense of my job? I am not that cheap and I'm not for sale; I am the president.' On the bailout, Mutharika said the World Bank and other donors should align their programmes with the country's, otherwise he would not accept them at all.

More than 25,000 striking health workers on Friday (09 March) started receiving dismissal letters as retired nurses and interns applied for their jobs. This happened as some nurses in Western Kenya resumed work but their counterparts in other parts of the country vowed to continue with the strike or were split on the way forward.

In a small courtyard outside the National Council for the Care of Martyrs and Injured, people swarm around two barred windows with outstretched arms, thrusting paper work toward the front of the crowd. Over a year after the 25 January uprising, Egyptians injured in the course of the street action that toppled president Hosni Mubarak say they are still seeking funding for medical treatment and rehabilitation. Many of them come to the national council hoping for one of the 3,200 promised job opportunities. Others come to complain about invalid compensation checks or untreated injuries.

Israel is to begin construction soon on a vast detention facility in the Negev desert to house the thousands of immigrants that cross illegally into Israel from Egypt every year. Human rights groups fear that the detention centre, the largest of its kind in the world, with a capacity to hold 8,000 migrants, will turn into a festering refugee camp, and deprive those escaping persecution at home of their rights to seek asylum in Israel.

A woman journalist has gone into hiding in Liberia after receiving threats over an expose she published on female genital mutilation (FGM). Mae Azango, who reports for the local daily FrontPage Africa and the international news website New Narratives, went into hiding after her article was published last week in which she reported two out of three girls were victims of FGM in certain parts of the country.

This is a recording of a speech made by Arundhati Roy as a part of the Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Trust Lecture that was delivered on the 20th of January, 2012 at Xaviers college, Mumbai, India.

A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church in Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 10 people in the blast, and the retaliatory violence that followed, officials said. The bomb detonated as worshippers attended the final Mass of the day at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands have died in the last decade in religious and ethnic violence.

Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian activist, academic and spoken word artist. She is currently a Phd. candidate in Political Science at York University in Toronto. She released her spoken word CD Hadeel in Novermber 2009. Here she performs 'Shades of Anger'.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Continued fighting in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has forced more than 3,000 civilians into Uganda since the beginning of this year, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says. In a statement, the UNHCR said that an average of 50 people were passing over into Uganda every day this year, after a series of attacks on farms and villages in the volatile northeastern region.

More than 200 have been killed and several others are missing in fresh fighting between two rival ethnic groups in the troubled Jonglei state of South Sudan officials said, raising stakes ahead of a disarmament exercise set for mid this month. The fighting erupted Friday (9 March) morning in cattle camps in Akobo County when armed men from Pibor in the same state crossed in from the Ethiopia borders and attacked the area, Jonglei state Local Government minister Duop Lam said.

The 19th African Union Summit will take place from 23rd-30th June 2012 in Lilongwe, Malawi with the theme of ‘Boosting Intra-Africa Trade’ and ‘2012 year of Shared Values’. Fahamu- Networks for Social Justice (www.fahamu.org) through its Emerging Powers in Africa Initiative is pleased to announce a call for applications for its journalist visit to the Summit. Five successful applicants will be chosen to participate in a 4 day visit during the Summit. Media professionals in print, broadcast, radio and online fora from Africa, India, China and Brazil are encouraged to apply before the deadline of 30 March 2012.

Starting 2010, FEMNET has been partnering with South African-based African Democracy Institute (Idasa) and Zimbabwean-based Public Affairs and Parliamentary Support Trust (PAPST) in the Fredskorpset (FK) Exchange programme. The Exchange programme facilitates the exchange of personnel (ages 22 – 35 years) within participating organizations with an aim to transfer expertise/skills and promote networking for a period of nine months. The programme is supported by FK a government body under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the rights of a group of Somali and Eritrean nationals who were intercepted by Italian Customs boats and returned to Libya in 2009 were violated, under several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. Although this historic decision of the court was for a case under Italy's agreement with the Qaddafi regime, it has clear ongoing relevance, as refugees and other migrants continue to face real threats in their countries of origin, as well as in Libya. This link to the AfricaFocus Bulletin contains three short commentaries, with background explanations, on this significant court ruling, from the UK Human Rights Blog.

Authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in Somalia shut down an independent radio broadcaster and arrested the station's director over coverage of fighting between the government and Al-Shabaab militants, local journalists said. Armed police arriving in two vehicles raided Codka Nabadda (Voice of Peace) in the port city of Bossasso, confiscated equipment, and sealed the studios, local journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

A series of explosions at a bus station in the Kenyan capital Nairobi have killed at least four people and wounded 40 others, the Kenyan Red Cross has said. The Red Cross reported on its official Twitter account that eight out of the 40 injured people admitted to hospital on Saturday are in a critical condition. Kenyan police immediately blamed al-Shabab, the Somali Islamist armed group, that Kenyan troops are currently fighting in neighbouring Somalia.