A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll may have found that Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman, but Somalia's women's minister is astonished any country could be worse than her own. 'I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth,' said Maryan Qasim. 'The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant,' Qasim said. 'When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50 because there is no antenatal care at all...There are no hospitals, no healthcare, no nothing.'

Swedish defence group Saab admitted that millions were paid to clinch a South African contract for fighter jets but said its erstwhile British partner BAE Systems had paid the bribes. Saab said R24-million had been paid by BAE in the form of bonuses and salaries between 2003 and 2005 for the deal involving 26 JAS Gripen fighters. The comments came after Sweden's TV4 television channel said it had evidence Saab had promised to pay Fana Hlongwane, then advisor to the South African defence minister and also serving as a consultant to the Swedish firm, millions of euros in bonuses if Pretoria did not back out of the Gripen deal.

Public health officials may be able to forecast cholera outbreaks months in advance by looking at temperature and rainfall data, according to a study. Researchers looked at cholera outbreaks in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and found that they correlated with increases in temperature and rainfall. They calculated thata one degree Celsius increase - from 23 to 24 degrees Celsius - was followed by a doubling of cholera cases four months later.

ARTICLE 19 has urged the Rwandan Parliament to pass the Access to Information Bill that was adopted by the Rwandan Cabinet on 1 June 2011 as a matter of priority. 'The Rwandan Government’s adoption of the Access to Information Bill is a clear acknowledgement of the key role free flow of information can play in good governance and transparency and in the sustainable development of the country. The Rwandan Parliament must now expedite the enactment process so that the people of Rwanda can start enjoying the benefits of this law,' said Henry Maina, Director, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa.

A and explanation of the history leading to the Libyan conflict. But you failed mention that it is Canada's warplanes (at the direction of Prime Minister Stephen Harper) who have taken the lead role in the air assaults on the Libyans--to the cheers of many Canadians and to the heartfelt shame of many others like myself.

Africa needs more support to develop the major regional trading blocs on the continent. African leaders, at a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, said this would improve business competitiveness and build on successes of the free trade initiatives. The one-day summit, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, ended with the signing of a tripartite document formalising the negotiations process of the 26 leaders present. The Heads of State and government leaders from the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) signed a declaration launching the negotiations for the establishment of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area.

A cheap new meningitis vaccine designed to treat a type of the disease common in Africa could significantly reduce or even halt future epidemics in Africa's so-called 'meningitis belt', scientists said. International researchers said the vaccine, called MenAfriVac and made by the Indian generic drugmaker Serum Institute, was far more effective than older so-called meningococcal polysaccaride vaccines, including Mencevax from GlaxoSmithKline, in trials in three African countries. In two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which MenAfriVac's potency and effectiveness was compared with a standard vaccine often used during meningitis outbreaks in the region, scientists said the new shot was 'dramatically better'.

Nigeria's national biosafety bill has been passed by the country's upper house. But those opposing it say that this month's enactment of the bill - two days before the end of Nigeria's sixth national assembly - results from a hidden foreign agenda to legalise GM organisms. Mariann Bassey, food and agrofuels programme manager for the Nigerian advocacy group Environmental Rights Action, called for a transparent process that includes the views of all stakeholders, 'not one that is shoved down our throats by biotech agents'.

A new sex workers initiative in Botswana has included an LGBTI component in its programme. African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) is a Pan African movement and alliance for the rights of sex workers which was established in 2009 in Johannesburg South Africa, with a number of 105 sex workers from different countries in Africa. Sisonke Botswana, a sex work group currently housed by Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA), joined ASWA and dedicated a week to the mapping of sex workers rights in Botswana with the aim to forming a coalition which will advance the human health rights of most key population (sex workers, transgender, MSM and drug users).

A Ugandan woman who was branded with a hot iron in her home country as a punishment for her sexuality, is facing forced removal from the UK. Betty Tibikawa, 22, who is detained in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedford, is awaiting removal directions after her asylum claim was refused. Human rights organisations have consistently documented abuses against gay men and lesbians in Uganda and say that it's one of the most dangerous countries in the world for gay people.

Southern African leaders on Sunday pressured Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to make democratic reforms ahead of new elections, hoping to set a new timetable for polls. Leaders of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community had discussed Zimbabwe late on Saturday on the eve of a free trade summit. After failing to reach a decision, they resumed talks after Sunday's trade meeting.
The full summit is expected to sign off on a roadmap that will lay out a new timetable for the constitution and later elections.

In an open field 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Angola's chaotic capital, a $3.5-billion city seems to rise from nothing, a showpiece in government's drive to build one million new homes. Dubbed the 'new city of Kilamba Kiaxi', it's the antithesis of overcrowded Luanda's traffic-choked streets and is being built - like so much else in Angola - by Chinese contractors.

More than 43,000 Angolan refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be voluntarily repatriated starting next month, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR announced last Wednesday. Of about 80,000 Angolan refugees in the DRC, '43,085 have expressed their desire to immediately return to their country of origin,' said Mohamed Boukry, UNHCR representative in Kinshasa. The repatriation should start on 4 July and wrap up early next year.

Human rights campaigners have demanded the immediate release of a Cameroonian man jailed for three years for homosexuality. Jean-Claude Roger Mbede appears to have been a victim of entrapment by the security forces, which regularly target and prosecute gay men. Mbede sent an acquaintance a text message and arranged to meet him on 2 March, according to human rights watchdogs. Before the meeting, the acquaintance showed police text messages from Mbede.

Amnesty International has said it backs the International Criminal Court's proposal to conduct the confirmation of charges hearings for the suspected post-poll violence sponsors (Ocampo Six) in Kenya. The rights organisation said the move, if successful, would bring justice closer to the victims who bore the brunt of the post election violence that left 1,133 people and 650,000 others uprooted from their homes.

Kenya goes to elections again in about a year’s time, but already concerns are being raised that there could be a repeat of 2007/2008 when a disputed presidential election left more than 1,000 dead and over 600,000 homeless. Some leaders have warned that political tension persists in Rift Valley, the region which bore the brunt of Kenya’s post election in 2008. Bishop Cornelius Korir cited the fact that some people have chosen not to spend the nights in their homes because of the tension. President Kibaki’s advisor on ethnic relations, Raphael Tuju, has blamed joblessness amongst the youth and the failure of the Kazi kwa Vijana programme as providing tribal lords with idle youth to recruit into their armies.

Tunisia's ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia in January, is to go on trial in absentia on 20 June. Announcing the date, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi said Saudi Arabia had not replied to requests to hand him over. Charges range from conspiring against the state to drug trafficking.

Dr Willy Mutunga, the man set to become Kenya’s next chief justice had to publicly declare he was not gay this week in front of a committee that was vetting him for office. Opponents of Dr Mutunga's nomination for the post who included leading members of the clergy had implied that because he wears a stud and has in the past been supportive of LGBTI causes, Dr Mutunga was gay or might support an LGBTI agenda and as such was unfit for office.

Although members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are reluctant to label the Doha development round of multilateral trade negotiations ‘dead’, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies says that there is no hope of concluding the round in 2011, and it is time to pursue ‘plan B’. He explains that ‘plan B’ is to decide what part of the work programme of Doha could be delivered this year. 'The fundamental focus should be to deliver something for the least-developed countries (LDCs),' says Davies. This will likely include a duty-free quota-free access agreement - an aid-for-trade package opening markets to LDCs - which could facilitate the elimination of non-tariff barriers in LDCs, and a resolution of the ‘cotton dossier’, which would put a stop to subsidies for cotton farmers in the US.

A gay woman was stabbed four times by men who accused her of stealing their girlfriends in Crossroads in the Western Cape, the Times reported. Noxolo Nkosana (23) was getting out of a car, returning home after work when two men, both Crossroads residents, approached her.